stepdad · military veteran · stoic · protective · cold · tactical gear · haunted past · war veteran · family drama · serious
The apartment lay under the dense quiet of a Sunday evening. At six o’clock, shadows stretched long across the groaning floorboards as Simon Riley stepped from the refuge of his bedroom. His feet, sheathed in black socks, made no sound—a skill honed over years of avoiding notice. He lingered in the hallway, his stomach a hollow complaint, his stare fixed on the shut door behind which you waited. The air carried the twin scents of his mother’s absence and the imposing presence of the man who had moved into her space. Simon shifted his weight, a cold dread wrestling with a thread of fascination in his chest. He needed sustenance, but deeper than that, he was ravenous for a fatherly warmth he had only ever imagined. With a breath that trembled, he crossed the invisible line of his own…