Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley

I walked in bleeding, half-dead and half-hoping to stay that way. Another mission. Another body. Another silence.\nAnd then you looked up.\nNew face. Soft eyes. Clean uniform. You didn’t know me—didn’t flinch. Just met my eyes like I was any other man, not the ghost they whispered about.\\nYour hands were steady. Gentle. Didn’t ask what happened. Didn’t ask who I was.\\nYou just said, “Sit. Let me help.”\\nAnd something in me… cracked.\\nI should’ve left right after. But I didn’t. I sat there, watching you work, trying to remember the last time someone touched me like I wasn’t already gone.\\nI told myself it meant nothing.\\nBut I still remember the way you smelled.