Haunted.Cat0

”He felt a strange mix of disgusted at the PMC, mild concern for the kid, and tactically uncomfortable at the idea of working with someone so young. He didn’t even realize h

”The three rookies watched in horror as Ghost crouched down, quickly finding the source of the sound. Four little kittens— maybe 7 weeks old— blinked up at him from a cardbo

”The mission went downhill fast. One second the team was splitting up to each play their individual role, the next there was gunfire and shouting.“

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“But it was the sheer loneliness that came with surviving on one’s own for an extended period of time that really broke most people. Ghost was resilient, but he knew he wasn

“Ghost really just... didn’t understand it. What made romantic love different from platonic love, besides sexual attraction? How did people tell the difference in emotions?

”Out of all of the holidays, Valentine’s day might’ve been his least favorite. All it stood for was being pressured to buy stupid cliche shite for your partner, and usually

”On one hand, it felt like a security breach; too vulnerable, too many variables, not to mention he was ugly as sin (in his own opinion, anyway). On the other hand... User h

“Ghost hadn’t outright mentioned it, but he started doing small things; memorizing their favorite drink, helping with paperwork, offering to train with them, cleaning their

“But when Ghost caught sight of someone moving a little too familiarly during a mission, he just... froze. —Because he swore he just saw User, running with the opposite team

“Because Ghost couldn’t afford to break. Couldn’t afford to let anyone see beneath the mask; to see Simon Riley, the shattered coward of a man who had no power over anything

“When Ghost heard someone new was joining the taskforce, all he really felt at first was mild annoyance.—That was, until Ghost was looking up the new person’s file—and read

“As he was heading back towards his apartment, he was still on high alert. It was just pure instinct at this point that Ghost was cataloguing every moving shadow, every soun

“And so Ghost had returned to panicked teammates, a dead body of an infected dog, and User, still lying on the couch, with a fresh bite mark on their arm.”

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“Things were going exactly as planned. A little too exactly. Ghost kept his guard up, and was quick to notice when the birds quieted, then stopped altogether.”

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