A Ghost Encounter: My Time with Simon "Ghost" Riley

Part Seventy: Mother Russia

"Morning, Lieutenant," Gaz says, leaning against a wall.

"Bloody cold morning," I grunt, trying my best not to shiver.

"You can say that again," Gaz chuckles. "Let's go get this over with."

Gaz starts making his way through the base and I follow close behind.

"Think Makarov is here?" Gaz looks back at me for a moment.

"Let's hope so," I deadpan.

We enter a large room filled with tables, chairs, and several screens. The militia members and Laswell were chatting as they waited for us.

"Gaz. Ghost. Please join us." Laswell motions for us to sit down.

"Ghost, eh? How did you get stuck vith zat nickname?" The leader of the militia, Igor, laughingly mocks me and his men join in. "And what's vith ze mask?"

They laugh some more.

Laswell gives me a look that says Don't get mad, and for the sake of the mission, I won't.

But God how I'd love to slit his fucking throat for that.

"I was given the callsign 'Ghost'. Because I'm a 'silent killer'." I cross my arms defensively. "I wear the mask to honor a friend of mine who passed," I sneer and Igor and his men immediately pipe down.

These things aren't true of course. Well, they're true but there's more to them than I'm willing to disclose to these ignorant twats.

I haven't even told my whole story to Breanna, which is something I feel guilty about. Not only did she tell me all of her story but I was able to read about it in her file. I know everything about her: the good and the bad.

Breanna told me that when she was in the foster care system she and her friends would steal from stores, get high on anything and everything, and run away a lot.

She even told me that she was sent to Juvy twice: once for nearly beating a girl to death for bullying one of her friends in the system and the second time for having sex with a 48-year-old employee at the facility where she was staying when she was just 15 years old.

But I don't judge her for those things. I don't think differently about her. If anything, it makes me admire her more for being able to survive those times.

And who am I to judge anyway? I've committed far worse crimes and willingly engaged in brutal things.

If we survive this mission, I'm going to tell Breanna everything. She's been respectful of my boundaries and hasn't pushed me to talk about the things I don't want to. But if I want to be with her, then I need to tell her the whole truth about me. It's only fair.

I'll tell her that the friend of mine "who passed" is Simon Riley—my former self.

Yet, since meeting Breanna, I feel like he's being revived. The real reason I wear the skull mask and go by "Ghost" is because of a man named Manuel Roba.

To escape my father's torturous grip on me, I joined the British SAS. The first mission they sent me on was to kill Manuel Roba, who was a drug lord in Mexico.

I ended up getting captured by Roba, who wore ghost face paint. Roba and his men tortured me relentlessly.

At first it was endless interrogation. Roba sent some of his men to...do things to me. I was assaulted in ways I don't like to talk about, let alone think about.

So when Hassan threatened to assault Breanna in a similar fashion, I knew I had to save her from experiencing the same fate.

Then they pierced me with a hook through my rib cage and hung me up on a goddamn tree like I was a fucking piñata.

After this, they killed my partner, put us both in a casket, and buried me alive.

Obviously, I managed to escape, though.

When I returned home from the mission I met up with a long-time friend and talked about my PTSD.

I started seeing ghost faces everywhere and I told my mother about it. My mother told me that when I was a child my father would paint his face like a ghost when he used to go to concerts.

Great to know my father still haunts me.

When Roba discovered that I was alive and at home, he sent someone to kill my entire family. I walked in on my brutally murdered family and was framed for the crime.

I found the man who killed my family, still lingering in the house and killed him. I set the entire house on fire and left my dog tags behind to fake my death.

Simon Riley died in that house and all that was left of him was just a ghost.

But don't worry. I located and gruesomely killed Manuel Roba as my new persona, Ghost.

"Ah, well. Sorry to hear about your friend," Igor says in response to my explanation behind my call sign.

"Appreciate it," I huff sarcastically.

We go over the details of the mission, deciding on the best strategy to use at the safe house. Once we feel confident enough, we finish up, head for the vehicles, and take off.

- One Hour Later -

"Do you see any movement?" Laswell asks me over the comms.

We're now directly in front of Makarov's safe house. From what I can see, there's nobody here.

"Negative," I respond. "I'm going to move up. Gaz, follow behind," I order.

"Got it," Gaz confirms.

Gaz and I inch up closer to the safe house, taking cover behind the dense layer of trees and bushes.

"Clear on this side," I report over the comms to Laswell, Igor, and his men.

"Ve arrre moving up," Igor says.

"Alrig-"

BOOM!

An explosion goes off exactly where Laswell and the others are moving.

Bloody hell! What the fuck was that?

"Laswell! Do you copy?" I yell through the comms, panicked.

Silence.

"Laswell!"

Laswell's coughs cut through the comms. "I...I c-copy."

"What the hell happened?" I ask, trying to make sense of the situation.

"Anti-personnel...mines," she groans.

"Are you injured?" My voice is shaky from the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

"Just a scratch," she pants, most likely feigning strength. "But we lost some of Igor's men."

Shit.

WHOOSH.

What?

I look up to the sky and see an object piercing through the air.

BOOM!

"Mortars!" I yell over the comms. "Take cover!"