DISCLAIMER: i don't own call of duty or its characters
The Task Force 141 base was quiet. Everyone was sleeping peacefully in their bunks. Except one, in a small 4 bunk room a certain soldier tossed and turned in a nightmare filled sleep. Simon 'Ghost' Riley was having one of the worst nightmares he's ever had. It wasn't a nightmare of his time, getting tortured by Roba or seeing his family lying dead on the floor, but of his twin brother, Shane.
(nightmare)
Ghost coughed and rubbed his forehead as he slowly woke up. He instantly sat bolt upright as he realized he was no longer lying in his bunk, but surrounded with darkness, outside on some rocky terrain. It reminded him of the place where he left his brother, unconscious and bleeding, almost 2 years ago, near Texas. His breathing became more hectic as his eyes darted around the empty darkness. Ghost rose to his feet and looked down at his chest, noticing that he was no longer wearing his sleep wear, which consisted of his boxers and a black vest top, but SAS uniform. It was worn, tatty and covered in blood. But that was the least of his concerns at the moment. Utter confusion and a deep fear clouded Ghost's mind until he couldn't think or begin to comprehend what was happening. His eyes slowly began to adjust to the shadows and he urged his legs to move. He looked around and spotted a body leaning on a nearby rock.
"Who's there?" Ghost asked quietly, afraid to break the intense silence that surrounded him. The figure didn't answer nor did it acknowledge Ghost's presence. Its head was hanging down as if staring at nothing.
"I said who's there?" Ghost asked once more raising his voice. Again, the figure was unresponsive. Ghost took a few more steps, naturally cautious. The panicky feeling in his chest was building more and more and he felt like he was about to lose his mind. Finally Ghost halted as he recognized the ice blue eyes and dark brown hair in the moonlight.
"…..Shane?" he said softly. The figure looked up. It was deathly quiet. All Ghost could hear was the sound of his own shaky breathing, and it seemed intensely loud.
"bro is that you?" Ghost asked as he closed the gap between them and reached out to him. With a ferocious jerk, his head looked up at Ghost. A breath and a scream caught in Ghost's throat as he stumbled backwards tripping over some unseen object and crashed to the floor. He couldn't believe it, his brother was alive but something was off. Shane was covered in blood; he had cuts all over his otherwise flawless face. He noticed that Shane was bleeding from a wound on his side. Memories came flooding to Ghost as he realised that the injuries he was seeing were the injuries that Shane had last time he saw him.
"You did this to me!" Shane suddenly shouted causing the cuts, on his face to leak out blood as his head shook. Ghost was frozen in terror and he couldn't find the strength to move any part of his body. Shane pulled his M14 EBR/M21 EBR sniper rifle from behind his back and aimed it at Ghost.
"Wait! I didn't do this, Roba did and I took care of him. He's dead." Ghost countered and attempted to pull the rifle out of his hands but Shane put up a fight and shot at ghost. Lucky for ghost, shane missed and shot the ground by his feet.
Suddenly a bright light filled the area, blinding the brother's temporarily. Ghost turned to the silhouette standing a few meters away from him. The figure, ghost recognised as Roba slowly lifted a pistol he was holding and aimed it at Ghost. Shane did the same thing with his sniper rifle.
"Die English"
"See you in hell bro"
"No!" Ghost cried out as both guns went off in a burst of even brighter light.
(Normal)
"No!" Ghost cried out as he came awake in his bunk. He flailed his arms at the figure leaning above him and strong hands caught his wrists attempting to immobilize him, but the figure wasn't strong enough to hold ghost down. With one more flail of his arms ghost delivered a right hook to the poor figures face, knocking him on the floor with a thud. By this time the soldiers sharing the room with ghost, which consisted of Roach, Meat and Royce, had awoken to see there captain sprawled out on the floor and Ghost trembling on his bunk. Roach jumped down off his bed and went over to Ghost to see if he was ok. When roach put a firm hand on Ghosts shoulder, ghost jumped up and got in a fighting stance.
"Whoa! Easy mate it's me." Roach said in a soft voice. The voice seemed to bring Ghost to his senses and he gazed around gasping for breath, as he realized where he was. His eyes rested on his Captain who was getting up off the floor and then at Roach who was approaching him with caution. His eyes then gazed upon his roommates; they looked shocked and confused.
"Roach, 'tavish? Ghost whispered still slightly confused.
"Yea it's us," Soap answered softly as he looked at the Lieutenant, "you alright?"
"What happened?" ghost said so softly only McTavish and roach could hear him as they were nearest.
"Well I heard you screaming from my room down the hall so I came to see if you were ok. I came in here to see you drenched in sweat and screaming at the top of your lungs. I'm surprised that these idiots didn't here you." McTavish said whilst pointing to the three 141 soldiers who were still surprised as to what just happened. Ghost had sat down on the chair in the corner of the room. Head in hands, he started to shake uncontrollably. Soap, seeing that his lieutenant was shaking asked meat and Royce to go to his room for the night. Reluctantly they did so, still shocked at what ghost had just done.
Soap approached Ghost very slowly. Putting a hand on his shoulder, Ghost looked up at his captain. His eyes were red and puffy from tiredness. He had dark bags under his eyes and the little bit of skin that was visible through his mask was pale, very pale, like he had just seen a Ghost.
"Talk to me Ghost, what happened" Soap said gently to comfort the younger man. Roach was sat on his bunk looking sympathetic towards Ghost. Being one of the two people who knew ghosts past, he was desperate to know what had gotten the lieutenant so worked up. He had never seen Ghost like this before. Sure he had horrific nightmares, who wouldn't with a past like his, but he always just kept them to himself and tries and conceals the scream when he does. Ghost has never screamed the way he just did before.
"He blames me for what they did to him" was all that Ghost said before he broke down crying. Roach didn't know who he was talking about but he wanted to comfort the lieutenant so he got off his bunk and went over to Ghost. Roach knew this went against the ranks but he couldn't let his friend suffer without comfort, he embraced Ghost into a brotherly hug. Ghost leaned into the embrace and cried louder.
"Who blames you Ghost?" Roach said before Soap could intervene.
"Shane" Ghost managed to chock out between sobs. Roach was confused, who was Shane and why hasn't Ghost mentioned him before.
"You know you couldn't have done anything and it was Roba and his men not you. Stop blaming yourself for what his men did to you two. You can't change what has happened. Come on let's get you back to bed. You've got a mission tomorrow and I can't have my 2nd hand man tired now can I?" Soap said as he attempted to take Ghost back to bed. Roach partly understood now, this Shane person was tortured with Ghost, when he was captured by Mexican terrorist and drug lord, Roba.
"You don't understand! I should have at least attempted to bring him with me but I didn't! I could have but I didn't! Shane could be dead or alive for all I know and you expect me to stop blaming myself! Well your wrong. How would you feel if you had a twin brother and you left him for dead because you didn't try to help him. I feel that he's alive and I'm not going to stop searching for him!" Ghost ranted and whatever sadness that was in his icy blue eyes was replaced with pure determination and anger as he shoved Soap out of the way and stormed out of the room.
