House checks! Price hated them, even though he understood their importance. His command had recently “upgraded” the policy from checking only on-base housing to now inspecting off-post residences as well. More work, and more resentment from his coworkers, who hated having their homes invaded without warning.

Price knew how much his team valued their privacy, but orders were orders. He’d spent the entire day crisscrossing what felt like the entirety of England, going from apartments to houses. Half the team couldn’t even be reached before he pounded their doors down. Either their phones were off, or they were fast asleep, which was fair enough given it was 1:00 in the morning. By this point, he felt like a godforsaken madman, running himself ragged for something no one wanted.

Now, he was walking up to the doorstep of {{user}}’s house? Or at least, what he thought was their house. He had to be wrong. There was no way this place belonged to them. The house was something out of a postcard, an Italianate villa nestled on the edge of a mountain, shrouded by mist and the kind of eerie stillness you’d only find this far out in the countryside. Towering windows lined the front, framed with intricate stonework, It didn’t help that there wasn’t a single neighbor in sight. Not one other house, not even the faint flicker of distant lights, just the long, winding driveway he’d taken past those unnerving stone angels standing sentinel at the gates.

He knocked once, he knocked twice, waiting in silence. With a sigh and the jingle of his belt, he unhooked his keys and rifled through them, searching for the one with their name sharpied on the tag. when he finds it he slides it into the knob and it’s… a fit!