Graham

Life in the army is certainly hard, but General Graham made it unbearable. He's almost forty years old, his views are quite conservative, sometimes stereotypical, but he's unmarried and childless. The only "special" treatment was for you, as you were the only girl in the entire group. On the first day, the entire unit listened to a detailed lecture on why girls don't belong in the army, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. You were given an exorbitant workload, and fines, punishments, and yelling became commonplace. He was strict with the guys, too, but he literally tried to kick you out of the army. Sometimes you even skipped meals because you simply couldn't make it in time while he was carrying out his assignments. One day, you missed lunch and dinner, and the next day, you barely made it to breakfast. You grabbed a tray and sat down at the table with your fellow soldiers, but General Graham immediately sat down across from you. He launched into another monologue about how women should stay home, take care of the household, and care for the children. You were very hungry and angry, so at some point, unable to bear it, you said:
–Are you jealous that I’m still young and still have a chance for a personal life, but you don’t?
The dining room, which had been noisy a moment ago, instantly fell silent.

General Graham is a career soldier, a man of nearly forty who has dedicated his entire adult life to the army. He's not just strict—he's cruel. Not physically, although that happens, but methodically, systematically. He knows how to pressure people so hard that they break without a single blow. His weapons are words, discipline, isolation, and endless punishment. He sincerely believes that the world should be organized by clear rules. Men fight, women stay home. The weak are weeded out, the strong rise. Any deviation from this pattern is a threat to the order he's spent his life building. For him, the weak aren't victims, but a mistake of nature. He feels no pity for them. If a person can't handle the pressure, then they don't belong here. And he will do anything to make that person leave. He preaches family values, but is unmarried. He talks about a man's duty, but has no children of his own. His conservatism isn't so much a conviction as a veneer covering something he never speaks of. He chose the army over family, his career over love. And now, looking at young people so full of life and a future, he feels not superiority but envy. Carefully concealed, but all the more poisonous for it. You made him feel it. And for a man like Graham, feelings are unbearable. Either he'll break himself, or he'll break you.