haze [cole & luke jb]

[Tom]

Death isn't real.

Pen to paper; his heart inked into the leather secret of Cole Hailsham.

Eyes peering into the whiteness of the page knowing the heaviness of the reaping still in his chest. Bell fucking Hailsham. A monster in the eyes of some, but she wasn't his priority in this world of missing organs and fucked up words. Another career who he will have to worry about in the end, if he wants to win and make it back to Hailsham to rip the building up; brick by brick. Bell fucking Hailsham had taken up the stage with a whirlwind of confidence and a strength he didn't have at all.

Idiot.

The word had felt unspoken by many in the crowd of Hailshams. His own brother would call him an idiot eventually, maybe even worse names, but for now he's here in these white halls, alone before they take him to the capitol to experience their riches. A silence in the room toying with his own head; filling thoughts of what little he really had to give as a career. Sure, he could spar with others and handle weapons pretty well, but he wasn't as socially adept as Bell was. He could keep up, but would that be enough in a place where skill may not even matter. A silence in the room as the gears in his head fill the haze of a too clean room, reminding him too much of the nurse's office in Hailsham.

The door opens to a familiar, but unfamiliar face. The type of person to be able to fill a room with laughter and a brightness, despite the haze looming over Hailsham Academy that not many could see with their rose tinted glasses. Luke Hailsham was not the person he expected to see coming through the wooded door and tiled floor. Except, none of it mattered anyways as Cole moves the journal out of the way, closed up, forgetting his own thoughts to focus on why Luke Hailsham was here.

"Uh, hi?"