The Halo Effect | ✓

01 | holt

E P I G R A P H

❝Her angel eyes saw the good in many devils❞

☾ one | holt ☽

Holt's POV

"Here, bro."

I grunted, grabbing the joint out of my friend, Mason's hand, placing it between my lips as I take a long drawl from the green substance, before puffing out a cloud of smoke and passing it to some girl next to me.

I don't know who she is, or who she came here with, but I'll probably get her in my bed tonight.

Me and my friends, we have this place we hang out. It's an abandoned building, about a forty minute drive from where I like in Moonvale Valley. It's twenty stories high, all the paint is chipped, and the entire inside is dusty filled, and rat infested.

We usually climb the stairs, it's a work out but the view once you reach the top is worth it.

It's a huge rooftop, not a single thing on top of it.

My brother and I used to come here all the time when we were going through our sneaking out, drug phase. Turns out he left, and I never got out of that phase.

We always planned to do something amazing with it, bring up a bench or something to make it slightly less vacant.

So here I am, my good friend Mason next to me, one of my brothers what used to be, best mates and the only guy I trust, the person who made Everest's loss slightly more bearable, Ace Rivers.

He's been through some shit, when he was eight his dad beat his mom to death and ran, he got caught which is why he'll probably rot in jail for the rest of his life. After that he got put into foster care, he got sick of going from home to home until four years later, freshman year, he met me.

He was friends with Everest too, not as close as me and him were but I guess you could say they were more so acquaintances.

Everest had his friends and I had mine.

Ace and I got close and my mom and dad kind of took him in. He's like the third son they never had, well technically second now.

Mason's got his story too, his isn't too deep, he basically just didn't get a good start out in life and now he's into some bad shit.

We all are, every single person on this rooftop right now.

Mason, Ace, the three girls in front of us, even me.

"So, Holt. . . " a irritatingly girly voice drawled.

It was the girl next to me, she looked innocent. I like innocent. She had similar hair too hers, it was like brown, shiny. Though I've never seen hair like hers, so caramel like, so silky.

She stared up at me with those brown eyes, they were plain brown, hers were like warm honey.

She resembled her so much yet at the same time, no one ever could. She's far too unique to be even close to comparable.

She was Halo Storm.

She was—is, contrary to her name, an angel.

I've always been fond of Halo, from the moment my brother bought her home and introduced her to the family.

Would it be a sin for me to say I thought she was always too good for him? Too pure, too good.

I can see the beauty behind those irises, the innocence.