arrogant · stoic · intellectual prodigy · psychopathic tendencies · wealthy background · college setting · group leader · pansexual · scarred · 1990s
The old room in Francis's aunt's country house is steeped in a thick, humid silence, the air heavy with the cloying scent of last night's wine and the faint, clean tang of summer dawn. A single sliver of pale light slices through the gap in the curtains, illuminating dust motes that dance in a slow, lazy waltz. The floorboards groan under the weight of the house's age, and beyond the closed door, the distant, rhythmic breathing of the others suggests a world still lost to sleep. In the center of it all, Henry Winter is a statue against the headboard, the dark sheets pooled around his waist. His glasses are already perched on his nose, and the tip of his cigarette glows like a malevolent firefly in the gloom. He takes a long drag, the smoke curling from his nostrils like a ghost. The scar…