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'I don't know how.' Arachne shook her head. Death was death wasn't it? Well, least ways it had been for her father, her mother had never thought that he would come return as she had predicted his demise and had about killed herself as well trying to prevent it.

She shook her head, nothing had gone right since they'd stepped on the boats, and even less sense was to be made since they'd become shipwrecked.

'More tricks? Lure us into another trap, or just mess with our minds.' she sighed. There was a slim chance it could be a hint to a way out, the arrival of these other students was a new development after all.

'If not, maybe it is telling us to reverse something?' she offered, not sure what else it could be pointing to. She watched as a boil went over to the portal and started typing into the keypad. Had he worked it out?

Raziel pondered death quietly for a moment. It was quite depressing actually, so much so that Raziel shook his head to try and get the thoughts out. They weren't dead, they couldn't be. They just had to fix the glowing thing and get out of here, it would be just like Christmas. He promised to himself that he would stop at nothing. He felt it was kind of his fault for letting Colette get so close to Famine, he should have made her stay further back, but he didn't.

Looking once again at the glowing portal, Raziel's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion at the rotating hourglass symbol that appeared on it. Usually those symbols meant "loading" or something to that effect. "What were the other riddles that you've had? We only had one where we guessed that ghoul's name," he jerked a thumb in the direction of Famine. "If there was other answers, maybe one of them has to be put in backwards?"

He watched as another two boils went up and tried typing something into the keypad. He wasn't sure what the other boils typed, but who knows, maybe they had thought of something and could be right.

Aurian nodded in understanding as Arachne explained about their message. "So it wants the cove... backwards?"

Having seen several other students just try punching in a code, Aurian walked over the device. After a moment of consideration, she typed in: evoc eht.

After stealing a look at Riley's card, she also tried - just in case - entering: evoc gnikcuf eht. Because you never knew how literally someone intended you to take things. Aurian thought that was covering all their bases.

"I guess everyone tries and we see if any of them activate the portal?" Aurian asked. She shot a flat glance over at Famine and her male companion. Trying not to let them overhear, she muttered, "They couldn't just remember how to get around on their own island?"

Bul snorted angrily at the apocalyptic offspring before crossing his arm. "Yeah but the ones that jumped and fe-" Before he could finish what he was going to say Bul felt their bodies lifted and the gymnasium behind them completely out of sight and mind- no longer did they have to see the terrible chasm that took so many students.

Suddenly he was somewhere completely new. "h... huh?" he turned to do a headcheck of his own group. Little fox ghoul... scythe chick... the little man... the blue pup... and then there were a ton of faces he hadn't seen since the beach. "W..whu? Guys what the ******** is going on?" he asked, turning back to ******** what are we even doing now?" he grumbled swishing his tail back and forth. "and what about our friends..." he asked, though only to himself.

Sin had cringed at the horrible high pitched noise, the shock of so many students gone. She uneven as they were moved to a new place and then looked down remembering one of her heels had snapped off. She bent and jerked the other until it cracked as well. She sniffled and tossed it aside before moving quietly away from the large group of students. She was still shocked, still guilty, still crying.

She couldn't let anyone see her like this now, she took a deep breath and started to rub the tears away. Her nails combed through her disheveled hair trying to get it back into some minor semblance of it's usual flowing beauty. Yet even as her hands moved, even as the tears finally stopped she couldn't keep her breathing steady. Silent gasps still wracked through her, Rosc...how could she have let him fall? She kept her back turned to the other students and wrapped her arms around herself trying to stop shaking. She knew something important was happening, she knew he ought to be helping, cooperating, finding out information. It was just that...so little seemed to matter knowing how many were wretched away from them, how many had they lost?

The barest flickering of hope lay within her...the professors...if they could find the professors maybe everything would be okay. They could get everyone back to HalloweenTown and everyone who had...died would be alright with some FEAR. She rubbed at her eyes and took a few more deep breaths before finally turning around and trying to look composed.

She saw Riley and Arachne, two familiar faces...at least they were alive.

She responded to her name, but not with her usual smile and charm, all her energy was being spent on keeping herself standing and not breaking down. Still she was glad to see Arachne alive and...she was with a boil...that was good. Arachne deserved to have some self confidence, perhaps this trip had helped her find it.

Unfortunately Sin seemed to have lost some of hers, she lifted a hand in a small wave. She couldn't muster up a whole conversation just yet and her usual curiosity was dampened.

"Arachne...glad to see you...alive." Her voice was genuine but softer then usual as she reflected on all those who hadn't made it. This group looked much smaller then the one on the beach. She still had Alcie, but Rosc and Viveca weren't with her. She could still remember the horrible gaping chasm, the students looks as they fell. The tips of her fingers still tingled...she had touched Rosc, but it hadn't been enough, she hadn't been able to grab him. If only she had held his hand...her fingers curled inwards as she held her fists against her stomach feeling sick.

Finally she looked back at Arachne and then at the keypad in confusion.
"Still no portal home?" It wasn't surprising, everything had turned out to be broken, a dud, useless, this whole place was screwed up. She grabbed her pendant and glared down at it.

"This stupid thing...it was supposed to protect us...and all it's done is brought me bad luck ever since I put it on..."

Sin lightly brushed Arachne's fingers and stood by her even managing a small half smile. She glanced over at Sephran and then looked at Arachne, if she had felt better the look would have been more smug. As it was it obviously conveyed an 'I told you so' and then she gave Arachne a small hug.
"This whole place is...horrible...I just want to get back to school alive..."

She pushed her hair back and sighed then continued to fiddle with her pendant.
"I thought ChristmasTown was bad, but this place is a hundred times worse. We haven't even found that Trick or Treater we came to supposedly rescue...we've lost all the Professors, we've lost a lot of...of good students. Who's going to come rescue us if we can't save ourselves?" She looked down miserably.