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Glancing towards the other Council members for the moment, he nodded at her private words. It was a pity that Arel had decided to leave, but it was too late to do anything of the matter now. The students had all gathered, and now it was time for things to begin. He kept his head low, listening to the words of the speech.

He wished he could have been there. Then again, at the same time, he wasn't really sure if he really wanted that. The feeling was more of wishing he could have done something about it, but no doubt there was nothing he could do. Nothing any of them could do.

Not at that point in time, in the very least.

---

As one of the members began to give a speech, he listened carefully, taking in her words. Red was not a professor he had really been familiar with. He only saw here now and then prior to the Field Trip. Even without knowing her all that much, he agreed in that her sacrifice should be acknowledged.

What the speaker said was true in any case. A sort of legacy had begun. It was their job to grow so that they could carry it on.

---

Hearing the final words, as well as hearing someone within the crowd repeat them, both cloaked students did the same.

"We are Halloween. And Halloween cannot die."

The words rang true. She had only seen the great professor before entering the haunted house, and witnessed her act of bravery. She would never speak to her, never take one of her classes, never receive what she had to give.

...no. No, that wasn't entirely factual.

Amityville had been drawn together. There was power in them, Red had gifted so many incredible determination and a feeling for what was right and wrong. She had made them brave with her sacrifice.

That final phrase... it was so familiar. It hurt to say the same as she swelled with pride.

"We are Halloween and Halloween cannot die."

It did not speak the words that echoed through the crowd; it had not been there, did not know their true significance. Still, it bowed its head in respect. Those nearby were bright with sadness to its empathy.

She had promised herself she wouldn't cry. Red wouldn't have wanted that, she wouldn't have even liked that. Suck it up, she'd probably say. Quit crying like a little scareling, we've got more important things to worry about. Or at least that was what she thought she'd say, the woman intimidated the hell out of her. But the words of the ghoul beside her made a painful lump grow in her throat that only got worse and worse with every second she spoke. It was all true. She sniffed and reached into her hood to wipe at her eyes, thinking maybe if she did that enough the tears filling them would stop. No. Stop that. You promised yourself...

They were Red's cause..even when she had been hurting them, berating them as she always did and getting angry at them...she had made their lives, their safety, her priority. She coughed, an involuntary action as her body tried to win The Battle of Shut Up and Let Yourself Cry, and a few tears trickled down her cheeks as a result. "Don't forget the skitter sharks in the gym field." The managed to choke out through a forced quiet laugh when Red's insanity was brought up. She wondered if those skitter sharks were still there. Maybe? They didn't seem like something one could just...pick up and relocate with ease. She reached out to put a hand on the other ghoul's shoulder, giving it an affectionate squeeze as she came toward the end of what she had to say. And then she said six very important words that made her heart nearly stop and her chest constrict with pain. Red's final words.

That was when she lost the fight against her own promise, her shoulders shaking being the only thing she allowed to be any kind of hint that she was quietly crying inside her own cloak. They couldn't die. They couldn't, and they wouldn't. Could they get revenge? Who knows, but they could damn well do something. They had to.

Something tapped her shoulder and she jumped with surprised, wiping at her face in a hurried, panicked motion before turning to see it was another council member with a note. Ah. The ghoul sniffed and attempted to clear her throat of the lump that had grown there. "E-everyone may keep their cloaks if they like." Junko answered, her voice loud enough to be heard by any who chose to listen. "The pins and the cloaks a-are just rep..re-replicas so..." She cleared her throat again and shook her head. Stop it. There was one cloak, however...she couldn't just let it lay on the ground.

The ghoul stepped away from the group to walk around them, quietly bending down to reach out and gingerly pick up the cloak Arel had dropped when he left. What should she do with it? If he left it here he probably didn't want to take it with him. She didn't have it in her to destroy any of the cloaks, and it almost pained her to see that the bodies of some of the students alone had damaged them; she wasn't angry, but the seamstress in her was crying in despair at seeing spikes going through the backs and shoulders of some of them.

Finally she thought of something to do. Walking back to where she had been, the ghoul carefully folded the red cloak with tender loving care and placed it into the box with the rest of the mementos. It wasn't the real thing but it would do. She paused a moment before getting up, rethinking what she had done and searching for the clasp. A replica of Red's pin...no one had the real thing, huh? That that she was aware of. The button was placed on top of the cloak instead of hidden inside the folds of fabric. That was when she stood again, clearing her throat one more time.

"Red had unorthodox ways," She chuckled. "But...she gave her life for us. We can't let that go to waste. What the boogeymen are trying to do is wrong. We can't take for granted that..we're in this safe place, where no one can hurt us unless we leave. Something must be done. It's what she would want...she told us to go home and to find answers. She trusted us, as young as we are. We have to show her that her trust was not unfounded." Junko then pulled the hood of her cloak down off her head, her arms reaching around to free the curtain of hair that had been trapped inside the cloak and trying to get out this entire time. A worried look was cast to Riley beside her; they had emphasized anonymity with this but let's face it the student council had been blatantly obvious to begin with. And Junko suddenly found she didn't care if anyone knew it was her. She had no regrets right now.

"Does anyone else have anything they would like to say?" It was an invitation, not a challenge. This was their chance to say what they wanted to say before the box was buried here in the clearing. They would give Red a proper burial, a proper grave. Not a statue in her honor or the abandoned skeletal remains they had been forced to leave in that gorge.

She didn't join in the echoing of Professor Red's words - partially because she was sure her voice would crack and she would cry, remembering the way she fell that day. Remembering the way her whole form turned grey. Remembering the way she was broken. Remembering the way the skull was so dead that it was almost frightening, when the professor was someone who was so full of life - like her name, like her color.

She stepped towards the box and gently placed the small bottle with the piece of Red inside down, together with the rest of the items the students had contributed. Ever since she found out about the cloaks, she had made a smaller version for her bottle, securing it with a small pin around the neck of the bottle. She thought it was fitting.

She then took her place beside Junko, reaching for where she thought her hand was to give it a comforting squeeze.

"I never knew Professor Red personally," She admitted, suddenly ashamed that she was mourning someone that didn't make a direct impact in her life... That when she learned to respect the woman, she was already gone, "But I often wondered why she never held many classes - a small, selfish part of me might had resented that... Then I realized that she had been busy. Busy with her duties, busy with her work... And then I wondered why I never took the effort to go down to her office and look for her, if I really wanted those lessons so badly."

She held back her tears, her gaze dropping to the contents of the box.

"We have to learn take the initiative before it's too late and all we have is regret," She bit down on her lower lip and looked back up, the sea of red cloaked students made her chest swell with pride; she had a hand in helping out with that little project... It was worth all those sleepless nights, "The boogiemen might be here to stop us from finding those answers, but I'm sure we can figure something out. It's just an obstacle - if we can't go around it, we have to go under or over or even through it if we have to... We can't stop here. Not now. We're all in this together."

She then turned to bow at the box, muttering 'sorry' and 'thank you' as locks of pink hair fell out of where she had tried to tuck it into the cloak; it doesn't matter, not anymore. The cloaks were to show that they were a single body... But they were still individuals, each with strengths and weaknesses, and she was sure that they could make a difference, but only if they do it together.

With that, she rejoined the crowd, pulling her hood down further to hide the tears rolling down her cheeks.

It was as if the magic that held the silence in place was broken after the first syllable and reality sunk back in its place, blanketing the area. The harsh realty that they were in mourning for a dear instructor, one that risked her life to save them. and It had to be mourned in secret. It really just was not fair to Red. Tears fell all around the hooded figure and it was all for the canine that was taken away far too soon.

It was such a brief encounter, it didn't even had the time to stare at Arel dropped off the cloak and departed just as swiftly. the gaze form under the hood was calm and pained, it would have been nice to see more of the faculty here, and for Arel to stay just a bit longer but for the faculty member to even come this far left it sure of one thing. The teachers were mourning in their own way, away from the prying eyes of students. Cricket was and so was the secretary. It had to wonder how many forms and paperwork notices became blurry with tears from that horrible day to now.

"We are Halloween and we cannot die." came the quiet murmur from under the hood. The words that stuck in its mind repeated yet again with the others. Words that needed to be emblazoned somewhere. It inspired Hope, courage, confidence and a silent prayer, a prayer that such a horrible thing would never happen again.

"I never got to interact with her much, but she left a impression on me, one that demanded respect." he began to speak quietly, there was no brashness, just a tired soul as he began to twist his fingers in the brightly hued fabric. "But if she wasn't there, who knows where we'd all be after getting stuck in those nets." he said with a shudder at the thought of being in those cages like in the dark furred creatures dream, the future it envisioned.

"I'll never be able to hear her call me a runt ever again, or learn to be a better fighter under her careful eye." He continued on, lost in the depths of his own mind. "But it does not mean she's gone, Halloween does not die." he stressed the importance of the phrase behind a chocked up sob and continued on with shaky palms. "Not as long as we remember her, her final words to us, her sacrifice, even the evil smile on her face whenever she had to teach us a lesson." he gave a light chuckle and peered to the side at the box that would serve as a remembrance in her honor, not from the academy, but from her students, the ones who would never forget the meaning behind her sacrifice.

"Why did the events that happened were put under lock and key, why it had to end that way, we don't know, But we owe it to her to find out." he said courageously to the air and the fellow shrouded members of the ceremony and held a hand close to the chest.

"And above all, we are home now, just like she wanted, and we can watch the sun rise, for all the days that she cannot anymore."

The ghoul had come and worn her robe, in ink stained hands she clutched a rolled up parchment as she wandered through the crowds. She'd heard bits and parts of the speech as she wandered up closer to put forth her contribution but sadly she couldn't take part in the sentiment that they could not die. She had a piece of Red in her prayer shrine that showed otherwise to her and she couldn't let that go no matter how hard she tried and she did try.

Carefully she tried not to brush against anyone as she wandered through crowds. It was already bad enough that her needles tore through some of the fabric of the nicely made robe she was wearing she didn't wish to add to her misfortunes by stabbing someone by accident.

As she stopped by the box of offerings she stared down at it before her hand laid down a parchment that unrolled just enough to show an ink drawing of a sun-burst just under it stood a fearsome looking figure that seemed to be holding it up between large clawed hands - it was what the ghoul saw of what Red had become it was the last time the ghoul had seen the Professor and thus it had made the most impact on her and inspired her the most.

She stood there for a long moment her head bowed downward to take in the somber atmosphere before she wandered away from the box. After that she wasn't sure what to do anymore but she knew what she needed to do.

Meetings to attend, things to find out and right now she just simply didn't have any words in her - no words she wanted to echo back and she certainly had no tears though she felt the sadness for it. Quietly she started to weave her way through the crowd again her head lifting up a bit though it didn't show her face despite a few dark inky locks flowing out.

She settled at the very back of the crowd and waited to see what would happen next - she had some time still to just wait around.

We are Halloween and we cannot die.

Were these the words that the boil wanted to say? Were they something that he truly and utterly believed in? Sure he had felt that way on the field of battle and howled it in absolute ecstasy when he watched his gym teacher protect them all valiantly. Though something inside him made him uneasy. Clutching the red cloak softly he held back a grimace of sudden discomfort. Unsure whether or not he'd be sick he pulled back from the circle just enough to get some air as the bodies were drawn in too close.

The boil wasn't sure exactly how to handle this 'funeral' when he'd never experienced something like it. No family member, no friend had ever been without a doubt taken from him and he'd never been forced to face the experience of acceptance of a fate such as this. For the island and the house he'd seen his share of discomforting 'deaths'. Deaths that UP UNTIL THIS POINT were almost guaranteed to be false.

At what point though did Red cross this line between dissipation and absolute annihilation? This monster was no rocket scientist but to watch her deteriorate was straight out of a reaper's science fiction movie. Of course scythed hunter had helped with this but even then Red seemed to have made the decision that sealed her away. It was all bigger than him and for the toughest professor in the school to be taken down permanently he had no choice but to feel a bit of fear. Something ironic for any denizen of Halloween Town.

One by one the other anonymous students paid their respects and he proceeded forwards after he'd caught his breath. What was there to say that hadn't already been said? He may have had his sensitive moments but now he felt so desolate on the subject all he wanted to do was work and work until he was sore then get up the next day and work harder. In the tents returning home he was so sure that he would be taking a break from all this but now that the realization had sunken in that the whole school shared a need for unity and strength he wanted to be there to do his part. Even if it meant going on another field trip in which someone's unlife may be taken away once more.

Uttering under his breath he shuffled under his cloak to straighten his crippled figure.

"We are Halloween."

And just that. With the facts right in front of him he was not about to lie to himself. A Halloween did die. Maybe nobody else would. But SHE did.

"Thank you Red."