{ THE HAUNTED HOUSE - OUTSIDE } The arrival [post pg 46]

[Trira]

Team: Scarlet Sabbath

When Edel let herself be hugged and then returned the action, Moure felt himself swell with joy, although he was panged by worry at the slight shivers she was still releasing, even as she was embraced in his arms. She must have gone through so much when she had been captured...Moure knew that he would've done anything he had to do to save her. If only he could've gotten there sooner...Well, he'd be here for her now. If she ever needed him, he would be here for her.

When they seperated, Moure felt some warmth come to his face (a strange feeling due to the fact that he was an undead, but welcome none the less in this instant) and knew that he was returning the blush she had just given, a smile breaking out onto his face in response to hers. He gave her hand a squeeze in return, and realized he was surrounded by a welcome emotion, one he had felt rarely up until the Soul Harvester had spoken to him.

He felt like he belonged somewhere. And that somewhere was right there, in that exact moment, holding Edel's hand.

Then, activity began, and Edel spoke, telling him of her experiences as a captive and of all she had learned. While Moure didn't want the moment to end, he knew that he would have to return back into the House. There was simply too much at stake to walk away. As she explained, Moure listened carefully, giving nods when he felt he should.

The information was all welcome, things that would probably save his unlife if he had a run in with those fake-reapers. "I figured that the one with the huge scythe was one of the leaders. Out on the war field he practically took out half the students that were undoing traps. Over half of my team included." Moure said, remembering Roch, Danny, and G all getting taken out by the false-hunter's attacks.

Then, Moure's eyes widened, listening as she explained the device . He swallowed, the realization that Edel might have died, that Edel might have been turned into some lifeless weapon that would've been used against her own people filling his mind. It was horrible. He gave a nod, squeezing her hand as if to confirm to himself that Edel was here, that Edel was alive and here. "I won't. They'll have to knock me out if they want to take me, and I'll do everything I can to make that impossible for them." Moure said, giving her another nod, his face becoming determined as new goals burrowed into his mind. Don't get caught or die.

Again, Moure gave her hand a squeeze, confirming that she was here. She was alive and hadn't been turned into a weapon, or simply outright killed. He listened as she instructed that smashing equipment would be their best bet, along with fighting to kill. Moure wasn't much of a fighter, due to his position and build as a Runner, but he knew that he wouldn't let himself go down without a struggle.

Then, Moure's eyes widened when Edel pulled out a pumpkin pill and her pendant and pressed them into his hand. He gave a nod, touched that she cared so much to him as to give up her way of healing herself. He swallowed again, a slight grin of worry appearing on his face. Moure couldn't remember the last time someone truly cared for him like this.

Then, knowing they would have to part soon, Moure stepped a bit closer and hugged Edel once more. He said quietly to her, accepting joy in his voice, "I will. I won't let anything stop me."

Then he released her and stepped back again, looking toward the Haunted House. His face was as open as a book, reading off that the patchwork didn't want to leave Edel now, not after going through so much to make sure she was alive and safe. Still, he had to go back in. His team needed him. He gave Edel one last grin, though it didn't completely reach his eyes since he knew he had to leave her. He held her pendant (and fear pill) tightly, carefully in his hand, and gave her one last nod and said quietly with a serious, through still happy, smile, "I won't let anything stop me. I'll come back to you."

And with that he took a few steps toward the house, looking over his shoulder back at the frost demon. He raised his empty hand and gave her a wave and a smile, the promise lingering between them.

Moure would come back. Nothing could possibly stop him.

Zyphiris

((Moure is entering Haunted House and returning to his team's room!))  

[Pepzilla]

"Yea I figured as much after a bit. He was the guy from the cove but it wasn't like fighting no doctor. That guy was all brawl," Bul replied to Lizzy. "So... a guy with an assistant then. Did you happen to see his face? Was he the one with the big sword Bea was talking about?"

Giving Lattice a sympathetic look he did the best a strange boil could and gave her a pat on the back gently. "I... don't even want to think about it. When we fought them at the island the fog was intense enough. But try not to let the image burn in your head. These guys.. they can be stopped somehow someway."

Returning to Lizzy he shook his head. "In respect I won't say their name. But I can guarantee you they are a very credible source. Eventually we may learn more but we must be to the point and leave no gray area." Giving a sagely nod he put a hand to his hip.

"You two are probably more aware than I how dangerous they are in person."  

[Dragain]

"It's alright, Lattice, we'll be more careful this time, okay?" She was trying to reassure her, but part of her still felt that bit of hopelessness, seeing how they were captured so effortlessly... Capturing them probably took less effort than them trying to catch a minipet from Scarefari! She held her hand tighter before shaking her head at Bul, "Ah, no... The one named Dr. H was wearing a hood too... I suppose if you compare him to a reaper, he was of mid height and mid built. His assistant's name is Clarice or something - a ghoul. I'm not sure about the weapon... They didn't use them inside the tent. Oh! Uh, Dr. H did briefly mention someone named 'Cael', although he then talked about a make up bag and I think our attacker was a male..."

She tilted her head, brows furrowing in mild confusion, "The cove...?" That must be something that happened after her death, or away from the lighthouse; she remembered fighting someone with a glowing weapon but it was a different one, "Yes, please be careful too... That guy - the one with the huge glowing scythe - he took my group out in one attack. And... They used this odd gun device that had a 50% chance of knocking you out... They used it on Lattice... Might be good to destroy those things if they try to use it on you!"

Getting kidnapped had its advantages, not that she found out a lot of things, just bits and pieces.  

[Pepzilla]

"Destroy all weird guns and avoid big scythe guy." Bul chuckled nervously. "Well the latter I know that much of already. The only thing that saved our asses from scythe at the cove was erm... Arel and the professors. I would not put it past them to make a repeat performance. Though at this point? This is the real deal. Those boogeymen are serious s**t and it doesn't sound like there's anything good immediately on the horizon."

Bul gave Lizzy a pat this time as well. "I appreciate you telling me all that you can. When we come face to face with them again I know we will be much more prepared. You be safe. You and all you ghouls just be. Safe."

Turning to his group finally he prepared to usher them in.  

[LP]

Willow's tail twitched, she nodded to Bul before looking back towards the house. "I'm going to go on in." She said softly, stretching before rubbing where she was hit earlier.

"I'll see you guys inside kay?" She wondered what would happen when she got back inside. Hopefully, they'd have a new room she could sit in and wait or that the hub wouldn't be too crowded.

[[Exiting to house]]  

[Dragain]

"It also sounds like the Bogeyman were unprepared for this," She frowned, recalling the man's reaction when they all started respawning, "But at least we're hopefully going to get Professor Red to pass him that message..." Maybe the werewolf would know just what to do, seeing how Bul had said that the professors saved them the last time something like this happened.

"You're welcome," She tensed and then relaxed at the pat, "See you again, soon." Hopefully. She then waited for a bit before tugging Lattice gently away, trying to keep the image of Halloweeners being transformed into weapons and being deleted in that cylinder shaped device out of her mind.

"Let's go get Edel and Vieve... Then we'll go back in."  

[Pepzilla]

There was no more time to waste, Bul entered after Willow to find he'd be waiting inside the hub a little longer. Even that would cause the half beast great anxiety in waiting for the next hunter encounter.

Exiting to Hub  

[danse-hexe]

She was crouched in a corner, trying to calm herself down, trying to process everything.

It had happened so fast. Suddenly the cage doors had opened and she'd found herself tumbling out into the chaos, stunned and unable to move. Loser. Lame. But there was no point in blaming herself at this point- she'd wanted so badly, while caged, to burn everything down, and destroy everything.

She didn't even particularly care if she might hurt any other halloweeners- she just wanted those.. those others to pay for what they'd done. And yet she'd been unable to act, when it had come to it.

The salamander flared unhappily, then looked up for the rest of her groupmates. Would they be returning into the house? Part of her was unwilling, but the other part still wanted revenge. Other groups were returning to the house- perhaps.. they needed to, as well. If nothing, that attack had taught her a lesson- to stay on guard, and to get stronger. She would not stand to be one-upped. Ever.  

[Dragain]

It didn't take long for Lizzy to spot Vieve - probably because she was on fire. Literally. It was a good thing they didn't have any undeads in their group, seeing how they often freak out at the sight of fire.

"Vieve!" She called out, waving at the ghoul before tugging Lattice along. Standing in front of her, she removed the ghoul's skull pin from her clothing and held it out towards her with a smile, glad that she was alright; finding Vieve meant that the whole group was now accounted for!  

[danse-hexe]

She acknowledged the spider demon and the engraver with a nod, pulling herself up. It wouldn't do to let them see her like this; she was the tough one. She hadn't broken down the way Lattice had, she'd escaped capture until the- she assumed he was boss- got tired of their incompetence and took matters into their own hands.

Flames snaked out towards Lizzy's hand, careful not to burn the other girl as she took her pin back, and resumed her humanoid form.

There wasn't much else to say. Everyone else seemed like they'd recovered- mostly, at least. But were they ready for what was coming up next?

Tiles that crashed into the ceiling, waterspouts, plumbers with murderous intents, a machine that might turn her into some dull, dead weapon. All those things- and more- were probably still somewhere around the haunted house.

With a shudder, Vieve moved closer to her groupmates.  

[Zyphiris]

Edel could only watch as Moure headed back into the Haunted House. She sincerely, honestly hoped that wasn't the last time she would ever see the patchwork boil. But at least, she had gotten some information across - she wasn't sure if the others who had headed back in before them knew exactly what they were up against.

The frost demon was enraged. Why on Halloween would the boogeyman ever say that the Haunted House was a safe place to be, other than Halloween Town. Why did he allow just mere students to carry a message and risk their lives again? This wasn't just a simple field trip any more!

This meant war.

How many students inside the haunted house knew that? Edel's silent rage wasn't just targeted at the boogeyman though. She was mad with herself for not being able to tell the others - their saviours anything. And now Lattice, Lattice of all people had to volunteer to carry a message. Where was the sense in that.

Her expression wasn't a happy one when she approached her group, finally. Edel grimaced at the sight of them, all of them, and touched her forehead to calm herself down. They had to hash it out here, now.

"Give me one good reason why we're going back in there." she started, her tone bordering on exasperation.  

[Dragain]

Once Vieve resumed her humanoid form and she was no longer at risk of becoming the exotic dish of 'BBQ Spider', Lizzy moved in to give the ghoul a hug, temporarily letting go of Lattice; as much as she wanted a group hug, she didn't want anyone to become a pin cushion.

To her surprise, Vieve was warm to the touch; weren't ghosts supposed to be cold? Then again, the ghoul's natural form was some sort of a fire beast, so it made sense that she would be warm to the touch in humanoid form... She just hadn't noticed it before. Giving her a squeeze to comfort her - also partially because hugging something warm when you're cold-blooded was the best feeling ever - she then turned to Edel with a smile... Not that the smile lasted long.

"There's no good reason," She answered with a soft sigh, her expression turning sheepish, "Stubbornness, maybe? When you've been in this school for a while, field trips tend to walk hand in hand with danger. If I needed a good reason to, I wouldn't have signed up for this..." Mac had been against it - for a good reason - after all, "But, we do have a decent reason this time - Barth, one of the students, had been left behind. He came to help us, but got taken instead. The least we could do is to try to do the same for him - without the 'being taken' part."

She took Lattice's hand again, knowing that the ghoul had already decided to follow her back in, "Lattice and I are going back in - I'm not going to force the two of you to follow... There's always the option of going back to school."  

[danse-hexe]

"You can stay here if you want to."

Vieve wasn't quite sure why she said that. Perhaps she didn't like the idea of giving up, of admitting defeat. They had dissipated once, and that was in no way a pleasant experience. Should they enter the house, they would run the risk of being turned into weapons- essentially, ending themselves forever.

There would be no dissipation beyond that, she was sure.

And the salamander wasn't the type to throw herself in the face of danger, either- there was no sense in risking her own wellbeing, especially if there were no direct benefits. It wasn't as if she was getting paid.

But she did believe in not stopping halfway what you started, or running away from a challenge. And Edel hadn't done anything, thus far, to prove her worth. So why not take the chance to leave her behind?

"We don't need unnecessary baggage," she said, coldly. The salamander wasn't brave, herself; nor did she particularly care for the reasons Lizzy had stated, except... stubbornness. She did, at least, have that in common with the other two members of her group.

"If you weren't prepared for the school trip, you shouldn't have come. There's no sense in taking along someone who'll drag us down, either," she remarked to Lizzy. It was the closest she might ever come to saying anything like "I trust you" to the other two girls- but a display like this was uncharacteristic of the salamander, anyway.

"At least hand over your pumpkin pill, if you're not going to use it."  

[Zyphiris]

The hand on her forehead had spread out into a full-on face palm. The ghoul had a vague feeling she knew what they were going to say, but she hoped that perhaps they could have been a little more rational about it.

"Stubborness. Really. Yes I knew field trips were going to be tough, dangerous- she paused to give a good look at the salamander before continuing. "but this is different. Quite honestly, I think we're all a little too dazed to absorb the fact that just about a few minutes ago, we could have been dead."

"Alright, never mind that for now - is that a rational reason or are we rationalizing our decision to go back? I pray you don't get me wrong here since it is true that I don't know Barth personally, but is this the right way to go about it? A tag team made of highschoolers, obviously outnumbered by the enemy. There is strength in numbers, if anything our rescue had just proved that but entering this premise again, who is to say we won't be split up into our tiny groups, ready to be picked off just like that? How many of our schoolmates just entered without knowing what danger lies ahead?

This isn't just our fight anymore, the fact that they exist - the entirety of Halloween is under threat. What strikes me as logical would be to go back, tell them what we know and come back with a force more appropriate for the counter-attack. What merit is there in foolish bravado or Stubborness, if we're just going to simply walk into a trap laid for us?"

Edel turned to Lizzy, what she was about to say next wasn't going to be pretty. "Of all the people, you regretted putting Lattice through this. And now you're about to hold her hand and allow her to relive the trauma again? I know you care about her, I do, but I don't have the heart to see her undergo such a painful breakdown again." Edel didn't look at Lattice while she said that, she couldn't. There was a long pause before she spoke up again.

"I'm not afraid of going back in there, I'm just afraid we're making the wrong choice. Are we all really ready to die, again? Because I wouldn't count on getting rescued again, should the worst happen." That was all for now, all she wanted was for her team mates to think about it again. Their second chance at living shouldn't be squandered away with a rash decision.

Edel mostly ignored the salamander's remarks, knowing Vieve the ghoul expected that she would be rearing to get back at the hunters. She did however, respond to her last remark with a snark.

"Oh gee, sorry Vieve. I gave it away." she didn't add that she did it for free though.  

[danse-hexe]

Vieve punched Edel.

Square in the face.