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The Weeping Forest, in all its familiarity, seemed strange, foreign, the very branches seemingly to wave oddly, more so than usual, fragmented, disjointed voices talking again. It was returning, the voices, the claws of the phoenix not quite gone. The ground seemed to quaver and shake, places of the earth splitting in two, suddenly a chaotic, burning greygreygreyGREY-

- And then everything normal again for a second, or as normal as it could be.

What the students may not have expected, what they might not even have noticed were the Bogeymen waiting for them. The lead bogeymen nodded to the other two, who did not wait a single second longer before examining the statue that had once been Riley, barking loudly the words additional quarantine.

The word was repeated again and again, almost losing meaning as Bogeymen began to surround the students, pushing them back, forwards, dragging them through the mess of what seemed like whispering voices, hellfire, chaos, a blur of everything that was both terrifying and angry.

Even when they arrived at the gates of Amityville, ushered to a fenced off section that some may have recognized as the Gymnasium, everything seemed a strange, distant blur, too focused and sharp at some points and entirely dull at others. The voices however, the ones swirling echoing in their head were becoming more vague now, more a dull, lingering ache than a sharp repeating pain. It was becoming easy to focus now, easy to remember again, easy to become tired, down to their very Fear core, a sort of numbness that wouldn't let go as their eyes forced themselves closed, as their senses began to slowly shut down.

-" students shall remain in quarantine for the next day until we deem them fit to leave again. This includes the former Four Clans citizens as well." Someone was lecturing in the background, source unknown.

"Thank you, we appreciate it." It was Medea, a smaller figure flanking her, the tiny school secretary nearly invisible past her long dark purple robes. "I am glad you got the message from-"

- The rest was cut off as students drifted into a state of pure unconsciousness.

Home. They were home. Though, things still felt rather strange to Shun. It had been a really long day. Too long perhaps. Once he was back on Halloween soil, there was a wave of relief mixed in with exhaustion. The battle was over and the adrenaline had drained from his body. He heard a few words shouting out here and there, mixed in with lower murmurs all around.

He caught sight of what had remained of Riley, but it was brief.

"Quarantine..?" he mumbled, trying to reign in his focus. It was getting hard, considering how damn tired he now felt. He had been through hell and back it felt like. As they were shuffled towards the gym, he kept an eye out for his friends. In that bloodlust frenzy he had been in, he lost track of everyone.

He shuddered though, as he could have sworn he heard someone whispering into his ear. No one he knew was right behind him though. What the hell had that been? The Reaper didn't really think about it for long. His senses were growing dark and it didn't take much longer before he passed out on the floor.

The world became a terrible, disorienting place. The whispers plagued her, the colours swirled and muted to various shades of grey with some white and black tossed in for good measure, making her dizzy beyond relief. She let out an unhappy, rather wet hissing noise from the gaping wound in her throat, her bloody hand (still grasping the end of the Hunter's long blue cowl) and stump coming up to try and cover her ears, one side doing obviously better than the other. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. STOP!

It did, everything screeching to a halt. At first she didn't believe it, merely staying curled inwards and gripping her head with whatever manner of hands she had left. New voices reached her ears, muffled but still demanding, and as she opened one cautious eye, she saw something horrible;

Riley's Statue, surrounded by Boogeymen who were loudly proclaiming Quarantine.

"Nooh" She hissed, her broken voice made dual with her actual, androgynous voice mixed in. "Noooh" She said louder this time, her grey eye wide. Quarantine. She knew that word. She knew what it meant, and what they wanted to do; she knew that Riley was gone, but if they put her in Quarantine---

She'd be Completely gone.

"No" The repetition of the word made it more clear, making it less of a wet, gurgling hiss and more of a demand. Amrita's broken voice repeated the word over and over, the dual tone to her voice growing louder and louder as she was ushered away, pushed back with the rest of the group. She couldn't go into Quarantine; she had to go see her friends. She had to tell Christof what happened, even if it made her heart heart. She needed to find Aymet and Calder and Mort (though the thought never hit her that they'd be quarantined together, and that all she had to do was look) and make sure they were okay; she needed to apologize to Calder for hitting him, and then she needed to thank them for saving her and fighting for her when they did.

She had to find Lizzy, and request headpets until the voices went away, until her mind and core were calmed once more. She had to find Charlie, because he always made her smile; all of her friends, she needed them now more than anything, but she couldn't go see them. The Boogeymen were putting her in Quarantine, and what's worse, Riley....

Then she fell silent. All the wheezing, watery, gurgling noises from her open throat ceased as her world went black.

He was not tired.

In fact, Invictus felt more alive than he'd ever felt. Angry in some senses, and yet he knew he had to shoulder that feeling. He would have to hold onto it and put it to a more productive use. Yes, they were being quarantined, but they were all together.

Those who remained were still together and he would make sure that they would all rebuild and come together again. They would again be a unified group. Nothing would happen to them now. Invictus, Heir of Conquest would make sure of that. He followed after Medea quietly, making no moves to join those who were resting in Quarantine at that time. He had been allowed his rest - his singular moment of blackness. Of nothingness.

He would not rest until he was sure of what would be happening to those that remained of the four clans.

They had no home yet. He needed to make sure he could rebuild one - not just one for Conquest, but for Famine, War, and Death as well. He and his girls together would make it happen. They were strong.

That much they could do.

Amityville. They were back at Amityville.

Or, at the very least, they were on Amityville grounds. Around Sparrow were the tall, towering trees of the Weeping Forest, the branches swaying here and there, and the voices were rising again, sinking into his thoughts, and Sparrow lifted his hands, pressing them against the sides of his head and wanting them to just stop until -

They did. And he could see the Bogeymen just up ahead.

Sparrow moved as though his body were on autopilot, pushed forward by the Bogeymen as everything around him shifted, melted into a blurry, hazy mess of red and black and shadows. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see, and felt his heart beating slowly against his chest, in quiet rhythmic movements.

The anger was still there.

When he saw Amityville, it was only a relief for a brief moment. They were shunted into the school, pushed into the area that Sparrow vaguely recognized as the Gym, though from his point of view it seemed hazy and unclear. He staggered along obediently until he found a corner that was unoccupied.

Wren. Wren where are you?

He wanted to see her so badly it hurt. His chest was aching, and Sparrow slumped against a wall, sliding slowly down it until he was sitting on the ground. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, his fingers still curled around his broken scythe.

If I rest, maybe I will dream of her.

He felt tired, so tired. Within a few moments of arriving Sparrow Heartreed drifted off into sleep.

Between the running to the portal, the voices in her head, and the voices shouting for quarantine, Danny couldn't think straight. Coming from a ghoul who's mind was generally quite empty, this was horrifying.

Only a few names came to mind. Through the hysteria, she shouted, "Rikki? Roch? Yin?!" Being somewhat taller than the average, Danny didn't have a hard time looking through the crowd, but with everyone moving around and shouting, it all started to blur together.

"Rikki ... quarantine," she muttered, taking very staggered steps through the forest.

Then the lights went out.

Was it really over? Was this real? Had they won? Won, such a hallow word, no, they hadn't won, they had survived. At another time he may have had the logic to say living was in itself a victory, that returning to Ammityville with Tess and Angenora was what truly mattered.

But he had no such logic at that moment. He felt heavy, numb, exhausted mentally and physically. He had barely had the presence of mind left to be sure Tess was at his side as he stepped through the portal, hardly acknowledged the trees as they walked through the forest or the boogeymen who seemed to be waiting for them. He spoke to no one, giving a glance only to Tess. He was far too tired, far too numb to do more. Did his tail even have it's characteristic flicker as he walked?

Quarantine?

His senses had begun to clear, the word breaking through the fog of his thoughts. What? Why? What right did the boogeymen have to herd them like animals, to lock them in the gym, keeping them from their rooms, their friends, the ones they cared for? He wanted to growl, to glare at the boogeymen, to freeze them all where they stood and break through their stupid barriers! He was tired, he wanted to sleep in his own room, he wanted to be with his friends! He wanted...

Tired, so very tired, too tired to feel or act on such thoughts, too tired to even think any further, he had nothing left. He didn't even want to stand anymore, laying on the floor and curling up with the tuft of his tail over his nose. A broad yawn, a last look to assure himself Tess was nearby before his eyes grew too heavy and fell closed, drifting into the darkness of a dreamless sleep.

Calder had a thought. A single thought that dawned on him just before they were separated and the Hunters rushed into their own portal. That this wouldn't end. The hunters wanted them dead and would destroy their world, yet they created them, and in turn, there was no end.

He wanted them gone. If he was assured they would stay put, it would mean they could live without the threat of going anywhere and being attacked. After the horsemen islands being destroyed, there was proof now that no place was safe to go to. There was no security. They could come anywhere. They had some sort of power to come wherever they pleased, and like that vision in the trails, they would destroy their world until their was nothing standing.

Calder had been shown the consequences if all humans were destroyed in the Death clan trance. However, there was no consequences he saw in seeing their kind utterly destroyed for the humans. Did they get off living happily if all of Halloween was destroyed without any sort of backlash?

No. The humans could come into their world, but could they ever really destroy them?

"They make us." He whispered, thoughts small as his body was forced into the portals for him. "It's a never-ending cycle." Fighting upon fighting. The hunters wanted them dead, but they made them, and would kill what they created - and the creatures they created, Halloween town, needed them to live. It was ....It was just so SICK!
He was pressed out into the familiar Weeping woods, but even here he didn't feel safe as he felt he should have. This wasn't home. This was just another place the Hunters could come into. Even now.

The Boogeymen stood, and they too were not there to offer him any security. They never did. Instead, another set of enemies against him, they shoved them away, and looking back, he saw that lone statue. Another like Red - but not a staff member that represented experience and power. This was personal. This was one of them. Just a student. The head of the Student Council and in turn, the voice of the school - silenced forever.

Calder was forced into the Gymnasium, and he walked more like an undead than a living student, until he found someone familiar. Something he could hold onto.

Amrita.

He dropped to his knees and laid beside the little ghoul. Would they come and attack them all while they were resting? He wasn't sure. He didn't feel safe, and yet despite this, he was too tired to go on. Reaching out to the ghoul, he gripped her close and feel asleep.