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The haunted house was a little different today. Shun had randomly found himself there as he had a couple times recently. It wasn't exactly within his intentions to be here, but he supposed that his drive to test himself and improve had called the house to him. Or something like that.

The fact that three other students had all appeared there was what called to some suspicion. This hadn't happened before.

Moving through with them, he carefully made his way down the damp stairs until he found himself in a rather large room. He did not like the look of this. At all. With his eye narrowed, he carefully surveyed his surroundings. He didn't say anything, but he head summoned his daggers ahead of times to get ready. There were almost always hunters in here.

With a frown, he glanced to the others, quietly asking if they were picking up on anything.

-------

Another patrol. Only, Deryk wasn't really liking the room he found himself wandering into. It was big. Dank. And extra creepy. It wasn't exactly one of the usual rooms he'd find himself in. There was even blood. Fresh blood. At least, it looked like that.

"...Really picked a bad day to be doing patrol. Yes. Oooh man not liking this. Not liking this at all. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope," he murmured to himself as he had Tooley ready with him.

This room looked like it could fit something big in it. Very big. And that made this particular trainer rather ill at ease.

Patrol with Deryk. It could be worse, but it could have been better. He preferred working alone, but he had little choice in the matter. He just hoped they didn't run into anything. Following orders without explanation was becoming increasingly difficult.

Otto walked with the fellow Death trainee into the large room. It was dark, save for the single light. His nerves started to work over time, a shudder ringing up his spine. He prayed inside his heart that light would stick around. He could not compose himself in front of Deryk if that one light went out. A quiet shaky breath drawn in then out, and his eyes glanced around the surroundings, his slip-on shoes clapping wetly on the stone floor.

"I dun' like it either.." He muttered softly back to Deryk, the light splashing colour on the mysterious red liquid.

Please be Kool-Aid.

Jordan was almost certain that there hadn't been a door in that particular end of the hallway when he'd first checked it. He tested the doorknob; the door swung open easily, revealing a narrow, dark set of stairs that spiraled down into dimness. This hallway was otherwise a dead end; he coul go back, or he could go down the stairs.

Stairs it was, then. He trailed one hand along the wall to help keep his balance on the steep steps, and held Ferros rested across his shoulder with the other. The weapon's runes provided a red glow by which he could make out the next few steps. The stairway spiraled down improbable distances; he'd only been on the second floor. But this was the Haunted House.

When the stairs finally ended, he almost tripped as his foot came down harder than he'd intended on the floor. Just ahead, light glowed through the cracks around another door; he moved to open it, squinting at the glare of light in the room, even the dimness brilliant to eyes that had adjusted to near-dark.

The door swung shut behind him; when he turned to look, he couldn't see where it had gone, a squatting idol leering at him from stone eyes. The idols were everywhere, lining the walls. They dripped with blood, and the slab in the center of the room, so neatly spotlighted, was wet with it. "Sacrificial theater? Great," Jordan muttered.

Movement caught his eye, and he realized that there were other Hunters across the room. Otto and Deryk? Their patrol wasn't scheduled for another two hours. Or, at least, it hadn't been. There were freaks here as well; Jordan stayed close to the wall, in the shadow of the idols. Ferros dimmed his glow in response to Jordan's thought.

After the time he'd helped Jericho find the place, and the time a hunter had been killed here, Aymet didn't loathe or fear the Haunted House. He relished it every time the way opened again. A chance to make the hunters pay, what could be better than that?

"Yeah!" Aymet liked the way that reaper thought. A lot of them could squish a lot of hunters. In any sense of the word. Shun was more experienced with this sort of thing, and he seemed to be doing his best to stay hidden. And the blue guy? Aymet recognized him vaguely from the most recent trance, as everyone had flooded out. Aymet had walked in last and scampered over to one of the fallen statues to investigate, as if it was some kind of clue. He was hard to miss - a nightlight in the dark, two burning eyes and an orb floating in the shadows, an insult to everyone else's camouflage skills.

"I'm not turning back now. They're always in this place, like mold. I saw - we saw - what they've done. To the school, to the islands, to us, students. They won't stop unless we stop them." The dracolich had gradually lost the ability to dissociate himself from the memories he picked up from trance, until it all flowed neatly into his reasoning. There was no stepping back to be objective and wait when they lied and cheated, when they herded, kidnapped, weaponized, killed a teacher, blasted a civilization into Insanity, tore Halloween itself apart -

Aymet caught a flicker of something - red light, perhaps, or movement, on the far side of the room. He bristled inasmuch as a skeleton could, rising slowly up to a fighting stance. "Hunters."


(( ROLL FOR INITIATIVE 1d100 ))

At least Otto agreed with him. But Deryk was soon feeling even more wary of the place as he suddenly found Marcus and Jordan here as well. Wait. Why were they here too right now? Oooooh no. This was definitely a bad sign. Bad bad bad sign.

Looking around nervously, he looked towards the team that had just formed right now, then spotted a blue light up ahead.

"Don't think we're alone. Someone's here. Can't tell how many. Definitely not good," he murmured while raising up his left arm defensively. While he had run into some students that weren't completely bloodthirsty, the atmosphere and whatnot he was currently in was giving him poorer vibes than usually.

((Deryk's Initiative))

Aymet nodded to Remi, but didn't hang back in hiding. He remained upright, moving closer to the edge of the grey light pooling in the center of the room. Undead instinct, perhaps, not to be wary, not to stand down or bide his time waiting for the enemy to reveal themselves first. His claws twitched in anticipation of what they might slice into; he was so Jacking ready for this.

(( Initiative roll ))

So they weren't alone. Luckily for them, they had some more of their own, but as to why marcus and Jordan were also there was a mystery. Was there some sort of schedule mishap? Either way, they could use the backup if there were just as many Halloweeners.

The short teen summoned Tenya, the 6 foot boomerang's runes glowing soft orange in the darkness.

((Otto's Inititaive: 21))