Thread: All Hallow's Eve WHO: Everyone! WHEN: Halloween night, October 31st WHERE: School grounds, the graveyard, the woods, the dorms
All students knew the rumours about Halloween, but only the experts knew for sure what happened at the graveyard before the festivities commenced. Some people talked about Satan-worshipping rituals, others talked about a bloody ceremony and some people kept it simple and said it was probably not that special. Tanek, for one, was glad he had not been the outlandish one: he had long suspected that the Experts and the faculty went to pay tribute to the dead every year.
It was funny how almost everyone seemed to know what do. The teachers and the Experts gathered in silence, gathering around Ms. Menides and Mr. Cavanaugh who stood in the front. Nobody was dressed in costume yet, the mood was solemn. Most students were too busy to prepare their dormitories for Halloween, but the Experts were always present when the sun went down, as a way to pay their respect to the school that had housed them.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Tanek felt a surge of joy in his stomach. He would see Sorin again! (Wouldn't he?) He tried to keep the smile from his face, however, because even Hayden looked appropriately serious. Pavel, Kristen, John... And, behind them, the twins, clad in black, looking like a sad high fashion ad.
The sunlight had grown paler and paler, the world cast in blue twilight. And then, a collective shiver went through the people who had gathered in the graveyard.
They rose like smoke from the graves, strands of thin ethereal white that slowly shaped themselves into human-like shapes of silvery grey and translucent blue. A teacher with a fiddle started playing La Danse Macabre and, simultaneously, a low voice joined in. It sounded like a requiem and for a moment, Tanek was swept up by the music. It was haunting, beautiful. But then he saw Sorin and he could not contain his smile. He waved to his friend.
The spirits - Sorin included - assembled around Mr. Cavanaugh, the singer, waiting for him to finish. Like the living, they were paying their respects. Tanek watched them, these ghosts, these restless souls that had not yet departed for the afterlife. A tall, haughty man in an outfit straight from the Civil War. A sad-looking maid with an apron and a bonnet, her wrists cut open and a silvery light pouring out. A trio of monks, their faces hidden under their hoods.
The song ended and the ghosts started making their way towards the school, following path of the warm yellow lights that would lead them to the dorms and the school buildings. Tanekknew most of them would go to the Pegasus house, where the living and the dead gathered and communed. The living shared a meal while the dead could share their experiences. Like always, the spirits would avoid House Hydra, which had been made into a proper haunted house. The theme this year was a rotten candy land, mixing imagery of all things cute, pink and rainbow with a creepy undertone: the sickly sweet smell of rotting honey, the fierceness of feral, bloodthirsty unicorns, a beautiful dream turned horribly nightmarish. House Kitsune had been turned into a paradise for AV geeks, with their movies and video games. House Sphinx would be all about the board games, though rumor had it that they’d gone all out with their fox hunt this year, hiding clues and flags all over the castle, even in some of the harder to reach rooms.
And then you had House Ladon, which is where most everyone alive ended up to see the sun rise. It was where they built the bonfire and where the music was the loudest and the most dance-able. Usually, students were the music-makers, the most promising disk jockeys getting about an hour to get everyone dancing. No matter how vigilant the teachers were, there was always some way to get alcohol and this year, they had asked Kitsune to provide them with some more of those excellent cupcakes. Even Mr. Kaden’s presence couldn’t avoid that, though he tried. It might have something to do with the fact that every year, all the teachers gathered in the graveyard during the crucial hour before the festivities started. Ladons weren't known for their intelligence, but when it came to creatively breaking the rules, they were a match for most Hydras.
The living waited until all the dead had begun to leave and then followed, walking over the path that was dotted with little lights. Tanek ran to catch up with Sorin.