Open A Test of Courage

[Solomon Tofilau]

The Halloween feast had been pretty mean, but Sully had had his own plan stewing for a good time tonight. Eager to slip away, Sully was practically bouncing on his feet as other students who'd gotten the word about his challenge had started to arrive. "Okay, cool," Sully said, looking at the other students who'd gathered there. "Rules are pretty simple, aye. You just gotta make it down the end of the corridor and touch the creepy looking, old lady statue. If you do that, you pass, if you wimp out, you're a chicken," Sully said with an easy shrug, grinning at his audience. "If any professors come, just say we got lost coming back from the feast or whatever. If they don't buy it, just run. They can't catch us all," Sully said with a grin. "I'll go first, show you how it's done. You can go in pairs and stuff too if you really want to," He threw over his shoulder before puffing his chest out and making his way down the darkened passage.

The dungeons had been pretty eerie during the day when Daintree had been show him around, but tonight that was dialed up to 11. Sounds from the Halloween feast upstairs filtered down, muffled by the old cobblestones, what sparse torchlight there was flickered oddly in the corners. Rounding the corner, Sully lost track of the rest of the group waiting, faced only with the dark passage and the statue he knew was at the end. The old lady statue had been down right unnerving when they'd found it earlier, and tonight Sully almost regretted making her the target. His steps faltered a little, unnerved by the echo in the dim silence around him and Sully flinched when the statue suddenly loomed out of the darkness. Catching his breath, Sully laughed at himself for being spooked, patting the statue quickly on her gnarled hand before hopping back down the hallway and back into the light.

"See, easy," He said, coming to a halt in front of the other students with a flourish. "Alright, who's next!"

Out of Character:

Happy Halloween! It's Fear Challenge time. This thread is set Halloween night, during the feast, but with enough time I figure characters can manage to attend both if they wish.
The way I see this going is you can post your character making their way down the corridor to touch the statue at the end. It's totally up to you how well your character does. Pairs or small groups are fine as well, just try not to hold up the thread if possible. If you would like to scare other students, or be scared yourself, I would suggest leaving your post open ended or with an OOC note letting other rpers know what level of godmodding is okay. Please follow board rules, especially regarding any godmodding and have fun!

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Daintree had been all for the spooky corridor that Sully had organised. He believed had been pivotal in helping Sully decide that it would be the dungeons that got to host it. He thought it was the spookiest part of the school, but that it would help in continuing to shore up his friendship with Sully. He did like the other boy, he was a nice person and someone that Dain got along with, but he needed to be sure that he was maintaining the friendship with him. It was why, despite the fact that Dain didn’t think of himself as particularly brave he was stood in amongst the crowd of other students who were looking to take part. Once he was done here he’d head to the feast where things would be calmer and he could continue to maintain his presence around the school. He knew his grades would never get the head of houses attention, but he knew that there were other ways to be noticed. He listened to the instructions and then watched as Sully headed off down the corridor. It was pretty hard to hear how he was doing it. But when the boy emerge again, having clearly managed it. Daintree knew he had to go next. So, he stepped forward, ”I’ll go,” he said, with a smirk on his features. ​

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Daintree took a deep breath and headed down the corridor. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to the dungeons, it was just the same corridors he always walked down, though of course it was also entirely different. The slytherin, couldn’t help the light shaking in his body, but he shoved as down as he could. He wasn’t scared! No way. He definitely wasn’t afraid. He just kept going, just staring straight ahead at his target, he wasn't going to fail this. His friend had organised it and he needed to do well in it. But the status did loom in the distance. Eventually Daintree had had enough of this slow move forward and just broke out into a fast sprint, racing down the corridor, touching the status and racing back up. He spent a little moment just out of sight, gathering up his breath before he walked out. ”Simple,” he said with a little smirk towards Sully. He hadn’t found it simple and he felt still a little out of breath, but he’d done it. The boy moved away to let someone else go, and knew he’d linger a little longer before he headed to the feast. ​

 

[Zennon Baros]

Zennon had heard about the Halloween festivities even before the Gryffindor kid had sought him out, as such, he'd been only too happy to join in. Zennon's favourite snakes were still at home, but he had two boomslang's that he'd taken from the Menagerie last year that he kept with him in the dorms. Ever since he'd come out at a parselmouth, most people almost expected it of him and really, who was he to say no. He'd taken up residence behind the creepy old lady statue, Blossom slithering along the left arm of the statue and Buttercup along the right, and because he'd framed it well, everytime Zennon spoke to them, it was like an eerie tune. The kid who'd organised all of this had done really well and Zennon couldn't wait to see what the kids would do. He allowed Sully and another boy through without harm, making sure his snakes wouldn't get spooked by people first before he instructed them to get ready. From his position in the shadows, he was damn near impossible to see and a few little enhancements to the area made it appear like a shadow covered the corners. All he needed now was brave little volunteers. Since Blossom and Buttercup were both silent and almost as imvisible as he was, save the eyes. But when the students came up to touch the statue, they'd get a bit of a surprise.​

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Out of Character:

Zennon's almost invisible behind the statue of the old lady and his snakes are barely visible as well, not immediately obvious as snakes. He'd start speaking as soon as a student got close and it almost sounds like its on the wind, so it could potentially be quite spooky. Parseltongue can easily scare some less faint hearted folks! Have at!

 

[Emma van Houten]

Emma was excited about the feast, but she had also heard about this fear challenge and she knew she couldn't ignore that! She would catch up with Iris at the feast, but first had to prove she was brave, the bravest Gryffindor! She was already wearing her costume, as she intended to go to the feast after this immediately. She figured if anything scary was lurking around, maybe her awesome costume would scare them off. Sully was the name of the older boy who had organized it, and Emma listened to him as he explained the rules. She knew he was on the Quidditch team with Fleur, and she thought he was pretty cool because of that, even if she was still bitter about Quidditch. Suddenly, she realized she didn't just want to prove she was brave, she wanted to impress this boy too. She watched as he demonstrated by going first, standing on tiptoes to get a good look at him. When he came back, Emma gave him a big smile. "Good job!" She said with a nervous giggle. It did seem pretty spooky now, and Emma watched as another boy went after Sully. He said it was easy too, and while Emma knew it really wasn't anything to be scared of, she still felt more and more nervous the longer she stood here. "I'll go next!" She said, trying her best to sound brave. She took a deep breath, flashed both older boys a grin, then stepped forward into the corridor.

It really was dark, and very spooky. Emma's grin faded away as soon as she was out of sight from the older boys, but she kept walking on steadily. She cast a nervous glance to the ceiling, then at both of the walls on either side. But she wasn't going to look back, she didn't want anyone waiting there to see she was nervous. Emma kept walking, telling herself there was nothing to be scared of. It was just a corridor in the school, just like any other. It was just... darker, spookier... and had strange noises? As Emma approached the statue, she swore she heard something. She paused to listen, and then stopped moving. There was a sound, something like hissing. Emma wavered, telling herself she was just hearing things. She couldn't back out now! Emma rushed up to the statue, practically slapped it, and then squeaked in alarm as the sound sounded really close. She turned and ran back to the group, not stopping until she was back in the light. She took a deep, shuddering, breath. "Y-yeah, easy." She said, looking back at the corridor nervously. Had they not heard those noises? She wanted to ask, but also didn't. If they hadn't heard anything, she would look even more scared than she already did.

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric never went to the school events, and Halloween was no exception. Sully's thing seemed like it could be interesting, though Eric hoped it would fail miserably. He headed there out of curiosity, leaning against the wall of the dungeons as his roommate explained what they were going to do. He snorted derisively, watching him demonstrate. "That's supposed to be scary?" He asked the other Gryffindor after he came back, Daintree going in after him. "This whole thing is a joke." He added, hoping it would annoy Sully. He really didn't like the other boy, and wanted to wipe that annoying smile off his face for once.

@Solomon Tofilau

 

[Lysander Summers]

It took some convincing to bring Wendall along to the fear challenge that the two of them had heard about. If things had been the same as they were only a few weeks ago, Lysander was certain Wendall would have been as excited by the idea as he was, instead of being so sad all the time. They loved watching scary movies together, and doing spooky dares was kind of like being in one themselves. Only, they couldn't watch them at Olives anymore, and he'd done his best to avoid bringing it up. He just wanted to help his friend feel better and have some fun to distract him from all the bad stuff.

The armour of the boy's knight costume clanked with each step, as he led his best friend down through the dungeons and joined all the others there. He grinned at Emma, happy to see her joining in too. She was pretty brave herself, and he was excited to find out what they'd have to do. He listened to Sully explain what the challenge was, and couldn't help but scoff to Wendall. Easy peasy. They had it in the bag. Touching a statue wasn't so scary. Sander wondered if maybe the older boys had enchanted it to come alive or something, but as each person went up and nothing happened, he doubted there was anything special about the stone lady. He did shoot Emma a quizzical look when she returned from her go and seemed a bit put off. Sander didn't necessarily want to agree with Eric's earlier comment on how unimpressive it all was, though it was starting to seem pretty lame.

"Ok, we'll go next!" Lysander piped up. He withdrew his plastic sword and walked forward, gesturing for Wendall to come along with him so they could do it together. After everything with Olive, he didn't want to leave him on his own. Lysander walked along the dark corridor, swinging his sword at invisible monsters to show off how totally not scared he was. He could handle anything that came his way, no problem! His steps faltered when he got closer to the statue. He could have sworn he could hear whispering from somewhere, but the words were either too soft to hear, or just unrecognizable. That was weird. He'd never heard whispering in the dungeons before. He glanced back over his shoulder at the group for a moment before putting on his brave face and pushing on. It was only a couple more steps. He put one foot after the other, and once he was close enough, he gave the old woman statue a smack on the face with the tip of his sword for added emphasis, and chuckled. "Psssh. That was easy." He muttered to his friend. Before he could turn back around to walk back, he paused, noticing a movement in the eerie shadows behind the statue. He stared at the spot for a second, and right when he thought it was just his imagination, something moved again. Like a black, shadowy tendril with...eyes? His mind raced with the possibilities. Could it be a lethifold? A boggart? He didn't know, and he didn't want to stick around to find out. He raised his sword just in case, and grabbed Wendall's hand. "We did it. Let's go. Go!" He hissed, walking backwards a few steps so he could keep an eye on the statue, until he felt he was far enough away to start running back to the group without anything following them.​

@Wendall Layton

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully was happy to see other people seemed to be psyching themselves up for the challenge, giving Daintree a thumbs up when he went off himself, followed shortly by a younger Gryffindor he recognized. He was a touch disappointed he hadn't heard or seen anyone freak out yet, but it was still early days, and Sully offered the Gryffindor a high five when she came back, looking a little shaken but accomplished none-the-less. "Sweet, nice job," He grinned, laughing when he saw Lysander head off with his sword drawn next.

Things were going well, but Sully had to roll his eyes when he heard Eric Holland have to pipe up. "If it's such a joke, why do you go in then," Sully said, crossing his arms. He just didn't get what Eric's problem was all the time, it was like the guy just wanted to make everyone's life difficult. Sully wouldn't be surprised if Eric was just all talk. "Unless you're chicken, then that's okay, I guess," Sully added with a shrug. @Eric Holland

 

[Wendall Layton]

Wendall had been in a glum mood ever since finding out about Olive, but with Halloween on the horizon he was still excited under the layer of grief for his favourite holiday. He had been working on his costume since August, and now dressed up as a little green Grindylow, the second year was doing his best not to trip over any of her extra wild tentacle legs that liked to try and trip him up. He was meant to be a scary creature, but didn’t feel scary until he completed the look with his large oversized Grindylow head, although while wearing this Wendall was near blind, and it wasn’t a good combination for the boy with a clumsy reputation. ​

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He stood with the rest of the group in the dungeons, eager to see what Solomon had in store for them. Wendall did like the idea of spooky challenge although given how many things he and Lysander watched, it was going to have to be a very spooky game indeed if they even wanted to come close to scaring the pair. One boy was making a bit of a scene, and Wendall frowned at him. “He shouldn’t be here if he doesn’t want to play” he whispered to his best friend,, feeling a bit disappointed that some people wanted to ruin it. Why couldn’t they just enjoy it for what it was? Besides, he hadn’t even been in there! After listening to the instructions, Wendall was confident that they’d have no issues what so ever, and nodded at Lysander in understanding as he said they’d go as a pair. It would have been more fun to go together, so he was happy to tag along beside him, leaving his green head on the floor with the others. It was going to be hard enough to see without his vision being impaired by the costume too. ​

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As they entered the corridor, Wendall wanted to add a little fun of his own, and hopefully scare Lysander even more. The second year began to make the faintest most subtle noises, half a word muttered under his breath here, a light whistle there, occasionally moving from either side of the Gryffindor as to not raise suspicion, seemingly trying to make his way through the decorations with all his additional limbs in tact. When they made it to the statue, he grinned at the boy beside him when he whacked the thing with his sword, just in case. His friend seemed to have spotted something else though, and the Hufflepuff squinted through the darkness to try and get a better look himself, and he had an image of what it would be like if a big pair of eyes came straight at him. He gulped, frozen on the spot for a moment, before he felt Lysander tugging on his hand and broken free from his thoughts managed to run after him toward the rest of the group. “Did you see the eyes down there?” He nudged his friend, hoping to freak the boy that was making things more difficult for the host a little bit more.​

@Lysander Summers

 

[Aisa Hunter]

Aisa had zero interest in this whole thing, but somehow Sully had talked her into helping him. This was becoming an increasingly alarming pattern, as Sully was managing to talk her into more and more things these days. She grumbled about it, but could admit to herself she was fond of him, even if he was kinda stupid most of the time. He was so proud of this idea, which would be kind of cute if he hadn't bothered her about it constantly for the past few weeks. Aisa was glad Halloween was finally here, so at least they could put this behind them. She waited next to Sully as he explained the rules, then watched as he and Daintree went first. Sully had been unable to keep quiet about the extra help he had gotten with the scaring, and Aisa could easily understand why the next girl looked considerably more shaken. She had wondered if it wasn't a bit unfair, but then had reasoned these kids were pretty much here to be scared. It was the whole goal, so using an older student's help wasn't a bad thing. The fact that the red haired girl was smiling at Sully a lot didn't go unnoticed either, and Aisa wondered if Sully had noticed it. If he had, he'd probably get an even bigger ego, which wasn't preferable. She rolled her eyes at Eric's comment. "Just ignore it." She muttered to Sully, but wasn't sure if he had heard it. Even if he had, she knew he wouldn't listen to her, so it didn't really matter. Aisa kept an eye on the younger boys who went next, not sure what she would do if one of them started to cry. Sully hadn't specified what sort of help he needed her for, and if it was consoling crying first years he really should have picked someone else.

 

[Ajaccio Skey]

Ajaccio had heard about the spooky corridor from one of the older boys in his common room. He had plans with Andy at the Halloween feast but in his mind there was more than enough time for him to do both. He reached the area, already wearing his Halloween costume, which really was just a white head band and a veil. He knew that he would be bringing Andy down with his poor costume but it didn’t matter, they have fun anyway. When he was looking in the crowd the boy spotted his brother and went over to the younger boy. ”Hey Lumio, do you want to go together?” Ajax knew that him and lumio had never particularly got along; the years of distance between them having never given them much of a chance but now they were in the same location for the most part of a year. He was even surprised that the younger boy agreed to it. He had thought his Gryffindor would turn him down to do it alone. Ajaccio smiled brightly, he grabbed his brothers arm and dragged him forward, ”Our turn” he had dragged him to the front and was declaring that they would be next. He could tell his brother didn’t mind that at all. They were allowed to get started and Ajaccio practically skipped into the corridor. He’d done plenty of haunted houses, some in theme parks, some Halloween specific ones and a few places that had claimed to be entirely haunted. ​

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Ajaccio knew it was just a corridor in the dungeons, but he had to admired the boy who had put it together, the place was spooky and though he didn’t often get scared he could feel his heart hammering in his chest. He could feel the sweat building in his hands and forehead, it would do nothing to help his hair from frizzing further. The ravenclaw glanced to his brother and gave a little thumbs up and grin though he didn’t really feel like that at all. His brother pushed forward more quickly than Ajaccio and Ajax jogged to keep up, ”race you to it,” Ajax challenged, knowing that would help push them forward. Ajax push forward, ending up flinching a few times away from some of the spooks, but he was grinning widely and half laughing. Oh his heart was racing badly. But he was so close. Ajaccio hadn’t realised how much faster his brother was, but laughed heartily when he touched the statue first with Ajax following up moments after. He congratulated his brother who then challenged him to a race back down. Ajax broke off into a run, pushing himself more than before and being the first of the two out of the corridor. He gave a thumbs up to the boy who’d organised it, ”That was amazing!” he told him grinning from both the fun, the exertion of the run and from the adrenaline in his heart. He pulled his brother back to crowd. ”I’ve got to go to feast, I’ll see you around Lumio,” he said to him before waving and heading away. ​

 

[Lumio Skey]

Lumio had heard about the haunted corridor and had known immediately that he was going to do it, of course he would. He just felt a little less confident now that he was actually at it, it seemed like it was going to be a lot of difficult scares and he couldn’t help but think about how horrible that would be. The Gryffindor knew he had to do, he had to manage it. He looked around the crowd for any of his dorm mates or friends and was a little surprised to see Ajaccio in the crowd. This wasn’t a place he had expected to see his brother. The boy had stayed pretty clear of his brother since getting to the school but he was almost relieved to see him now. Lumio was even more surprised when the boy approached him and asked if they could do it together, given that Lumio was beginning to feel quite nervous about it, Lumio thought it would be a good idea. ”Okay, let’s,” he replied, he had expected that they would wait a while before going but he let himself get dragged to the front and suddenly it was their turn. He swallowed feeling increasingly nervous, it was the unknown of it that was throwing Lumio. ​

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The Gryffindor forced his bravery to surface, putting on a brave face and then following Ajaccio down the corridor. Immediately Lumio did not like it. He let out a little yelp when something seemed to jump at him. His hands were sweaty and shaking slightly. It felt like his heart was trying to force itself out of his chest. He was just going to keep going. He pushed forward and was getting further than Ajaccio but he felt like he was close to giving up. This was a little too much for him. He turned to his brother as he caught up, forcing a brave face to pretend he wasn’t terrified. But if didn’t matter, Ajaccio was racing him now so Lumio agreed, knowing that the competition would drive him further and quicker. He’d manage it. The boy pushed forward, flinching at every other thing but keeping his gaze mostly on the ground. He was quicker than Ajaccio and touched it first, relief washing over him. He glanced back realising they need to go back and he decided to use what he knew worked on him. ”Lets race back” he said. He broke off into a run back up the corridor. He wasn’t nearly as scared on the way back knowing he was running toward the light. It turned out though that Ajaccio was a better runner than him and Lumio came moments after. He could help but release a bit of laugh. That had been a whole lot. He moved out of the way so the next people could go and then looked towards his brother as he spoke. ”Okay, have fun Ajaccio,” it had been surprisingly nice to work with his brother for once.​

 

[Cyzarine Haden]

Cyzarine had been on her way to the feast when she’d heard about the spooky corridor. So of course despite being in costume she had headed down. She was dressed as a wind up doll, a large princess like dress on, with the heels to match, though she could frustrating see that the dress covered them. She had a wind up looking object coming out of her back and she’d made her skin look almost porcelain with make up. But she was so doing this thing. She spotted it was one of the young boys who had put it together, though of course a Gryffindor. Cyzarine listened along to what he said, and nodded along, she watched a few of the others in the crowd go. Mostly students younger than her and ones that she didn’t know. Eventually Cyzarine decided it was her turn so she approached the front and the corridor, the heels making a little noise upon the stone. ​

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Cyzarine grinned before walking confidently in. Her head held high, her shoulders squared. The corridor itself was immediately the worst thing ever. She was smiling vaguely but she could feel her fear building with each step. Cyzarine didn’t come down to the dungeons often, only really to see her best friend. But this didn’t seem to be like any of the corridors she was used to. Something next to her startled her and she screamed loudly. Unable to stop herself from doing so, but it didn’t matter she had to keep going. She pushed forward, letting out several more shouts at different things. Her heart was definitely not enjoying this. She eventually did reach the statue but she had thought about giving up several times before she’d managed it. The walk back was much easier but she was still startled by several of the objects. She smiled when she emerged, it had scared her greatly but that was the point, truly it had been amazing. Cyzarine stood off to the side letting someone else go while she caught her breath. ​

 

[Sigurd Rumblehorn]

Although he had originally set out to join the celebrations in the great hall, on his way down from the Ravenclaw tower Sigurd had overheard a few students mention something about a fear challenge in the dungeons. To Sigurd it sounded like the perfect way to spend Halloween. He was always ready for an adventure, and besides going to potions classes he hadn't actually taken the time to explore the dungeons yet. He figured they would be much more exciting to explore at night time.

He decided to put off going to the great hall for now, and made his way down to the dungeons. When he arrived, he followed the sounds of voices echoing through the corridors until he found the group. He stood for a while and watched as a couple of students each took a turn to walk down the corridor and back, considering whether or not this was quite what he had in mind. Of course, he would be willing to participate, but perhaps there was more to it than it seemed at face value. He decided to stay and watch for a little, and compare reactions of different students after they each took their turn.

 

[Professor Noel Waldgrave]

Noel was glad that Sully seem to be having such a good idea for the halloween to spice things up. He liked the Halloween Feast but he loved a thrill as well. He was not that easily afraid! And today again he was dressed as a knight. And if he wanted to become an auror he needed to show that he didn't had much fear. Noel wanted to fight the badguys and there wasn't much he was scared of. If he had to think of one thing it would be losing his parents, but he figured that was not the case here. It would be just classic spooky stuff he figured and he had offered his roommate to help out. So when he came to the dungeons he noticed a group of students. And Sully started to explain and did it first himself to show it. Noel smiled at his friend and saw Dainstree too. They both went in after eachother and made it. It didn't seemed that hard from afar but perhaps there was some surpise somewhere. '' Great idea Sully. But we lions have no fear right.'' Noel than said with a grin and gave him a small push in the side. He than smiled at Dainstree. '' Good job mate! '' Noel than saw students going in by themselves. He smiled at Aisa who was there too. Noel than watched as Eric joined them too and started bragging. Noel felt irritated directly, was he here to ruin the fun? Because otherwise he would send Eric away. He grinned as Sully dared Eric. It was stupid that he said it was not scary he didn't even tried it yet. A part of Noel wanted to scare Eric a lot, perhaps a plan for next year. Noel than started making a chicken noice he just could not take it that Eric needed to be like that. '' I shall demonstrate for you.. chicken.'' Noel than said with a grin. He was done with Eric and would not even tried to be nice or ignore him anymore he needed to be stopped.

The Gryffindor in his knight costume with his sword at the side of him walked to the direction of where he needed to be going. He smiled back to his friends and was only excited not that scared. Noel turned around again into the direction of the dark corridor. He figured he could take anything. Now he could actually be his costume, be a knight. And knights were brave. And so was he. It was dark around him and it wasn't the most happy and excited place around him but he kept walking. Noel just looked around him and not back, just in the direction of where he needed to be going. Noel hoped Eric would go next and if he went he would prove he was no chicken. The noices around him made him look in different directions but he still got his focus. His heart was going a bit faster than usually but scared hell no! When Noel came to the statue he heard something and looked around him and than back to the statue. But Noel didn't cared he touched the statue directly and smiled. Though that sound he heard was a bit creepy he had to admit. Noel than turned around and put his arms into the air excitingly and walked back to the group. '' Cool really cool Sully.'' Noel than said with a smile and looked at Eric. '' After you. Or just go, and don't ruin things for once.'' Noel than said to his enemy.

@Solomon Tofilau @Eric Holland @Daintree Vaskevold

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric snorted. "Going in there won't prove anything." He muttered, giving a kid who seemed to be talking about him a dirty look. "It's just a corridor with a statue, you're hyping it up for nothing." He said to Sully. "I'm not chicken, but this wouldn't prove I'm not since it's literally just... stupid." He rolled his eyes when Noel told him he would demonstrate it, and watched the other boy go and return. He gave a sarcastic slow-clap as he returned."So impressive." He said sarcastically. "I can't go after you when you just went, dumbass." He snapped. "But fine, I'll go." He pushed away from the wall lazily, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He then walked into the corridor casually, glancing at Sully and Noel over his shoulder. "You guys are pathetic." He said, before walking on until they were out of sight.
@Noel Waldgrave @Solomon Tofilau

OOC: Kris has permission to godmod Eric

 

[Sigurd Rumblehorn]

Sigurd couldn't quite tell what all the fuss seemed to be about. It was just a dark corridor, after all. He couldn't recognize anyone who was in a Halloween costume, and Sigurd was sure he didn't know any of these students, but he didn't feel that mattered. There was some banter going on between some of the older students, so while nobody else was taking a turn Sigurd decided to strut down the hallway, get it done and be on his way to the feast. He didn't say a word, he just strolled past the other students and began to make his way to the statue.

Half way down the hallway, he felt his confidence slowly drain away, the corridor was actually a lot darker and colder than it looked when he was standing back at the start safely surrounded by students. He had made it this far however, and he wasn't going to chicken out. He took a few steps further forward, before he froze. There was an eerie whispering sound coming from the end of the corridor. "Who's there?" Sigurd hissed, starting to get a little scared. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and sprinted the rest of the way down the hallway. He opened his eyes just in time before colliding with the statue, gave it a kick, and spun around and sprinted back again. He arrived back at the group of students, and leaned against a wall, puffing and panting. "What.. was.... that?" He spoke each word between heavy breaths.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully watched proudly as a few other student made their way down the corridor, grinning as everyone made it back in one piece. Some more hurried than others. He stifled a laugh when Cyzarine, an older girl, definitely screamed, giving her a pat on the back once she was back with the group. No one had bailed out yet, even the younger kids, and Sully wondered if he should try to up the ante and make things scarier.

Of course, there was one stick in the mud in this whole thing, and Sully rolled his eyes again as Eric continued to be a pest. He laughed at Noel's chicken noises though, joining in and egging him on before Noel decided to go down the hallway as well. "Atta boy, show him how it's done, aye," He called after Noel. Eric was still acting all high and mighty even after Noel came back and Sully rolled his eyes. "Go on then, if you're so bored by it all," He said, grinning as Eric made his way down the corridor. Sully hadn't really wanted to mess with anyone too much, some of the younger students seemed scared enough without his (or Zennon's) help, but Eric was just asking for it. Slipping away and winking at Aisa, Sully took a shortcut he'd found early while they'd been scouting. The side passage intercepted the one they'd picked with the statue part way down and Sully just had to wait for Eric to pass, thinking fast on what he should do to teach Eric a good lesson. Taking a cue from Zennon, Sully waited right until Eric was close enough to see in the gloom, whispering a quick Serpensortia, aiming for Eric's head. If he'd got the timing right the snake should drop from thin air. Right onto Eric's stupid head. @Eric Holland

 

[Freya Song]

Freya hadn't really participated in Halloween during the previous year, so she was making up for lost time and had dressed as a zombie. She did not believe in such things as "too much fake blood" or "preserving her school uniform", and thought she made a pretty believable walking corpse. She'd heard about the fear challenge happening down in the dungeons and, always being one for crashing parties she hadn't been invited to, decided to skip the feast and head there instead. Freya would readily admit she was a coward and had no plans to participate in whatever the challenge was about, but curiosity was her north star as she wandered down to where the challenge was held.

She could walk perfectly fine in her costume, but Freya was undead and therefore needed to stay in character, so she shuffled in to see what was going on. She wanted to stick around and watch, but then she spotted Emma. In a zombie hunter costume. Freya's mouth fell open at the absolute audacity of Emma's outfit. At least Freya was a cute zombie. Curiosity forgotten, Freya suddenly had far more important things to be doing, and shuffled away before the mean, scary zombie hunter could chop her head off.

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric had mostly said how pathetic it all was to bug Sully, but he really didn't think the hallway was all that scary. Sure, it was a bit dark, but that was the worst of it. He frowned a bit as he heard a strange noise, but then kept moving forward. He didn't really notice the side passage he passed, focused on the statue ahead. He heard a whisper to the side, and turned his head in confusion, but before he could make out if he had imagined it, something heavy hit him on the head. Eric yelped and stumbled back in surprise, screaming when he saw what it was. He fumbled for his wand, stumbling back and falling backwards onto the floor. He stared at the snake in disbelief, pointing his wand at it. He'd dealt with a snake like this in his duel with Sydney, and he did the same thing now. "S-stupefy." The spell failed, and he scowled, annoyed with his own stammering. "Stupefy!" He stunned the snake, then shakily got to his feet.

@Solomon Tofilau

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully had been planning on casting the spell and making a quick exit back to the rest of the waiting students, but Eric's reaction had been too good. He could stop the wheezing laugh that started to creep out, that devolved into a full blown, doubled over giggle attack as Eric screamed and fell over. Even if he couldn't fake innocent by being back at the start, everyone else hearing that scream was making up for it. Sully had mostly lost track of Eric, managing to catch his breath so he could slip away back to the rest of the group. "Man.., I knew Eric was all talk, did you hear that scream?" He asked the group at large after quickly clearing his throat. It was a shame the rest of the gathered crowd did get to see the Eric vs. Snake showdown, but at least they'd heard some of it.

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric's face flushed with both embarrassment and anger as he heard Sully laugh. He rushed after him, trying to catch up with him before he returned to the group. But Sully beat him to it, and Eric arrived just in time to hear him talk badly about him to the waiting group, who had all undoubtedly hear him scream. Eric felt his anger building up even more. "You dropped a f***ing snake on my head!" He yelled at him. "That's not fair, you didn't do that with anyone else!" He grit his teeth and gave Sully a hard shove backwards. "You're such a piece of crap!"

 

[Nova Valtoria]

Nova wasn't planning on going to the Halloween party, but she had heard about a challenge. She was curious about what it would entail, but she probably wouldn't have gone if she wasn't 99.9% sure that Eric would be there. Nova would have offered to go through with her friend, but it seemed like she was just too late to the party, as she heard Eric yelling at the group. They dropped a snake on him? Why did he always seem to get himself in these situations? Nova frowned, crossing her arms as she went to stand next to Eric; not surprised when he shoved the boy.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully knew he should have expected Eric to react badly to the whole snake thing, but he was still caught off guard when Eric stormed up to him. "Man, chill out it was a joke-" Sully said, laughing at Eric's angry face until he shoved him and Sully stumbled, splaying a palm out against the dungeon wall to stop himself from falling. It was tempting to want to shove Eric back, but there were a lot of other people here and Sully didn't want to get into a straight up fight with Eric, especially now that that girl Nova he hung out with had shown up too. "If you didn't want to get scared, you shouldn't have done a fear challenge, aye," He said, standing back up and straightening out his costume. "You were like, legit asking to be scared," He added with a shrug, unrepentant. "Just go away if you're gonna ruin stuff for everyone." Sully said, crossing his arms and aiming for the same level of finality in his voice he heard from his older sister a lot. He'd already seen some kids leave earlier and probably missed a few other's funny reactions cause Eric was being a pain. Sully had been really excited about this and Eric was ruining the vibe. @Eric Holland

 

[Zennon Baros]

Zennon didn't think he could leave what was happening in good conscience. Snakes weren't something to be messed with, even if it was a joke. His own snakes stopped when he called them, and he held his arm out for them to slither up around his neck. This Fear challenge was over. Zennon stepped out of the shadows and made his way up to the boys, trying not to look like he was rushing, but wanting to get to them before anything else happened. On his way, he leaned down to pick up the stunned snake, not wanting it to get hurt. "Oi, you two," he looked at the girl next to them, but she hadn't been there before so he assumed she was new and probably had nothing to do with this. "I went along with this before because it was funny, but not if someone gets hurt." He said, looking at Sully. Both snakes now comfortably around his neck. "You never use snakes in that way, regardless of anything. You probably don't know this at your age," he said, looking down at the stunned snake in his arms, "but serpensortia conjures a live snake, a real one. You could have seriously caused this boy some harm. You have no idea the kind of danger snakes possess, I do, I'm a parselmouth." He said, unflinchingly annoyed that they were playing practical jokes with live animals. "This fear challenge is over, all of you can leave now."​

 

[Emmy Cooper]

It had taken Emmy long enough to finish at the feast, but she knew that she wanted to give the courage test a go. Her stomach was full, so she hoped it wasn't going to be scary enough for her to push it all out the other side - that would be incredibly embarrassing and she was sure she'd leave the school for good if it did. But upon approaching the group, a frown grew on her face as she heard an older student telling everyone to leave. "Oh what? But I didn't get a chance to go..."