Hi Roboto
I will answer your questions.
1. That's how it's defined. While they're alive, the particles are red (guilt), but when they disappear, they're black.
2. Enemies never rest :)
It's set up this way so you don't get plowed over if there's an enemy nearby (you don't need to stop to read and hear the message).
The character errors are related to the HTML5 version. I recommend downloading the PC/MAC versions (they are identical) as they do not contain these errors.
Thanks for your contributions ;)