The Graveyard Vigil

“Don’t do anything on a dare.” That’s what Tom’s older , and acknowledged much wiser brother Frank had told him more than just once throughout his life. But this dare, Tom hoped, would win him some of the respect he had long lacked from his fellow 15 year-old classmates at school.

The dare wasn’t for Halloween night, as they figured there would be too many people there in the night, especially other teenagers. So Tom and his buddy Stan were going to spend the entire night, eight to six in a local cemetery on Friday, a week before that of Halloween. It was the largest, and by far the oldest cemetery in town. The first graves were from the early 19^th century. So, of course it had gathered in its lonely lot stories of being haunted be the ghosts of those who were buried there. Tom and Stan’s peers had told them such stories. So, as his elder brother would have said, there was no good reason to believe what had been told to him. They had a diabolical purpose in their story telling

Both boys had misinformed their parents that they would be staying at the other boy’s place for the night, and that they would be sleeping in a tent in the backyard of the other boy’s house. As both boys were relatively quiet and never got into any trouble, as far as they knew, this sounded fine to both sets of parents.  They were glad that the boys were finally ‘getting out more.’

Thursday Night Plotting

It was the Thursday night before the Friday vigil, and ‘the boys’ were in the basement at Ricky’s place. They were planning what they would do the next night, to scare Tom and Stan, hoping that their intended victims would ‘pee themselves’ in terror. The flavour of their nefarious ideas was spiced with a little drugs (the windows were open, and a fan was on) and a little alcohol (screwdrivers with lots of orange juice). Ricky and Brad would execute the plan that they had come up with. Too many people would spoil the shock and surprise. Their main tools would be yellow raincoats, slicked up hair, well-practiced scary zombie voices, and vampire makeup ‘borrowed’ from Brad’s sister, Elaine. They told their parents the same lie as Tom and Stan had theirs. 

The Night of the Graveyard Vigil

It is the night of the graveyard vigil. The sun has set. There are few clouds to dim the light of the nearly full moon that illuminates the way that the two boys take to enter the cemetery. Tom is leading Stan to the place where they will be spending the night. It is a special place for him, somewhere where he can feel somewhat safe and protected. He had come here often during the past few months, but only in the day.

The two boys are sitting down now, with their backs to the gravestone, looking into the night sky. They are soon talked-out, so no words are being spoken. That enables Tom and Stan to hear anyone approaching them during late hours of the night. They had expected this and had talked about it. They had figured the boys might try to give them a ‘good scare’. They have a kind of plan as to what they will do in response. Laughing and identifying the spooks seemed right to them. Tom’s older brother Frank had repeatedly told him that in stressful situations, he should always have a plan, maybe two. The two teenagers had packed a few things in their backpacks just in case they might have an opportunity to spook-back any costumed intruders.

The Spooking

Two figures are walking in the night. No signs of legs are apparent in their movement forward, but then they appear to be wearing long flowing robes white in colour. They seem to be coasting between the gravestones as they move through the cemetery. They resemble Dracula’s wives in that way, as the early Goth ladies were depicted in a number of old movies.  There is a dull glow all about them, like moonbeams have been invisibly stitched into their clothes.

As this is going on, the two teenage boys intended as their scare targets are moving in their direction, not knowing that there is soon going to be a confrontation. And it will involve what they would not have suspected.

The two boys are approaching the gravestone that is the vigil-sitting resting place of Tom and Stan. Although they would never, ever use the word, or say that that was what they were doing, the two boys were giggling in anticipation. They can’t wait to see the expressions of their victim’s faces. 

The four travelling figures now see each other. Two of them stop in their tracks, while the other two keep on moving directly towards them. The ones in motion do not appear to look like what the others expected. One is significantly taller and definitely bulkier, while the other is somewhat slender and female-looking. 

 Ricky and Brad then get the shock of their young lives. The two approaching them begin to glow, and to float about a yard off of the cemetery ground. Ricky shouts out, “These are real ghosts. Let’s get out of here.” They both turn and run as fast as their legs can take them. Ricky trips and falls, barely missing a gravestone, but gets up as quickly as if he had landed on bouncy castle. They are soon gone, not stopping until they are in the safety of their homes.

The two figures who had spooked them lose their glow, and touch down on the ground. They the smaller one seeps into the gravestone underneath which their bodies are buried. The larger one stays above the ground longer, as he has something to say to his younger brother.

           “I always told you that you should never do anything on a dare” Tom nods his head in silent agreement, with a slight smile on his face. Frank grins back at him and his spirit form descends into the ground beside the gravestone that Tom had rested his back on  His hero, his brother, had died in a car accident, along with his wife Sally almost exactly one year earlier. Tom had often visited their gravesite whenever he felt he needed some support. Again, his brother did not fail him, just like in life.

           Meanwhile Ricky and Brad arrived separately at their homes. Both hoped that they would not have to explain to their parents why they were not where they said they had been, why they were breathing heavily, and, most importantly to the boys, why the front of their pants was a little wet.