8 hours

October 25th, the weather went from being hot everyday to cold mornings and nights. That's how it is in California. My name is Jacob and I'm a normal high school kid, I play sports and video games, I hate homework, and I hangout with my best friend. My best friend's name is Devon, But i call him "von" for short. Me and Von have been friends since the first time we met in kindergarten, I don't really have any friends besides Von because it has always been Just me and him for as long as I can remember. We are now both 16 going on 17, we are juniors in high school and we are at that age where we are no longer kids but we aren't grown either so it's hard to find things to do on weekends. Von and I would usually spend the night at one of our houses and stay up all night playing video games and watching movies, this became a regular thing so it was starting to get boring. Von and I both agreed we needed to do something different this upcoming weekend, He told me he had an Idea while we were on the phone last night and would tell me tomorrow at school. I wake up to birds chirping and sunlight hitting me right in my face, getting up for school is always the worst part but today is Friday and I'm not gonna let anything ruin my day. I got in the shower and tried my best to hurry because I always lose track of time, I get out and get some clothes on. I fix my hair and I brush my teeth, I never eat breakfast because I am always full when I wake up. I always walk to school because I live right next to my school. I get to school and just hover through my day, I haven't really payed attention in my classes and I haven't talked to anyone. After my second period it was time for lunch, I met Von at our usual table and he had the biggest smile on his face. His big idea was to spend the night in the grave yard in our neighborhood, I was super skeptical at first. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not,I didn't think it was a good Idea because Von is always getting us into trouble. After a few minutes of Von begging and convincing I finally agreed, The plan was he would tell his mom he was coming to spend the night at my house and I would tell my mom I was going to spend the night at Von's house. We would spend the night there and then go home in the morning. After school I went home and began to pack my duffle bag, I brought snacks, flashlights, extra clothes, and the pocket knife my grandfather had gifted me a few years earlier. Since it was fall the sun started to set around 5:30 Pm and thats when I began to walk to the grave yard. Von texted me to meet him at the front gate, I started to have second thoughts but I continued to walk and a few minutes later I saw Von waving at me in front of the grave yard. Von was a little too excited about this, he never thinks things through but he is my best friend so I support him through anything. As the sun sets and it is getting darker by the minute Von and I found a place to sleep in between some trees, we both brought sleeping bags and everything else we needed to get through the night. A few hours go by of just Von and I talking and joking, eventually he had the idea to go look around so I went with him. We grabbed some flash lights and began to walk around the creepy run down grave yard, the place needed to be better taken care of. Von kept trying to scare me as we walked through the yard, I eventually started to ignore his jokes. Then I saw Von come to a sudden stop and his jaw dropped. I looked where he was looking and their was a man with a shaggy beard and evil eyes digging up a grave! I screamed but Von put his hand over my mouth and pulled me behind a tombstone, I know that guy heard me scream. Von said we need to get out of here and I agreed, when we peeked to the grave the man was digging up he was gone! We both sprinted back to where we had our stuff and sleeping bags, when we got back our bags were open with our things all over the floor. It looked like that man had made it there before us, We were both stuck we didn't know what to do. We walked away from our stuff and tried to find somewhere safe to hide, then I heard "hey you, stop!" in the most deepest and raspiest voice I have ever heard. Von and I froze in fear as the man sped walked towards us, we both let out a high pitched squeal and ran. The man continued to pursue us and we spent hours trying to run and hide from this man praying he would leave us alone, we could not run home because we did not want the man to know where we live and our parents would ask questions. Time went on and Von and I were exhausted and scared for our lives, I was getting annoyed of running so I knew it was time to fight back. We did not know what that man was capable of so it was a risk, But I was always taught "high risk, high reward." Von and I looked around for things we could use, I found a big thick branch and Von picked up many decent sized rocks. We hid behind tombstones waiting for the man to pop out, soon enough he did. he walked slow and quiet with an evil look in his eye, my heart was beating out of my chest and I could tell Von was scared from his facial expressions. As soon as the man got close enough I jumped out and hit him with the branch as hard as I could, Von threw rocks at him and we continued to beat on him until he got up and ran out of the graveyard. Me and Von were close to tears because of hoe relieved we were, we spent our whole night running from a grave robber. Our night didn't turn out how we expected but we both made it home safe and this experience brought Von and I closer. In the moment it was scary but in the bigger picture it was the best 8 hours of my life.