A Night In a Graveyard

It was a cool brisk autumn day in the small town of Kingship, Maryland. David and Sam were putting up the final decorations on their home for Halloween that night. It was their first Halloween in the neighborhood since moving in during the summer.

“Hi, boys,” said a friendly voice from the edge of the driveway. “Those decorations are looking nice.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Henderson,” David said. “Are you putting up decorations this year?”

“Heavens, no,” she said. “Henry and I haven’t been able to do that much in a long time. We have our pumpkin on the porch. We’ll see if it survives the night this year.”

Sam smiles. “Those kids like to smash those pumpkins, huh?” he said.

“Oh, no,” Mrs. Henderson said. “It’s not the kids that do it. It’s one of the ghosts from the graveyard across the field.”

“Graveyard?” David asked. “I didn’t know there was a graveyard nearby.”

“Oh, yes,” she said. “It’s an old one, too. A lot of Civil War soldiers are there and people from the early years of this area. I think Henry said he saw someone that had died in 1770.”

“Wow,” said Sam. He looked at David. “We should go spend the night in the graveyard tonight.”

“What?” David said. “Are you nuts?”

Mrs. Henderson laughed at the boys. “It’s not as spooky as you may think, boys. If you go, be careful.” She walked away, humming the theme of television show, Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.

David looked at Sam. “We have to do it. When all the kids are done trick-or-treating, we need to go to the graveyard.

Sam smiled, “Let’s do it, dude!”

Later that night, once the last child left with a couple of pieces of candy, the two men gathered their gear for the evening and headed across the field to the old cemetery.

The cold, damp air added a light layer of fog on their flashlights, allowing them to see the beam ahead of them. As they were walking, they noticed there were no sounds of crickets or other nighttime life. It was eerily quiet. David was focusing on the direction they were headed, while Sam tried to whistle to break the silence's tension.

The two of them made it to the other side of the field, where a tree line stood just before entering the graveyard. It was dark and quiet, and their flashlights only lit a small portion of the forest. The trees only went about fifty yards before there were grass and gravestones.

As they walked carefully through the wooded area of their journey, a heaviness filled the air, and the two of them became nervous. “This is spooky,” Sam whispered.

“Shhhh,” David said, trying to keep the noise to a minimum. “Try not to make any noise.”

As they continued to walk, they are both frightened. A large pinecone came loose on a tree to the left, falling and making the sound of footsteps on the forest floor. They both jumped and shined their flashlights in that direction. “What was that?” David asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Sam stuttered nervously.

While they looked to the left towards the noise, a shadow figure passed behind them on the right without them noticing. It headed towards the graveyard, the same direction the boys were going.

“There’s nothing there,” David said. “Let’s keep going. We’re almost to the graveyard.”

The two of them continued to walk towards the cemetery. Once the two of them got to the graveyard's grassy area, a sense of relief was felt. Neither one of them liked the feeling they had while in the forest.

“I think that forest is scarier than this graveyard,” Sam said.

“No kidding,” David replied. “Maybe we wait until daylight to go back through.

Sam looked at David with a concerned stare. “That means we have to stay all night in the graveyard.”

“Yeah. So?” David said. “Wasn’t that the plan? And besides, Mrs. Henderson said it wasn’t that bad.”

They looked around for a place they could crash for the night. As they were walking, they would glance down at some of the tombstones and read the deceased's names. “Look, Dave. This one has my last name on it. ‘S. Cooper.’”

“You think the ‘S’ stands for Sam?” David said sarcastically. They continued to walk and look at the tombstones. “Hey, here’s one with my name. ‘D. Turner.’”

Sam stopped and looked at David. “Isn’t that strange that there are two graves fairly close to one another that have our names on them? What year did you die?” he asked David in a jokingly manner.

“1820,” David said. “How about you?”

“Same,” Sam said. “1820. That’s even more strange. They both died two hundred years ago.”

They continued to walk through the cemetery, looking for a place to camp out for the night. Suddenly, David stopped. “Wait… Did you hear that?” He shined his flashlight to the right where a group of tombstones were.

“Hear what?” Sam said. “I didn’t hear anything.” He also looked to the right. As he was looking, he noticed a shadow quickly duck behind one of the headstones. “Look… There. Did you see that?”

“Yeah,” David said. “Let’s go look.”

“Are you crazy?” Sam said. “I’m not going down there.” His voice gave away the fact that he was scared and just wanted to stay put until sunrise.

“Okay,” David replied. “You stay here. I’m going to go see what that was.” He walked toward the group of headstones, where the shadowy figure appeared while Sam stayed behind.

Sam watched as David got closer to the location about forty yards away. The flashlight barely could reach that far to be able to still see David as he approached. As he watched intently, he heard a noise from behind him. It was a low sounding whoosh that reminded him of the Dolby Sound intro in the movie theaters, only not nearly as loud. He looked for the source of the sound and could not find it. He turned back to continue to watch David. He peered toward the headstone grouping where he was last seen and saw nothing. “DAVE!” he yelled. There was no response. “DAVID!” he yelled again. Still, no response.

Another noise came from behind Sam. This time it swooped from his left side and moved to the right, then faded away in the distance. With the noises being made and no sign of David, he was getting more and more frightened. Goosebumps started to form on his arms under the thick layer jacket he was wearing. He became colder and colder. He wanted to scream but thought better of it.

Sam started to tense up as he felt his blood slow to a crawl. He felt his face and body become pale. He struggled to breathe in or out and felt this was the end.

“SAM!” a voice yelled. “SAM! Are you still with me?” the voice said again. It was from David. He had returned to see Sam in a trance-like state. Unresponsive and looking into the dark abyss of the graveyard.

Sam slowly came to and felt his blood pumping in his body once again. “What happened? Where am I?” he mumbled. “I… I…” He looked up at David with a confused and frightened look. “I…” Sam dropped his gear and took off running into the darkness.

“SAM!” David yelled as he gave chase. “SAM! Where are you going!” he cried, hoping he would stop. David turned a corner where he last saw Sam running and saw nothing. He had lost him. “SAM!” he yelled, but there was no response. Now, it was David’s turn to get scared. He felt a heaviness in the air, just as it did in the forest. He became more frightened as the air got colder. His arms now had goosebumps, and his breath was easily seen in the air. He became afraid, not knowing what was happening. A soft whooshing sound could be heard in the distance getting closer by the second. David’s knees began to shake as the noise got stronger. He felt the sound stop inches from his face and then slowly move around him in a clockwise motion. It got faster and faster with each rotation it took around him. He tried not to make any movements or noises, not knowing what the sound would do in response.

“DAVID!” a voice yelled. “DAVID!” the voice said again. “Wake up! David… can you hear me?” It was from Sam. He was standing in front of David, holding him up. As David regained his bearings, he noticed Sam standing in front of him. “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” Sam said. “And I really don’t want to stick around to find out.”

“No, no… I’m with you.” David was still trying to catch his breath and figure out what was going on. Like Sam, he had been caught in a trance-like state that took him somewhere other than reality. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

The two of them turned to look for the woods that they entered from. “Where are we?” Sam said. “Where’s that dam forest?”

Neither of them knew where they were in relationship to the woods they walked through to get to the graveyard. Both were now starting to get nervous and began to panic. They began to walk through the cemetery, hoping to come across the forest to lead them home.

“Did you hear that?” David said. “What was that?”

Sam stopped and listened. “I don’t hear anything. Come on. We have to find that forest.”

“No, wait.” David was sure he had heard something and insisted they stop and listen for the sound again. He listened to the same noise he heard earlier as it got closer and closer. It was swirling from left to right and back to front. “It’s that thing, again.”

Sam listened and heard the noise, too. “Quick! Let’s go!” They ran through the graveyard in hopes of outrunning this strange sound that seemed to follow them.

“Look,” David pointed towards the forest. They had found the trees where they had initially entered. They both started to run for the tree line.

The noise caught up to them and swooped down in front of them, knocking them over. They both stood up again and continued to run. The noise again hit them from the side with such force, they once again fell to the ground.

David is the first to get back to his feet. “Come on, we have to get out of here.” He reached down and helped Sam to his feet. They both started running for the trees again. The noise was relentless. It followed them and this time attacking from their rear, and this time with so much force, it lifted the two men off their feet and flew them forward twenty feet into the forest. They landed on the forest floor at the base of a large pine. The noise was finally gone, and it was eerily quiet once again.

The panic remained on their faces as they got to their feet. They looked around, trying to find their location so they could return home. Neither one of them had their flashlights, and the forest was dark and cold. Their journey home was not over yet.

“I can’t see a thing, Dave,” Sam said. “How do we know where to go?”

David looked to his left and saw the graveyard. “We aren’t going that way.” He then looked right. “Let’s go this way. It should only be a few yards away to the clearing.”

They slowly and carefully walked in the direction they believed the field to be. Being out of the graveyard, they both felt safer and more relaxed, knowing that noise… that thing, was no longer following them.

Sam stopped suddenly. “Did you hear that?”

David did not stop and continued through the forest. “No, I did not. And I don’t want to find out what it was.” He did hear the snap of tree limbs in the distance, but he did not want to stop to investigate. He just wanted to get home.

“Dave, wait.” Sam was still standing motionless. He knew he had heard a sound that could potentially be a threat. He wanted to make sure it was not in the path they were walking.

David stopped and turned around to look towards Sam. “Sam, come on. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Sam looked towards David, and his eyes got wider as he noticed a large dark shadow floating behind him. “Dave,” he said softly. “Dave… don’t move.”

“What?” David said, “What are you talking about?”

The large dark shadow got bigger and bigger as it stood behind David. It then wrapped around him, covering him like a blanket. Sam could no longer see David. “DAVE!” he yelled.

Sam started to run towards the shadow that just swallowed his friend. He suddenly stopped, thinking better of his decision. He turned to his left and started to run, hoping he would outrun this unknown darkness that just ate his friend.

He got to the edge of the tree line and saw the field where they had first entered. Sam stopped to look behind him in hopes his friend was there. “DAVID!” he yelled one more time. Frightened and scared, he stood waiting for one last second, hoping he would hear something. Nothing was there.

Sam no longer saw the shadow figure in the woods, and he believed it did not follow him to the edge of the forest. He turned to head home. Just as he turned, the shadow swooped from the ground and floated in front of Sam. He screamed as he fell to his knees. The shadow covered him up, and the screams stopped.

Back at the house, Mrs. Henderson stood on her porch. She heard the final scream of Sam as he was engulfed by the shadow. Her arms were crossed as she adjusted her shall around her shoulders. A small grin appeared on her face as she turned to enter her home. She was humming the Mr. Rogers's theme song as she turned off the porch light and locked her door.

A pumpkin from her stoop then began to float and then was thrown into the street.