Graveyard of Nightmares

The wind howled in the night, pushing the trees aside and ripping the leaves off of the trees. With it brought the sounds of the forest, bringing a chill to all who heard it. Of course, very few people were out late enough to hear the spine-chilling sounds.

The blue moon high in the sky and the lack of stars sent a chill down the spines of those who lingered in the lamplight too long. Most were driven inside during the early hours of the evening, not wanting to linger after the light faded. There were dark stories of shadows that crept along the paths, haunting anyone who dared stay out once the darkness fell.

Most of the stories circulated the graveyard in the middle of the town. It had been there since before anyone could remember, and looked the part. The cold iron gates creaked with even the smallest brush of wind, the large willow trees that surrounded the perimeter were larger than any of the trees in the village, and most gravestones inside dated back to the eighteen hundreds. The grass inside was old and brown and cracked whenever a daring soul decided to venture inside the gates. What stone columns were built into the surrounding wall were covered with ivy and crumbled more with every gust of wind and rainstorm.

Of course, most of the teens in the village labeled the stories as old wives' tales which the elders had been too lazy to deter or prove wrong. The village wouldn't go a month without some new teen jumping the wall to venture inside.

And that was just how Juliette and Ryker found themselves in the dark cemetery, on the night of the blue moon. The two twins had been dared by their friends to stay overnight in the cemetery, and not believing the stories, gladly accepted the dare. So, after their parents had come in for the nightly checkup, the two slipped out of their rooms and climbed down the old aching oaks. Their small group of friends was waiting at the bottom for them and once the two brunettes left the safety of their house, they were given two flashlights and sent off to the graveyard.

The first challenge that the two had to conquer was getting over the seven-foot-tall wall that surrounded the mess of gravestones.

Ryker was the first to go over. As the older one of the two, and the slightly more cocky one, he insisted that he would be the first to go over. Dressed in a simple sweatshirt and sweatpants, he clambered over the fence, jumping down on the other side with ease.

The silence of the cemetery made him pause in his step. There were no sounds. No crackling of the dry grass underfoot, no whisper of wind through the trees, and no cawing of birds as they circled overhead. Everything felt... still.

"Ryker! Help me down!"

Ryker jumped a foot into the air at the sound of his sister's voice. She was sitting on the top of the fence, one leg on each side, and seemed to be struggling. Upon closer inspection, Ryker could see that the knit sweater that she had been adamant about wearing had gotten caught on one of the arrow-shaped posts. He sighed and used a small boulder as a stepstool, reaching up and unhooking her sweater.

"Why did you have to wear this," he hissed as he pulled her down to the other side of the fence.

She shrugged, "Poppy said that it would be a nice outfit for me to wear."

"Yeah, unless you have a date with a zombie, there's no point in looking fashionable."

Juliette muttered something under her breath, but Ryker had already headed off, flicking his flashlight on in hopes of being able to see what was in the cemetery. Juliette's flashlight soon joined his and the two set off.

"It's so quiet," Juliette whispered. It had been about an hour since they entered the cemetery, and they had yet to hear anything more than their footsteps. There seemed to be no life in the cemetery. No mosquitos were trying to bite them, no flies buzzing around their heads, no moths fluttering around in the moonlight, and certainly no birds or bats in the sky. Everything was just... silent.

Another hour into their escapade, Juliette started complaining that her feet were getting sore. Ryker spotted a small bench in the shade of a willow and the two walked over to it, pulling their feet up to rest them. As Juliette massaged her aching feet, Ryker looked around the cemetery, which had gotten even spookier with each passing minute.

The fog was starting to roll in from the coast, and the Ryker couldn't see three feet in front of him. He started hearing the wind rustling the trees again, and for some odd reason, the sound chilled him to the bone. He subconsciously wrapped his arms around himself, silently wishing that he was back home in his warm bed with the duvet pulled tightly over him.

Suddenly, a loud cracking sound echoed through the cemetery, making the twins jump. They spun around to where they thought the sound had come from and found that they were still sitting with their backs against the ancient willow.

"What was that," Juliette whisper shouted, glaring fearfully.

"How should I know," Ryker hissed, "I've never been in here before this."

The two fell silent as their eyes glanced around the misty field. A shadow passed through Juliette's hindsight and she jumped, giving a slight yelp as she turned her head to try and see what the shadow was. But it was gone long before she could see what it truly was.

A cold sensation filled Ryker's body as he felt something like cold fingernails drag across the exposed skin of his neck. A cold sweat filled him as his body tensed.

"This was a really stupid idea," Juliette moaned, pulling her legs closer to her.

"Shut up," Ryker hissed, his body still tense from the feeling of something scraping his neck.

Juliette glared at her brother for a moment before turning back to scoping out the field in front of her. Two more shadows darted through her peripheral vision and she jumped again. This time, they moved directly into her line of sight and she was able to see that they looked like they had human forms.

"Ryker!"

Ryker finally looked up and his body tensed all over again when he saw the two figures standing in the mist. While he couldn't see the tombstones anymore, the two figures were tall and black, standing out in the white mist.

"Who are they," he choked, grabbing at his chest. His heart was pounding and his entire body had gone cold.

The figures suddenly disappeared and the twins glanced at each other from the corner of their eyes. They could tell that they were both thinking the same thing. Before it registered in their minds what they were doing, they were up on their feet and sprinting away from the bench. They no longer cared about what their friends thought of them for leaving the cemetery early. All they knew what that they wanted out.

They ran through the cemetery, looking for anything that could point them toward the exit, only to find that nothing looked familiar. And with every passing second, their surroundings seemed to swirl farther and farther into a realm that they were unfamiliar with. Shadows started appearing in their peripheral vision, sending waves of panic with each new appearance. 

Somehow, the twins got separated in the panic to escape, and Ryker was the first to experience the true horrors of the graveyard. As he ran through the lines of tombstones, he felt the creeping sensation that something was wrong. He suddenly stopped where he was standing and looked around.

The mist around him seemed to be getting thicker by the second and everything around him was disappearing. The mist took away his only comforting view of the starry sky, leaving him in a smothering blanket of eerie mist. A hollow sound flew around him, and Ryker felt the hairs on his neck stand up. He wrapped his arms around himself as he tried to retain what little warmth was left. 

A blood curdling scream suddenly echoed in the graveyard, scaring Ryker’s wits out of him and making him fall to the ground and cower. He scrambled over to the only tombstone that he could still see and ducked behind it, his chest heaving as he tried to soothe his beating heart. The scream didn’t stop, but turned into more of a wail. It seemed to grow louder with every passing second, and Ryker quickly learned that the scream was coming from something that was coming for him. 

While Ryker was dealing with the mystery scream, Juliette had a much different problem on her hands. While Ryker had been chased among the tombstones, she had been forced into a small section of the graveyard that had been completely blocked off with iron fencing similar to the fence that lined the cemetery. She had been chased here by one of the shadows, only to find that its accomplice had beat her to the other side. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around, paling when she saw that the other shadow had caught up with her.

“What do we have here,” a smooth and cunning voice hummed. The shadows sunk down to the ground, blending in with the grass. A low hissing sound joined in with the sound sounds of the shadow snaking across the ground. 

“It seems a little girl has fallen right into our trap.” The thought of two shadow creatures around her made Juliette’s entire body go tense. She tried to keep her eyes on the places where the sounds were coming from, but soon learned that it was a futile attempt.

“She would make a lovely statue for the garden, wouldn’t she,” the first voice asked, sounding a lot closer than Juliette thought it had been. The mist started swirling around and a large figure slowly materialized, rising up like it was blossoming straight out of the ground. 

“Indeed, sister.” Juliette could feel the other shadow behind her. The hissing noise filled Juliette’s ears and her heart started beating faster.

“Oh, how cute, she’s scared.”

“My dear, don’t worry.” Something like needles scraped against the back of Juliette’s neck, making her shut her eyes in fear. The hissing grew louder and Juliette could feel a cold gust of wind right by her ear. “It won’t hurt.”

Leave me alone, Juliette pleaded silently. My brother and I will leave, just please let me go.

“Open your eyes, my dear.” The cold sensation was back, this time on her cheek bones. Juliette’s mind was clouded with fear and confusion. Who was by her? And where was Ryker?

Ryker was still hiding behind the tombstone, covering his ears as he tried to block out the wailing sounds. 

“Oh dear.” The voice had come from the source of the wailing, and sounded like someone was trying to speak while sobbing. “Your sister. She’ll…” The voice trailed off, as did the wailing, leaving an uncomfortable silence in its place.

Ryker waited for a moment to see if he could hear anything. Nothing. So, he cautiously got out from behind the tombstone, holding his flashlight out like a sword. 

“Where are you,” he yelled. “What do you want with Juliette?” The wind was his answer. He started walking again, flicking his flashlight on so he could try and look for his sister. As he walked, he got the sneaking suspicion that he was being watched, and the feeling made his steps tense. 

“Death.”

Ryker spun around and his entire body went rigid. Standing behind him was a pale woman with long black hair that seemed to be flowing in the wind. Her face was sunken and shallow, showing off her cheekbones and the lack of flesh. She was robbed in a long white dress that looked like it could use some patching up, but the way it whipped in the wind sent a silent message to Ryker that this was not a normal woman. 

“Who are you,” Ryker choked out, pointing his flashlight in the woman’s face. Her pale blue eyes stared at him, unblinking. It was silent for a minute before her eyes closed and she let out another long and terrible scream that echoed around them. Ryker covered his ears again, wishing that she would stop screaming. Her screams slowly faded into wails and Ryker peeked out of one eye, not at all surprised to see that the woman was the one who had been wailing. She was heading off in a random direction and stopped just on the edge of the mist as if waiting for Ryker to follow her. 

“I’m not following you,” he growled, hitting his flickering flashlight on his hand.

“Your sister…” 

That made Ryker look up.

“What about her?’

“Death.” The woman continued floating in the same direction, this time vanishing into the mist, which cleared away a minute later. Ryker groaned and ran through the break in the mist, hoping that the woman’s message hadn’t been about the death of his sister.

Juliette was still being tortured by the female shadows. 

“We never have any friends,” the first one moaned quietly, and Juliette could feel the cold needle wrapping around her neck. “The sun always comes up before we can ask people to stay.”

“Most people just don’t like us,” the other sighed. 

“Just open your eyes,” they said together and Juliette felt compelled to open them, not matter how idiodic the idea sounded. 

“Yesss,” they hissed, “Open your…”

“Juliette!” 

“Ryker,” Juliette whispered, shutting her eyes again. 

“Let my sister go!” Juliette felt a beam of light shine onto her eyes, a few sparks managing to slip through her eyelids. The needles left her body and she felt the two shadows leave her. Something grabbed her hand and dragged her off, pushing her through a gap in the iron fence and back out into the main section of the graveyard. 

“Ryker,” Juliette asked.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he said. “You can open your eyes now.”

Juliette did open her eyes, just in time to see a tree root sticking out of the ground. She jumped over it and continued running with Ryker. They could see the large iron fences in the distance again and Juliette breathed a sigh of relief.

“What were those things,” Juliette asked.

“Snake women,” Ryker answered as the two clambered over the fence, dropping down on the other side. “They weren’t the only things in the graveyard though.”

“I’m never going back in there again,” Juliette whispered, her voice shaking as she looked back at the cemetery. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep for weeks.”

“Me neither.”

The two of them stood in the shadows of the fence, watching as the sun rose behind it, clearing the mist away and revealing the perfectly safe daytime cemetery. The twins rushed back to their house and didn’t even bother trying to sneak in. Their parents could shout at them all they wanted for sneaking out at night. They were just glad to be safe in their home again.