The Leaping Graveyard Fountain

Ring Ring. Sarah snapped back to reality and out of her daydream as a child on a bicycle rode by. She looked around and could not remember what she was doing. What had she just been thinking about? She could not remember; it was so hard to think straight with so many other things going on in her life.

“Halloween 2020 and the global pandemic.” She faintly heard the talking-head from the television say.

Sarah had just turned 16, this was her Junior year of high school, and she was now going in to the eighth month of the pandemic. She was going to school remotely, which she had been doing since just after her birthday. There were a couple weeks in September where they had Sarah and her classmates back in school with a socially-distanced hybrid-remote model, but after a few students tested positive and their parents began threatening to sue the school, everyone was back home.

Sarah felt anxious, “As do most people with everything going on.” Her mom would always interrupt, and she wasn’t wrong, but that never helped to make her feel better. She felt anxious about school, she felt anxious about her parents getting sick and dying like her grandma had, she felt anxious about her friends and if they were still her friends, about seeing Ned in person for the first time since March, about racism, and politics, and everything else she saw in the news.

Sarah took a deep breath; the air was crisp and smelled like fall. She exhaled, then stood up from the bench in front of the deli where she liked to sit and watch people go by as she listened to the TV inside. She put her hands back into her coat pockets, and started walking down the sidewalk toward Saint John the Baptist Cemetery. She had been talking with Ned since they sat near each other in class in their Spring semester of Freshman year. He was a weirdo and a dork, but he was a genuine and funny guy. Once the pandemic caused everything to be locked down, they kept messaging each other, and playing Among Us and video calling on occasion. It was a conversation they had a few nights before that prompted her walking to meet him now.

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Ned complained that this year all of the best holidays were falling on Saturdays, but because of the pandemic, they would not be able to celebrate properly. “We didn’t get to to have the Spring Social, Homecoming, and now we can’t do anything with a Saturday Halloween. And things don’t look good for Saturday Christmas or Saturday New Years either! This year blows!” Ned had complained. “I want to see you.”

Sarah had not expected this, Ned had become more flirtatious, but she wasn’t sure what to make of it. This was the most direct he had been. “I want to see you, too,” Sarah said trying to hide the fact that she was blushing by tiling the phone screen away from her face. Her mind was reeling, had she actually said that? Did she mean it?

“Why don’t we meet up? We can do our own Halloween together. It’ll be a spooky good time.” She laughed, he was such a dork, and he smiled when she laughed.

“Where can we go? I don’t want to go to any of the parties I have been hearing about, I don’t want to get sick.”

“No no no, me neither. I’m not into any of that anyway, why don’t we meet up at the park?”

“They have that curfew downtown because of mischief night last year.”

“That’s right. hmmm. . .” He loudly hummed and drummed his finger tips on his chin.

“What about near my house? We can go to St. John’s.”

“The church?”

“The graveyard behind the church.”

“Oh right, up the hill there. That sounds perfectly spoooooky.” he drew out and wailed the word, making her laugh again. “What an excellent Halloween, a night in the graveyard!”

“Right? It’s perfect.” She had played at the church, including running through the graveyard, as a kid when they would go to church every Sunday and after religious classes on Tuesday nights. It had been a few years, but she knew the grounds well enough.

“Perfect, absolutely. I’ll meet you there at 8, after the sun goes down and the streetlights come on. I’m going to have to find a costume.”

“A costume?” She rolled her eyes,” For what?”

“Sarah, it’s Halloween. Don’t be ridiculous.”

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Sarah pulled her hood up then made a right down the alleyway between the clergy house and religious school, then a left to stay between the hedges of the courtyard and the brick wall which surrounded the cemetery, then climbed through the hole in the wall that had been formed years earlier by a windstorm and poorly placed oak branch. She remained close to the wall and proceeded deeper into the cemetery, further from the street and streetlights. Once she felt she had traveled far enough, she removed her hood. She did not expect to see him here right away; she thought he would probably be coming down the hill through the woods at the far side of the cemetery. She started walking carefully in that direction.

Saint John the Baptist Cemetery was a large square with a dirt road from the main entrance to the center of the cemetery, circling a fountain which depicts a large sculpture of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Sarah always thought the fountain was a bit creepy, and as she approached in the dark and still night, beneath the minimal light of the moon, it almost looked like a shadowy figure struggling to hold the other under the glassy surface of the water. She shivered, the night had gotten cooler, she pulled her hood up again.

She felt crisp leaves and dry twigs crunch underfoot as she trudged through the older part of the cemetery, where some of the tombstones had fallen over with age. She remembered playing with her cousins after church as a little girl, seeing who could find the oldest tombstone in this part of the cemetery, and that some of the graves dated back to the early 1700s. She was just thinking it was too difficult to make out any of the epitaphs when she heard, “1708? Holy shit!” She turned her head, but her hood blocked her view. She pulled the hood down to see Ned, kneeling in front of a grave with his phone out and the flashlight on, pointed at one of the tombstones. She laughed at his outfit, a black suit with a white button-down shirt, and a bow-tie. Then, smiling ear-to-ear, she charged at him and gave him a huge hug. “Whoa, careful, you’re gonna make Edward J Mather here jealous.” He hugged her back, tightly. She could feel fireworks in her soul when they hugged.

“Shut up, you’re such a dork.”

She loosened her wrap around him, and began to look him up and down, “Nice costume, are you a butler?”

“I was Dracula, but I don’t know how to do make up, and I don’t have any fake teeth, and I kind of lost my cape getting over the wall. It got stuck on my handle bars as I was climbing over my bike to get in here.”

“I probably should have told you, there’s a good spot to climb over in the corner over there. You can use the tree next to the wall to climb up and over.”

“Now you tell me.” He laughed. “No matter, I made it.” She smiled.

“So what do you want to do?” Sarah could not believe how excited she was, it’s just Ned, but it has been so long since she has seen him, anyone, in so long.

“Well, I am curious about my buddy’s neighbors.” He gestured towards the grave. “1708, this rock is almost 100 years older than America, hell it’s over 300 years old now. That’s insane to me.” Sarah had never thought of it that way, she knew the church was old, but she had never considered how old. “Look, this one is 1709. Lester McGovern, aged 43 years, May God have Mercy on his Soul. That’s crazy. Don’t you think?” Sarah found the last line of the epitaph chilling, and could feel the goosebumps crawling up her spine.

“That gave me chills.” She stated flatly, she felt as though the creeping dread had begun to suck the excitement of seeing Ned from her.

“I’m sure he won’t mind us.” Ned turned off the light, returned his phone to his pocket, and stood up, “How perfectly spoooooky.” He joked in his Halloween voice and wiggled his fingers in front of her face while walking past her towards the center of the cemetery. She grinned, and the dread she had felt dissipated as she turned to follow him. “So what do you want to do? Anything fun or interesting to see in this graveyard? I want to explore”

She thought for a moment about taking him to see the fountain, but again pictured the shadowy figures and thought against it.

“Not really, this is the oldest part of the cemetery, and as you get closer to the church it-” a gust of wind sucked the air right out of her lungs as the distinct sound of splintering wood pierced the night nearby. Ned pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight as quickly as possible, but nothing appeared disturbed in the direction of the sound.

“Must’ve been one of those old oak trees up there.” He pointed the light at them and chuckled, trying to hide the fact that the noise had startled him, too. Sarah realized she had instinctively backed herself against him for protection. Ned squeezed her with his other arm, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from the spooooky cemetery.” He laughed, and she slid out from his grasp. This was her church, what was she so afraid of?

“Right, Sir Ned, my protector.” She teased him, but he pretended not to hear.

“Whoa, look at this.” Ned bent down in front of another tombstone, this one was larger and more elaborate than the ones around it. Sarah knelt next to him to get a better view.

Sarah Rose Calvin

February 29, 1692 - October 31, 1708

Stranger pause as you pass by,

As you are now so once was I.

As I am now, soon you will surely be

Prepare thyself to follow me.

“Isn’t that crazy, she died on Halloween.” Ned joked, but Sarah was uneasy. This tombstone seemed to be sealing her demise, she was panicking. How soon? Follow them where? Why did her name have to be Sarah? And why did she have to die on Halloween?

“Oh man, look at all of these.” Ned broke her concentration a few rows closer to the center of the cemetery where there were over a dozen graves marked with similar small white stones, each reading the same year of death, 1762. “They were all 7 or 8 years old.”

She felt terrible hearing that year, like a chunk of iron had dropped into her stomach, but she had no idea why. Her stomach was in tight knots. Her train of thought was interrupted by footsteps running through the debris of fall, crunchy dead leaves and dried up twigs. They dove back behind the large ornate tombstone and ducked, Ned killed the light and put a finger over his lips signaling to Sarah what she was already thinking - stay quiet.

A few moments passed, and her heart rate steadied.

Ned turned and peered over the tombstone, and Sarah poked her head around the side. On the far end of the cemetery, near where she had entered, she saw a flashlight. They both slouched back behind the tombstone.

“Shit, that has to be the cops or something. They must have seen my flashlight.” Ned brushed himself off. “No point in both of us getting in trouble. Stay here.”

“What? No.” She went to stand and Ned heavily placed his hand on her shoulder forcing her to remain sitting down. He put his finger over his lips again, looked her in the eyes, then stood up and walked towards the flashlight.

She stayed behind the tombstone, breathing heavily. She closed her eyes and listened to his footsteps through the leaves fade away. Her breathing steadied, and she pulled her hood up over her head, it had gotten very cold. She was cold, and scared, and tired, and didn’t want to get in trouble. She just wanted to be with Ned and warm and safe.

She opened her eyes and looked around the side of the tombstone, but did not see anything. She slowly stood up, then heard rustling to her right. She turned to look, but her hood got in her way, she pulled her hands from her coat pockets, grabbed the side of her hood, ripped it down just in time to see something large flying at her face. She flinched, but before she could bring her hands up to protect herself, she felt splitting pain in her forehead, saw a bright flash of light, and then darkness.

When she came to, she saw a pair of shadowy figures struggling. She scrambled to her feet, walked past the tombstone and stumbled to her knees. “Ned!” She whispered fiercely; she had never felt so conflicted about wanting to find someone while remaining hidden. She heard no response. It was so cold. She regained her feet and kept walking towards the shadowy figures. It was so hard to see in the darkness, she tripped as her shin hit concrete. She tried to catch herself, but fell forward into the fountain. Her entire body screamed as the shock of the freezing water poured over her. She struggled to upright herself, but something was keeping her head below the surface. She screamed, and struggled to push off the bottom of the fountain, but felt nothing but icy water. She tried to swim, but felt something holding her down.

She thrashed, trying to grab hold of the wall, but only her finger-tips scraped the concrete. She kicked her leg towards the wall, but only felt water. Whether she had her eyes opened or closed, all she saw was blackness, but at least with her lids closed the cold water didn’t sting her eyeballs. She flailed her arms backwards, and thought for a moment that she had felt an arm, and her lungs felt as though they were going to burst. She needed air, right now. She inhaled, but drew in nothing but icy water before going limp.

Suddenly, she was seeing the graveyard from above the fountain. A middle-aged man in a long white was kneeling at the edge of the fountain, his sleeves pushed up to the elbow, and his hands were clutching the back of a young man’s suit jacket and pants, holding him in the water. A few feet away floated Sarah’s own body. She screamed.

As her lungs ran out of air and her scream turned to a wail, which turned to a cry, which turned to silence. From that silence she heard a voice echo, “I am so sorry. I am so sorry for what happened.”

“Ned?”

“That man is Lester McGovern.” He continued, “He was the pastor of this church when the town was settling. A devout Calvinist, he does not like adulterers.”

Sarah knew this word from church, “Adulterers?! He thinks we’re adulterers?”

“Thought. You see Sarah, we simply haunt this place.”

“We. . .” She trailed off, then shook her head. “We haunt this place?”

“Every leap year Halloween he comes back, and we keep them from him.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know, what you’re seeing happened Halloween night, 1708. That’s when you and I were first killed. Lester was suspicious of our families; he thought each of our mothers were witches. Then, catching us here in the graveyard hugging, flirting, playing, he thought we were disrespecting the dead, and he drowned us right here. He was put on trial, found guilty, and hanged right in the corner of this cemetery. Twice actually, the first time the branch didn’t hold; he came crashing down, then his leg was crushed beneath the branch, before he was hanged again, killed, then buried. Ironically, pretty close to where they had buried us. Since then, he likes to come back and check on his graveyard every leap year Halloween to make sure nobody is disrespecting the dead. You and I, unfortunately, are the targets of his rage. The one year we did not distract him was 1762.”

“All those kids.”

“Yeah, he got them all. And, unfortunately, it is never enough for just me to come here, I always need to bring you along. Without both of us, his bloodlust is never satisfied and he always manages to draw others here. That’s why I try to scare them off when I see them come near, but we always need to die.” Ned paused, as Lester stood and walked away from the fountain, unrolling the long white sleeves of his church robes. Their bodies lay motionless on the surface of the glassy fountain. “Sarah.” She turned, and was able to see Ned’s face, but only as the shadow of a reflection, clearly now a spirit. He looked somehow ancient, but with the same 16-year-old face she would always remember. “It was really good to see you again.”

Ring Ring. Sarah snapped back to reality and out of her daydream as a child on a bicycle rode by. She looked around and could not remember what she was doing. What had she just been thinking about? She could not remember; it was so hard to think straight with so many other things going on in her life.

“Halloween 2024” she heard the television say.