Spooky Story

In the Cemetery

         Driving along the highway little light made it's way into the car. There was a feeling of anticipation, and a shade of fear. As we pulled off onto a dirt road, I wondered, not for the first time, if it was a good idea to go along on this adventure. For my companions, this was not a new experience. It was a game to them, visiting this hallowed place. For me, it was a spur of the moment decision, to break out of my shell and try something new. I could only hope that I didn't regret it.
         The rolling darkness was broken by the tall lamps that lit the edges of the cemetery. The wrought iron gates were lit, and unlocked. I could feel my hand tightening around the hand-strap of my video camera. Did I have the courage do this?
         We stopped right in front of the gates. I heard Ashley laughing, “In case we have to make a quick get away!” She and Becca were already out of the car and waiting for me. There was a moment when my entire body froze, and I could do nothing but stare and the back of the driver's seat. My mind screamed that this was madness.
         At the time, a part of me still insisted that ghosts didn't exist. The rational part of my mind kept replaying the idea of dark cults and mass murderers. Terror held me in my seat, and I began to cry. “I can't go in there. I won't. I can't. I can't.”
         My hysterical sobs drew Ashley and Becca to the door. I had only known them for a few weeks, and that rational part of my mind convinced me they thought I was a coward. Instead, Becca opened the door and knelt beside me.
         “It's alright to be scared. Especially the first time. There aren't really ghosts here, you know.” There was a knowing look in her, as if she was trying to get my rational mind to take over. I let the idea wash over me and steeled myself. This was just a spooky  walk in the graveyard at midnight. No ghosts, and if there are bad guys then I'll just fight them off.
         Looking at the situation from that standpoint worked. I climbed out of the car, and prepared my video camera. There might not be ghosts, but I still wanted to prove that I had done something frightening. As we approached the gates I held the camera to my eye and pressed record. In the back of my mind, the emotional and perhaps psychic part of my mind waited.
         
         There was a narrow dirt path that led through the middle of the cemetery. Near the entrance there was room for two or three people to walk abreast. A hundred feet in, the path narrowed as it turned off in other directions. We walked slowly, as Becca told me about the other visits she had an Ashley had to the cemetery. Through her voice a cold breeze brushed over me, and I could hear the noises she described. Trying to remain calm, I held my camera aloft and began to slowly pan around the setting.
         The cemetery was still open for use, but the head stones nearest the entrance were very old. They were carved out of stone, without the polish of modern markers. Many were bordered with black, metal fencing. Using Ashley's flashlight, and the back light from my camera we found graves from the early 1900's. People of all ages were laid next to each other, and my heart tore and the ones for children and babies. My mind went back to my own daughter at home, and I vowed to hold her close when I returned from my adventure.
         The tall lamps did little to illuminate the cemetery. Two hundred feet from our path, to the east and west, the land went into shadow. I knew from driving past that the western side was open, newer, with fewer markers. To the east was a tall oak tree and more of the older grave markers We had entered from the south, and looking north the silhouettes of mausoleums dotted the landscape. Everywhere, the shadows seemed to be fighting to overwhelm the dim lamps.
         My fear was starting to grow again. My emotional state was shaken from looking at the head stones, and a cool fall breeze was beginning to blow. In the distance, to the northwest, we heard a rapid clicking sound. I saw Becca turn and shine her light in the direction, but the beam did not penetrate the darkness off the path. For myself, I walked closer to Ashley.
         “We should check it out!” She whispered excitedly. I stared at her a moment. Was she crazy? Looking at Becca  I knew she had the same idea. I took a shuddering, slow breath. If they went to look, I would follow. Perhaps the third fool, I knew I would not run down the path and through the gates alone. So, together, we left the safety of the lit path, and began to walk over the grass. My flashlight was trained on the ground, watching for anything that might trip us. Becca was ahead of me, walking slowly with her light shining in the direction of the sound Ashley was beside me, using her flashlight to look to the sides. The farther off the path we went, the more the darkness enveloped us. It was not long before we could see the lights in the distance behind us, but nothing in between. Ashley and Becca's lights left short radius of light around us, but their weak beams could not hold back all of the darkness.
         Slowly, we walked forward. The way was clear and the clicking sound was growing louder, although it was still off in the distance. “Do you think it's a ghost?” Becca asked quietly beside me.
         “No,” I told her, “Probably some high school kids playing pranks. We should be careful though.” My resolve was set, until the lights behind, our beacon to safety, flickered. We turned quickly as a group. It only made sense that the light would go out tonight. In the moments of darkness the sound we had been chasing continued  It did not move, and it did not get louder,  but our confidence was shaken.
         We huddled together in the darkness, protected by only a narrow sphere of light. Ashley was the first to break the silence. “Well,” she said, trying to sound certain and not afraid, “If we don't have the street light to get us back to the gate we should turn around now. In this darkness we might get lost and end up wandering around until morning.” Becca and I clung to her logic. We were not more than a couple hundred feet from the main path, and now was the time to turn back. We moved as a group, carefully retracing our steps, and doing our best to avoid stepping somewhere that might cause us to fall.
         In all, it was about thirty seconds of total darkness. Shortly after we began our walk back, the light flickered on. I sighed, and my body shuddered from the terror I had felt. Our steps became quicker after that, and there was no more talk about going back after the noise. Once in the comfort of the light, and on the main path, we laughed about our adventure.          Ashley put her hands on her hips and started to nod wisely, “You know, I bet it was a bird. The sound was even and never got louder. Just a bird, we might have been looking all night for something we probably couldn't have found anyway.” Becca and I agreed.
         The ordeal over, we found ourselves jumping with energy. We were now full of adrenaline, and craved more adventure. Even myself, for all my fear, was looking forward to what we would do next.
         Looking up and down the path, we realized we did not want to return to the car. We also did not want to brave the darkness again. If the lamp when out, we could follow the path to the gates, instead of being caught in the darkness. So, we settled on exploring within the protective aura of the street lamp. Ashley, more daring, moved slightly off the path to explore beyond. Becca just wandered around, looking more closely at the markings. I did not move any more than to shift my feet. During our jaunt from the path I had stopped video taping, and now I decided to practice some night shots, perhaps they would make good stock footage for a movie someday.
         I raised the camera before me and opened the LCD screen. With my thumb I pressed record and watched as the red light came on. For about a minute I played with the night vision, and the shadowed cemetery was suddenly very clear to me, if very green.
         Becca came to stand beside me, and we watched through the camera lens and we panned around. With the zoom feature I was able to look to the edges of the light and beyond.  There was a subtle sense of power, and I let my gaze fall over bushes and head stones. I stopped looking at the screen. In time I came back to the large oak tree. It was about two, maybe three hundred yards to the east. There were tall markers to either side of it One, was tall and narrow, with a heavy Celtic cross on the stop. The other reminded me of the World Peace Monument.
         I had stopped looking at the camera's screen, instead letting my eyes wander to what they could see. I knew that I could always go back later and look at what I had recorded. Becca, over my shoulder, was watching the screen intently. It was still focused on the oak tree, and she kept looking down at the screen and up again. Ashley must have noticed the odd reaction Becca was having and came to join us. For my part, I continued to study my surroundings, assuming that Becca was enjoying the sight abilities of my camera.
         “Leah...” she whispered to me. I turned my head to look at her. Her eyes were very focused and intense. “Look at the oak tree.” I did. The light and the grave markers next to it put it half way in shadow. Still, there was nothing exciting about a tree.
         “It's a tree Bec.” Over my other shoulder I could feel Ashley pointing.
         “There's someone standing in front of it!” Ashley hissed in my ear. I looked harder at the tree again, and I could see nothing. Becca continued to glance between the camera screen and the old oak. Suddenly, I realized that Ashley wasn't looking at the tree, but at the LCD screen as well. I looked looked downward to the screen. There, in the black and white of shadow, was the large oak tree and the two markers. For a beat, my mind thought the image would make a creepy desktop. To be sure, my eyes flicked to the red light that proved my camera was still recording, and then I stopped.
         On the screen, standing in front of the tree was figure. From a distance, I guessed it was about 6ft tall and broad in shoulder. A man, there was a man standing in front of the tree. It was only his silhouette, all in black with no details. Even the arms that hung at his sides faded into the rest of the body. Not taking my eyes from the screen I frowned.
         “He shouldn't be a silhouette. What light gets to the oak, comes from the front, not the back....” It was illogical, and I looked up to see where the back light was coming from. Then I realized, there was no one standing in front of the tree. The partial shadow that covered it was dark enough to obscure details, but not black anything out. It was obvious no one was there.
Looking down again, the figure was still standing there, perfectly still. I narrowed my eyes, trying to see if it was a trick of the light. I quickly pressed the button for night vision. The oak tree became clear and the figure was gone, so I turned the green light off.
         “Can you see it?” Becca whipsered.
         “What do you see?” I asked, to make sure it was not just my eyes.
         “A man, “ she started.
         “He hasn't moved.” Ashley added. I looked over at her, and then back the screen. Making a quick decision I checked the record button on my camera. The light was still on, and I could hear the tape running. Looking up at the image with bare eyes once more, I focused on the screen and slowly began to zoom in.
         The tree and the stones came into view, their details becoming finer. The figure became larger in correct proportion, but nothing else changed. I could still see no features, but I became more certain it was a solid form. Looking up once, the man was still not standing in front of the tree. Then, as I looked down I felt the camera shudder as the tape stopped recording.
         I fumbled with the camera, turning it over in my hands. It became to vibrate and rewind. I knew I had not pressed any buttons, as that required moving a wheel with your thumb and pressing a button at the same time. My hands had not been near the buttons, and besides, I wasn't close to being able to doing the technique unconsciously. When the rewind stopped I flipped the LCD screen open, and made a point of not hitting record.
         “Don't want to record over what we just saw...” I muttered to myself. The screen was open I panned to the oak tree. In the screen as the massive tree, and the stone tall grave markers, and no figure. I heard a defeated sigh from Ashley. Becca shook my shoulder.
         “Can you find it? Let's see the video!”
         I set the camera into play mode. My mind was reeling. The tape was new, and I only had about ten minutes of recording time. Why had it started to rewind? I let out a shaky breath  to steady myself. I pressed view fast forward, and watched the images of our first walk down the cemetery path. There were close-ups of the many old gravestones, and the mausoleums in the distance. A moment of blackness from when I turned off the camera for our jaunt into the darkness, and then the eastern edge of the graveyard as I played with the zoom feature.
I stopped the tape, and pressed play then. We watched my camera slide, pan and zoom. There were points were you could tell I wasn't looking through the lens as the images became choppy. Then, it started to move toward the tree.
         We watched, transfixed, waiting to see the dark figure. As the camera moved closer, we leaned in toward the screen. There we were, huddled under the light of a street lamp, surround by century or tombstones, with the feelings of ghosts in the air. The image on camera found the tree, but a heart beat before the it came into the focus the screen when black.
         Becca groaned, and Ashley cursed. I pressed fast forward and rewind. The result was always the same. Black screen before you focused on the oak tree.
         “You have got to be kidding me!” Ashley growled.  She turned and stormed a short way down the path. Becca looked thoughtful.
         “Are you sure it was recording?” she asked. I glared at her, what did she think I was?
         “Yes.” I replied, trying to keep a steady tone.
         “Did you erase it on accident?”
         “I didn't press stop and rewind if you that's what you're asking. The camera did that on it's own.” My voice was a low growl now. I wanted to know what that figure was, and the irrational part of my brain was screaming “GHOST!”
         Becca was un-phased by my upset. She looked at Ashley, who had moved back toward us,”I don't think he knew we could see him. Since he only reflected in the camera. When he realized it, I think he caused the tape to erase.”  We both stared at her. The though of a ghost messing with my camera was absurd.
         Then I remembered the feeling of dread that had caught be in the car. I could recall convincing myself that it was fine to enter the cemetery and there were not ghosts. Clearly, I remembered the fleeting thought that my resolution was just an excuse. Closing the screen of the camera I looked back at Ashley and Becca.
         “I think we should go. I can look over this on my computer. Maybe we'll find the missing tape then...” My voice trailed off, in the back of my mind I was certain I would not find it.
         Ashley and Becca agreed, and we started toward the car. We stopped at the gate and looked back toward the oak tree, standing innocently in the background.
         “Let's come back tomorrow and see if we can find out who it was.” Ashley suggested. Becca and I didn't answer her. As we approached the car I took out my camera once last time and fast forwarded the tape to the end. I was right, there was a lot of tape left on the roll. I hit rewind for a ten-count and then started to record the cemetery through the gate. A cold breeze brushed over me, and I knew that my perspective was changed forever.

         The next morning I download the tape onto my computer. I looked for hours, but the images of the man were nowhere to be found. Still, I knew I had seen him and Becca and Ashley had seen him too. It simply came down to the fact that he did not want to be recorded.
I let the project go, and satisfied myself with screen shots of spirits walking behind the fence. There were ghosts on the move after all.
         I returned to the cemetery one more time, and not at night. It was several weeks later, and I forgot to look at the tombstones near the tree and try and find out who our ghostly watcher had been. I have not been ghost hunting since, but I can no longer deny that I believe they exist.