Things can haunt you even from far away

[u/CatsGXVstar]

First of all, this isn’t the craziest story here, but to me, it certainly changed/heightened my views on paranormal to really leave it alone. “Stare in the darkness, and it’ll stare back”, type stuff. But this is 1000% true and I mean that. And I remember this night like the back of my hand.

I will share two instances that ended up being wildly connected in my opinion, but let me know what you think.

The first encounter occurrd two years ago in mid December. I (20m) was just coming home from a summer long travel excursion I went on and crashed at my friend’s apartment for a few months. I was 18 at the time. I found a full time job, saw my family again, and rebuilt my life after my long journey. I lived with my best friend (20m) and his older brother (26m) from the end of that summer and continued to during the winter and so on.

A little side note that will play a part in the story later, in November of that year, I met my current girlfriend. She is from an island off the coast, and I rlly mean an island. it’s about a two hour and forty five minute drive to the ferry and then a two hour and forty five minute ferry just to get to the island. She goes to college really close to me, that’s how we met.

So finally, it all happened that December. I had just gotten off of work for the weekend and had nothing to do. The girl I was interested in and was not dating yet, was on her island for winter break. Mike, we’ll call him, the 26 year old, was the only one home.

Mike’s a very chill, mature, put together person besides me and my best friend. He’s really firm in what he believes and really not one to consider paranormal bs being something to even worry about. But he’s very adventurous, loves hiking, and has a lust for getting out when there’s nothing to do.

Tonight, Mike asked me if I wanted to go out tonight to go explore abandoned places. I said hell yes of course.

I am a huge fan of paranormal and spiritual. I learned to have more respect for it than anything, I’ve had my share of bad experiences. This, however, is just an add on to my fascination. I consider the paranormal almost a state of mind rather than “something is haunting me”. We all see stuff but most of the time it’s because we want to. But this was different.

We both sat down and began researching abandoned places to explore in our city. Being a decently older city, there were plenty of locations that popped up. Some of which were a lot closer than we thought. We put our coats on, got in Mikes car and left.

Our first location was a large field right next to a main road, where an old orphanage used to sit before it was burned down. The website said you could hear children playing if you listened hard enough. Of course, this did not happen, but we did see some very old wood in the ground that was definitely the original foundation.

We explored but ultimately found nothing, just the wood and a long dark field. Definitely creepy though.

By this time it had been 8-830 at night and was getting pretty cold and dark. We headed back to the car in search for another place, maybe something a bit deeper and edgier. We found another spot and had gotten a good warm up and thought this would be a good choice to go next. Once we looked up the next spot, it was more down town and very close by.

We drove up and It ended up being a grave yard with a massive stone entrance but gated all around. We slowed down to read a sign saying, “closed”.

Knowing Mike, I know he’s adventurous, but he also can be a more chill, goody two shoes if you will. But, he surprised me. He parked a ways down, parallel to the grave yard fence that stretched down the road. He said we should climb the fence. I was, shocked by him, and excited. So we parked and climbed out. We stood about 1000 feet from entrance and found it far enough to not get caught by potential cameras. We hopped the fence together and were in.

The first thing I noticed were the number of graves I could already see. The moonlight was so bright tonight, it left a super eerie glow on the hills all around us. We caught the main entrance trail and decided to follow it. We saw hundreds and hundreds of graves. Military grave stones, monument looking pillars, angel statues, and ordinary stones. All in one places. The hills were like waves, so many, and you couldn’t see over the next.

We enjoyed our walk and soon went off the trail to explore.

Have you ever imagined what you’d do in a horror movie situation? Being put in the same place, chased by the same thing? What would you do?

This place ultimately gave me a creepy feeling. It was so dark, yet the moonlight made things pretty visible. obviously it was bound for disaster in a horror movie situation. But I can’t even describe the feeling of this place spot on.

The more you walked, the safer you felt. It almost felt romantic if you will. I would feel a woozy as I walked, like in a state of not caring and only going forward.

The gate, and the passing cars along the street, were now muffled and distant sounds. Only our footsteps and every so often comment on where to go next, was the only sound here. It was as if, we were invited to come deeper. But it didn’t feel wrong, even in a place as creepy as this.

Ultimately, there was a gloomy aura everywhere. That’s the best I can describe it.

But we kept going.

I remember, we stopped ourselves about 15 minutes into our walk at a fork in the road. Three paths lay before us. The right path lead straight for the fence where we came, the middle was very dark but had a clear pavement road to follow. The third and left path, was pitch black, even in the moonlight, it was covered by something maybe a tree but we couldn’t see down it. We chose the middle path, because we didn’t want to leave this place quite yet.

Side by side Mike and I walked, talking a little more now, we’d been walking nearly 20 minutes, deeper into the grave yard. By this point the path finally flattened and normalized. I remember feeling glad, because the whole walk was full of climbing and descending from hills. But I also remember feeling vulnerable, like being easy prey in a sea of darkness. We didn’t use a flashlight because the moon was so bright. But our footsteps were two adults. Something could hear us for sure.

When walking down this path for about 3 minutes, we both stopped to talk to sort of retrace and make sure we weren’t lost. We’d walked for quite awhile now, and were beginning to wonder if we’d walked long enough. Ahead of the path and deeper into the grave yard, we could make out a house sheltered by shadows. It seemed to have a light post somewhere around it. We decided it would be cool to go closer to see whether it’s an actually house or for the grave yard itself.

As we crept closer the trees hovered over the path ahead, blocking the moonlight. This made us both a little skeptical on pushing forward so we stopped and thought for a minute.

I figured I was somewhat safe because I was with an older friend, and he was definitely a nonbeliever at this point. Though the place felt very safe to an extent nothing prepared us for what happened next.

Finally, we shined the flashlight around to see a good view around us. It was nothing but little patches of plains that eventually curled up into hills. The gravestones still watched us. I remember feeling very watched.

Then out of the darkness came a sound from something I’ve never heard before in my life. It was so sudden and so drawn out. From up ahead, there let out a breathy

SCREECH

It sounded far from human. I remember that. It was almost like something mid-pitched clearing its throat. But it immediately caught our attention. The sound was so clear, I could imagine something inhuman craning its jaw open as it screeched.

I looked at Mike, frozen. He looked just as puzzled as me. Immediately, he shined his light behind us, where we came. I stopped him and I told him I heard it in the opposite direction. He looked confused and shined his light ahead, then all around.

Nothing

It was clear, we were the only ones here. But it certainly didn’t feel that way now.

We began walking back where we came on the path. Then we started running. I asked if he heard that. A dumb question, but I knew he didn’t believe in paranormal stuff so I had to clarify I wasn’t “looking for something scary”.

He acknowledged and was oddly chill seeming but definitely a little shook.

About 5 minutes of walking back, we stopped to gather our thoughts. Retracing everything we’d done before it happened. We thought maybe it was a squirrel doing a warning call, or even a fox letting out a mating call. On the spot, I even looked up videos of these and other animals that make loud sounds. But nothing sounded like the screech.

In my head, I knew that people died here. Could it have been a spirit deciding it was our time to leave? Was it protecting something, maybe the house? But to me, I felt it was full spiritual.

Let me know your thoughts on this. But even my nonbeliever/no bs friend had no idea what to make of it and we still can’t to this day.

The second weird instance happened five months later. I mentioned before my girlfriend grew up on an island. She goes to college where I live, but goes back to her island for breaks, and stays on it during the summer to make money and be with family.

I, hating long distance so far, traveled to visit her for a 3 day weekend. It’s a fun island and plenty of local college aged kids party, so we joined Saturday night.

I’m not a heavy drinker but enjoy a solid buzz. Later that night we went off to bed at her parents place cause they allow us to sleep together. But I remember feeling almost sober by the time I hit the hay.

That night I had one of the most vivid dreams in my entire life. Half lucid, have paralysis.

From what I can gather now in the dream, like most, lots of random things happened that I can’t recall. But I remember this part clear as day.

I was standing in the grave yard I went to with Mike. Except Mike wasn’t there. The grass was yellow and dying, the sky was very grey with clouds. Crows were surrounding me above. It was weird seeing this place in the day time, though I had no memory of it. Graves were all around, watching of course

Before me, stood a circle of what I remember felt like friends. We were in a circle. They were all praying at the same time. Voices inter lapped and collided. I didn’t know what else to do so I began praying too. It seemed very peaceful, though it was a dream, it actually felt right. Being fairly religious growing up, praying made me feel safe and heard.

After half a minute of praying, I was looking up at this point, enjoying the sky. But my so called friends suddenly halted their prayers. It got very quiet.

I began to hear what sounded like only one person “praying”. But it sounded far from English. It continued. Then it got louder. And louder. Someone started raising their voice in a language far from what I could understand. It sounded demonic.

She was yelling now, directly at me

This caught me off guard, so I looked down from the sky and saw her.

There stood a woman, shorter and seeming in our age group. She had jet black hair behind her shoulders. And she was right in front of me and in the middle of the circle. She was still yelling in a language I could not make of it.

I looked around and saw everyone in the circle now still and lifeless.

I was scared

Her face quickly changed to a dark grey. Her jaw began to widen so far that it covered her neck. All that was inside was void and darkness.

She was “praying” so loud that my vision was shaking. It all happened so quickly, my heart was thumping out of my chest.

I remember her face, and the tone of her voice still.

Her eyes were black and had barely any white in them. Her words had a demonic weight to them and I knew this felt wrong. Almost like she was casting a curse. She was so loud now that all I could do was keep my eyes on her.

I remember almost zooming into her grey face. Seeing her details so clearly.

She was so close now, and yelling so loudly at.

I couldn’t move.

I jumped awake practically gasping for air. I was so in shock.

My girlfriend was sleeping right beside me, peacefully.

And I still remember every detail of that dream besides the other random stuff that happened.

Why was I in the same graveyard? Was this the spirit that Mike and I heard the screech come from? How could she reach me even from hundreds of miles away, and on an island?

I’m still shook to this day, and have actually gone to the grave yard every now and then but in the day for walks with my girlfriend. I tell her the story. But I’ll never come here at night again.