The Cemetery Next Door

For many nights my family and I were afraid to go to sleep because we lived next door to a cemetery. We moved from California to Indiana because my dad had lost his job as a successful manager at a car dealership when the company closed; he ended up taking a job as a Sales Agent at his Uncle's Insurance Company. We decided to move here, next to the grave yard, because my Grandfather passed it along to my father after he died a few months ago. My Grandfather was the caretaker of the cemetery which he himself was buried at. He lived in this house with my Grandmother, who died weeks before him, ever since my father was born. He never once complained about ghost or anything super-natural happening so my parents were fine with moving into the house.

One night, my mother was in the basement folding laundry when she heard a voice coming from the tool shed. "Open the door and leave" said the voice in a calm, but stern manner. My mother thought that it was my older sister, Elizabeth, joking around like she always did since moving here. My mother continued folding the laundry when all of a sudden she heard a crash. (Cling, Clang, Crash) all of the tools began to fall in the tool shed and it was at that very moment when my mother ran up the stairs screaming "John! John! Come here now!"

My dad ran to my mother asking her "what is wrong?" My mother was so nervous that she began to stutter, "I, I, I heard a voice in the tool shed and then the t, t, tools fell!" My father had no idea what she was talking about or if he should even believe her all he knew was that he wasn't going in the basement alone. "Michael, come down here with me" he demanded. My older brother Michael was so afraid that he tripped down five steps. "Michael!" my dad yelled trying to protect Michael from falling any further. "Try to be careful next time - gees!" Once in the basement my brother screamed "turn the lights back on!" the lights had been shut off and the door slammed shut. My mother began freaking out screaming to my father "the door is stuck! I can't open it."

After banging and screaming for three minutes the basement door finally opened. My father and brother fell through the door with shocked looks on their faces. "Who shut the door?" asked Michael with a scared look in his eyes,"I don't know, we didn't!" I responded looking down at the dark basement. That night my parents held a family meeting with me, my sister, and brother. "There are no such things as ghosts; so don't bring it up in this house anymore!" demanded my father. He insisted that it was all a complete misunderstanding and that those things like this happens every day. After the family meeting we all went to bed.

It began to storm and rain heavy that night. You could smell the rain through our windows while the curtains blew from the heavy wind. "Do you believe this house is haunted?" I asked my sister, Elizabeth, whose bed was across from mine. "No, I mean, I don't know! go to sleep Lindsey" she resonded turning her back towards me. I stared at the ceiling for a while before shutting my eyes and going to sleep. Within twenty minutes I was awaken to the sound of thunder and lightning. As I sat up straight in my bed I could see a light shining outside. "Elizabeth, Elizabeth, wake-up" I whispered shaking my sister's shoulder. She responded by pushing my hands away and pulling her covers over her head.

"Elizabeth, wake up!" I yelled in a soft tone. Elizabeth sat straight up in her bed with an angered look in her eyes. "What do you want?" she responded as she yawned. "There is a light on outside and I'm scared" I said moving closer to Elizabeth. We both agreed to peek out the window and see why lights were on outside. We looked out the window and saw what looked like an old man, his clothes was dirty and he wore a red hat; he was barefoot and carried an ax in his right hand. I and my sister both hid under the window once he turned our way.

"Did you see that?" I asked my sister who was too afraid to speak. The light we had saw was shining from the pantry in our backyard. The doors were swinging and the old man was standing there with an ax in his hand looking straight at our house. I and my sister both slowly peeked out the window only to see the man walking towards our house. He was accompanied by a few darker, deathly looking figures. They walked down the slanted, stone pathway to our house. I and my sister both ran screaming to our parent's bedroom.

"Mom, dad, there are creepy people coming to our house and one has an ax!" Elizabeth yelled with tears in her eyes. My parents woke up and told us to hide in Michael's room. Michael awoke to all the commotion going on. "What is going on?" he asked rubbing his left eye. "There are deranged looking people coming towards our house!" I responded looking out his window. The people were no longer in eye's sight and I was now starting to feel sick to my stomach. "No!!!!" was the scream I heard coming from downstairs. It sounded like my mother along with a lot of commotion and banging. I could hear my father cry "Run, Nancy, run!" I looked down the stairs to see what was going on; I could see a dark figure run past the bottom stair case fast as lightening. After several minutes another figure stopped at the bottom stair case with his back facing me. He slowly turned his head around facing me and within seconds I could see it's scary looking face with long, sharp teeth, red eyes, and saliva falling from its lips.

"Run guys, run!" I yelled as the figure ran up the steps after me. He was dragging his left foot and he only had his right arm. He carried an ax in his hand mumbling "Come here little girl! come out, come out, wherever you are." I, my brother and sister all crawled out my brother's bedroom window. Once outside we shut the window tight and moved out of eye's view of the window. We could see the shadowy reflection of the figure in Michael's bedroom. All of a sudden we heard laughter and banging coming from inside. "We have to get out of here!" demanded Michael. We all became really worried about our parents and needed to find them quick.

We came up with a quick plan to help rescue our parents so that we could all leave. "There are six of them and two with axes, so how exactly will this work?" asked Elizabeth curled up on the roof, shaking in the rain. Michael's brilliant plan involved me getting their attention while Elizabeth started up the van. Michael was going to look for our parents and rescue them both. "I hope this works" I said hoping not to slide off the wet, slippery roof. After waiting ten minutes for it to leave Michael's room we all went back in.

Elizabeth headed straight for our parent's room looking for the van keys, Michael and I walked down the creaky steps to do our part in getting everyone out of the house filled with spooky people. As soon as we reached the bottom stairs there stood the old man with an ax in his hand. He smiled at us then raised the ax high above his head and slammed the ax into the wood floor.  "Run!" I said moving in the opposite direction of Michael. Once I gained three of the ghostly looking figure's attention, Michael was able to look for our parents, but not for too long. We were both eventually trapped by the ghostly figures who looked as if they came straight up out the grave. Michael ran back in my direction as they chased after him.

We didn't think we were going to make it out alive as the ghostly figures walked upon us. Then all of a sudden Elizabeth came crashing through the house in our parent's van screaming "Get in!" we quickly found a way out of the corners we were trapped in and leaped into the van. "Did you see mom and dad?" I asked as my heart was racing. "No, where are they?" asked Elizabeth as she backed out the house. Once out of the house we had to make a tough decision... do we go back in for our parents? "Let's just sit here and see if they appear" suggested Michael who was totally shaken up.

We waited for fifteen minutes outside the house filled with what we now referred to as ghosts. Our parents never once showed up, but noise and moaning kept us from even considering going back in. After some time we decided to leave and call the police for help. As we started up the van something jumped on top of the roof. "What is that!" we yelled rolling up the windows and locking the doors. The van began to shake back and forth as we tried to drive off. Then out of nowhere a face slammed against the windshield. (Screams) we began screaming as we covered our faces.

One of the ghosts had followed us outside trying to stop us from leaving. He had one of the most scariest faces I'd ever seen. He reminded me of Joker from "Batman" and Penny Wise the clown from the movie "IT". Bang! Bang! Bang! Went the sound of an ax hitting the back of our van? Then all of a sudden, Slam!, there it was an ax right in our roof. My sister hit reverse and sped off down the rocky, muddy road. The windshield wipers were going and the van was wobbling down the road. We sped out of there with no thought of ever going back there without help.

We eventually found the local police station and ran in screaming for help. "Help us! Our parents need help!" The police officials looked at us as if we were a few kids out playing Halloween pranks. After minutes of convincing them they decided to go check the house out, but only if we stayed at the police station. We cooperated and left the problem in their hands. We waited patiently hoping that our parents would show up. "I hope they're ok" said Michael with a dazed look in his eyes.

Three hours rolled by and the officers still hadn't showed up. "Are you all hungry?" asked a female officer handing us all a blanket. "No, no" we responded; all we wanted was our parents back and to leave Indiana. We eventually fell asleep and woke up the next day at 7:30 in the morning. "Excuse me, but have you seen our parents or the officers who were supposed to respond to a complaint at 2156 Crescent Road?" asked Elizabeth hysterically. "No, no we haven't" replied the officer as he continued his way down the hall. Tears flooded our eyes as we fell to the floor crying. A few officers stopped to take notice and to help us out.

"Wait here and we will go check on them" said the officer as he rubbed my back. We didn't want to wait any longer, I mean gees! Where were the last two officers who went out to check? As we sat there hungry and waiting an older lady walked past talking about our house with another officer. "Did you here about that same house at 2156 Crescent Road?" I couldn't help but ask her what she was talking about. "Miss what about that house? Me and my family live there" I asked looking her right in her eyes. She went on to tell me how "everyone who lived in the house next to the cemetery mysteriously vanished without a trace and that it may have happened again last night. I walked in the house this morning, because I saw a police cruiser outside and the front door was open. Once I went in all I saw was a complete disaster." The woman continued on saying that "It looked like a hurricane had hit and there was not a person in sight."

Before she walked away she warned us to leave,"leave and never come back! Your parents are gone forever in one of the graves." The rest of our day was spent calling relatives to help us and trying to figure out where our parents may have disappeared too. We visited the house and cemetery a year later. A new family lived there now and said that "they had heard things as well, but not enough to make them leave because they love the house." They had never seen our parents or the officers. We walked through the cemetery that night, before we left, hoping to catch a clue and we did and now we're down under as well... should've stayed away! (screams)

~THE END~

Recommended for ages 11+