I turned around and saw a big, black silhouette which looked vaguely human. For this reason I went to have a look at it. It was certainly something solid. As I got closer I noticed that it looked more like a vampire- a person in a cloak with its hands in front of its hands were reaching out, holding something. I was tempted to reach out and see what was in those unearthy hands but I found that my hands were held close to my body as if by some invisible rope. They looked as though they would crumble away if I touched them. This ‘vampire’ was covered with cobwebs and spiders crawling all over them searching for the next unfortunate victims. I now felt really sorry for all the poor flies trapped in the web, perhaps because I felt I was in a similar position- waiting for some dreadful event to take place. It was staring down at me. The ‘vampire’ stared at me with its large round eyes. I knew that I had to do something but I didn’t know what, so I stared back at them in the vain hope that they would look else where. They glowed bright green and the light they emitted battled my whole being in a strange worth. This force seemed to get stronger and stronger. The brightness of the eyes was becoming as bright as the sun. I couldn’t look at the eyes anymore I felt as though it was turning my soul, it was burning red hot inside. I pulled myself away and I closed my eyes in an attempt to free myself from the hypnotic gaze of this thing. Somehow this seemed to work and so I slowly started walking away.
I kept on walking and heard an owl, the same owl that I heard before, but this time the sound was a little more urgent. I felt that it was trying to tell me something, but what was it trying to tell me? But what was it? I looked up at the owl in the tree and the owl stared back at me. It had big, round yellow eyes that stayed in a fixed position. Somehow I understood what the stare meant. It was telling me to get away from her quickly. But why?
Suddenly I heard something that seemed to sound like a baby squealing. It became so shrill that my eardrums began to vibrate with unbearable intensity. It felt as though they would explode like a volcano. I turned to see where it was coming from. I was hoping that I would see nothing and the noise would just stop, but it didn’t. After a few more steps I finally found were the noise was coming from I saw that it was a fox. It was near the lake. The fox looked up at me with no apparent concern about who I was and then leisurely set off, in the direction I came from. I wondered to myself whether or not this was a sign for me to follow it. Perhaps then I could find my way back and maybe go home and go to bed. I don’t know what it was but something made me want to stay and find out what else there was in this graveyard. It was like an urge. My body no longer seemed to belong to me. There was something else a strange force that appeared to be in complete control of my actions.
As I continued walking, I thought of how I could have possibly have got here and why I was here. I looked around and saw lots and lots of trees. It sounded as if someone or something else was there with me. I stood still, to hear a noise. There was nothing- everything was quite. No leaves rustling, no owl hooting, no fox, nothing.
I felt something touch me it felt like a claw, digging into my right shoulder. It felt as though I was being prodded with thousands of razor sharp blades. The intensity of the pain made it feel as if I was being cut in half. I couldn’t bear it any longer. I couldn’t move. I froze. I was too petrified to move. I got pushed to the ground. My head was now bleeding. The blood was pumping from my head like a monsoon in India. I didn’t dare think about the amount of blood I was losing. I was starting to get cold, cold as ice, shivering. I was shivering as though I was in the Artic. I lay there still as a single wilted daisy in a meadow. Was this to be the end of my life I wondered.
I summoned on my last reserves of energy and I slowly got up, trying to get my bearing back. My hands moved around searching for something to hold. I managed to grab onto something that felt very cold and hard. I looked up to see what it was, it was an old rusted gate to the graveyard. A feeling of relief came over me. I was in pain but at least I knew where I was. I tried to open the gate only to discover that it had a chain around it, with a padlock, holding it together. I looked up at the gate, pulled at the chain again. I let go and my hand fell to the ground. I was completely alone now. As I lay there I wondered if I was ever going to be found. I felt sick. I was so close to getting away from this nightmarish experience but I could not take the last step. My consciousness faded and I drifted off.
When I next came to my senses I looked around myself in bewilderment and realised that I was back in my own bed. I had all obviously been a bad dream, but something told me that it wasn’t over yet. I now knew that I had to go back there. Whatever had controlled me earlier had not yet let me fully escape its grasp. As I was leaving my flat I was wondering whether or not I should really take a visit to the cemetery. My conscious being was telling me not to go, but my subconscious being was telling me I had to go. When I reached the cemetery’s gate I hesitated again, wondering if this was a good idea. Silly really because I knew deep down that I had no choice. As I was walking through the cemetery it was now a very different place to the one I had been in just a few short hours ago. I realised that all those objects that I imagined last night were just everyday things that were part of the cemetery. They were all things that I shouldn’t have been scared of. As I continued to walk through the cemetery, I wondered why I had that nightmare last night. I suppose it was because I have never like thinking of the dead. I don’t even like horror movies. Perhaps this was telling me that there was nothing to fear- apart from fear itself.
I sat on the bench that was provided by the cemetery. By day the cemetery looks like a park, with luscious green grass, trees and flowers but by night the grass is a black sea that is scraping across your ankles. As I was sitting down I looked at how neatly the flowers have been arranged in front of the headstones. The plants were different colours; pinks, reds, yellows and even whites. They looked beautiful. How could I have possibly have been scared of such a beautiful place?
I noticed the statue, that I thought was a vampire a few short hours before. I walked up to it and read the engraving that it had on it. It said it was in memory of a man called G.H. Jones. I hadn’t noticed before but it was the only statue in the cemetery. He was holding a book of some sort. But one thing that was the same as my ‘nightmare’ was the fact it was covered in cobwebs and minute spiders. This time I did reach out, and cleaned the debris from the book. I looked into the eyes of the statue and they seemed to smile at me, in a way of thanks.
I looked at the lake. The sound was quite soothing and calm. Dogs barking replaced the painful sound of the fox squealing. By day the owls haunting hoot was replaced my pigeons and larks. Listening to the larks, signing I really appreciated its beautiful song. It made me relax even more. It was as if I was in a completely different place. Each headstone had a different name on them. None had my name, which was quite reassuring. Each had its own message.
I decided to leave the cemetery, despite that fact that I did not go the tree. I decided that it would be for the best. I was sure that I had seen enough to realise that it had all been a nightmare. I didn’t need to be scared anymore. There was nothing to be scared of apart from fear itself. And the deep dark thoughts that sometimes go cascading through my head as though it is like a formula one racing match.