It was a cool but sunny October morning as I pulled my car in front of Chris's house. As I walked to his front door I started to think about what happened a year before and how I thought I would not talk about it again.
In October of 1987 my friends Chris and Michael experienced something that I hope to never go through again. It started with a conversation about a dare. See my friend Chris was always trying different things when it came to the spirit world. Yes he was one of those who had an Ouija board. But he discovered another way to communicate with those who had passed away. It was called "Waking the Dead".
According to Chris all we had to do is go to a cemetery at Midnight and stand on the grave of someone who had been dead around a year. Then all we had to do was call the person's name 10 times and if all was done correctly, the spirit would rise from the grave and speak to you. Now of course I told him "no" at first and I should have stuck with that answer. But he knew if he was persistent enough and involved our other friend Michael, that peer pressure would change my mind. And after being teased about being a coward and I caved.
Michael and Chris chose Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cypress as the spot to go. Earlier in the week they went there a few times until they found three graves that fit the criteria and were near each other. The plans were set for that Friday night. First we would meet at Michael house because his parents were gone for the weekend. We actually just sat around for most of the night doing nothing until we left at 11:30. To add to the eeriness of the evening a low fog had rolled in about 9:00 that night. But we went anyways.
It only took us about 10 minutes to get there and we parked across the street from the cemetery. The parking lot was empty but the fog was so thick that we couldn't see that far in front of us. We crossed the street and jumped the wall without any problems. We then headed towards the area in which the three graves were. As we walked the fog seem to roll across the ground like some sort of horror movie and all we could hear were the sounds of what must have been thousands of crickets. It only took us 5 minutes to find our way to the graves, which gave us 5 minutes to spare. Chris told us to choose a grave and stand beside it until he gave us the go ahead to stand on top of them.
With it being 1 minute to midnight he instructed us to stand on the graves and wait until he counted down from ten. Then we needed to say the names of the people on the head stones 10 times and see what happens. So he counted down to zero and we proceeded to say the names aloud. When he said the name the 8th time, every single cricket stopped chirping. We hesitated for a moment or two but continued saying the name twice more.
After about 20 seconds nothing had happened so I decided to step off the grave. That is when I heard Michael shout out "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE". I couldn't see him but I could hear him start to run, and did finally see him as he passed in front of me. But what scared the hell out of me and made me run is what I saw, or didn't see behind him. About 15 feet behind him something was parting the fog, but I couldn't see it.
As I ran I started to hear someone running behind me, thinking it was Chris, I stopped and turned and that is when I was knocked down. As I stood up I looked as I saw the fog part as if someone was running through it but no one was there. As it turned towards me I got going as fast as I could, zigzagging as I ran back to the wall. When I got over the wall I was out of breath but I wasn't the only one there. As I looked to my right I saw Michael there, breathing as hard as I was. When I asked him if he was ok, he started to tell me why he ran. He said that after he finished saying the name the last time, something started to appear up through the fog and it didn't seem safe to stay there. I told him about what I saw behind him with the fog and what had happened to me as I was running. And that is when we both realized that Chris was not back yet. We waited 5 minutes and decided to go back over and find him. We weren't sure if he was hurt or what, but we couldn't leave him there.
While we walked we called out Chris's name just in case he had fallen and couldn't move. As we worked our way back to the graves the fog started to thin out a little and we could see a little farther, and that is when we saw Chris. We could see him sitting on the grave he was standing on but what scared us was the figure standing to his right with its hand on his shoulder. We immediately screamed out to him and started to run towards him at which time the figure just disappeared.
When we got to Chris, he sat motionless just staring forward. Michael started to reach for him when he suddenly stood up, but did not utter a word. That is when Michael and I decided it was best to get out of there. So we headed back to the wall and up and over, still with nothing being said by Chris. As we walked towards the car the fog started to lift and the lights were brighter and that is when we noticed Chris's eyes. They had no expression just staring forward like two dolls eyes. We hurried into the car and headed back to Michaels house. About 5 minutes into the drive Chris just started screaming out, "It wanted to take me, it wanted to take me" and then back to silence. We finally arrived to Michael's house and went to the living room, all the while asking Chris who wanted to take him. But he did not respond.
For the next few hours we watched him trying to get him to talk until around 2:30 am we just crashed on the couches. It wasn't until the morning that I woke to hear Chris and Michael talking in the kitchen. When I turned the corner I was taken aback by how bad Chris looked. His eyes were dark underneath as if he hadn't slept for days and some of his hair had turned white. We sat there asking over and over what had happened but he didn't seem to remember anything from the night before. Michael and I decided not to talk about what we experienced at the cemetery until Chris remembered something.
A year had gone by and Chris never said a word. Whether he did or did not remember about that night we never found out. See like I said at the start, that this was something I thought I would never talk about again. But Michael and I could think about nothing else that day. See the reason we went to Chris's house, was because he died. It seems that he was driving his car with his girlfriend, when he lost control and crashed into a light pole. She survived but he was killed instantly. Ironically it happened in front of that same cemetery in Cypress and on same date that we had gone to the cemetery exactly one year before. That is when Michael and I came to the conclusion, that whatever he told us wanted to take him that night, finally did get him a year later.