cemetery
i come from a rural town, surrounded in all directions by even more rural towns. the kind where the population is less than 500, and rusted vehicles and other junk are common lawn decorations. i'd say i have a neutral opinion of supernatural phenomenon. i love a good spooky tale and ghost movies, but i don't really think spirits (if they do roam the land of the living) have much taste for hanging around and haunting the material plane. that's not to say i don't believe in the possibility of outliers, however.
this story takes place when i was fifteen. my boyfriend at the time, dex, had a friend, jamie, who was from one of those previously mentioned surrounding towns. i didn't particularly care for jamie or his girlfriend, allie, so when dex suggested we take a ride to their place to hang out i wasn't particularly thrilled. to being with, it was late. the plans were made around five, and we'd head out around seven. more so, jamie and allie were unsavory in my opinion. i had a particular history with allie that made me especially wary of her, but that's beside the point. i figured, though, it was better than hanging around the apartment with nothing to do and dex seemed excited to go.
dex told me we'd meet jamie at the local park since he was in town and carpool with him to his hometown. i didn't like the idea of not being able to leave whenever we wanted, but he assured me we wouldn't be staying over, that jamie would be bringing us back before two in the morning at the latest. when i asked what we were doing and why we were going so late, dex said that the plan was to do a nighttime exploration of some of the graveyards in jamie's area. i knew jamie was superstitious and that dex was into cheap thrills, so i didn't think it was odd actually. i've had an amateur photography hobby since i was young, so i brought my camera along in hopes i might be able to get some interesting photos of the area.
once we were all packed into jamie's car, i turned my camera on to adjust the aperture and light settings in preparation. i noticed my battery was low. i always carried an extra charged battery pack in my camera bag, however, so i changed it out and ensured it was at 100%. the drive there was kind of awkward for me, but dex and jamie were enjoying their conversation. i watched the landscapes change and pass as we drove about 45 minutes to our first destination. the roads were completely empty, and the closer we got the fewer houses and street lights there were. we pulled off the main road and went down a few more back roads before jamie pulled off to the side of one. he told us it was through the woods off a footpath, so we'd have to get out at this point and walk.
on the trail, dex and jamie are joking about ghosts, murderers, and other spooky things that could happen in the cold, dark woods. allie didn't find it funny, so she was scolding jamie. again, i was quiet. i just didn't feel like entertaining their bad jokes, and i didn't want to take allie's "side". anyway, the footpath was relatively short, maybe seven-tenths of a mile. we soon arrived and, at first, i just kind of stood in one spot, taking in the surroundings now that my eyes had fully adjusted. this graveyard was old, but maintained to an extent. the grass was trim and the trees were cut back, but the headstones were dirty and craggy, lots of them broken and weathered by time. i noticed that they weren't aligned in any particular pattern, either. more like someone just picked a place at random. and they were closer together than i thought graves should be. jamie had brought a flashlight that he then started using to read the stones. i took the opportunity to do so as well, just behind him. the first few were so sparse: just a name and a date of death, which i thought was incredibly odd. some of them didn't even have last names, some had only last names, and some only had the year they died. as we kept reading, there were more and more of the same. when we stopped at probably the tenth stone, i noticed a birth date finally. i also noticed that the birth and death dates were within a few days of each other. i instinctively said "oh no" aloud as soon as i realized that this is a resting place for infants.
there were nearly 50 graves here. it made my heart ache. dex asked what was wrong, and i told him, within ear shot of jamie and allie, the conclusion i'd come to. they seemed pretty mortified as well. i remember allie getting seriously mad at jamie for bringing us to "such an awful place". she stormed off back to the car and jamie followed after. dex and i went quiet, but opted to walk around a bit more, if only to avoid being close to those two while they fought. he drifted to the left, and i went to the right. i turned on my camera and started snapping away with high flash. the stark look of the trees and shrubbery with a jet black background was beautiful and kind of haunting, for lack of a better word. i'm a big fan of that style, reminiscent of the disposable cameras i grew up with. as i had this thought, it occurred to me that these babies never got to have those kinds of experiences. i normally avoid photographing graves out of respect, but i wondered if anyone had ever gotten the chance to take a photo of them in their brief lives. ultimately, i took a few photos of the graves. not one in particular, i tried to capture all of them across those photos. maybe i could immortalize them a bit, i thought.
after quickly snapping three or four pictures, i looked around and realized i was alone. i spoke in a neutral volume and tone and called for dex. he didn't answer. either he was waiting to jump scare me or he was off taking a leak. either way, i strayed from the tree line and inched closer to the graves so at least he couldn't sneak up on me. while i was doing this, i heard steps in the woods. this pretty much confirmed to me that dex was in there, so i didn't worry about it any further. i went to take another photo, but now my camera wouldn't turn on. according to the screen, my battery was dead. it had barely been over an hour since i replaced it and ensured it was fully charged. there's no way it was drained. in fact, i remember seeing that it was at full charge when i was taking photos of the trees moments ago. i tried a couple more times, but to no avail. i was irritated that this battery, which was less than a year old, was already so degraded. i turned off the camera, capped my lens, and threw my head back a bit dramatically. i ended up looking at the stars for a few moments. they were pretty. no light pollution for miles really makes all the difference. then, i heard the sound of something falling to the ground. i jerked my head back down, a little startled, but i didn't see anything when i looked around. I became suddenly aware that it was incredibly quiet. no night noises at all, not even crickets or wind. it was kind of like being in a sound-proof room.
there was another sound of something falling. this time, i saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. i caught the slight rocking of a stone, about the size of my palm, on the ground to my right. i figured dex was tossing rocks from the woods in an effort to spook me. i rolled my eyes, picked up the rock, and walked toward the area of the woods that it looked like it came from. i was about five feet from the brush when i heard a child's laughter. immediately, i was disoriented. i don't think this was just anxiety or fear either, looking back on it. i felt dizzy and nauseous. it seemed like there was a grainy film on my vision. it took some time for my brain to catch up and realized what i'd heard, or rather, what i was hearing as i came to understand that the laughter never actually stopped. the fear trickled in and i booked it back to the car. the footpath felt so much longer on the way back, and it didn't help that i didn't have a flashlight of my own.
next thing i remember is emerging from the woods onto the dirt road, out of breath. jamie and allie were in the car, presumably still arguing, and dex was leaning against the back door. he saw me an jokingly asked if i enjoyed my jog. i was confused, scared, and now a bit irritated. i asked him why he left me there alone without saying anything. now he looked confused. he told me he did let me know he'd be heading back, than i even responded to him and said to go on ahead. i replied that i don't find that funny, and that he should fess up and apologize for trying to scare me and for leaving me alone. he insisted though, that what he said happened. jamie must have had his window down far enough to hear what we were saying, because he cracked his door open to attest that dex had been at the car for the better part of twenty minutes waiting on me, and i had been in the cemetery for a while by myself. my nausea just got worse. after some silence, i said okay, not wanting to push the conversation into the territory of admitting what i had just experienced. i told them i'd like to go home because i felt sick and dex agreed that that was probably for the best, given how pale and clammy i was.
we took our seats, jamie put on some music, and the ride came and went without much talking. we were about ten minutes from home when i thought to check on my camera, worried i might have cracked the lens or casing when i was running earlier. i picked it up, inspected the lens, and then as i was turning it to get a better look at the digital display, i pressed the power button accidentally. but this time, it turned on. and the battery was at 99%. my muscles were stiff and my stomach churned. i opened the gallery to look at my photos. there were no photos of the graves, not a single one. the last photo taken was of the trees. where did my photos go? where did all that time go that i apparently spent by myself? and how did i have a conversation with my boyfriend but not remember it in the slightest? i don't want answers, really. it's bad enough to be stuck with this memory, let alone wonder about the possible implications of everything that happened. i believe some things aren't meant to be understood.