The Graveyard Walk

The Graveyard Walk

I walked out of the movie theater, dropping my popcorn container into the trash can with a loud thunk. I then walked out through the heavy glass doors. They were huge and I had to lean on them with all of my weight just to get them to slide open enough for me to fit my short, skinny frame through. It felt like I had gone through a portal into another world. I left the polluted, buttery air of the theater, and entered the fresh, clean air outdoors. It was very dark outside, but there was a full moon that illuminated the sky like a big, yellow, neon clock. I told my self that I would be able to find my way home easily. Oh boy was I wrong.
I walked down the cement steps and through the parking lot to the path that I knew led to the park, with all of its confusing twists and turns. I knew that this way was a quick and easy shortcut, but I also knew that it was especially easy to get lost in. Because I had taken this path numerous times before, and I figured that if I got lost I could just retrace my footsteps. Again, I was wrong.

I started walking down the path and soon came to a fork in the road. I remembered this from the other times that I had traveled this way. Something down deep inside of me told me to go right but I was ignorant and turned left. I kept walking and walking. I was starting to wonder if I would ever come to something that showed signs of human civilization. I kept walking down the skinny little path, until everything went dark.
I realized that the clouds had passed over and covered up the moon. I kept walking, hoping that I could find my way in the dark. Then I felt something squishy and slimy under my sneakers. I let out a shriek, either from horror or surprise, or both. But either way my heart stopped. Then it started accelerating and I took off running, not thinking what I was doing. At the speed I was going I could have taken home the gold medal in the Olympics. I didn't even bother to look back. I stopped for a split-second to get a breath of air and that was when the stench hit me. I knew exactly what I had stepped in. I had totally forgot that people walked dogs in this park. I would have laughed, except I didn't have enough air in my lungs to. I stepped off the path and scraped my feet off in the grass to try and get the smell away. I started walking again, even though I couldn’t see where I was going. I could still hear the constant smack, smack, smack of my Nikes hitting the cement path. I was hoping that the moon would come out from behind the clouds and I would be able to see. Then, just as I thought it the moon appeared. I gasped as my eyes adjusted to the sudden change of light. Then I saw what was standing in front of me and I gasped again. There, about fifty feet away stood the graveyard, its ghostly mist waiting to pull me in. I knew that my house was not far behind the cemetery and if I could get through that then I could easily get to my house. The only problem was that I was not sure if I could sum up enough courage to go through. The first time that I went through the cemetery I was in broad daylight with a group of friends, and I was still creeped out. I had told myself that I would never pass through a graveyard again. I decided that I didn’t have any other choice. I walked up to the big, heavy, cast-iron gate and got ready to push it open. Then the bushes beside me started to shake!
I jumped a long ways and probably would have set a new record for the long jump if anybody was there to witness it. Then, when I thought that things couldn’t get any worse, another cloud went over the moon, and again everything was covered in total darkness. My mind went blank. Then, suddenly the bushes quit shaking and everything went quiet. I knew that the thing had walked out of the bushes and forgot about me, or it was planning some way to move in for a kill.
The next thing I knew I saw a flash in the bushes. It faded away almost instantly, leaving me standing there puzzled as to what the thing could be. I tried to think of what made that kind of flash. Only one idea came to my mind: a knife blade! I tried to take off running, except my feet and legs were frozen and wouldn’t move. Then, only a few second before I broke down into tears the moon came out and revealed what was in front of me. I keeled over and started to cry.
I had seen what had caused the flash. I don’t know how but it was the light reflecting off of the teeth of the chipmunk that was standing in front of me. The tears were from laughter. I took a step forward and the chipmunk scurried off into the bushes. I thought of all of the bad things that could happen to me as I stood around trying to decide whether or not I should cut through the graveyard. I decided that it would be worse if I did not do something. I took a step forward and placed one finger on the gate hesitantly, and then pulled it off as if it were a hot iron. Then I firmly gripped the bars and pulled. The only problem was that the gate didn’t move at all. I look up at the gates handle and saw what the problem was. There was a huge, rusty, old, iron padlock holding the gate in place. I knew that I would have to climb over the fence.
I was definitely not the most athletic person around and I knew that it would not be an easy task for me to climb over the fence. From my point of view it was like an ant trying to climb to the top of the Empire State Building. I started climbing but soon realized that I wasn’t getting any higher. Then I noticed that every time that I pulled myself up I would slide back down to where I had started. I decided that if I ever wanted to get over (which I wasn’t sure if I did,) then I would have to use all of my strength. I started up again, but this time I gripped the bars with all of my might as if they were my most precious belongings being sucked into a hurricane. I then pulled myself up a little more each time. The process of getting to the top took about five minutes but it seemed like it was a few hours. When I finally got to the top I poised and got ready to jump. Only, I didn’t have to jump, because I fell. It felt like I was flying, until I hit the cold, hard, wet earth. I started walking forward but soon stubbed my toe on a tombstone. I tripped and fell, then got up again. It was like I was going through a minefield because with each set of steps that I took I would smash my toe into a slab of granite and fall over again. On about my thirty-first time that I fell I land on something hard in my pocket. I reached my hand in and pulled out the object. It was a flashlight. I jumped into the air and landed on another tombstone. I screamed in pain and agony. Then I stood up again and turned on the flashlight. The bright beam lit of the landscape around me and I started on my way home. I found my way home as easily as if it were daytime. When I finally got home my mom asked me where I had been and what had taken so long. I simply replied “It’s a long story.”