⚠️The events that took place on September 17, 2022 are all based on actual events that myself and four of my friends experienced and as crazy as this writing piece makes me sound, every second is practically perfectly seared into my memories. For the privacy of the other people in this true story, it does not use any of my friend’s real names⚠️
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
A Night for the Books
The night of September 17, 2022, began like any ordinary night of me hanging out with my three other friends. Just like every time we hung out we were laughing to the point where our stomachs started to ache, playing video games and eating away at a ton of junk food after watching a scary movie. We had gotten a little bored of just sitting there and that’s when the idea of going on some crazy unplanned adventure got brought up. If we would have known what that night had in store for us, we probably would have stayed inside.
Event One leading up to the main experience:
Only a few minutes of talking and finding another friend of ours who wanted to hang out that night, we piled into my car and drove towards Henderson to pick up our friend Jeremy. We didn’t really have much of an idea on what we were going to do, but after we picked up Jeremy, we just started driving. It wasn’t long before something had caught our attention, making me pull onto a dirt road surrounded by a corn field, much like most of the dirt roads in Minnesota. Off to our left there was a trail, not like one of those a tractor would have made, but a full on trail like someone had just walked right through and pushed down all the corn. I was the first one to get out of my car, followed by my friend Ryan, then Evan, Cody, and lastly Jeremy. We all kinda just stood there for a bit analyzing the scene and admiring the clear night sky that gave us the perfect sight of all the stars. There wasn’t even a need for any lights with the moon shining bright enough to give us the light we needed.
The night was warm enough to where we all were only wearing sweatshirts with pants, with no need for any more layers. My friend Ryan and I were a few feet away from my car when the sound of a dog barking caught our attention—we were the only ones who heard the barking— the confusing thing was, there was absolutely no house or any indication of any home in sight. We were smack dab in the middle of nowhere. The two of us looked at each other, just staring at one another as we continued to listen, somehow I knew we were both thinking the same thing. After all, he and I had been in this situation of random dogs barking with nothing or nobody else around us for miles. We knew they weren’t coyotes, because coyotes had more of a yelp to their barks or howls. He and I knew the myth about wendigos (as crazy as it sounds), a supernatural being that was once human, created from their greed,known for eating their victims, portraying themselves as barking dogs or mimicking voices of people you know in order to draw you in.
The other three boys were just joking around when Ryan spoke . “Hey, guys, be quiet for a second.” immediately knowing we must have heard something they stopped talking and moving.
For a good minute I could hear nothing, but the sound of my heart beating and Ryan’s breathing as he stood at my side, hand on my upper arm. Just as we thought we were all good, we all heard the sound of footsteps on the dirt road running at us. Hand still on my upper arm Ryan pulled me with him back towards the car. All I remember is one second we were standing outside listening and then the next after hearing something run up on us I’m in the driver's seat with everyone back in the car and already probably a quarter mile away from that spot and back on the road.
“Please tell me you guys heard that too!?” I asked the group of boys who all nodded and thus we all began rambling. “ Caitlin and I heard barking” Ryan blurted out
Evan then followed with “Jeremy and I thought we heard a huff, like a growl right before we heard something run up at us.”
“Okay how am I the only one who heard absolutely nothing and all of you heard at least something?” Cody asked, which really did get us all thinking. Maybe he just hadn’t been paying as close attention as the rest of us. He was the one who believed the littlest in this kind of stuff.
Event two:
Stepping out of the car, boots grinding against the gravel of the graveyard we found ourselves in, I had the bag with my equipment in my hands, note it wasn’t your regular kind of equipment. This was the kind of stuff you’d see in those Ghost hunting television series on TV that they used to talk to spirits. Kneeling down, I handed out a device to each one of the boys. Cody and Jeremy held the EMF’s which pick up on any electromagnetic frequency a spirit would give off if they were to come anywhere near them. Evan held the spirit box, headphones plugged in and ready to go which used radio waves to pick up on voices that couldn’t be heard by the human ear and Ryan held the laser grid light, so if anything the human eye was unable to see passed in front of it, we’d know.
We stood near my car. Wind grinding the tree branches against each other. Small branches from the woods to our right breaking in the distance. Probably just a rabbit. Maybe a deer? Whatever it was, I had no intention of heading that way. Instead I wanted to head towards the left as I felt a pull to head that way and it seemed Ryan was on the same page.
“Let’s go this way.” “Lets go left.”
Ryan and I said at the exact same time, both stepping in sync towards the general direction we wanted to go. We didn’t even question the fact we both had the same idea seeing as it happened quite often. Ryan taking up the lead, me following behind him, Evan besides me and Cody and Jeremy holding up the back we walked about thirty feet before coming across our first set of graves.
“Children..” The sudden voice made me turn and look back at Evan who looked slightly taken aback by the clear voice that came from the digital device in his hand. He also looked excited to have heard something come through although confused for the moment we didn’t realize the voice that came through lined up with the fact the three graves in front of us were that of children.
Evan offered the spirit box back to me and of course I took it from him. Earbuds in. Deep breaths, and checking up on the others I took my chance and began to walk around the graves by myself, listening to the buzzing sound of the spirit box. A breath in one ear. A baby whining in the other. Chains clashing in real time all hit my ears back to back making me freeze in my spot and rip the earbuds from my ear. “You good?” Ryan must have seen me freeze and practically jump at the sudden rush of noises I heard.
I just nodded and told them what I heard and asked if they heard anything, but unfortunately it was just me who had. Ryan and Evan walked up to me and I handed the device back to Evan. “Where’s Jeremy and Cody?” I asked
“They went back to the car.” Ryan then went to explain how Jeremy wasn’t feeling well and Cody apparently saw a woman in white right after. I remember how my nerves kicked up, because I knew what seeing a woman in white associated with and if Cody had been the only one to see this woman then staying in the graveyard any longer was a dumb idea. Getting back to the car, Jermey sat with the doors open and head in his hands, groaning. Cody on the other hand looked fine, which was odd in my opinion, because it had been him who saw the woman in white, he should have been the one feeling off.
Ryan gave Jeremy a little holy water, just in case it was something spiritual that had been messing with the youngest of us all. As that was going on we discussed if we wanted to continue on with the night or if Jeremy wanted to head home. “I just think we should get out of here. I feel like I’ll be fine once we do.” Jeremy explained and he was right, because the second we left that dark eerie Graveyard, Jeremy had immediately gotten better.
Event Three:
2:42 am the time on my car's screen read as we sat in the scooby mobile, eating tacos from Gilberto's, (a Mexican fast food restaurant that was open 24/7) planning on what we were going to do next. After the whole incident with Jeremy getting sick, Cody seeing a woman in white and Evan and I hearing voices from the spirit box, we debated if we wanted to continue on doing something spooky or not. Although a little hesitant on continuing, I just had this feeling that if we were to continue we were going to experience something new entirely and that’s what made me agree with going to another old Native Graveyard.
“Under one condition, if the gates are closed we’re not going in.” That was my agreement, if the graveyard gates were closed we weren’t going to go in. Not sure why I said that, because I knew they would have said the same thing.
It wasn’t a very long drive to reach our suggested destination and luckily for us the gates were open. I drove a little ways in and parked next to three trees that encircled a plaque that had a bunch of weird items on it. Coins, crystals, even what we determined was a small rib bone. Whatever was going on, we could all feel the energy coming off the little plaque and it wasn’t a very good energy either.
“Caitlin, let me see your spirit box.” I didn’t really ask questions and handed the device over to Ryan as we walked a few more feet into the graveyard and away from what we assumed was probably a spot where some blood magic rituals had taken place. Evan, Ryan and I held up the front side by side, Cody and Jeremy right behind us. Evan’s hand flew out and stopped Ryan from walking who in turn reached over and halted me in my steps. The two boys apparently had heard something come through and say hello.
Ten minutes. Ten ish minutes and no more voices or responses came through the spirit box. “I have a question.” Cody whispered as we now all kneeled around each other facing forwards. “Do you recognize anyone here?” That question, just that simple question seemed to kick start everything into gear.
“Ryan”
“him ”
“He came back”
All three words came through, back to back. Followed by the sudden sound of branches breaking, rocks being thrown and footsteps circling around us. The sound of a loud stomp, almost like a horse stomping made us all shoot back up into a standing position.
“You guys feel that right? Like we’re slowly being surrounded?” Evan asked. It made me a little happy knowing I wasn’t the only one who felt like we were being scoped out. Like whatever spirits we were unable to see, we're trying to figure us out. Listening to the spirit box, and keeping my eyes out for anything out of the ordinary, I felt like someone or something pushed my hair back and brushed my cheek. It was sudden and random catching me so off guard my hand subconsciously shot out and gripped Ryan’s arm.
It seemed to startle him a bit when I grabbed him, but I didn’t even realize I had. “Are you okay?” I just nodded to his question, I was okay, just a little taken off guard and he could tell. “What happened?
“I don’t know.. I just felt like something pushed my hair back and brushed my cheek” I whispered now, noticing I had been gripping his arm. “Sorry.” I said and quickly pulled my hand away, mentally slapping myself upside the head.
Grabbing my hand and getting caught off guard I could feel my cheeks go warm. I was blushing. This dude had me blushing like a total middle schooler with a fat crush. “It’s fine.” He assured me, moving closer.
“What do you want?” Evan asked, bringing me back into the reality that we were currently having a conversation with a spirit.
“Free”
“You want to be freed? How can I help free you?” Cody asked and I knew I had given the red head boy a look almost asking if he was seriously asking that. We had no idea who or what we were talking to and when you didn’t know it was best to not do what they asked, because for all you know you could have been talking with something that didn’t have the best of intentions.
“She’s the one.”
Now see that whole night I hadn’t really gotten any sort of feeling that something bad was going to happen not until hearing that darker male voice come through the spirit box. Maybe it had to do with the fact I was the only girl and I knew it was talking about me or just the feeling I had.
The other feeling of being surrounded only got heavier, the breaking and things getting thrown—none ever hit us of course— got more active. “Maybe we should get back in the car.” Jeremy suggested and none of us argued with his suggestion instead we all got back into the car.
Evan now had the EMF, staring out the window and mentioning how he could just see dark spots surrounding the car. Jeremy and Ryan seemed pretty chill, Cody on the other hand had his head resting in his hands. “Hey, Cody, dude are you good?”
I turned in my seat and looked back at him as he shook his head. “ No, I'm just sad, I feel like I’m gonna cry.” And he did start crying, not like an ugly, snot running out your nose cry, more like a calm one or two only shedded tear cries.
We all knew, Cody never cried so whatever was messing with him had quite a bit of power to it. “Maybe we should head out, find somewhere to pull over and burn your sage, cleanse ourselves a bit.” Ryan said and I just nodded,trying to turn my car back on, just in time to hear something slap against the back passenger window. “Okay alright Caitlin time to go.”
“My car won’t start!” For as long as I’ve had my car it never had any trouble starting. At this point it was clear we were no longer welcomed in the graveyard like we felt we were earlier. Instead it felt like we were being forced out by one thing and another was trying to get us to stay. “Leave my baby alone.” I muttered trying to start my car up again for the fourth time and thankfully almost as if something heard me and stopped messing with my car the engine started right up. We let anything that was in there with us know it wasn’t allowed to follow us out, said our goodbyes to whatever we were talking to and were out of the graveyard back on the road again.
Final Event:
No words were spoken as I drove, trying to quickly find a dirt road to pull off onto after we left the graveyard. We didn't even have music going, I think we were all just a little too caught up and shocked with what had just happened to think or even speak. As long as Ryan, Evan and I had been doing these kinds of things. This had to have been one of the most active nights for all of us.
Things being thrown, but never hitting us,
voices answering our questions,
footsteps,
feeling surrounded,
and shadows. It was something I always wanted to experience and I got it.
Looking back in the rearview mirror, I noticed Cody had his head in his legs and hands on the back of his head rocking back and forth in the middle back seat. "Is he okay?" I asked, making Ryan turn around in his seat and look back.
"Hey Cody, dude. Are you okay?" There was no response to Jermey's question from Cody. Instead he just sat there in that position, rocking as best as one could in a car.
Luckily for us I was able to find a road to pull off onto and as soon as I did, I parked the car and got out to grab the sage from my trunk. When I got back into the car, Ryan was putting some of the holy water he had on the back of Cody’s neck as I started immediately burning the sage.
"Uh Caitlin, all your devices are going off." Evan said as he held the EMF up to Cody’s head. The whole night we hadn't seen the device go off once, but here we sat in my car, with our friend having what looked like a seizure, breathing and not like a normal person would have been. These breaths were almost like gurgling growls, like he was trying to breathe in water. The usage of Holy water and sage seemed to make Cody’s reactions worse, because he started mumbling to himself.
We thought that maybe he was messing with us, because this wouldn't have been the first time he had, but we pulled a few jokes and tests to see if he was and we realized he wasn't. "Something definitely followed us out of that graveyard and now it's messing with him." Jeremy pointed out as Ryan tried to coax Cody into relaxing, Evan on the other hand just held the crucifix I just so happened to have in my car near the red headed male. That seemed to make matters worse and confirmed we were followed by something out of that graveyard and not something good.
"Caitlin do something!"
"Me?! What the hell do you want me to do? I don't know what to do?!" The whole night, nothing had genuinely scared me. It had only made me excited. Not till now.
"You're the one that knows all the prayers and protection shit! Say one of them." You could tell the atmosphere in the car was getting wild, not only me, but the three other boys, minus Cody were all freaking out a bit. Afterall we thought our friend was being possessed or something.
Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse with Cody, that's exactly what happened, because he threw up. I'm not gonna lie, I was terrified, my heart was slamming against my ribcage like it wanted to just fly out, my eyes were welling up with tears, my hands and breathing were shaky. I wasn't the only one who looked and or seemed scared. So did the rest of my friends.
You know when you get up too fast and your head spins and vision blurs for a few seconds? That's what I felt in that moment before and I had been sitting down in the driver's seat gripping the Rosary around my neck with a new found confidence.
"Cody, listen to me. Right now. Listen to my voice." I couldn't begin to explain how all my fear just vanished, especially with how worried I was, but it did and now I was solely focused on helping my friend. "If there is something else in there with you, messing with you. Focus on my voice alright? Whatever this is, you're stronger. You're alive and it's not. This is your body and you're in control." I spoke sternly.
Taking a quick look around at my other friends, Ryan now held the burning sage and holy water, Evan and Jermey both held the two EMFs that were still going stir crazy, Evan also held the Crucifix and me? I removed the blessed rosary from around my neck and wrapped it around my hand before laying my hand on Cody’s shoulder. This all felt like some sort of movie, like some fake dream that I was gonna wake up from in just a few seconds, but this was real life. This was really going on and we were about to do our first possible exorcism as we called it.
After years of research and reading, I learned a full Latin exorcism. I'd never even thought about having to say it or use it or I never really even thought it was a genuine one, but it was the only one that I knew so I took my shot and started speaking the Latin words I knew by heart. Ryan had now passed the sage to Jermey so he could put some more holy water on Cody as I spoke, my hand on his shoulder and words almost fluently leaving my mouth as the boys put it. I finished the Latin and subconsciously added a few more not so kind words in English.
"Now if there's anything still in here, get the F*** out of my car." Just like that. Like a crazy rain storm had blown through and suddenly stopped, the devices did as well. Cody stopped his shaking, his breathing went back to normal and you could tell it was just us five. Just the living beings in the car now.
"Did you just-- Caitlin was that Latin?" Ryan asked, seemingly shocked as I put the rosary back around my neck and nodded. I kinda felt like a main character, like I had just walked out of a tv show or movie.
"That was insane! You flew through that like you were fluent in it. That was amazing!" Evan seemed just as shocked, but impressed. It was better, you could tell by how our moods seemed to change into more positive ones and how the boys were fanning out about the fact we all kinda just did an exorcism or what we thought was one. Either way it was insane.
"I had no idea you could do that." Ryan said just looking at me as Evan and Jermey checked up on Cody while agreeing with him.
I knew the look on my face when he said that was probably unamused. "Yeah neither did I until just now." And that was true, I was sorta just trying something and hoping it would work.
"What happened?" Cody was now sitting up in the seat looking at the four of us.
"You really don't remember anything?"
"No, I don't. All I remember is you guys leaving me back at the graveyard."
"We'll catch you up on the way back into town."
THE
END
Hey, I’m Caitlin Yauger and I’m a senior! Of course, like a lot of kids while growing up and watching all the scary challenges that YouTubers did, I would get my friends to try them with me. There were times when it seemed to work, but most times they didn’t. It got to the point that I tried messing with an Ouija board. Things were always fine everytime my friends and I used one. At least I thought so, up until I started having trouble sleeping followed by nightmares or some sort of sleep paralysis. It never really bothered me much, but it did make me wonder what was really out there after death. 7th grade is when I started to really get into researching anything I could, 9th grade I got my first tools for ghost hunting, thus starting my adventures in finding any way to try and answer the question “What happens to us after we die?”