9 Rules for the Night Shift on Halloween Night at the Cemetery

“You sure you have all the rules memorized?” my boss said as he gathered his belongings to go home. “Yeah, sure thing. I got them all up here” I said as I pointed to my head. He gave me a nod, and headed out the door of the small office to go home. My boss was…a little off to say the least.

This was my first month as a security guard at a cemetery right around the corner from my residence, and I had just gotten out of college about 3 months ago. The last month of shifts have been boring, sitting around, checking cameras, and doing rounds through the cemetery making sure nothing is out of order. Exciting, right. I needed a source of income, and this was the best paying job I could find. No real experience needed, the flyer said. My take was that they were desperate to find someone fast, so I took advantage of that. I was hired the day that I found the flyer, over the phone. I never even found out the guy’s name.

Once I came in on my first day, my boss gave me no training, no do’s and don’ts, just a verbal list of 9 rules I had to follow and memorize before Halloween night. “These rules are to be followed ONLY on Halloween night” he said “You must follow these rules to the exact way they are told to you. If you mess up even a small part…well, you won’t mess up. Because I trust you to follow them word for word.” I looked at him, confused because this sounded, almost like a threat.

Nevertheless, I pulled out my phone and started an audio recording so he could record the list. Once he finished telling me the rules, I was in absolute disbelief. “This guy is insane! No wonder why no one wants to work here, this guy is actually insane!” i thought to myself. I know every place has certain rules to follow. But to designate a set of rules, insane rules, for Halloween night only? I guess you won’t know how I felt until I tell you the rules that he gave me, word for word, exactly how he told me, straight from the recording

Rule Number 1. On Halloween night, please arrive at 8:30 pm. No earlier, no later. DO NOT walk in these doors until it reaches 8:30 For the love of God…please.

Rule Number 2. Stay INSIDE the office until 9:15. Do not leave, keep yourself occupied, but do not check the security cameras during this time. I’ll make sure to turn them off before you get there, so there is no temptation to peek at them. This might be one of the most important rules. If the monitor turns on by itself, do not look either. If for some reason you look, and you see it has revealed the A section of the cemetery, you must turn off the lights of the office, and hide. If it reveals The B or C section and you look at it, your only option is to run. Good luck with this. To make this easier, just cover the monitor with a jacket or blanket, because you will not want to see what happens out here this time on Halloween night.

Rule Number 3. After 9:15 strikes, you will have 30 seconds to get out of the office. Leave the door unlocked. It is possible you will pass an unnaturally tall figure, with no facial features. This is not a Halloween costume, and you must tell him “Good Evening” and look him right where his eyes would be. If he doesn’t respond, continue on your way to patrol the cemetery. If he says anything at all…you must stand completely still. Do not move a muscle. He might walk around you, but if you keep still until hes done, he should walk away with no problem, go into the office and he will slam the door behind him

Rule number 4. You will make your way to section A.
Once you inspect section A, you will realize the gravestone titled “James R. Hackney” is being dug up completely. This is not out of the ordinary. Do not, and i mean do not pay ANY attention to what is inside the 6 foot hole in the ground. You will not see the rest of your shift if you look down in that hole. Just keep walking to section B, and do not look back.

Rule number 5. As soon as you cross the bridge from section A to B, you will notice about a dozen shadow like-figures standing around in a circle around the big oak tree to the left of the bridge. Please listen closely to what i’m about to say-You must find the figure wearing the black top hat. You will walk up behind him, and ask “Am I clear?” If you hear a voice from inside your head say “Continue” then you can carry on to Section B. If you don’t hear anything, you must wait. You can look over to the section at this time, but I recommend keeping your eyes down. Trust me. There will be no physical harm to you if you look, but I cant promise you will be emotionally intact after looking.

Rule Number 6. Once you get the go ahead, continue on to section B. You may walk around, and do what you would normally do every night here. The only catch is you must stay in this section until 10:00. It should be 9:30-9:45 by now, so you won’t have to wait long. After the time crosses 10:00, continue on

Rule Number 7. After walking out of section B, you will notice a strange temperature change, and lighting change. The time will have…jumped…to 2am after crossing. Do not panic, and please do not answer your phone. Your phone will be ringing constantly. As soon as it starts ringing, you will stand still and not move until it stops. It will be calls from your “mother” “father” “siblings” “girlfriend” “boyfriend” anyone you can think of. You MUST NOT answer these calls. It is not actually them calling, it is in fact the man that you saw earlier, the one with no facial features. He is trying to lure you back to the office. You must stay away from that office until I tell you to go back. Your phone will stop ringing after about a half hour, which leaves you at around 2:30 am. You can continue on at this point.

Rule Number 8. You will notice another time jump, this one two more hours from 2:30-4:30. If the time still says 2:30 after the calls stop, you are in trouble. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do here. You messed up a step at some point if you end up here. You can finally finish your inspection of section C. You must be prepared for a woman covered in blood to run up to you begging for help. She will be asking you where her baby is, and if you can come fast to help her. Do not be startled, no matter how loud she yells. Tell her you will meet her outside the cemetery in 10 minutes, for her to wait there. She will run off in the opposite direction, and that’s how you know you succeeded. There will be a lot of towels and rags all over the ground covered in blood around section C. This is the only “maintenance” you will have to do. Just pick them up and dispose of them in the waste bin closest to you.

Rule Number 9. After completing this final task, you must RUN back to your office. Do not look anywhere but ahead of you, you will see figures everywhere, you will hear your name being called from voices that you think you recognize, just keep running. Once you reach the office, you will see the faceless man leaving the office building. It should be 5am at this point. He will stop you and either say “Good Work” and nod at you, and you will slowly walk into the office and close the door. For the remainder of the shift, you can check the cameras, sit down, and go on with your shift until I come inside to start my shift.

Or he would say “Come with me” IF he says come with me, you will run and lock yourself in the office. Do not fall for his calm, monotone voice. He is ANYTHING but calm if you mess up. Do not let him in, and wait for him to stop banging on the door. Once this stops, cover your eyes for the last hour of your shift. Don’t look around until you hear three knocks on the door. This will be me to relieve you of your shift.

You won’t be called in for a few weeks, to come to terms with what you have seen, and you will be paid a handsome amount of money for your duties.

Now that you have listened to the rules as well, I hope you can understand my initial suspicion and why I was so baffled. I thought this was a joke, until I finished my shift.

After I arrived at 8:30, my boss left and I decided I was going to just follow the rules given to me, to humble him and be a good sport of the prank. I didn’t check the cameras, and I headed out the door. After going outside, the brisk fall air hit me as I saw a tall man walking up to me. I looked at him, and he was actually faceless. It looked so real, and kind of gave me the creeps. I almost forgot to tell him “Good Evening.” He looked at me, well I think he did, and continued on through the door. I shivered a little as I headed on straight to section A.

I arrived at the entrance, and I searched for James R. Hackney’s grave, a grave I always saw, as it was the biggest one there. To my disbelief, it was actually being dug up! I felt sick to my stomach that they would go this far to scare me, so I hurried past the grave as a wave of uneasiness came over me. “This can’t be real” I reassured myself as I headed across the bridge to section B.

I scanned for the oak tree, and when I finally found it, I noticed the figures my boss warned me about. I instantly spotted the one with the top hat. I unsteadily scurried over to him, and asked “Am I clear?” No answer. As I stood there, waiting for an answer that never came. I decided to look away from the man and peek over to section B because surely the pranksters wanted me to look, since they warned me against it. I froze and felt pins and needles in my hands as I saw…myself standing there in the distance. At least what looked like me, except, I was taller. And covered in blood.

As the figure that presumably was me stared back, it let out a screech and started running towards me. I was startled and absolutely mortified by this and turned around to run. I looked back, and as it reached its arms out, it completely vanished. As soon as it vanished, I heard a voice from within my head say “Continue” At this point, I had a million thoughts running through my head as I started to realize whatever was happening was somehow impossibly real, and I felt my mind switch from confused to defensive.

I inspected the area until 10pm, constantly looking over my shoulder. I checked my phone and saw it was time to move to section 3. I felt exactly what i was told-a temperature change, and saw the surroundings get just a little bit darker.It was noticeably colder. “No way” I told myself as I reached for my phone, which displayed 2:00am. Before I could form another thought, my phone rang right on cue and stopped dead in my tracks. “Dad” the phone displayed. I stared back at the phone, as I looked at those three letters. I never knew my dad, and definitely never had him saved in my phone. I felt a tear form in my eye because this was a very sensitive topic to me. I let it ring as I got lost in a trance of thinking about how on earth any of this was even possible. The ringing finally stopped and I let out a sigh of relief. I remembered the next rule about the time, and opened my phone again. 2:30. I kept moving on with some stray tears in my eyes, watching my phone turn from 2:30 to 4:30. This was a relief to me because now that I knew this was somehow real, I realized I have done all the steps right to this so far.

As I started inspecting section 3 with cold fingers and numb toes, I heard screaming. Naturally, this scared the hell out of me, and I jumped out of my shoes. I snapped my head around to a blood covered woman screaming “My baby! I can’t find my baby!” I told her, after a bit of hesitation I told her to meet me at the entrance of the cemetery in 10 minutes. She nodded and ran off and I noticed a ton of blood covered rags all over the ground. Shaken up by her screams, I slowly picked up the rags, threw them out.

I looked around and ran back to the office. The whole run, I didn’t see anyone and didn’t hear anything, which was weird because my boss said otherwise. I’ll count my blessings here though, and find myself in front of the office finally. The man was leaving, this time I looked at him in complete terror as he turned my way and said “Come with me” I wasted no time running past him, into the office and slamming the door behind me. “What did I mess up?” I yelled over the sound of banging on the door as I pulled a jacket over my head. I shivered in fear for the entire hour until I heard three knocks on the door.

I shot up, threw the door open to reveal my boss and and yelled “What the HELL did you just put me through??” I was mad, although relieved to see him, who looked a lot more colorful, and lifelike than he has in the past. He looked at me and smiled at me “Go home kid, get some sleep” I yelled back “No! I want answers! You can not just tell me to go after the night I just had!”

He looked at me and said “You took care of my cemetery kid. I thank you for that.” He held out his hand for a handshake. “The name James Randall Hackney, and I’ve been dead for 200 years. Every Halloween, I leave the cemetery and recharge so my physical body does not perish. You covered me last night, and I thank you for that” It didn’t take me long to recognize his name as the same on the gravestone that was dug up. I stared back at him, mouth wide open, speechless. I walked out of that door, packed my house up, and never came back to this town again.

Credit : Jaguars147