Halloween Story - Strange But Not Fiction

27 October 2023

Story #1098

R. Linda:

The night before the last Halloween, I had a chance encounter with Gerry AKA Captain Jaack. He had been in Boston for a party where he and a few of his buddies were hired to impersonate the Pirates of the Caribbean crew. In the same hotel, I attended a party for one of our executives who was retiring. About 10:20 p.m. I went to the lobby to check my phone before retiring for the evening. It was then that I ran into Gerry in full Captain Jack costume. We were amazed to see each other and went to the bar (naturally in the Captain's case) for a drink. He was done with his engagement and staying the night at the hotel since driving home to upper Maine was too far. I was also staying at the hotel because I knew the retirement party would run late, and I had to be back at the old grind early the following day.

One drink led to a few drinks, and one of the captain's buddies joined us. I will say we were being gawked at in the bar lounge by EVERYBODY. One rather inebriated man came up to our table and toasted Gerry for his Pirate movies, and we toasted back with a "Har Matey!" This small act had everyone else in the lounge convinced Johnny Depp was in the room. 

Think about that. They all had to be in their cups because why would Johnny Depp dress up as Captain Jack in a hotel bar lounge? 

It was 'Mischief Night', Gerry reminded me, which led to an exchange of childhood stories about pranks we had pulled on that particular night growing up. That led to some chilling Halloween legends we three shared, and the atmosphere at our small corner table made it feel like we were worlds away from everyone else in the room. It was getting late, and the lounge was closing, so we were thinking of moving our small gathering to one of our hotel rooms when George (the buddy and crewmate) got an idea that he thought was perfect, since it was the night before Halloween. He had a friend just a few blocks away, and he was going to ring him up to meet us in a graveyard, one of Boston's most notorious haunted places, not far from our hotel and Paul Revere's house.

He said, "Increase Mather, who participated in the Salem Witch craziness, is buried there. Most of the graves date back to the 1600s, and it's quite a spooky place. Psychological phenomena have been documented there, and I think we should go see for ourselves—it is the 'season' and all. What say I call my friend Reilly, have him bring an Ouija board and a couple of six-packs, and we try to raise the dead?"

"How many people do you know that just happen to have an Ouija board handy?" I asked George.

"Reilly is a dealer in antiques; he's got one I saw in his Halloween display. Dontchaworry."

Oh no, here I go again. What is it that I can't get away from these Halloween nut trips? And Weasil wasn't even the culprit this time. Gerry was all for a bit of fun, and he looked at me, but I shook me head, no. I was going up to me room and going to bed.

"Ah, come on," Gerry urged. "It's almost Halloween, and we are an hour away from the bewitching hour. Mate, let's do this."

He was right, we had been in the lounge drinking for a while, so I caved, yes I did, I didn't want to do it, but I didn't want to appear the wuss, and I wasn't about to explain all me Halloween trials and tribulations to drunken jokesters.

So off we went, the two still dressed like pirates and I, Mr. Suit. We took a cab to the cemetery, and the driver thought Halloween had come early, with two pirates in the backseat. It wasn't until Gerry got out to pay the man that the driver got a big, stupid grin on his face, thinking he was looking at the real thing, Johnny Depp. He started gushing over Gerry or Johnny and was all about joining us for a drink; we were his last fare. We weren't going for a drink, it was late and no bars still open that I saw, but somehow Gerry talked the man out his urge to be among the famous and sent him on his way with a sizeable tip I think, which would only add more to the man thinking he drove you-know-who around Boston.

Reilly arrived at the cemetery entrance a few minutes later with the spirit board and two six-packs of beer. We entered the cemetery, but as we did, four young men came out, laughing and hooting at each other. Here we were, all set for spooky doings; their appearance was quite loud, and the laughter dispelled any scary feelings we had. They saw the beer and asked if they could join us. Honestly, we were all in our cups and Reilly said, "Sure," before anyone could object. We went into the cemetery and shared a few bottles with them. We had a relatively good time joking around, and they were all about Captain Jaack. They didn't seem let down by the truth (actually, Gerry was doing quite a good impersonation; they couldn't help but believe he might indeed be the real thing), we were all having a good time, and Gerry had stayed in Jack Sparrow's character to entertain us. He was so funny, I commented that I had never had so much fun in a graveyard until that night. I know, nutso, but me sides hurt from laughing so hard, as he was in rare Captain form. It must have been all the booze. 

The Graveyard (I know it's hard to see, it was dark out)

A slight breeze came up at one point, and the moon scooted behind clouds that looked like creepy hands. 

"Will ya look at that!" George pointed at the sky. "An omen?"

This sobered us all up. The lads decided they needed to leave, and I believed they were spooked. After they left us, we set ourselves the task at hand: a seance.

With our happy companions gone, we suddenly became aware of our surroundings. The sky looked eerie, as if the moon's fingers would reach down at us. 

A creepy hand in the night sky

Where we used the question board 

We settled in and finally got serious, with the chill of the evening creeping into our drunk bones, the quiet of the place was unsettling, but we started to concentrate on the Ouija board by asking questions. Remarkably, if you believe in those sorts of things, we've got someone named Bartholomew who told us someone we knew was going to be "killed" in a rather violent manner. In short, he told us the spirits were aware that this event would happen and were quietly "listening." We didn't understand that and decided to call it a night, because this information spooked us. We all agreed we were pretty sketched out by Bartholomew's warning, and it was getting colder, so off we went back to our hotel and Reilly to his house. I think we were as hungover as we could be as well, so all this was freaking us out and no one spoke much on the way back to the hotel (to which we walked, no cabs at that time of night in sight). Our minds were preoccupied with the experience and the information to the extent that no one wanted to broach the subject, yet it was on our minds.

A few days later, at me work, a report came in that a young man was killed in a freak accident. He had been out with friends and got into a fight with one of them, and was punched in the head. The young man fell and hit his head on the stone wall by the sidewalk and died. The event occurred a block away from the cemetery, and it took place around the time we met the four boys. We never got any names, so we don't know if this boy was one of the four we met that night. We never asked "Bartholomew" for a name, so we don't know to this day, but we are suspicious. The way we got "the spirits are listening" made it sound like this was happening close by, and that's the impression we all had. It was very quiet in the cemetery that night, of course, it would be, but it was a different kind of quiet that quite unnerved yours truly and the others. 

I will leave Bartholomew's message and the news of the accident for you to ponder. We had a real sense of spirit because, if the lad was indeed one of the four, we were told about ahead of his demise. We couldn't have done anything about it and accepted that this was the truth of the event being foretold. It still bothers me to this day, but at the time, there was no way we knew for sure what we were being told was true or even to whom the catastrophe would happen.

Happy Hauntings!

Gabe

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