My Bachelors Grove experience
This is a story of my first experience at Bachelors Grove cemetery. Mind you this happened about 14-15 years ago When I was about 19. But it's still an unsettling experience that I think about to this day. As a teen I was fascinated by the paranormal thanks to shows like ghost hunters on the SiFi channel. But I wouldn't consider it a part of my identity or fully believing in it. As much as it intrigued me watching shows like that I was always still skeptical because it was TV and for me to believe in something like spirits I needed to experience it first hand.
One evening my close friend and guitarist in my band who was way more into macabre, spirits and the paranormal called me and asked if I wanted to go to bachelors grove to ghost hunting with him and a couple of our friends and bandmates during the witching hour. At the time I had no idea what or where bachelors grove was. After he explained it was a legendary haunted cemetery about an hour's drive away my curiosity was immediately peaked and to go on a ghost hunt at the witching hour I couldn't say no. Because after watching all those ghost hunting TV shows in my youth I finally had an opportunity to go and potentially see a ghost for myself once and for all. So I drove to my bandmates house and met up with everybody.
Upon arriving at his house I was kinda bummed to find out there was a crew of 7 of us. Because earlier on the phone my friend explained to me that we would have to sneak in because cops often patrol the surrounding streets and entrance on the lookout for delinquents like ourselves. Ideally our chances of getting caught while sneaking into a haunted cemetery would be a lot less with a smaller group and of course one of the people coming along was a friend of my guitarist whom I never met. A very large 7ft tall guy in his mid 20s who considered himself a medium. Upon meeting him I was very skeptical of his "abilities". But I thought what do I know, this wasn't my realm and maybe having someone tag along with his "connection" to the spiritual world would help my chances of maybe seeing a ghost. So off went.
Upon arriving we parked about a mile away on one of the adjacent side streets. To walk in and find the "secret" path in the woods that ran parallel with the street that led to the entrance of the cemetery. What a thrill that was. Walking down the path almost getting spotted by a police cars spot light that was scanning the path as we were making our way through the pitch black forest to find the old rusty gate that marked the entrance. But alas we finally arrived at the entrance and made our way down the path towards one of the most haunted cemetery in the United states.
With adrenaline coursing through my body with my eyes and ears on high alert we entered into the cemetery at 2am in the morning. The silence was deafening. The stillness of the air no birds no rustling of the trees. An absolute still and quiet night. We settled in and explored the area honestly the fear began to fade. I remember thinking to myself. We're just in a creepy cemetery at night. There's a group of us. There's nothing to be afraid of. Our medium friend wasn't on edge and he didn't feel any bad energy as we walked around the grounds. There was nothing, just us and some old headstones in the middle of the woods. I'd say we were there MAYBE 20-30 minutes walking around taking photos with no ghosts showing up until out of nowhere the medium froze from his walk and was silent for a few seconds and In a very panicked voice he says. "We need to leave....NOW!" Immediately I thought to myself, we just drove an hour to get here and snuck past the police to just leave, we just got here!? So my friend asked him what was going on? He just replied it's not good and just kept repeating we need to go now. I'm not sure if his panicked state was affecting me or if something was actually happening but Immediately my fight or flight response was flairing up and it just felt like the surrounding forest was getting darker and enclosing all around us. So when the 7ft mountain of a man started running for the exit. We all ran. Upon reaching the entrance we stopped to catch our breath and we started questioning the medium what happened. He said that the energy in the cemetery immediately turned malicious and that we were not welcome there anymore and it was growing more and more angry and malicious the longer we stuck around. Of course being skeptical I remember thinking to myself. If he wasn't here I bet you we could've stayed all night with no issues. But we kinda laughed it off and left.
Unbeknownst to us the scariest part of that night hadn't even happened yet. For those unfamiliar with the surrounding area, the cemetery is tucked away in a fairly large forest preserve that borders a neighborhood in a subdivision of houses. So if you're walking away from the entrance of the cemetery there's a street. A long dark block of houses on the left and the forest on your right that leads to a four way intersection and the only light is a singular street lamp overhanging at the end of the four way intersection. Instead of walking through the hidden path in the forest we decided to walk down the street towards the four way intersection cus our cars were a few blocks just past the intersection.
Upon leaving the cemetery we began walking down the middle of the street because there were no sidewalks on either side of the street. I remember the group of us just talking and joking around while we were walking down the street towards that intersection illuminated by the singular street lamp. As we were walking I became so fixated on that singular beam of florescent yellow light as we got closer and closer. If I recall correctly we were about a half a block away until I stopped dead in my tracks. I noticed a black figure slowly creeping from the darkness on the right as it slowly made its way under the beam of light. My group of friends kept walking as they hadn't noticed it yet. But I was frozen with fear and a chill ran down my spine that I'll never forget. Because as the figure walked under the light I noticed it had the shape of a very large dog. My first initial response was it was someone walking their dog. But within seconds it slowly kept its way under the center of the light with no leash or human near it. I immediately whispered "GUYS LOOK AHEAD!" Everyone stopped immediately. It was no dog. It was far larger than a great dane. The way it walked was almost like a lion on the prowl with its large head crained low and shoulder bones protruding out of its back. It was a complete black silhouette even though it was directly under a light source there was no light illuminating its black fur.We all saw it and it saw us. I'll never forget the moment it stopped and turned its large head towards us and just stared at us with its glowing eyes. Everyone froze and nobody made a sound. Seconds felt like minutes as we were locked in a stalemate just staring at each other. That's when a second and third figure appeared from out of the darkness and into the light. Three very large completely black creatures standing under the street light staring right at us. There's only been a few times in my life where I felt genuine fear like that. All I could think in that moment is please do not run towards us. It felt like an eternity just standing there. Until the first creature turned away and kept walking down the street to the left and all three disappeared into the darkness. We stayed still for a few moments more before proceeding towards the intersection. Once we got to the intersection i remember staring down the street In the direction they went and they were gone. The street they went down was long enough that I figured we would have seen them but nothing. Once we got through the intersection I remember speed walking backwards towards the car cus I was so scared they'd be behind us. But nothing. So we got to the cars and drove home questioning what In hell we just saw. It wasn't until recently that I decided to Google black spirit dog and the first thing that popped up was a barghest. Which in northern england folklore of a black dog with fiery eyes and an omen of death. Coincidentally, I remember my guitarist told me a few years later saying that his friend the medium passed away and about 6 years ago my same friend and guitarist passed away by suicide. Obviously I can't say if they're related but I think about that night often even after all these years...