I grew up in a fairly small town with a main central cemetery. Almost all the graves are headstones or footstones with one exception, the witch’s tomb. I don’t know why it’s called the witch’s tomb but that’s just how locals referred to it. There are a few urban legends, tales and stories about it, such as one time it was broken out of.

When I was about 15 or 16, I don’t remember my exact age, I would ride my bicycle to the lake and back every Saturday and pass the cemetery along the way. So one day, I decided to stop and visit the “witch’s tomb” just out of curiosity and to read the name on it.

It was in kind of a small valley, so you had to walk downhill with walls on both sides, kind of a boxed canyon, a perfect place to trap an animal, or a person. I parked my bicycle on the road and began my descent down the trail and it started to feel like I was walking upstream against a river. With each step the current became stronger and stronger. But I was not deterred; I was stubborn and wanted to complete my mission.

About halfway down the path to it, it began to feel like a large hand on my chest pushing me back. Again, I kept going. A few feet from it, I could finally read the name and date, but was now totally blocked by an invisible brick wall that I could not get any closer no matter how hard I tried.

After reading the name and date, which I no longer remember, I turned around and began walking back to the road. It was like walking downstream in a river with each step the water carried me and my feet moved swiftly and easily.

I felt tired and weak, but had enough energy to make it home on my bike, and for the rest of the day I felt totally exhausted to the point of barely having enough energy to breathe. I cannot say for sure what I encountered that day. I can tell you this; it was not my last encounter of that kind.

About 20 years later, after digital cameras came out, I returned and walked up to it again. This time however, I felt nothing. I have not been back. And there is no way I would ever go back there after dark.