The Witches Circle Incident

The witches circle in Springdale cemetery is one of the creepiest places to go. Growing up in the city of Peoria I was around it my whole life. I knew the place inside and out. Springdale Cemetery is one of Illinois Largest cemeteries. Nestled in the center of what looks like a meadow of tall wild grass with a path cut through the middle lies what has become known as the witches circle. It is a family of many generations all buried inside a circle of stone. In the center is a huge pillar with the family's name on it. Growing up we always heard stories about this being haunted or something but being tweens as we were we were not afraid of silly stories. Santa was not real and none of the things we used to believe whether good or bad were just stories......

One day I and my friend went to the Cemetery to go fishing in the small mysterious pond toward the back of the cemetery. We would actually make poles out of sticks and string and dangle a leaf on a hook and catch blue gill it was quite fun. Well we noticed it was getting dark and decided to head home. We started walking toward home the way had been hundreds of times before. We walked for about 25 minutes when we noticed instead of being at the entrance of the cemetery we were heading toward the pond. Laughing we looked at each other and started walking some more again we had the same problem by this time it was dark and we decided to stick to the road rather than cut through the hills like we always had done.

We walked and walked and then I heard a gasp. It was silent a barely noticeable gasp. I turned to look at my friend and he was staring off into the distance which was woods and gravestones. The look on his face sent chills down my spine. I slowly followed his eyes and noticed the glowing pair of eyes looking at us from the edge of the woods. Immediately I made a somewhat loud noise and told my friend it is just a deer let's keep moving. It was pretty late by then and pitch black. The eyes were still watching us from the woods and it was pretty creepy. We were certain to be out of the cemetery just up the hill and around the curve. We then heard a noise like a stick breaking and leaves crunching, and looked to see the eyes that were following us. Now there were more 4 more pairs of eyes and they were spread out enough that we couldn't go forward or backwards. We paused for a moment and watched the eyes that where watching us. The chills running down my spine were unbearable and my friend and I slowly continued to walk forward down the road. As we walked more eyes appeared every 20 yards or so but they just stared at us. By this time I figured it was coyotes and was just wanting to all out run. I knew if we did that we would be chased.

We reached the curve in the road and were almost at the top of the hill. That is when we noticed the voices, faint at first but none the less audible. They were humming and chanting and it was coming from our left. I remembered then the witches circle and it was in the general area we heard the chanting coming from. We were not at the gateway entrance like we should have been but we were facing the meadow like land I knew to be the witches circle. That is when we noticed the lights coming from the center of the circle and heard the chanting and humming louder and clearer. The eyes were now completely around us except in the direction of the circle and we both knew we were screwed either way. We decided to chance the circle vs. the 10 + pairs of eyes slowly closing in on us. We slowly walked around the curve in the road and we now noticed the eyes on the other side of the road. We were surrounded completely except the path to the circle. So we headed toward the circle and we could now see what looked like a group of 10 people in robes like the freaking grim reaper. They were all standing in the circle evenly spaced around the inside of the circle. They had a candle lit in front of them and a large candle in the middle where the pillar was. We were now close enough where they could see us and at once they stopped singing, humming, chanting whatever it was they were doing and all at once looked up at us. We froze in our spot shaking. I thought I was going to pee myself. From behind the pillar in the middle came a robed person with a shiny knife in his hand and started approaching us. At that point my friend said screw this and turned and ran straight out of the path across the road and I lost sight of him. I turned back around and the robed person was right in front of me arms crossed down in front of him. The others had formed a circle around him and He asked me what I was doing there. I said I was lost somehow and just trying to go home. In a very harsh almost demonic voice he said you better leave and never come back. If you do you will be sorry. I turned to walk away and that is when I heard a loud crunch and through the meadow grass came what had to be a wolf by the size of it. The man with the blade had cut this animal and the group began to chant mumbling humming sounds and pick up this animal and carried it inside the circle. I ran at that point straight out of the path onto the road and across the road and up the hill and across the next road and through the short wooded area into the open field and the ever so beautiful gate.

I crossed the street and stood waiting for any sign of my friend. I went to his house to see if he was there and that is when I saw him and a few police cars. I yelled and told him I was ok and he said the police were just at the cemetery and there was nothing there at all not a deer a drop of blood or nothing and was lecturing him about making up stories and that they could charge him blah blah blah. I told him they told me to never return and what had happened and my friend apologized for leaving me. I turned to walk home and he stopped me and approached me with a horrific look on his face. He touched my head and showed me blood. I had a gash on the back of my head and it was semi sealed up. I did not feel anything and was scared. I went home and went to sleep after trying to tell my parents what happened. They just told me to go to sleep and I was grounded the next day. I woke up and the gash was now a scar as if it had been years since I got it. My friend and I never spoke of what happened to anyone.To this day i still have the scar and it looks the same as when i got it. i am 31 yrs old now so this was about 17 years ago

Moral of the story is even things you don't believe are real can hurt you. I still do not believe in Santa and the other characters. I do however believe in nature, and the deep connection between us and all living things in this world. Next time you go to the Springdale cemetery make sure you leave before dark.