Are you afraid of cemeteries in the dark? Do you shiver when the night descends over the cemetery? As if someone is watching you in the dark?
It may not just be something you imagine...
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Igor was a happy boy who grew up on a farm near the deep woods. He tended the family's sheep and chickens and daydreamed as clouds drifted by on the long summer days. He got a little cat as a birthday present, and the cat followed him everywhere. As inseparable as a shadow. A little black cat it was, and you know what they say about black cats. They are children of night and shadow. Igor did not think about he was humpbacked and had a deformed and ugly face. He was loved by his family and did not have a worry in life, but always looked forward to his mother, father, and siblings returning from the market day in the market town when they set off to sell pumpkins in the fall while Igor and the cat looked after the farm. The market town was a rich trading town, but the prosperity sadly did not last. Droughts and storms ruined the harvest, and traders sought their fortune and business elsewhere far away. Prosperity was replaced by poverty, hunger, and desperation. The local farmers in the area cursed their misfortune and looked for an explanation. A scapegoat. They found poor Igor.
One autumn day in the pumpkin field while Igor was trying to save the withering pumpkins, a furious mob came running across the field towards him shouting:
"You and your devil cat are demons and to blame for our misfortune."
They beat him with sticks and pulled out knives, and frightened Igor ran for his life. Stones were thrown at him, and he ran with the cat until the sun went down and they could hide safely in the dark.
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From his hiding place, he saw the furious farmers and locals riding towards his family farm to burn it down.
"Set fire to the demon's home and kill his family," they shouted.
And so, they did. Igor was now homeless, alone, and began wandering in the woods. He stayed away from the villages and sought work on remote farms but was rejected because of his ugly appearance.
A priest took pity on him and gave him a job as a gravedigger.
Here Igor could take care of himself and came forward only in the early morning hours to dig and avoid being seen by villagers whom he knew were still looking for him. The pastor's garden was neglected at the time, and Igor began to spend his free time making the garden grow. Cabbage, potatoes, and pumpkins flourished like never before, and the pastor praised Igor for his abilities and added with a smile:
"You might not be pretty my friend, but God has given you special talents."
Igor was happy with his new life. Here he could safely grief over his family and the pastor appreciated his hard work.
But for a deform person like Igor happiness rarely lasts long. A farmer on his way away from the city saw Igor and the rumor of the demon's new haunt ran fast. A crowd of citizens and farmers showed up in front of the rectory with torches and clubs and demanded that the pastor handed over Igor:
"The demon must die so that our misfortune disappears," they screamed as the sun went down over the rectory.
The pastor desperately tried to talk some sense into the mob, but with no success. When the angry and bloodthirsty crowd ran towards Igor’s small hut, they found no one. No Igor, no cat. Igor and the cat were gone. He had hidden with the cat in the deep and dark shadows of the cemetery. And they stayed there. Forever.
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So now you know who is watching you from his hiding place behind the tombstones as darkness descends over the cemetery.
Most likely he is more afraid of you than you of him.
