The wind teases the tops of the trees. The leaves rustle under foot. The air has a cool, crisp bite to it. It is time for the first of the two large autumn holidays in the United States. S'mores will be toasted around camp fires as ghost stories are told. Kids will go trick or treating or to other local festivals. Pumpkins will be carved with grinning smiles. Kids of all ages will dress up as mythical creatures, celebrities, animals, various professions and everything in between. Home owners will go overboard with building mini spook houses in their front yard and restaurants will add special menu items. People will travel far and wide for the opportunity to be scared in one of the dozen full production spook houses around town. Below is our story of visiting a local grave yard in search of the creatures of the night with a local ninja.

Model Meera Kazmi

We arrived at the cemetery around 6:30. It was still bright out, but the sun was approaching the horizon with unsettling speed. Our guard and guide for the night meets us at the mausoleum. She introduces herself as Meera, and checks our gear to ensure our safety. She quickly corrects us to calling her a shinobi. We learn that she has recently celebrated her 1100th birthday even though she doesn't look at a day over 20. She explains during the early days of training to master Ninjutsu, she was inducted into special special sect of the martial art. There she was trained to hunt, fight and defeat the monsters of the night. She was also taught how to harness their energy to remain forever young.

Model Meera Kazmi Model Meera Kazmi

As we walk down the paths of the graveyard, we pass an ancient grave. Perched upon the top of it is what can best described a pirate vampire. I jump, run and scream like a little girl. Meera laughs at me and introduces me to her comrade Anna. Apparently in the late sixteen hundreds a vampire horde had ravaged the country side where Anna's family had lived. Most of the villagers were slaughtered, but the young were turned to the darkness of the vampiric world. Anna spent two hundred years as a slave to vampire that had created her. In the late eighteen hundreds Meera killed Anna's master and invited her to join her in the hunt for monsters around the world.

Model Anna Kazmi Model Anna Kazmi Model Anna Kazmi

Next we go back to the mausoleum, Meera explains some creatures of the night are harmless and therefore shouldn't be harmed. As we round the corner a broken marionette doll lies upon the ground. The doll explains that she failed her master and he cut her stings. She begs us to stand her up and we lean her against the columns of the building, but she falls again, so we prop her up against a tombstone continue our search.

Model Miracle Autumn Model Miracle Autumn Model Miracle Autumn

Model Miracle Autumn

In the back of the graveyard we find Jack. Meera explains that he comes from a land full of evil and darkness, but he wandered by accident into the land of Christmas and refuses to go back to his homeland. So night after night he pursues his love of the temptress Katye, but he never achieves his goal. He has been effected by a curse, placed by Santa Claus, that any he loves will forever be beyond his reach. The demon Katye, long realizing this, teases him night after night as she feeds upon the energy of his love. Meera explains that although unfair to Jack she allows it to continue as defeating one would release the other to escape and torture mankind, or go into a rage for his lost love and revert to being a nightmare to all mankind.

Model Kevin Kritzmire Model Kevin Kritzmire

Model Katye Ribble Models: Katye Ribble & Kevin Kritzmire Models: Katye Ribble & Kevin Kritzmire Models: Katye Ribble & Kevin Kritzmire Models: Katye Ribble & Kevin Kritzmire

As the moon reaches it's zenith, sobbing can be heard throughout the graveyard. The crows fly and the black cats hide. Meera turns to me with a sinister grin and laughs. She reveals the true goal of tonight's visit - the legend of the zombie bride. It is said that she was killed in the early 17th century by a pirate king, but unknown to him was that she was the descendent from a long line of witches. Every year on Halloween she raises from the dead and feeds upon the living, never realizing time has passed and always forgetting what she is until she sees her first victim. When she first sees her first victim, with dried blood still on her face, she first tries to seduce them and when the victim is repulsed by her, her true zombie nature comes out. After a long battle and lots of blood shed, Meera stands triumphant over the body of the bride and we call it a night

Model Rim Basma Model Rim Basma Model Meera Kazmi Model Rim Basma Model Meera Kazmi Model Rim Basma Model Meera Kazmi Model Rim Basma

Model Rim Basma Model Meera Kazmi Model Rim Basma Model Meera Kazmi Model Rim Basma Model Meera Kazmi

Model Rim Basma