First and foremost, I'm really glad I found this community. Throughout my life of (24 years) which I know isn't much, I've had many encounters with the paranormal. Some through growing up In my old house In Houston, to all the way up into the Marine Corps barracks of Camp Pendleton, CA. I've always had such a curiosity towards the "afterlife" It actually makes me feel crazy sometimes, especially when you try and explain these happenings to people who just don't understand or believe. But here I go with one of my most unexplainable encounters In New Orleans.

New Orleans (Summer of 2017)

It's kind of funny how this whole trip even started, growing up with my close friends Chris and Aaron there was ALWAYS some kind of fuckery going on, and I mean ALWAYS. Now In this Instance I brought up a crazy idea to have a 1 day road trip to New Orleans. Chris's mom was the coolest mom on the block, and didn't give a damn what he did as long as he was safe. Aarons mom was a hardcore Christian, and still is to this day; And my mom IS a very Mexican traditional mother who had me on lockdown 24/7, so she thought. So me being a middle child with a rebellious attitude I devised a fool proof plan.

I tell my mom I'm spending the night at Aarons, and he tells his mom he's spending the night at my house. What could go wrong right? We don't worry about Chris, his mom already didn't give a fuck. In fact she even gave us the car for the trip, as long as we put gas and promised to have a great time. In come 8pm and we all meet up at Chris's house for the trip of a lifetime. Fast forward an agonizing 6 hour drive, and we finally get there at 2am LOL. Just in time to see all the drunks on bourbon street go home, and hear the last bit of jazz music echoing down the long crowded alleyways of good ol BIG EASY.

After having a very disappointing night and several "maybe we should go home" comments, I start looking up on google "scariest cemeteries in New Orleans" and what do ya know; 7 minutes from our grasp, the presumed scariest cemetery in the U.S, St. Louis cemetery No.1 is right around the damn corner. So us being the way we are, we hightail It to the Cemetery. After a short drive and a "dude are you sure you want do this" from Aaron, we arrive to our destination.

I get out the car and I'm bursting with adrenaline, Chris and Aaron were sheepishly following behind me at this point. We come up to a 10 foot wall and multiple locked gates and metal grated doors. I couldn't climb the gates as they were too slippery and rusty. So Aaron brings me a white bucket that looked and smelled like someones shitter. With a hefty jump and a half ass pull up, I was on top of the damn wall. I jumped down maybe about a foot or two and thought to myself "that's odd" so I started hopping from platform to platform and finally managed to touch ground level.

I scream over the wall "Hey guys hurry up" and hear no response back "cool whatever" I thought to myself. I start walking the eerie passageways of this pitch dark cemetery with my phone flashlight on, mind you my phone Is at (68%) battery life. Suddenly I feel myself get very anxious and nauseous, and immediately feel unsafe. A feeling I can't put into words to be quite honest, I legit felt like something was trying to project me out of my fucking skin. Me being me, I freeze and starting taking pictures with the flash on and videos to see If there was anything I could capture that I couldn't see.

I already had It in my head "just a couple of pics and vids and I'm getting THE FUCK out" I'm standing there not trying to focus on my surroundings while I quickly skim through my iPhone gallery. My jaw drops as I get to the last picture. In that picture no more than that 15 feet away from me, I see 3 perfectly depicted faces peaking their heads from behind the mausoleum frowning at me. Immediate tears ran down my face, I slowly look down at my phone to see the picture again to make sure I saw what I saw and my phone dies.

I immediately go into full panic mode and start sprinting to the nearest opening I could find. The whole time I'm screaming from the top of my lungs "AAAAROOONNNN" "CHRISSSSS" over and over. I finally see the light after battling extreme tunnel vision and I get to a metal gate. I immediately freeze again, and feel what I can best describe as a sudden plunge into an ice bath. I look to my right and lo and behold inches away from me the mausoleum of "Marie Laveau" with a gold and black plated placard that said "Voodoo queen".

I wedge my right foot into a cranny in the wall and jump over, the nightmare was over. But this next part Is something that fucks with me still to this day.

I jump down and awkwardly fall and scrape the shit out of my knees and elbows, standing right in front of me is Chris and Aaron. They both hug the life out of me, both were almost to the verge of tears, and tell me that I was gone for 3 HOURS. Literally what felt like 15 minutes ended up being 3 hours, I cannot explain the phenomenon no matter how hard I try and find a logical explanation. They both claimed they climbed the wall and were yelling for me for hours and calling my phone. They didn't hear me screaming from the top of my lungs, they didn't see my phone flashlight, and they didn't see me running around.

After a long and silent car ride back, we were back In Houston with a crazy story to tell and an ass whooping because our moms found out.

Thank you to anyone who reads the whole encounter. I would love to hear your thoughts and inputs, this really is one of the scariest things I've ever been through! I did end up getting the phone up and running again a couple of years ago. I haven't looked for the picture In a long time due to the fact that It made me feel VERY uneasy, but If enough people want to see It I'll go look for It.