I can't believe its not beef!

 For the Ghost Hunters club at Northeastern Illinois University, Oct. 31 wasn't about candy and kiddy costumes—it was for experiencing the supernatural at its best, on All Hallows Eve. Ghost Hunters NEIU was comprised of four members: Jocelyn, Robert, Monica and David, who would be spending their evening at Indian Hill in Palos Heights, IL, a rumored hot spot for paranormal activity.

   I told the newspaper staff I'd go to report on whatever spooky things happened, but I really just went to get a kick out of the crazy things people believe in.

   But now, I'm not so skeptical anymore. And I've never felt so lucky to be alive.

   As the team sat down in the dewed grass, they placed their EMF meter and recorder in a circle among themselves. I turned on my own recorder and stayed at a distance, still close enough to catch any and all happenings.

   "Ok guys, let's have our EVP session," said Jocelyn. They turned on both devices and sat there in silence for a second.

   "Is there any one here tonight?" asked Monica in a hushed voice. The chilly October wind blew past our faces as we waited in silence.

   "If anyone is here…can you please show us a sign," said David. After waiting a few minutes, there was still no response.

   "So… are we just going to sit here all night and hope something happens?' whispered Monica.

   "You have to be patient Monica," whispered Jocelyn. "Ghosts don't just appear and say ‘Hey! It's me Casper…sorry I took so long, had a meeting with Beetle Juice."

   "Hey, can you guys relax? Anyway, do you know who's buried here—well, sort of buried here?" asked Robert. "During the time of the Columbian Exposition, a man by the name of Hermann Butcher set up a butcher shop in what is now Palos. Like any butcher shop at the time, the butcher had an apprentice, and he would teach the apprentice how to properly cut the meat.  While it was rumored that the butcher was a nut job, most of the neighborhood knew him as a very demanding man with an ill-mannered mouth and ill-tempered attitude."

   "So one day, a large shipment of meat came to the butcher shop, and instead of helping the apprentice carry it to the freezer, Butcher demanded that his apprentice carry the shipment by himself. After several trips to the freezer in the basement, the apprentice became exhausted, and on his last trip down, he tripped down the stairs and broke his neck instantaneously. After awhile, Butcher went to see why his apprentice had not come back up."

   "He walked down the creaky wooden stairs of the basement, only to find his apprentice lying motionless on the floor with his head snapped backwards, a full 180 degrees. Out of pure panic and desperation to keep his business afloat, he shoved the young apprentice into the meat freezer in hopes of hiding his body."

   "A few weeks had passed and inquiries of the apprentice's whereabouts were still a concern within the community, but Butcher merely brushed off any suspicions by saying that his apprentice had talked of leaving the business and going to the city. After closing up shop one night, Butcher went downstairs to look at his meat in the freezer. He stood there in the frigid air pondering what to do with the young boy's body, and that's when his crooked greasy smile stretched across his face. He placed the boy's body on the cutting board and began to hack away at his left leg; he then packaged it and took it home to roast it over the fire."

   "After eating the leg meat, Butcher sat in the comfort of his home wondering when he would taste the sweet juiciness of this meat again. The next day, he opened his shop and began to cut away at the boy's body, leaving the apprentice's head as his only trophy. After cutting up the rest of the body, he put it on display in the window and sold it. To his surprise, many customers who bought the meat came back a week later saying how much they enjoyed it."

   "Wow… that is so creepy," said Monica, as she nervously looked around.

   "Oh, but there's more," Robert continued. "Because the meat was in such high demand, Butcher began thinking of other alternatives. One evening, just as he was starting to close up, a hobo walked by and asked for food; it seemed as though the invisible horns on Butcher's forehead ruptured and invited the hobo in for dinner. Little did the hobo know that Butcher slipped a sleeping aid in the food, so as soon as he fell face first into his food, Butcher decapitated the hobo and began to cut away."

   "After a while, suspicions started to fly around the town that Butcher had something to do with the missing apprentice. As a result, an angry mob broke into the butcher store and began to search. It wasn't until the very end of their search that they found what proved their suspicions correct: in the freezer, they found the disembodied heads of the apprentice and several other people, turning blue with frostbite, sitting on the shelves."

   "The mob then stormed Butcher's house and dragged him out by his hair. All at once, the mob began to cut him with their own knives, leaving his head last for his own cleaver. After beheading him, the angry mom decided it was just to bury his head in Indian Hill and his body at Oak Hill Cemetery."

   It was dead quiet for a few minutes.

   "So, you mean to tell us that we're sitting on top of Butcher's head?' asked David under his breath.

   "Yeah, we are, but the creepy part is that they say Butcher's headstone has moved three times already, each time becoming closer and closer to his buried head." As soon as Robert finished his sentence, a drizzle began, creating a dense fog.

   All of a sudden, the EMF meter began to quickly blink red. Then, an outline of a six-foot man carrying a large rectangular shape emerged from behind the tree simultaneously with a loud clap of thunder—a warning sound heard much too late by the group.

   Instinct took over; adrenaline rushed throughout my body as I ran as fast as my legs could allow me. The last thing I saw as everything was completely concealed by the fog behind me is something I will never forget: Butcher holding up his own head, which was splattered in blood as he cracked a vicious smile