FIDUCIA

If you are ever at Likelike Drive-Inn you will probably find me looking at the people sitting at the counter of this all night eatery, wondering why they're here? Perhaps there's some kind of simplistic comfort in being able to sit in a crowded place where people barely notice you?

Kuko

KUKO



It was a moment where the attraction was instantaneous, they both knew it, they could smell it on one another, the only problem was time. The two were busy with projects which their boss seemed to purposely pile on the both of them so that they might be separated and not even have a moment to talk in the break room or at the water cooler.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #1

PEPEHI A MAKE KA POPOKI



The grass looks a lot greener than usual what with it soaked in Kyle's blood. It's almost artistic if you think about it. The bold red color juxtaposed against the lush rich green looks like something straight out of those Zang Yimou films.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #2

HINA 


The missionary family built their home at the edge of old Ko'olina near a stretch of sand that fell under the watchful shade of Waimanalo and Pili 'O Kahe. The heathens of the Wai'anae ahupua'a needed to hear the word of God and repent their lives of savagery and wanton lust among one another.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #3

CARLY


My only wish for Carly was that she would find herself and be happy, her happiness always counted on external things as did her sadness. There was never any joy from within. Within seemed empty, empty to the point where she might have become like a hard-boiled egg with no yoke or white on the inside, just an empty shell.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #4

PILI KOKE


Over the course of their relationship, Gary Miyashiro and Roberta Yamaoka developed a particular penchant for taking nude pictures and videos of one another where they would download them on their computer for later viewing together. They found their pleasure through a pre-recorded kind of voyeurism.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #5

POLANI


Aunty Rita attends a class where the weaving of feather lei lends her a therapeutic relief, she has become a fine craftsperson and her feather work is intricately detailed and astoundingly beautiful.

Uncle Tiny mentors a rugby team of young wayward boys on the weekends.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #6

PA ILINA


In 1902 the board of health wanted to close unsanitary cemeteries in Honolulu, graves were dug too shallow and most times they were unmarked. Sometimes digging a grave would inadvertently uncover two coffins in one spot. Cemeteries were overcrowded with poor drainage, however, people were against closing cemeteries and Honolulu was running out space for burials.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #7

'UAO

How did indigenous people reconcile taking the life of another human being when it is an ingrained part of your culture? Or was there a reconciliation? Did those pre-contact people suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as soldiers of war and others have done in more modern times?

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #8

SEPOR


Very recently a group of teenagers from Kalihi told me that they found a unique way to play the Ouija board. They said that rather than use a planchette, you use a cell phone instead and as you ask the board a question, the cell phone moves to the corresponding letters on the board. It will cause each letter to appear on the cell phone in the form of a text message.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #9

UA HILO PA'A


The media, social and national has always fed us the idea that families consist of the mother, father and one or two children. During my time while growing up, social media was not yet a gleam in the eyes of the giants who created such a format as we know it today.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #10

MA NA WAHI APAU 'OE

As I have before written, the news of the world which exists outside the four sanctified walls of my office often times crosses the worn smooth surface of my koa wood desk more than I care to mention.
Such news describes a case in which a group of men traversing a popular hiking trail late one evening came across a deluge of vandalism so horrible that they felt compelled to call one of the local news stations for help.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #11

NO LAUA

There is hardly a one among us who is not touched in some shape or form by the insidious crime of kidnapping or hurting a child. In my work, persons gather in my office either for valid retribution or reformation. Other human frailties such as infidelity or greed are everyday occurrences which do not truly merit our services, but that is not to say that whatever transpires without the four walls of my office does not cross the smooth, worn surface of my desk.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #12

NO KAUA

The rains which gather around my home are fine and misty and is often the inspiration for many a Hawaiian chant or mele. How could it not be so since the winds from the back of the valley appear to unfurl the rain as if it were a finely platted mat of Makaloa? In Hawaiian thought, rain is likened to a loved one who leaves a sheen upon your skin like a close intimate companion. Whereas as a deluge of rain may represent sadness or heartbreak.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #13

‘OE IHO

My father’s name was Kahi’uka Napualawa, my mother was Victoria Ka’ehukai Napualawa but she chose to go by her English name because she was named after Princess Victoria Ka’iulani. Father was a massively large man who had the strength of ten men and could easily lift a refrigerator without effort. His hands were big and could cover and man's face and head all in one. He was truly a man among men; who was feared and respected by his peers but never was there a man as gentle in nature and soft of heart and voice than my father.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #14

NO'U IHO NO

This is my story and at this point in my life, it was recommended by my friend Lopaka Kapanui that perhaps now may be a good time to begin transposing my thoughts from the proverbial pen to paper. The question is, where do I begin? It should be prudent that I start with my most recent case so that you can get a sense of who I am and what I do. In the process, you may come to like me or you may come to despise me, in whatever way you arrive at your conclusion, you will at least be able to say that I was truthful and honest.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #15

POLIAHU

“Why was I given this name?” She asked her mother with tears covering her face.

“Because I liked the song, it was beautiful just like you,” her mother smiled and tried her best to reassure her.

“Didn’t you ever think to learn something about the story behind this name before giving it to me?” Her lips quivered and she cast her face down and wiped her eyes.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #16

KUKA KAMA'ILIO

Cowards always hide behind fake profile accounts on Facebook, we know this for a fact. We also know that these kinds of internet trolls will never come forward and face their victims one on one. Such as the case of a Peg Freitas who worked at a state office where her boss constantly lived in fear of her because of her caustic personality and disrespect for his position. Her co-workers avoided her and made it a point to not be around whenever the lunch hour came. Other than her job and shopping, her only hobby was trolling people on Facebook.

Real Hawaiian Stories: Rigoletto

ACT I

I have an appreciation for those who come to Hawai'i from other places and take a genuine interest in our host culture by learning our language and history. There are others who arrive in our fine archipelago and take bits and pieces of whatever fits their liking or interpretation of what they believe is Hawaiian culture. Yet, there are others from out of state who study our Hawaiian legends, myths, and folklore and proclaim themselves to be self-appointed expert Hawaiian storytellers.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #17

'OLA'I

"...Aia la 'o Pele I Hawai'i ea..."

Other than the gathered information that we have today from such scholars as Mary Kawena Puku'i and Nathaniel Bright Emerson, Malo, 'I'i, and others, there are also lesser known accounts of normal everyday people meeting an old Hawaiian woman or a beautiful young girl under the most unusual circumstances.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #18

KA UA LOKU

The combination of the rain and fog came on like a rushing high tide as a small succession of waves battered the sides of a skip or rowboat. It gives you this uneasy anticipation that soon all of the smaller waves will suddenly gather itself and become one big massive wall of water that will wipe you out completely from existence.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #19

THE DAY 

"Did the catering company get everything correct?"

"Yes mom, they're already out in the front setting the food up for the reception."

"Make sure that they're careful with those burners, the last time a catering company was not careful an entire house burned down with the wedding party still in it, they all died in that fire. It was very tragic."

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #20

PUKE HO'OMANA'O

ENTRY: November 23, 1994. 8:43pm.

Someone nearby is watching the 'FRIENDS' t.v. show with the volume turned up very loud. I'm not sure what is more bothersome, that show or my brother in the other room listening to Jon Bon Jovi croon 'Always' for the millionth time. He still hasn't gotten past mom's death and it's beginning to have an effect on his relationship with Lucinda but he doesn't see it. She's not made to be sympathetic

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #21

ANALIA MOKUNA 'ELUA

"Who's gonna make that first mistake, all the way to fire lake?"

-Bob Seger

On the day that I sent a text to Velma Ka'ula convincing her that her husband Henry had sent me to the house to bring over some Chinese food from #1 restaurant she came out to the car and saw me sitting there with a gun pointed at her. I already planned to shoot her the second she showed any signs of trying to run, but I was surprised.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #22

ANALIA

I had no time to react, I only had time to open my front door at ten in the morning and realize that the inside of my place was pitch black even though I'd left the windows and the curtains open. By all accounts, my living room should have been flooded with sunshine.  I made the mistake of reaching just inside the door to the left in order to flick the light switch on. That's when it grabbed me by the wrist and threw me across the length of my living room where I hit the wall full force and got the wind knocked out of me.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #23

THE REALITY OF CHILDREN

I don’t know why I do this to myself because it only makes me sad, and then it makes me angry because I’m reminded of just how alone I am, but I sit there anyway and let it happen. I love sitting on the beach just an hour before sunset where I can just take it all in, the cool breeze, the impending red, yellow, and purple hue on the horizon.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #24

STAY OF EXECUTION

Being possessed even momentarily really sucks, it drains everything out of you and you feel like you've been made someone's spiritual bitch. Let's not even get into how you get to see everything from this person's perspective while he was still alive, let's not talk about past events replaying itself right in front of you while you're speaking to a room full of people. All you can really do is acquiesce and begin to describe what you see, not knowing that what you describe will draw those people into the past along with you.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #25

DEBBIE

The state or the city and county or whoever may have paved this old road but it’s still the same road that took me on walks to and from school in the mornings and afternoons. Yes, there was actually a time when people walked to school believe it or not. Sure, there were strange people back in my day but nothing was ever so bad that you had to lock your front door at night or worry about your children being snatched right off the street.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #26

BOOMI

I held her in my arms the second she was born and I was the first to feed her, mine was the first face she saw. She was a c-section baby which meant that she was already special and the world would know it, except here she is now twenty-two years later, broken and damaged. Her face is red and flush with emotion, her eyes are swollen from hours of crying and they’re a bit chapped and raw because the Kleenex she’s using to wipe away the pain is of the industrial grade, coarse and unsympathetic to her heartbreak.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #27

PASS

"I've been drivin' all night, my hands are wet on the wheel.
There's a voice in my head that drives my heel.
My baby call said I need you here.

It's half past four and I'm shifting gears..."

In the early mornings, before I drop my wife off at work, we usually stop at a drive-thru for her coffee and some breakfast. After taking her to her office, I return to the parking lot of that same drive-thru to finish my eggs, rice, and spam.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #28

MAMA THE MOON TO WEAR

Someone is knocking on my door at the butt crack of dawn. Obviously, you can tell that this must be December because six in the morning is considered to be too early. Maybe not for senior citizens but certainly for myself. It's one of those polite knocks that can be creepy and unnerving.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #29

AIA KE OLA I KA POHAKU

From the time of her infancy when she could only crawl, Melia loved the feeling of the grass between her fingers and toes. There was such a large amount of space in the front yard of her house that her parents would follow close behind her as she could crawl all day in the grass if they allowed it. More than the grass itself, Melia loved to run her little hands along the unusually shaped ridges of a large pohaku which stood upright in the eastern corner of the yard.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #30

GLYNIS

I always told Glynis that she was too good for me but she never believed me because she always believed that people could change. That seems to be the theme in relationships like ours, the man enters into the sacred covenant of love completely damaged and the woman instantly knows that she can change him with her love. That theory has a two percent success rate, but me and Glynis we were the other ninety-eight percent. She was the girl you brought home to mom, just not my mom because my mother was a hard-drinking piss ass drunk most of the time.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #31

THE END OF THE END 

The day began early with a business meeting and an unexpected hike in my business clothes. The heat is unforgiving and with the shape, I'm in which is not good, I'm surprised I wasn't dropped by a cardiac. Afterward, we had a well-needed meal since we did not have time to take in some breakfast before we left the house. The a/c was very welcoming and the new waitress with her inability to properly place a fork, spoon, and knife on a napkin did not bother us at all. My wife and I exchanged talk regarding business and family matters which are one and the same practically.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #32

HO'OKI

It was an important meeting for key higher-ups in law enforcement and the attorney generals office. Their conference room was a hidden space behind two large double doors which could only be accessed by inserting two separate keys into two separate locks simultaneously. A large round table sat in the middle of the room with an appropriate number of chairs to accommodate it and it was here that the most important decisions regarding the state of Hawaii would be made.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #33

ALMOST HERE, BUT NOT

"We sat outside the Starbucks sharing an acai bowl, but I was oblivious as to the contents mounted upon the pile of purple pureed berries. I was too busy crying, but in crying, I knew I was being selfish because it was Candy's decision to make, not mine. It wasn't my body, it was hers, and I couldn't disagree with what she wanted to do because she was honest about it. She wasn't ready to have a child. In her own words, she said she wasn't mature enough, and I had to respect that. She grabbed her napkin, dabbed the tears from my cheeks, and reassured me that everything was okay; it should have been me comforting her, not the other way around.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #34

MOCK CHEW'S

Boy sat across the table from me, working on his cold ginger chicken and fried rice. He alternately drank a cup of hot tea and a chilled glass of soda with ice in it, I don't judge, but it was a strange habit if you ask me. The place belonged to the late Samson Mock Chew, who died of a massive heart attack in the storage room. An exorcism also took place here to release the restaurant of the ghosts of the Four sisters who were killed in a kidnapping scheme gone wrong.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #35

RIZAL

"...And I looked and behold, a pale horse;
and he that sat upon it was Death..."

“I always have this dream that I’m standing at the top of a ridge and I can see everything from Kapolei to Pearl Harbor and as far as the Honolulu skyline. I can see Diamond head in the distance like it’s just a shadow, but something dark is coming from that direction and whatever it is it’s laying waste to everything. High rises, homes, the green in the mountains, people at home or at work or in their cars, it’s all turning to ash and it’s headed my way. As this dark devastation gets closer I am expecting to see the four horsemen of the apocalypse, but leading the way is a large black car; one of those old Cadillacs,” Detective Takata nervously shared his dream with his colleague Detective Munday.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #36

LIBERATION STREET

A home is a home as long as there’s a roof over your head I suppose, for some, it’s an empty Sear’s refrigerator box, for others it’s a pitched tent on a city sidewalk. Mine has got a clogged drain in the kitchen sink and an old a/c that the landlord keeps promising to replace but never does, things could be worse. Since my place sits between two large warehouses I don’t get any of the natural breezes which come down from the Kalihi mountains. I mean, the breezes do come, just not to my place.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #37

THE SECRET 13 SOCIETY

NOW

It is either funny in a sardonic way or unique in the way that an anomaly is unique, whatever the case may be, cowards will never tarry and address you face to face. Nor will they apologize for their transgressions especially when they’ve stabbed you in the back and hoped to all that is good that you would at the very least go away or at the most, be dead. Sadly for these particular cowards, hope is the thing by which I will rob them of, but I will be good and feed them the one dish that I expertly know how to conjure, fear.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #38

FEAR AND LOATHING IN APARTMENT 301

Taking a shower at the end of a long day is a relief because the hot water melts away all the stress from my day. The job has its challenges with obnoxious co-workers and vindictive dispatchers but that’s easy to deal with because I’m someone who doesn’t stand for bullshit. Traffic is always a mess and that’s something that can’t be helped. The members of the canoe paddling club that I belong to are wrapped up in politics more than canoe paddling but I just focus on the reason why I joined in the first place.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #39

KELLER

The beer and the salami sandwich didn't go well together, not initially, but like life, you learn to deal with the bitterness and take it in stride. They always say that one should write about what they know, I can tell you right now that I know I'm going to have a few more bottles of beer until I drink myself into a numb oblivion. However, before I do that before I take another sip and you lose me completely or the other way around, I should fairly explain why I am so hellbent on getting drunk in the next few minutes.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #40

GENE

I had liver problems and so if you don’t know what that means, it means that my days were numbered and that I was done for. My wife and children knowing that the end was near, gathered around me at the hospital and told jokes and ‘remember when’ stories. They were all purposefully cheerful and upbeat, which I appreciated considering the circumstances. Our youngest, our little one named Glory told me that she finally figured out why my eyes were jaundiced or yellow.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #41

THREE SONS ONE BASTARD

The waiting room was maybe the worst place to be when your mother is somewhere down the hallway fraught with a combination of pneumonia and a massive stroke. The doctors are doing their best, they always say they are and you have to take them at their word. My two older brothers sit silently while one watches the T.V. on the monitor and the other buries his face in a magazine. My father sits there stone-faced as ever with an open newspaper in front of him.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #42

FATHER GAMBLE

Dear Brother Reuben,

I felt it proper that someone should know, this way no one should ever think me so low that I have succumbed to the superstitious beliefs of the Hawaiians and the locals. I can never repay the kind favor you have afforded me, even when it seemed that excommunication hovered at my door. My kind parents would have surely turned in their graves as it was their wish that I should devote my life to the service of our Lord.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #43

ORIAS

“Mother fucking piece of shit dick breath bastard!” She caught me off guard, I wasn’t prepared, she punched me in the sternum and dropped me like a ton of bricks. All I could do was lay there and cover up until I got my breath back. Good thing I was curled up tight in a fetal position because she soccer kicked me clear across the room and sent me crashing into the opposite wall with a sickening thud. She’s a good one hundred and twenty pounds but she’s beating my ass like a prizefighter, right now I have nothing left. If I don’t do something, she’ll kill me, that’s for sure.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #44

PUA MAMANE

The green leaf of the Mamane has a dark rich color that could tell anyone who looked at it, that it was full of life and could at any moment release its seeds to the forest floor where it would germinate until it too would become another Mamane that could reach a height of forty-nine feet. The tree blooms a seductive yellow blossom each winter and spring, that can certainly be woven together as a most attractive lei to adorn your shoulders.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #45

ASK

Gerald Iida was found dead in his room one morning, it seemed so sudden and very strange because even at Gerald's age, he was the picture of health. Rumor had it that when Gerald was found there were bruised finger marks around his neck and the lingering smell of crushed ants. The residents in the care home began to talk and the word about nefarious doings surrounding Gerald's demise eventually got back to Anne Mikuni, Guy Kumata, Todd Watanabe and Linda Nosaka.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #46

MEA

Watching someone die makes a lasting impression on your soul, you don’t forget it, you don’t get over it. It’s an indelible loop that plays over and over again whenever it feels like it and you don’t have any control over when that memory decides to rewind and restart. What makes it even more delicious is when the memory plays back in slow motion during the most uncomfortable recollections. It never leaves you, especially when it’s a friend of yours who dies right in front of you.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #47

BAMBOO FOREST

We were exactly what they called us, a bunch of rich spoiled kids with nothing better to do. We were bored, and stupid if the truth is told, not a good combination. We were in the middle of a bamboo forest in Nu’uanu where nothing but the feral pigs and wallabies should wander and furrow for their food. The location was good because we were off the literally beaten path that led up to the ruins of Kaniakapupu, we each wore camouflage Gilly suits so that no one who happened by would see us. Luckily for us, it was a quiet night and not a person appeared to wander up the trail by his or her self. It was me, Tyla, Langford, and Shorts who now sat in a closed circle with an Ouija board in the middle of us.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #48

ONE SMALL QUESTION

I have skeptics who attend my tours all the time and most of them keep their opinions to themselves, or if they do have an opinion, they post it on Yelp or what have you, but never to my face. Someone on a ghost tour once said to me, “I don’t believe that people actually come back after they’re dead.”

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #49

I'M GETTING CLOSER TO MY HOME

“...I’ve been lost now, days uncounted...”


‘Moral ambiguity,’ that was my answer when Boy asked me about the contract I fulfilled on behalf of Edmund Poli, and yet I ended up killing Edmund too? I interrupted a long lifeline of Poli’s money which kept police officers and politicians happy. Imagine that? A Hawaiian man with money to move and shake the powers that be, someone who sways the tide of business and politics? That was Edmond Poli; in another lifetime he would have been a ruling monarch, a high ranking Ali’i, but he was a mob boss who for the sake of appearances, went legit.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #50

HE AIN’T HEAVY

It was one of the very few meetings that Boy took by himself and without the counsel of his uncles and aunt present. It’s because this wasn’t that kind of meeting, it was something of a more personal matter that no one could be a part of. It was Aunty Rita who was able to locate the nameless assassin and bring him to the office, he wasn’t hard to find because he always made it a point to blend into the scenery at the most public places.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #51

SASA

Of course, I can never mention the name of the establishment but you know the one I’m talking about because there’s one in Manoa where the Bon Dance Mafia hang out at all hours of the day and night. I ended up working there because I was a transfer from another store in ‘Ewa Beach. I come from a Samoan family where a village literally raises a child and can give them Sasa if they act out of turn, so that makes me an old school Samoan.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #52

Grant Society File: Case 38131 #94615647

1976


Dear Karen,

It’s springtime, and I live on the second floor, right above an Irish bar. Who would have thought? When the sun sets here in Boston, I can see it from my window. You wouldn’t believe how it paints the buildings in this city with its glow. It gives me a somber feeling when I look at it because it reminds me of how the sunset looks like a beautiful yellow fire just at the edge of Alakea street.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #53

SOMETHING

“Please say something to save us, anything.” She begged him because she still held on to a glimmer of hope that there was something within him that was worth staying for. She hoped beyond hope that the light she once saw inside him would shine forth at this most crucial moment.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #54

RESIGNED

"This shape is my shade, there where I used to stand"


Blessings as a whole are quite simple, mostly for official store openings or military ceremonies. Other times it's a placebo that brings people peace of mind and comfort just to see the ti-leaf and the wooden bowl of water filled with Hawaiian salt. Other times a blessing is performed as part of a wedding ceremony or for the naming of a toddler or a one-year baby party.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #55

OTHER SIDE

I was hit by a car that didn’t see me in the crosswalk one night. It was not that the lighting was bad but more so that I was dressed in dark colored clothing and the driver of the oncoming vehicle did not see me until it was too late. A Hawaiian man came to me who was not the driver, he helped me to my feet and walked me to the side of the road and had me sit so that I could gather myself.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #56

MOLEHU

Around our dinner table one late night, while living in Kaukamana street home, it was our neighbor Johnny Martin’s turn to tell his story. He lived at the end of our lane and just behind his home was a large backyard that hosted two oversized banyan trees. In the corner of that old yard was his tool shed where he could often be found working on projects into the late night. Often times Johnny would sleep on a bed which he put in there in case one of the projects needed round the clock attention until it was finally completed.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #57

LOST AND MEETING PETER

Hiking at Judd trail for the first time, I’d become lost even though I could hear the sound of passing traffic nearby I had difficulty finding the road. It wasn’t long before I gave up and found a tree to sit under where I could get some rest and gather my thoughts. I was frustrated at the sound of passing cars because it did little to comfort me, instead, it made me angry. I realized that it was the sound of the wind blowing through the tall grass that simulated the sound of vehicle traffic. I really was lost and out of sorts, I felt discombobulated, I couldn’t explain it.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #58

POUNDING

Kaniau place is a little lane just off of Waipahu depot road. Back in 1976, I remember seeing the flames burning the old school building at August Ahrens Elementary school from our house. We all walked up the street that night and watched it burn to the ground. In our front yard we had a guava tree and in the backyard was a tall mango tree that gave me peace and solace whenever I would sit in its high branches in order to decompress from my thirteen-year-old teenage worries.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #59

Grant Society case:2371 File # C11587

Zelda Rubenstein talked about memories of love and home and earthly pleasures in regards to the spirits that haunted the Freeling family house. The Correa family that lived in their Kapolei house believed the same thing about whatever it was which haunted their home because they had seen the movie, “Poltergeist.”

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #60

Part of the family, Part of the office, Part in the middle

After my father and brother died I was on my own pretty much until my father’s sister, aunty flower took me in. It was an okay life because aunty flower seemed to be oblivious to me going off and performing exorcisms on my own without her being the wiser. Turns out that I was the one being strung along, the therapist that she was having me see was actually a sex offender, and aunty flower wasn’t really my aunt.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #61

Bad Words

Potato salad is made by boiling the potatoes whole and skinning them after they cool down. Then it’s carefully cut into cubes while holding it in one's hand and then letting it drop into the bowl one after the other. After that comes the grated carrots and the finely chopped onions along with the celery and the required amount of mayonnaise; some people add hard boiled eggs to the mix but Helena always made hers special by adding the right amount of black and green olives.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #62

GREGORY

My son had problems in school, and in his social life, he wasn't always that way, but something happened as soon as he turned eleven. He went from this happy go lucky fun loving kid to this thug who felt that he always had to prove himself. He was arrested one too many times for stealing and fighting, but the juvenile court judge gave him a break and sent him to a work program that would help straighten him out and get him a decent education and a job. The other choice was jail, and the judge assured my son that he wasn't going to survive a month in lock-up.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #63

KIHE

No one wants to know you or even be within sight or sound of you once they find out that you know when and how they will die. I’ve learned to accept that whatever this is, it’s not a fault or a curse, it’s a sneeze. When a sneeze is coming on you don’t have control over it and it contorts your body into funny shapes and tenses your muscles up all at once and then, like myself, you make this ungodly noise that you otherwise would not have made if you were in control of your faculties. That’s what this thing is, I have no control over it and it happens when it happens.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #64

TAKE IT HOME (For an old wrestling buddy who passed away)

I get cramps now and again in these little muscles that I never knew existed, be that as it may, the collar and elbow tie up didn’t cause any pain...luckily. Pulling the Kid in for a headlock, I take the opportunity to get some air in my system because I’m about to take off. He shoots me into the ropes and I hit him with a shoulder tackle, he goes down. I bang the ropes on my right and take a short hop over him as he hits the mat belly first at my feet. I do it again a second time and he does the same thing, on the third try he leap frogs over as I come off the ropes and on the way back he gives me a giant hip toss.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #65

IHE

The days of blistering heat at such places as Makua and Nanaue were twenty years away from becoming a reality. For now, here in 1997, we had just completed our three-year training in the art of spear throwing and spear catching. It’s not as easy as it sounds and, as a matter, of course, we were to only wear malo while under the tutelage of my eldest cousin. For the first year we had to stand at a distance while our cousin cast rocks of various sizes at us, our task was to block, catch or parry any one of the rocks. The first month was easy because we were dealing with very small pebbles, the second month with larger rocks and the third with sharp-edged rocks.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #66

QUINN

Tennessee whiskey is the best way to go after you’ve had a long day or when your moral compass won’t let you eat or sleep. Some people take their Tennessee whiskey with ice but I don’t care for watered down liquor...watered down.…yeah watered down, that’s how it all ended, in the water.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #67

INTERRUPTED

This wasn’t a contract but I was pissed as shit, sure they fucked with my peace of mind but it’s the way they went about it that brings us to this point in the story. They live across the street from me and they’re noisy, they have domestics, they smoke weed and crack and the smell invades my study when I’m trying to work but I let it go, because in my line of work you get found out if you get involved.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #68

POKE YOUR EYE OUT

It was under the table, it was always under the table. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner it was under the table. No one knew, no one thought about it, no one noticed and no one seemed to care. I was in this alone with only myself to depend on. The only time it bothered me was when everyone in the house knew that I was headed somewhere other than work, and that was always on a weekend or on my day off. It would grab me by the ankle and it wouldn’t let go, that is until I threw some table salt at it. As luck would have it I went a day-long fishing trip out near Alan Davis, instead of catching fish I got sunburned and dehydrated.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #69

Doctor Tanaka

I remember a few years back having to go to the emergency room because I was having heart palpitations. In the end, it turned out to be acid reflux, but the young female Doctor wanted to check me into the hospital and keep me over the weekend for observations. We mentioned to her that we were headed for a weekend trip to Kauai, and she made an off-hand remark as to how hard-headed men can be. Without a second thought, I just blurted out, "Your father was the same way."

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween! 2017 #70

I'M STILL THERE

A regular bunch of stupid teenagers on a Saturday night, bored with nothing to do. They all pile into one car and do something even more stupid, they drive to a heiau. Not just any heiau, but Pu’u’omahuka heiau. It’s an hours drive from town but when they get there the gate is closed so they park the car at the entrance and walk the rest of the way in. It’s a fairly long haul but by the time they get to the old sacrificial temple the sun is gone and it’s pitch black. No one thought to bring their flashlights and

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #71

DARA’S SONG

The day was filled with clients who would not see reason and insisted on the downfall of either their fellow workmates or family members, and all for childish petty reasons. Someone accidentally bumping into someone else at a cramped state office without offering a ‘Pardon me’ or ‘I’m sorry’
festers as a grudge with no grounds to cast a curse. A family member who is upset at another for being successful felt that he was ignored and not properly thanked for having a hand in that person's success, and on and on and so forth until it filled the entire day from morning until just a minute past two in the afternoon.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #72

Personal Tours

Private ghost tours are the ones that have helped me gain a favorable reputation because it’s a smaller more intimate atmosphere and there’s a lot more than can be done as opposed to having a group of sixty people or more. There is also a potential for a lot more things to happen because some of the people who become a part of a private tour are also psychic to some degree whether they realize it or don’t. In either case, whatever it is that’s in the environment or floating about

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #73

DARA

1997

It was typical of this kind of story, I saw her from across the room a few times but only at a glance. I really didn’t get a good look at her until I nearly ran her over after exiting the men’s bathroom. I remember I apologized and I said that I should have been more careful and I apologized again. My friends and I were enjoying a few after work drinks and pupu’s; for me, it was as many dirty martinis as I could stand.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #74

BARBI

She called me one afternoon but her request was one that I’d heard many times. Normally it was easy to talk to a person out of this kind of request because it was a heat of the moment sort of thing and we all know how a rash decision turns out. Clearly, she was angry but there was an undercurrent of hurt beneath the surface, “Is this the ghost guy?”

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #75

You'll Never Get To Heaven.

It's interesting how we recall things from our childhood years in a specific way and that there are things we internalize and carry with us for the remainder of our living days. There are other things we let go and don't ever think about until a smell, a sight, or a song triggers an infinitesimally small memory to reignite itself into our conscious world. Everything comes back just as it was from so long ago. For me, it was a photograph of myself at eight years of age.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #76

To Thine Own Self Be You

“I was directed to this office by an informant of mine, he said you could help me?” The hardened police detective named Roy Wong was not much older than Boy and, by his demeanor, he had seen much in regards to the ugly side of human nature. He was cordial and polite but it was obvious that somewhere within that well mannered, professional veneer was a hair-trigger temper that only needed a minimum amount of coaxing in order to come to the surface. Most men from Hawai’i’s finest were built that way, but this one was a special case. He was the good cop and the bad cop rolled up into one,

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down to Halloween 2017! #77

Chak-lag

It goes without saying that the tattoo expo was packed to capacity with artists and fans of skin art in equal measure. Many tattooists pooled their money together and shared a booth while others were given their own singular space to work out of. Then there were those who were the featured artists that everyone came to see. Added to the spectacle were skull jewelry merchants as well as those who sold tattoo machinery, the expo was very busy. Off in a corner where there was not much foot traffic and where one would not even know this particular booth existed were it not for the hemp style shirts which were being sold, sat a wrinkled old Filipino man on a simple straw mat with a set of antiquated hand tap wooden tools with teeth like combs lashed to the ends.

Ua ho‘omaka ku‘u mo‘olelo i Hawai‘i

Ua ho‘omaka ku‘u mo‘olelo i Hawai‘i
My story begins in Hawai‘i

Hawaii's history is passed from generation to generation through mo'olelo, storytelling. Everyone has a story, where does yours begin?

In this shameless plug, I encourage you to check out this t-shirt designed by my wife, Tanya. It makes an awesome gift, especially for our family and friends who are living far away from our beautiful island home.

My Story Begins in Hawaii - Hawaiian Tribal Design
by Kino_Lau_Designs

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down to Halloween 2017! #78

Andy

1972

Our little house on Kaukamana street hosted a small yard out front that was enclosed by a chain link fence. In it was a lime tree that was hard to climb because of the thorns that lived on its branches, and fruit that was practically inedible because of the gifts which the birds left on the lime. I remember taking a picture with my niece Donna and her brother Harry my nephew in that same yard one afternoon. In the picture also was Andy my foster brother who we were taking care of for the time, he was mentally challenged but very boisterous and affectionate.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #79

Closure

I stood back and watched my daughter kneel at her mother’s grave at the Hawaiian Memorial Cemetery. This made five years since her passing and it never gets easy for Jerry. No one expects their mother to die of a massive heart attack at just forty-eight years old but that’s life. I’m careful to keep that bit of philosophy to myself, I can’t ever share that with Jerry because it will just piss her off. Me and Jerry’s mom, I mean, Jerry’s mom and I went through a really bad divorce, so to say that there’s no love lost is an understatement. I’m sad for Jerry because I can see the loss that she is suffering, but I can’t feel it. I’ve got too much hate for her mother and it’s still festering, I wish that time could cauterize all wounds because that could make things a lot easier for me too. Then maybe me and Jerry, I mean, then maybe Jerry and I could come to some common understanding or something. Maybe we can start living.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #80

Oli

In the chant are the mindset, the knowledge, the history, the language and the intent. Depending also on the kind of chant you are offering, there is the faith that the purpose of the chant will see its result after it is given. Some chants have the 'i'i or the trilling vocal styling that gives it the ability to raise the skin of the listener. Other chants are of a sing-song variety, while still others are monotonal which is the bare basic method in which to perform a chant.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #81

Famous Last Words... Maybe

It’s a comforting feeling to see everyone gathered in one place, exchanging stories with each other about the most mundane things, but laughing uproariously about it as if it were the funniest joke ever told. Life gets that way sometimes, especially when you’ve been dealt such a tragic blow that you begin to see the humor in the most minuscule thing. Grandma is telling all the girls about the first time she met Grandpa; he showed up for their date with a big hole in his pants and he had no clue about it. That is until he excused himself from the table and went to use the bathroom. Grandma said she had to wait for him outside the men’s room just let him know that his pants were torn. She wanted to save him the embarrassment of having to walk back into that crowded Chinese restaurant called ‘Lau Yee Chai.’

Menehune and Bigfoot: Fact, Fiction, and Genealogy

According to the information that has been passed down from my mother and my aunt and to myself, the Menehune or ‘Manahune’ as they were referred to, were believed to be the first people who were already occupants of our archipelago before the mass migration from the South Pacific.  The description of such a people being squat and ugly is hardly realistic, and the Menehune were not and are not "little people" as we see in the movies but entirely proportionate humans of smaller stature who are only three or four feet in height.

In some circles, it is said

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #82

Contract

The OSPREY silencer works best for me. I don’t know how other guys in this field work it, but when I have to fulfill a contract in a very public place, it has to be quick and easy. Especially on a 9mm, the OSPREY is your best friend. The contract is a guy who likes to go hiking and normally starts out at six in the morning and always completes his hike by 10 am. What he does beyond that is anyone’s guess, I’m just here to do what I have to do. This morning he decided to hike up to Kaniakapupu, Kamehameha III’s old mansion up in Nu’uanau. He parks near the water reservoir and walks the few steps up the road that it takes to get him there. I park a few feet past the trail to the right between two large boulders. I take the side trail that eventually joins the main path and I come up just a few feet behind him, I keep him in my line of sight but I don’t get too close. There are other hikers up ahead and a few coming down the trail toward me, so I’ve got to be cool and very careful.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #83

Where are you going?

“...Well, I came upon a child of God he was walking along the road and I asked him, tell me where are you going? This he told me ..”

The years I spent in the army was unkind and ruthless, being that I was what they called a ‘Buddha Head’ I constantly had two enemies to fight, the Viet Cong and the United States Army. My mistake was figuring that since I was from Hawai’i they wouldn’t lump me together with the other Japanese ka-tonks from the mainland. No such luck, as far as they were concerned we were slant eyed like the VC and we could very well have been spies.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #84

Panina

“...Pakalana na’u ho’okahi ‘oe...”

Her hands, her fingertips, the way of her hand holding mine or holding anything for that matter, had a gentle grace to it. There was a supple beauty in which her hand would strike an ipu heke but not for the sake alone of striking the gourd instrument but more so to draw out its sound, its potential. It’s the hope of what it could be when worked in the right manner. She was the same way with people, even when they were beset with the worst of characteristics, she saw the lotus flower that lay beneath the muck and mire of their inner pond. There was an instant when she used to work at an architectural firm just off of Fort Street mall, it was the end of a long day and as she came down the office stairwell which led down to Hotel Street, a lone thief hid just beneath the steps. The moment he saw her take the bottom stairs,

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down 'Til Halloween 2017 ! #85

Death In a Velvet Blue Blazer

A lot of times the river gets damned and nary an idea is forth coming, that’s usually the sign that I should go stretch my writers' muscles and take a stroll. I ended up at the outdoor coffee shop where I don’t go very often, but here I was with a cranberry tea drink in front of me and my cell phone at my side. Other people who sat at nearby tables were either alone or in the company of their dog or other companions. A homeless woman who sat in the corner would become openly belligerent to anyone who walked by, but everyone ignored her. Tom Minder sat two tables away from the homeless woman enjoying his favorite

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #86

Sahm

Fair dealings in certain state offices depend entirely on who you know or if the person you’re dealing with in that state office likes you or not. So, you can only imagine how upset I was when a paranormal investigative team from Shikoku, Japan filed for the same permit that I did and got an approval faster than you can say, ‘Kalanimoku Building’

There I was at 11:03 in the morning yelling at the poor state worker who herself was worn down

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #87

TEDDY

"...Sundown, you better take care, if I find you've been creepin' round my back stairs..."


(Fiction)

THE DAY CAME LIKE ANY OTHER day as the sun rose in the east and set its light through the windows of Alan Higashi’s home.  It was the sunlight that invaded his living room and roused him from his sleep.  His vision gradually came in to focus, and he was surprised to see his ex-girlfriend Kenzie fast asleep on the carpeted floor at the foot of his couch.

“Oh yeah,” he said to himself with sarcasm, “How could I forget?”

 Kenzie and Alan had been broken up for a while, at least in Alan’s mind they had. However, she would still have one of her incidents where she would randomly show up unannounced at Alan’s apartment and beg him to take her back.  It usually ended with Kenzie threatening to

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down 'Til Halloween 2017 #88

Mother and Child Reunion

“...No, I would not give you false hope, on this strange and mournful day...”

It was already 12:30 am as the 25 passenger minibus idled quietly along the length of Kiona’ole Road. The trees which lined the paved path gave off the impression that we were in a Hammer film movie where a horse-drawn carriage ravages its way to its inevitable destination as it takes its charges to meet their dark and sinister end. Unlike those old horror movies, however, ours was not an old haunted mansion which awaited us at the end of our path. Ours was a haunted tree that was rumored to be infested with the spirits of the restless dead

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #89

Mililani Mauka 2

A woman who wishes to remain anonymous lives in Mililani Mauka. She says she is of sound mind and body and may be ridiculed at work and at church if it is found out that this is her story. She said that a couple days ago she woke up in the morning and went to the bathroom and when she was done doing her business, she went to the kitchen to brew up some coffee. She said that the trip from her bedroom to the bathroom and then to the kitchen was very unsettling in that she felt someone had been following her the whole time. Each time she turned to see who or what was behind her, no one was there. However, once the coffee was done brewing, she sat at the breakfast table to enjoy her cup of joe. “I happened to glance up,” she told me. “On the ceiling was a trail of huge human sized foot prints which came out of my bedroom and into the bathroom. The prints then emerged from the bathroom and stopped right above my head where I was sitting.”

Mind you that at this point I was sitting with her in her office at the Davies Pacific Center. I told her that even for someone like herself, the story was too fantastic to believe. She made no reply but pointed up to the ceiling. I forgot if I screamed or cried, but which ever action it was that came out of my body, I do know that I fell backward out of the chair that I was sitting in. There were two huge footprints on the ceiling right above her, and two huge foot prints on the ceiling directly above me.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down 'Til Halloween 2017 #90

Fidem Ferocia

"...Before you slip into unconsciousness, I'd like to have another kiss, another flashing chance at bliss..."

"I'd be scared too if I were you... I'm mean, the last thing you want is for your friends to find out that you're not who you made yourself out to be, right?" It was unnerving for Reynold to sit there and hear

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #91

Shawn

The orange-yellow glow of the sunset bathed her form so completely that it muted the color of the blue and green bathing suit she wore. If ever a moment was so picturesque, it would have been that one, it was a moment where her damp hair fell perfectly about her face and shoulders. It was a moment where the glow of the setting sun brought out the color from the light brown of her eyes, where it made her smile just as insipid as natures most stunning display. Although a grown woman, she was always our

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #92

Witch Time

1994 Stanford University

The lovemaking began in the morning when he brewed the first coffee cup for Crystal while she was still asleep. A younger Boy Napualawa gently massaged her feet until her eyes opened, and then he kissed her on the forehead. She could smell the vanilla aroma of the cup of Joe as it sat on the stand next to her bed. "Coffee is ready when you are," Boy whispered. His foreplay style is the intimate food prep of human interaction at the end of an evening because real lovemaking was a process that happened for an entire day. After Crystal showered and readied herself for class, Boy prepared a small plate of eggs, Benedict, to take with her. While at class himself, Boy would spend the remainder of the day tossing pebbles into her cerebral pond by sending little notes to say something as simple as, 'I can still smell your fragrance,' or 'Thinking of you.' All he could do was hope that words like those ensured that his ripple would continually radiate to her shores and prepare her mind and body to receive him later that evening. Boy wouldn't take Crystal in an animal-like fashion by ravaging her completely and leaving her to lay there covered in sweat and out of breath the second she arrived. He first massaged every part of her feet and knew the locations of all of the pressure points that would bring her relaxation and comfort. He let her rest afterward and then went to wash his hands before preparing dinner. Sitting across from her, he listened intently while she shared the news of her day; Boy didn't reply until she was done. Later, he left her to bathe on her own for as long as she wanted. He joined her toward the end, helping to scrub her back and legs.

Entering the bedroom, Crystal jumped on his back and wrestled him to their oversize bed and pinned him down by holding his wrists and applying her full weight on top of him. 'I know what you're doing, Mr. Napualawa,' she whispered. 'Tryna be all romantic and sly.…coffee in the morning, sending me sexy notes while I'm in class and then a foot massage, dinner, and a shower. If I didn't know any better, I would think that you were trying to get into my pants."

Without missing a beat, Boy smiled and asked, "Is it working?"

Looking at the bed for a second, Crystal replied, "Well, you and I don't have any pants on, do we?"

"It seems that we don't," Boy nodded and glanced around the bed as well. "I am led to believe that we are both naked."

Laying flat on his body so that he could feel every part of her, Crystal gently placed her forehead on his chest and began kissing her way up to his lips, 'First I'm going to ravage you, then I'm going to make you cross-eyed, then you're going to pass out. Then, I'm going to wake you up the same way and start all over again.'

Crystal kept good on her promise, but she was pleasantly surprised to find out that Boy had more in his reserves than she gave him credit for. Their lovemaking went on into the early hours of the morning, where Crystal suddenly awoke and realized that she had only an hour to get ready for the first class of the day. Boy's first-class wouldn't start until 11 am. She rushed to put herself together and hurried out as fast as she could; a second later, the door opened, and she peeked her head back in, "I'm not done with you yet, be prepared."

….………

They were both Leland scholars and part of the residential program at Stanford. Her name is Crystal Mc Faire, but Boy's pet name for her is 'Mac Fairy.' She calls him 'Mister.' Boy typically had time to have breakfast and catch the news before he got ready for class, but this morning he had to go to Safeway to get more eggs and probably stop in Mitsunobu's on the way back. He hadn't given any attention to the news in the past few weeks, but suddenly something caught his attention and stopped him before he got to the door.

….………

Crystal was pleasantly surprised when she saw Boy waiting outside her class. There was a serious look on his face as if something were wrong. Pulling her aside, he spoke to her as quietly as he could without raising any great concern, "Have you seen the news lately?" Crystal shook her head slowly, "No, I haven't; what happened?"

"Police found five dead bodies all around Larsen and Arboretum Grove. The authorities said that these people died within weeks of each other. There are five weeks this month, that means one death a week," Crystal had never seen Boy this way before, and it began to make her worry.

"Alright," Crystal said calmly. "Then walk me to and from all of my classes, but you also need time to study yourself, right?"

"Alright," Boy agreed; still, something didn't feel right, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Time went on, and things went back to normal and Boy no longer had a fear for Crystal's safety since there weren't any more dead bodies turning up on the outskirts of campus. The fiery lovemaking was also back in full swing, which always left Boy with a silly smile on his face. One morning while Crystal was already in class, Boy made a bowl of sticky rice, hot dogs, scrambled eggs, and natto. He had only enjoyed two bites of his concoction before he accidentally dropped it on the kitchen floor. Now there was a sticky brown mess all over the carpet. Boy hunkered down and opened the doors to the kitchen cabinet, searching for a roll of paper towels or at least a giant sponge to clean everything up. He found a short stack of cloth towels, which was just what he needed. Upon removing it, he discovered a collection of mason jars filled with different kinds of herbs: Angelica root, Bindweed, Chicory, Hemlock, and Vervain.

….………

Later that evening

The house was unusually quiet when Crystal got home, and she found the lights on; that's when all the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Walking into the living room, she found Boy standing behind the dining room table with five mason jars in front of him, each filled with a different kind of herb.

 "You get only one chance to explain why you have herbs that are used for placing curses on people. Don't try to appease me, don't pull the sorry girlfriend act. One chance, Crystal, don't blow it." Boy's demeanor was frightening, and Crystal could only bring herself to ask one question. "What does that one chance hinge upon?"

"Your life," Boy's answer was short and to the point.

He turned each jar around so Crystal could see a sticker on the front of each one. They were names scribbled in Crystal's handwriting. 'Clarence Must, Al Claimesh, Pan Nial, Greg Alvero, Ben Struthers,' She gave Boy a blank look and stared at the jars and looked at Boy again. Pointing to the jars, Boy said, "Those are the names of all those guys who were found dead a few months ago, you know the ones I told you about on the news?" Boy then removed the sixth jar from his jacket pocket and put it on the table next to the other jars.

This one had Boy's name written on a sticker, 'Hanson Napualawa.'

"Asafoetida in that one, used in voodoo black magic to make someone forget and leave you alone. You were going to make me forget you and leave you alone?"

Crystal was very nervous, but she had to tell the truth, "I didn't expect to fall in love with you."

"And these other poor idiots, who were they ?" Boy's eyes were like a quiet flame ready to burn at any second.

"They were in my way, that's all! I needed to be at the top of the class, and I could not afford to get less than an 'A' plus! I'm a Leland scholar! Do you know what that means?! Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Health, I had to be the best in every class I had to!" Crystal's teeth were bare; her eyes were wide and bloodshot. Her features changed all of a sudden as if a kind of realization overcame her. "Wait a minute, how do you know so much about those herbs.………unless?" A look of panic came over Crystal, and she shot her open palm toward Boy and screamed an incantation, "Anahl nathair ortha bas ocus betha do cel debumh!"

Boy crossed his fists over his chest as an orb of black flames erupted from Crystal's body and streaked straight toward him. His palms flew open, and he uttered a phrase in Hawaiian, "Ho'i a 'ai i kou kahu!" The black flame spun right around and went back to Crystal and sent her flying across the room. Her body hit the reinforced wall with a sick thud and crumbled to the floor. Boy walked over to where she lay, not even bothering to offer her comfort. "Mister, I didn't expect to fall in love with you.…. the others were nothing...he wanted me to kill you too but I couldn't. I thought if Asafoetida made you forget, then he wouldn't want to harm you,"

She was dead, her spinal cord snapped, but she held on for just a few seconds more because she thought she could tell Boy about the man that wanted him dead but to no avail. Death took her before she could say anything else.

….………

Today

Betha and her sister Abigail sit in front of Boy's desk while uncle Tiny fidgets in a chair next to him. Uncle Ivan hisses at his cousin to stay still while Aunty Rita shakes her head and rolls her eyes. Boy's patience is running thin, but he'll have to address Uncle Tiny's problem after the meeting.

 "So," Boy begins while shooting a glance at Aunty Rita, "you're practicing witches on the lamb after being kicked out from your local coven in Los Angeles?"

The two women nodded and looked at one another, "Yes, that's right."

"You moved here to Hawaii and kept a low profile and stayed out of everyone's way and wanted to live your life in peace, is that also correct?" Boy was recounting his conversation from their phone call earlier that morning. The women nodded again and replied at the same time, "Yes, that's correct."

"Would you mind rolling up your sleeves and showing us what happened?" Boy was very polite and not at all demanding. Because of that, the two women removed their sweaters to reveal angry black and blue bruised human bite marks all over their arms and neck. The bites were child-sized, and the teeth marks were very pronounced. The two women wept quietly to themselves and were too ashamed to look up, but Boy assured them that it was alright and that no one in the office would gloat over their plight.

"Thank you," Betha's voice was shaky and still cracking. "We may have been wrong, but we didn't deserve this."

The women trusted Boy now, but they were still hesitant because they were in his territory, and the sisters wanted to be sure that they would not unknowingly disrespect him. Boy continued with his questions, "Tell me, what led the two of you to believe that this was a curse that someone put on you?"

"Betha and I were at a native plant sale at Windward community college," Abigail adjusted herself in her chair as she began to speak. "There was one last Hawaiian Jasmine plant on the shelf, and when I reached for it, a Hawaiian man grabbed it at the same time."

"He was very handsome with beautiful eyes; we were instantly charmed because he apologized and paid for the plant and gave it to my sister and me to take home." Betha smiled just a little over the memory. "We struck up a conversation, and he invited us to join him for lunch and drinks and insisted that he pay for the whole thing."

"We wanted to thank him somehow for being so nice," Abigail confirmed. "He ended up coming to our home in Hau'ula, and we spent the weekend together."

"You mean with yourself and the Hawaiian man you met?" Boy asked.

"No," Abigail replied in a very matter of fact manner. "With both my sister and myself.…he was great!"

"His stamina was unending," Betha sighed as she recalled that weekend. "We kept having to ask him if he was finished or not because he just kept going!"

"And going," Abigail added. The two sisters fanned themselves with their hands as they were now flushed and red.

"That sounds great as the three of you enjoyed each other's company. When did things go wrong all of a sudden?" Boy had already known the answer, but he had to hear it play out so that it would make sense to him.

"The Hawaiian man, he wanted it to be more, he said that he'd fallen in love with us, but we were still recovering from all the hurt and the emotion from being kicked out of our coven. We weren't ready to commit to anyone or anything. We were honest, but he didn't take it well. A month later and suddenly every hour of the day and night, we were covered with these bite marks!" Betha broke down with Abigail, only being able to rub her shoulder.

"So, you believe this Hawaiian man cursed you because of an unrequited love?" Boy asked again. The women said nothing and only nodded. "Do you know who this Hawaiian man is?" Betha and Abigail nodded and pointed at Tiny.

Ivan and Rita shifted very uncomfortably in their chairs, and at that point, Boy excused the two women and promised them that the cursed bite marks would never trouble them again. The two witches saw themselves out of the office and took the elevator down to the first floor. It seemed like forever before the double doors would slowly shut on their own. A second later, Tiny whipped around in his chair and shot a glance of disbelief at Rita, "For real?! Really?! Seriously?!"

Ivan was not happy either, "What?! What the hell are you doing?!" Rita ignored both men and quickly got up out of her chair and headed toward the door but not before Boy spoke up. "Aunty Rita..."

"I have to get home and get dinner started; Tabby must be hungry by now." Her charade was not working.

"We live in the same home; I'm your ride." Boy said firmly. "Why did you curse those women!!?? This had nothing to do with you! It was none of your business! Why did you interfere?!"

"Yeah!" Tiny's veins were popping out of his neck, and he seemed as if he were going to have a heart attack. "You made me look weak! You betta not try say you neva do 'um cause we know the bite marks is your signature so no ack stoopid!"

There was no answer from Rita as she sat there, appearing smug and unsympathetic. She could feel Boy staring at her and knew very well that she would not be able to leave the office until she offered a valid explanation for what she did.

"Alright, dammit," she sighed with disgust. "You've all seen how he was acting these past few weeks? Moping around the office, half focused staring off into space with this hangdog look all the time, listening to those damned sad 70's songs on his Pandora, hiding in the damned bathroom weeping and sobbing! I could hear it down the damned hallway! How was I expected to get any work done? I swear if I had to listen to one more damned Lind Ronstadt song again, I was going to shove that damned phone down his throat! I had to do something to make him stop! And all of this over what?! Two skinny haole witches, who were only looking to sleep with a Hawaiian man so they can make a notch on their broom? I NO 'TINK SO! Of course, I had to step in and curse them! And what better way to do it than with Nahu bite marks?"

Rita stormed out of the office, leaving the three men speechless. She and Tiny were always at odds, but if she did care for Tiny somewhere deep down in her heart, she had a unique way of showing it.

"Witch," Tiny muttered to himself.

"You better not call her that to her face," Ivan warned his short-fused cousin to stay the storm and not incur any more of Aunty Rita's wrath.

Boy could only sit back in his chair and recall his witch who nearly took his life many years ago; it left him wondering about the man who charged Crystal to kill him. Who was he? Where was he? Was he still out there somewhere, watching and scheming and waiting for the right time to try and kill Boy again?

Hawai‘i’s Spirits and Legends: ‘Ōlelo ‘Ino (Curses)
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SAVE THE DATE SHARE
Performance:
Hawai‘i’s Spirits and Legends: ‘Ōlelo ‘Ino (Curses)

Showtimes:
Saturday, Jan 27 07:30 PM
Location:
Doris Duke Theatre

Price:
Museum members: $12.00
General Admission: $15.00
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About the Performance:
Lopaka Kapanui returns to tell stories about Hawai‘i's spiritual realm.

If you had the power, would you put a curse on someone? A slight in traffic, a missed promotion, your in-laws. Your immediate reaction may be “no” but most of us have at least entertained the idea of “what if…” Come hear true stories of people who have put a curse on someone and have lived to regret it. Well, almost lived.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #93

Weight For Me

Deena and her son Noah Sampaio sat at gate 54 at the airport waiting for their flight to take off. It was an impetuous decision to make, but the second the ink was dry on her divorce papers with her ex, Mitchell, she sold the house and her car and packed their bags so that they could move to Virginia with her new boyfriend. Noah sat there crying to himself after arguing with his mother as to how unfair it was that he never got a chance to say goodbye to his friends or at the very least, have a goodbye party. ‘It's my turn to be happy’ his mother hissed in his face

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #94

Tonkotsu

On late cold rainy nights, the noodle house in Kalihi is empty save for the man who appreciates the only pleasure in his life that is given to him through the delectable bowl of Tonkotsu. The owners of the establishment seem nervous and jumpy as their eyes go from the male customer to the clock on the wall and back to the male customer again. They don’t want to appear as if they are rushing him to leave but every minute on the dial, the owner's wife graciously approaches him to see

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #95

Uncle Leonard

The Wai'anae of my childhood memories are like old black and white pictures that only exist in antiquated family photo albums or in the hush of late night discussions with the adults huddled around the dinner table. Raw corned beef on a plate with Hawaiian salt and onions were the evening pupu along with an open can of sardines and a large bowl of poi. As if that were not enough, a pot of Portuguese bean soup with home made sweet bread was always available should the smaller hand foods not be enough.

As the winds from the ocean unfolded down the length of Kaukamana street,

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #96

Maunu

One early morning at a pond which sat at the foot of a waterfall in the back of Honolulu, a young man spies a little Hawaiian girl crying in frustration as she seems to have a measure of difficulty catching fish with her little bamboo pole. The young man, rather than offering to help the little Hawaiian girl, tells her instead that there are no fish to be caught in the pond. The little Hawaiian girl insists that there are indeed fish in the pond, but the young man laughs at her and calls her a silly child. The little Hawaiian girl contemplates her plight for a second and says to the young man, "Maybe I'm using the wrong bait?"

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #97

Fixing a Hole

I moved to Kaua’i and found a small one bedroom apartment in Lihue, the place didn’t seem like much but the most important thing was that there was a 7-11 close by. I was also surprised to have found a job within the first week of moving to the garden isle seeing as how it’s such a small community; jobs are not easy to come by. Fortunately, Kaua’i was a growing town because of foreign developers who were buying up parcels of land. Sure, the Hawaiians and the locals were not happy about any kind of development but in the end, money talks. The job I got is simple, dig a hole and place the dirt on the back of a truck or pile it on the side and let the crew do the rest. The crew is a bunch of good guys, simple. Never been anywhere outside of Kaua’i and never planning to go anywhere else or be anything more and that’s cool. I acclimate myself to them because I want to be no one and go nowhere. The only troublesome thing is seeing the ghosts of road

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #98

Onmyo

Every weekend parishioners of the temple come on their own time to help clean the grounds and maintain the grass and do general upkeep. One of the families who always drove in from Kahalu'u had a lovely daughter who was part Japanese on her father's side. She was all of sixteen years old and very kind and filled with an inherent grace that only served to make her countenance even more appealing. In our phone conversation, the head monk said that on one Saturday, she and her family sat with the monks having lunch and that the girl had excused herself to use the bathroom. An hour had passed, and the girl's mother went to check up on her and found her daughter on the

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #99

Energumen

Tabby’s body was lifeless and gray, her eyes were masked with duct tape, as was her mouth with a large swath of the silver adhesive stretched across it. Both holes of her nose were stuffed with Kleenex and taped over, the orifices in her lower body were filled with tampons, over that, her undergarments were securely taped in between her legs and around her waist. Her ear canals were tightly stuffed with earbuds which Tabby normally used for her iPhone, and the outer layer of her eardrum, the tympanic membrane was covered tightly with duct tape from the same roll.
When the unclean spirit of a cannibalistic child molester named Neil David came to possess her body

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #100

Unwanted

What is the word ‘adopted?’ What does that mean to a boy who is all of eight years old? 

From the moment that my father could see that I was cognizant enough to comprehend language and conversation, he immediately took it upon himself to inform me that I was adopted. As he explained it, he and my mother were not my real parents, my natural mother had given me up because she did not want me. This is what I was told. The word, which meant to legally take a child and raise it as one’s own meant nothing to me, it was the fact that I was now being told that my parents were not my parents and I couldn’t stop crying. 

My mother was upset at my father and he,

" The Hair of The Dog...."

“With eyes shining burnin’ red, dreams of you all through my head...”


 The subject of this article first surfaces in the late 1930’s on the island of Kaua’i, and later resurfaces again before World War II. There was a prevalent illness on the garden isle at that time known as the ‘Inu-gami sawarimono’ or the use of a dog spirit to possess and bring harm to others.

"A Word By Any Other Name..."

Since we are fast approaching the official season of Obon or Bon as it may be, I thought it would be fun to broach the subject of one of our most famous ghosts in Hawai’i, the Nopperabo, or the name for which it is commonly known, the Mujina.
The literal translation of the name Mujina, is that of a Badger which possesses shape-shifting qualities. In its natural form, the creature is said to live in mountainous areas which are far removed from human society. When taking the form of the Nopperabo, it is only for the purpose of scaring hapless human beings away from their territory, although they have taken the shape of the faceless specter, they are not Nopperabo themselves. The true Nopperabo have a talent for blending into human society but are known to ply their trade in lonely places, traditionally appearing first as a person in distress. Our island version of the Nopperabo first made its advent on a Saturday evening on May 17, 1958. The story of what was about to transpire would make the papers a year later in 1959, the reporter was a young Bob Krauss. There was a double feature playing at the old Wai’alae Drive-Inn that evening, ‘Monolith Monsters’ and ‘Love Slaves of The Amazon’ somewhere within that time frame, a young woman went to use the bathroom and noticed another female dressed in a white kimono, brushing her long black hair. The second the woman got close enough, the female in white pulled her hair back only to reveal that she had no face, only a blank orb of flesh. The scream that followed and the stories that came thereafter would propel this faceless encounter into local legend. Now, she is said to haunt a well-known shopping mall since her home was finally demolished in 1994.
Years later, I would be pleasantly surprised when Bob Krauss himself stopped by my job to bring me a copy of that very same article that he’d written all those years ago, it was quite an honor. Since we’re in the mood now, let’s also talk about a few other terms that have been thrown into our local stew of terminologies where one word has become a supernatural blanket word to represent all things ghostly. No doubt, the word we are about to discuss is more than likely derived from a ‘Chanko Nabe’ of words which originated during the plantation era here in our Archipelago.
The word is, ‘Yokai’ but we’ve come to know the word in its more watered down incarnation as, ‘Obake.’
Within the pantheon of Japanese ghosts, monsters, and demons, the Yokai is known as one that has various functions under one name, and various names which take different forms. If we are only speaking in terms of shape-shifting then this particular Yokai function would come under the category of ‘Bakemono,’ or ‘Obake.’
A Bakemono’s true form can be found within its animal incarnation such as a Kitsune, Mujina or Tanuki. Obake is commonly known to take on the forms of household objects. It was funny to come across that bit of information a few years ago, as I recalled living in a house in Waimalu as a child. The house itself although modern for its time in the 70’s, had an interior that was intrinsically Japanese. It would turn out that in less than a year, many of the household objects began to take on a life of their own. The standing lamp would spin on its bottom pedestal, the screen on the shoji doors would poke holes in themselves, and more often than not, the flute of which I was learning to play in school would play on its own, but the sound that came from it was like a Shakuhachi.

Over the decades, the word Obake has become the encompassing word in our island society to mean ghost or apparition as far Japanese supernatural terms go. However, if we are thinking of Obake in specific reference to ghosts of the Japanese culture, then the term Yurei would be more fitting. Though some of you may not be familiar with the word Yurei as you see it written now, you have certainly seen its incarnation in films and on YouTube. They are often the spectral shadows of women dressed in a white burial robe with their long black hair let down around their shoulders and face. They are bound to haunt one particular location and are resigned to said location because of unfinished business. Only when the matter in life that bound them to this earthly plane is resolved, can they pass on, at least one would hope.
This brings us back to the matter of our faceless friend who still haunts the Wai’alae, Kahala area dressed in a white kimono with long black hair. Was her appearance at the old drive-in way back in 1958 a publicity stunt that was meant to attract more clientele to the outdoor theater in order to boost revenue? Or was her appearance just a story started by a few employees who did not expect the tall tale to spread like wildfire for years to come? Think about it, we’ve just now discovered that the Yurei’s costume consists of a white burial kimono and the person wearing the outfit sports long, black, disheveled hair. The Nopperabo in its element is known to blend in with human society but only makes its presence known on dark lonely roads. Could the two beliefs have been mixed up, or did the Nopperabo simply adapt to its surroundings and suddenly decide to make its home in the women’s bathroom of an outdoor drive-in theater?
No true answer to that questions exists, neither does the old Wai’ale Drive-Inn Theater, but a nearby shopping mall does.

Po Kane

My cousin Keone hosted a small group of Maori's who he invited on the ghost tour out to Wai'anae. It escapes me at this moment as to what part of Aotearoa they were from, by that I mean what territory. They were a lively group and armed with a guitar, they shared their mele and haka with the guests during the dinner break. When the sun finally set that evening just at the tip of Kaena point, we piled our guests into our car and drove them out to Keawaula while Glen gathered everyone on the bus. Upon arriving, we pulled our car over just across from the parking lot of the first bathroom. The sun was setting early and I recall as we shared conversations regarding the similarities and the differences of our Hawaiian culture and that of the Maori culture. We happened to notice that a flashlight was on in the back seat of the car because it was shining directly on the window. I opened the front door and put the key in the ignition and turned the car on so that I could roll the back window down. It turns out that there wasn't a flashlight in the back seat, at that moment one of the women in the group exclaimed, "What do you suppose that is?"

We turned around to see that she pointed out toward the ocean; there skimming just above the surface of the water was a perfect round ball of light that moved ever so slowly with a tail at the end. What we had seen was its reflection on the rear window of our car, not at all a flashlight beam from the back seat. We all stood there silently as it became the only light in the pitch black of the westernmost point of 'O'ahu when suddenly it separated into small white sparks and shot directly toward the satellite tracking station up on the ridge. It dissipated the higher it got until it was completely gone. There was no noise and no wind, everything was deathly still until the reverent silence was broken by the sound of the yellow school bus, squeaking and creaking as it appeared around the corner with its blinding headlights. Glen was off the bus first and Keone followed directly behind him, they both stood to one side as the rest of the people emptied themselves out of the giant vehicle. Keone led the group to the big grassy area where he began to talk about night marchers. The Maori's took the opportunity to grab Glen and explained what we had all just witnessed. I was still standing at the car with my hula brother so I did not hear what the exchange was, but by Glen's wide-eyed facial expression, it was obvious that he was astounded. 

With the stories done at Keawaula, the next and final stop was the cave, arriving there in our vehicle we again waited for the bus to empty out. Walking across the street to cave, Keone asked me, "What happened now?'

"Akualele," I said.

"Who was it for ?" He asked.

"Not any of us," I replied. "It was just checking us out."

"Tonight is Po Kane," he said."We better finish early."

I couldn't have agreed more, we were done in less than twenty minutes and on our way. Our guests were taken back to their hotel room in Waikiki and along the way, we had merry conversations and lots of laughter. When we parted company, the eldest male in our group shook my hand and said, "If you ever get to Aotearoa, look us up. What we saw tonight was nothing compared to what I can show you in our home territory. Things will walk right up to you and give you an introduction!"

That was fifteen years ago and I never got the chance to take that gentleman up on his offer, but on those rare nights when we are taking a ghost tour out to the Wai'anae Coast, I remember that man and I remember the night that we saw a living orb as it observed us from the ocean and took off in a burst of sparkling light. Do I hope to see it again anytime soon? I'm in no rush, really I'm not.