100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2024. #35. Ho'omake.

One day, a hiking group traversed a trail nearby. The expert guide showed the group rare plants, native fruits, birds, and fragrant ferns.

Suddenly, the entire forest went silent. Even the pleasant wind that kept the group cool was gone. The unnerving silence lasted for only a second before the air was filled with the horrible stench of sulfur. Now, looking toward the expert guide for an explanation, the group saw how pale his face had become. In the next second, he was screaming at them to get off the trail and lay face down. Practically pushing some of the people in the group, the guide yelled again.

 

“Lay face down, and do not look up no matter what!”

 

Everyone in the group obeyed the expert guides’ orders. Suddenly, there was the deafening sound of drums and thunderous feet trampling by. Deep voices were heard, exclaiming something again and again, “Ho’omake!”

Then, the trilling voices did only what the group could assume was a prayer or chant. The pungent odor of something like a fire also filled the air. Then, it was over. Life in its natural order had returned to the forest’s depths as if nothing had happened just a few seconds previously.

 

Hurrying everyone back down the trail and finally to their van, the guide explained as he drove his group out of the depths of Kahana Valley that a procession of Nightmarchers had come upon them.

 

“Normally, there are warnings and signs,” he said. “I think we missed all that, and by the time we got to that part of the trail, they were already on top of us. No one can look at them; if you do, that’s the end of you. You’ll never be seen again.”

 

Still coming to terms with what had just occurred, the group did not question the guide. The van they rode in traversed the long path out of Kahana Valley until it reached the smooth paved path of Kamehameha Highway, which would eventually bring them back to Waikiki.

 

 

 Credit: Noah Lang Photography.