Strange Things in The Cabin

Informant: Male/27/Hawaiian-Korean mixed ancestry
Location: Koke'e, Kauai

One of our family friends owned a cabin up in Koke'e and invited me and my family for the weekend. This cabin was huge: it had three bedrooms on top of a living room, bathroom and kitchen. The decor in this cabin was pretty off the wall. There was a bear skin rug, taxidermied foxes and deer heads on the wall.

I had a room all to myself. I was maybe 13 at the time. Across my bed there was a mirror and a picture of this Victorian lady spanking a kid over her knee. I thought it was really weird, so I took it down and put it on the floor. And just because I'm not comfortable being able to see myself lying in bed, I took the mirror down too and put it on the floor by the painting. Another weird thing in this room was an extra door. It was like a door that led to another room, meaning there were two ways into that room at one point. This door was boarded shut. You just couldn't open it.

The weather was pretty crazy that night. It wasn't raining, but it was windy like crazy. As I lay in bed trying to sleep, I start to hear a scratching on the wall; the wall that faced the outside. I tried to shrug it off, but after a while I went to my parent’s room. I told my mom that there was scratching noises, but she was grumpy and tired and told me it was the trees outside and to go back to sleep.

So I return to my room and try to sleep again. The scratching noise persisted, and then suddenly...knocking started. Along with the scratching noise, there was now knocking keeping me awake. I tried to suck it up, but I ran back to my parent’s room and told my mom about the banging. She told me it was probably just the lantern by the front door banging the wall and to go back to sleep.

So once again, I return to my room. The scratching and the knocking still persisted, and then suddenly the boarded up door in my room started shaking. It started shaking violently. Then out of the corner of my eye I see a glint...and the mirror and picture I took down earlier that day were both hanging on my wall. I ran back to my parent’s room and decided to sleep on the floor.

As I was laying on the floor trying to wrap myself in what little blanket I could get, I had a perfect view of the kitchen outside the door. All of a sudden there was a stream of light shining onto the floor. It was a skinny beam, and it moved slowly through the kitchen, and then disappeared.

Needless to say I didn't get any sleep that night.

The next morning, with my mom in a better mood, we decided to investigate what could have been making all the ruckus the night before. On the side of my room there were indeed trees...about 50 feet away. The only thing near the wall was ginger plants, and that certainly couldn't make a scratching or banging noise. Then we checked the lantern in the front. There was indeed a lantern, but it was cast iron and did not move. That could not have been banging in the wind.

Next we went into my room to check out the door. My mom took the knob and tried to shake the door, but it would not budge. She and I both tried with all our might at the same time, but that door would not budge even using all our strength. It was boarded up tight.

Finally in the kitchen, the window was facing in a way that the light I saw was in no way coming in the direction of the one and only window of the kitchen. The only thing directly across the bedroom door was a pantry.

As for the painting and the mirror getting back on the wall, well, I know it wasn't my brother because he was far too small to reach that high. I know it wasn't my dad messing with me because he was snoring away all night next to my mom. I know it wasn't the owner of the cabin, because his wife confirmed that he was passed out snoring next to her all night as well.

I don’t know who owns the cabin now, but I would like to go back and see if those strange things still happen.