Weird Hawaii

Evil Eyes

2012-01-22T21:15:00.001-10:00

Female/27/Ethnicity undisclosed

Location: Wahiawa, HI

I lived in an apartment building and became really close with two of my neighbors. We would often have get togethers in each others houses and drink. Well one night we were in one of my neighbor's apartment when we got into the paranormal and things of that nature. My neighbor told me he found a bible hidden in his apartment with a picture of a woman underneath it. Till this day I can still remember her picture and the chicken skin it gave me.

After seeing that picture all I could think about was those eyes she had and how it looked like if I stared at them any longer she would snatch me up right into the picture. It was just something about her eyes that just gave you an instant feeling that something was very dark and sinister about this lady. Needless to say I was freaked out. Who was this lady, and why was her picture underneath that bible? I mean, to go and hide a bible and put someone's picture underneath it seems an extreme precaution to go through.

I finally got sleepy enough to fall asleep. I was dreaming a good dream it seemed, at first. I was with my mother in my apartment (my mother had passed away), but it was my mother so in my dream it was very pleasant. The dream seemed so real it was as if I was really going through the motions. My mother was as sweet as she always was, but for some reason she kept on saying not to go to work and to stay with her. I politely explained, "I can't miss work, you raised me better than that," and I would continue what I was doing. Then she'd say again, "Don't go to work, don't leave, stay with me," with a little more forceful voice. And I would reply the same and continue what I was doing, until it came time for me to leave and go to work. I reached for the door, and what seemed to be my mother at first grabbed my wrist and pulled with great power and said "Stay with me." I turned to look back, but it wasn't my mother. It was the lady in the picture I had just seen with those eyes staring back at me.

I immediately woke up in horror, extremely creeped out. I didn't even try to go back to sleep that night. Ever since then in that apartment I felt as if that woman's entity wanted to do harm to me. I could feel her eyes on me in every room of my house.

As soon as I got the courage to speak about it, I talked to the neighbor who had found the picture. I told him about my dream and he laughed at me. In my embarrassment I went home, trying to convince myself that it was just a dream. Then I about a week later that neighbor came to talk to me. He said he talked to the landlord and showed him the picture of the woman. The landlord told him she was a former tenant that killed herself by setting her apartment building on fire. The landlord also informed him that the picture might have been put there by the lady's brother who claimed that she was possessed days before she killed herself.

Needless to say I moved out as soon as I could, but I will never forget what happened to me and how I felt.

Loyalty

2011-12-11T19:00:00.001-10:00

Informant: Female/27/Korean-Portuguese ancestry

Location: Lihue, Kaua`i

My grandpa told us a story about his middle son, my uncle, who died many years ago from Cerebral Palsy. When all three sons were younger, they used to go play in the baseball park across the street from their house. My uncle at the time had a dog named Trixie. This dog would follow him everywhere he went, so naturally she followed him across the street. But as she was crossing the street, she was struck by a car.

My uncle wheeled his chair over to her and picked her up and cried and cried as he held her. And then all of a sudden, Trixie sprung back to life. As if nothing had happened, nothing broken.

My dad said that this dog was deader than dead. It wasn't moving there was blood coming out of her nose and her mouth. He can't explain how she just sprung back to life. And she lived a very long life after that.

Robert

2011-11-20T20:18:00.001-10:00

Informant: 21/Male/Portugese ancestry

Location: Ele’ele, Kauai

This took place on New Year’s Eve maybe three years ago.It was at the house of my girlfriend at the time and it was the usual NewYear’s party on Kauai: family, friends and fireworks.

Now, the girlfriend I had at the time could seethings. Often times she would tell me stories of her past experiences with seeing ghostsand I would always take her word for it. I remember the first story she told me about aghost named Robert that played with her when she was a kid. She told me he hunghimself and she could see his broken neck clearly with the rope still aroundit.

It was around 1 or 2 am and me, acouple of my friends and my girlfriend were outside playing on my uke singing songs, whenshe suddenly says, “ Robert likes your guys singing.” Of course I was like, "Who's Robert?" and when she replied, my friend I remembered. She told me he was by thepalm tree near the neighbor’s house which was about maybe 25-30 feet away, but nobody was there. Me, being a skeptic, asked her if she could ask Robert to prove that he wasthere by shaking the tree he was at. She asked, and as soon as she did a huge gust of wind blew and the palm tree moved violently back and forth.

I know what you’rethinking. It was just a huge gust of wind. But none of the surrounding plants,hedges or other palm tree moved...only the one Robert was at. Of course I thought it was just the wind, so Imade her ask again…and the same thing happened. A strong gust of wind, but only that onetree moving. I went on to ask a third time with the same results.

It was around 2:50 am where my girlfriend said, “Robert said to go inside. He’s going to leave 'cause bad people are coming.” It freaked out everyone and we all went inside. There were at least five of us there thatwitnessed the palm tree event. In the house my girlfriend said not to move that muchand not to make any noise, and we were like, "How come?" And then 3 am came andinstantly the air pressure in the room became heavy and it was hard to breathe ormove. She described and angry ancient Hawaiian man by the window looking at usand she told us not to look at him. She also said there was a woman withglowing red eyes in the window that was directly behind us. Then came the scratching sound on the walls, and you could hear things dragging on the ground in thegarage. Then suddenly, it stopped. The pressure was gone, and I looked at the time. It was3:15 am.

The pressure was intense and the fear was so real, but none of use could seeit but my girlfriend.

Menehune of Mililani Mauka

2011-11-13T23:05:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/Age unknown/ Japanese Ancestry

Location: Mililani Mauka, Oahu

I am hoping by sharing this story, other folks in MililaniMauka will share their stories. There is definitely something going on uphere but I can’t seem to find any history, tales, fact or fictionsupporting my experiences up here.

My family and I moved into a brand new home in Kapanoe, asubdivision at the top of Mililani Mauka, about six years ago. My son, now eight, was two at the time. Many nights at around 2 am, he would call out forme and I would wearily go to his room, hop in bed with him where we would bothfall asleep. One night, after calling for me, he pointed to a corner ofhis room and asked, “Daddy, who’s that?” I am actuallyblind but, needless to say, the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood straightup. The next night, I permanently moved into his bedroom.

Over the next month or so, my son would regularly awaken around2 am, sit up, and stare at this particular corner of his room. He describedwhat he saw to me as a boy that looked like a little man. One night, Iasked my son if the little man-boy was telling him anything. My son replied,“Yeah, he’s putting his finger to his lips and telling me ‘Shhh.’” That was it – I called a kahu to bless the house, which he did, andplanted a couple dozen ti leaves all around the house.

Over the years, my son gradually saw less and less of thislittle man-boy but would still occasionally wake up at around 2 am and jumpinto bed with me as I was, and still am, sleeping in his room. Although these appearances diminished, I couldn’t help but notice that,even with our windows closed, shutters would open and doors would slam. Could this little man-boy be a menehune just trying to befriend my son and playpranks on me? For the longest time, I didn’t bring this up withanyone except for a few family members and friends who I knew wouldn’tlaugh at me.

One day this past Summer, for some reason, while talkingto a former neighbor who was visiting, I mentioned this little man-boy spiritor ghost to him and I could tell from his reaction that he knew exactly what Iwas talking about. He shared how, when he lived in the neighborhood andhad a sleep-over birthday party for his son, one of the boys was woken andstartled by this very same little man-boy, got freaked out, and insisted hisparents pick him up right then and there … at 2 am.

Then, just a few weeks ago, a neighbor across the street mentionedhow his young son woke up one night at around 2 am and saw something littlewalking up the stairs toward his room. And to top all of these encountersoff, the day after Halloween, I bumped into my new next door neighbors whoembarrassingly laughed and asked if I knew about any ghosts or menehune in the neighborhood. I froze, dropped my jaw, got chicken skin up and down both arms and on the backof my neck … “Why?” I asked. The husband replied, "becauseour two-year old was talking to someone last night and when we asked who it was,she said a little boy. … and when we asked if the little boy saidanything, our two-year old simply put her finger to her lips and said, ‘hush’”.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T21:53:00.000-10:00

Happy Halloween my ghoulies and ghosties! I hope you are having a spookily fun (and safe!) holiday. I posted a new story below, so enjoy!

How did you celebrate this year? What did you go as? I went as gypsy, did some palm readings and tripped some people out.

I'd love to see your Halloween costumes!

Trouble Comes Down The Road

2011-10-31T21:48:00.001-10:00

Informant: Female/27/Korean-Portuguese Ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kauai

My sister and her husband were about to start building their new house. Before they could get started, the construction crew insisted that the land be blessed first. So since they couldn't get a priest on such short notice, they got a Hawaiian Kahuna to bless it.

Me, my sister and her husband, and the construction workers all stood and did what we were told by the Kahuna. She said, "You're at the end of a cul de sac. Since you are at the end, I suggest you plant Ti plants here because trouble comes down the road. If you don't, there will be many arguments and fights in your house."

Not too long after that I was talking to a friend of mine who lived with his sister and her boyfriend. He was telling me that lately they have been getting into a lot of fights together. I remembered what the Kahuna said, so I asked him, "Do you happen to live at the end of the road?" He said, "Yeah, actually. How did you know?"

I told him to plant some Ti leaves. Not sure if they did or not, but they no longer live in that house anyway.

Spirit Alarm Clock

2011-09-28T16:26:00.000-10:00

Informant: Female/24/Irish American ancestry
Location: Hilo, Hawaii

My boyfriend is a Hilo local of Hawaiian heritage who works for a security company. He had to go to Kona to start work by 6:00am, so he woke up at 3:00am and left by 3:15am. We live downtown in a huge, very safe building with a lot of empty rooms across from Central fire station, but today for some reason I locked the door as soon as he walked out. I lay back down and put on my eye mask and headphones on to help me fall back asleep.

As soon as I laid down, I felt that I was not alone. Since they weren't earplugs I could still hear everything, just slightly muffled. I could hear noises like someone was moving around the room, but I tend to sometimes have an over-active mind and didn't want to believe there was a presence with me. Somehow I drifted into a very light sleep. I rolled over onto my side facing the door when all of a sudden something slid into the bed.

It got on top of me perpendicularly and started jumping up and down on top of me crushing in between my ribcage and my hip! Three times this happened before I could speak, I was so startled. I somehow managed to yell, "Get Out of here! Get out of here!" And the pressure disappeared. I just laid still with my eye mask on waiting. I could tell it was still in the bed and it felt like it was caressing the side of my face. As soon as it stopped I lunged towards my phone, ripped off my eye mask and turned on some worship music.

I could see nothing in our tiny studio that looked out of the ordinary. I know that I wasn't dreaming because when I rolled over in bed I woke up. I told my boyfriend what happened and he said that the evening before he had been lockig up the rooms after open house and had been whistling when he felt a chill on his neck. He apologized because he probably called the spirit with his whistling!

The Child Spirit

2011-08-14T19:09:00.002-10:00

Informant: Female/49/Japanese Ancestry

Location: Kalaheo, Kauai

We were visiting my good friend's mother's house, and we looked outside her window and noticed sheep; lambs following their mother. It was something so cute and sweet to watch so I told my husband to take a picture with his phone. He took two pictures and I took a look at it when we got home to show my daughter.

Well to my surprise I quickly noticed this white cloudy smoke by the sheep. I zoomed in and it was a see through apparition. It looked like a little child running down the hill. In the second shot is a little faded the white cloud, and you can see that the figure moved position.You also notice that the animals are not afraid of that spirit so I feel that it is not a harmful one.

Wow!! This is the most unusual kind of scary spirit we ever captured on film! What do you see?

The Slapping Ghost

2011-07-17T12:27:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/22/Hawaiian - Portuguese ancestry

Location: Lihue Airport, Kauai

I was sitting across the street in the smoking area one night waiting for my ride to pick me up. I was just minding my own business smoking by myself, nobody was around at all (it was pretty late at night). Suddenly I felt something gently touch the back of my neck. I ignored it; I didn't turn around to look if anyone was there.

Maybe I should have, because two seconds later someone slapped me hard on the back of the head. I jumped up and ran across the street. I still didn't look behind me.

The Levitating Stereo

2011-07-09T23:42:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/22/Portuguese - Hawaiian ancestry

Location: Kapahi, Kauai

I was sleeping one night. Dead sleep, like coma kind of sleep. Suddenly I was woken up by something. Across my bed was my stand with my TV, and next to that was an entertainment center with my big stereo on it. All of a sudden all I see is a big black shadow float over my bed. It was my stereo. Something had picked it up, and it floated over me and crashed onto the ground into a million pieces.

I got up and watched TV in the living room the rest of the night.

When my dad woke up he was like, "What are you doing in here?" I point to my room and tell him to go look. He was like, "What the hell did you do?" and I said, "What did YOU guys do in your past?"

I don't sleep in that room anymore.

The Pork Vanished

2011-07-03T12:11:00.003-10:00

Informant: Female/30’s/European mixed ancestry

Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

My cousin used to own a big blue van. We all used to cruise in it all the time. This particular time I wasn’t with them, but they told me this story.

They were driving through the tunnel of trees with a couple hundred pounds of raw pork in the back of the van. They bought in bulk. It was the middle of the day. They start driving through the tunnel when their van suddenly stalls. It completely dies. There is nobody on the road; no one coming, no one going, nobody behind them and nobody in front. The turned around, and the back doors of the van are wide open. When they looked in the back, all the pork was gone.

They shut the doors and drove out of the tunnel, not seeing one car on the way.

The Truck was Shaking

2011-06-26T20:30:00.003-10:00

Informant: Male/22/Hawaiian – Portuguese ancestry

Location: Wailua, Kauai

I get off of work late, at 11pm. On Saturdays after work I go hunting at my usual spot in Wailua, just me and my dogs. On my way to my hunting spot I had a tingling on the back of my neck; something was telling me that I shouldn’t be going hunting tonight. But I continued on anyway.

After hunting for a while I decided to head back, but three of my dogs were missing. So I’m out there in the bushes calling my dogs. Finally two came back, but I was still missing one. I have a really bad feeling. Even though my dog was missing, I headed back to the truck. I loaded up the ones that came back but decided I couldn't just leave the other one behind. I go back to look for it.

I finally find my dog stuck in a log. I’m digging in the dirt trying to get the dog out and finally I get him. He can’t walk so I’m carrying him back to the truck, and as I get closer I can hear the dogs raising hell. When I reached the truck, it was shaking. And not just like swaying gently, but rocking violently with the dogs screaming in the back.

I said out loud, “I’m sorry if I offended you, I just came to do some hunting, I’m leaving right now.” As soon as I said that, the rocking stopped. I got into my truck and sped off. It was freezing cold and raining, but I was sweating bullets.

I drive a Dodge Ram. It's huge. It would take a few big guys to shake it as violently as I saw it shaking.

The Black Dog in the Tunnel of Trees

2011-06-18T00:00:00.003-10:00

Informant: Male/27/European ancestry

Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

I was told by a friend: "When you're driving through the tunnel of trees and you see a woman in white with long gray hair, stop and pick her up. But if you ever see a man or a dog, don't stop. Don't look back, don't look in your mirrors, just look straight ahead. If you look back, they will follow you to your house and it will be bad."

I'm driving home one night to Koloa. When I enter the tunnel, I see a black dog standing on the side of the road. Looked like a Rottwiler. I don't think anything of it, it's just a stray. Halfway through the tunnel, I see a black dog on the side of the road. I start to worry. At the end of the tunnel, the same black dog is standing in the middle of my lane, facing me. I remember what my friend said: "Don't stop."

So I continue driving, 50 mph. I'm thinking, "Move move move move get out of the way get out of the way, I can't stop he told me not to stop!" I finally reach the dog, and I go right over it. I don't feel anything, no bump, nothing. I don't look in my mirrors, I just keep going.

I go back the next day thinking I clipped it, maybe it got out of the way. There was no sign that I hit anything in the road. Could it have been Poki?

Thank you, thank you, thank you

2011-06-12T00:00:00.007-10:00

Informant: Male/22/Hawaiian – Portuguese ancestry

Location: Wainiha, Kauai

Me and my friend were coming back one night from fishing on the north shore. It was pretty late, like 2am. On our way back, we see a lady on the side of the road. A woman in white, with gray- white hair going down to her butt.

As we’re about to pass her, she starts levitating. She levitates across the road to the passenger side of the truck where I'm sitting. I can’t see her face because her hair is covering it, but I can see red glowing eyes, like fire. Then I see both her arms wind back like she is going to throw something, and I throw my arms up over my head and yell.

The glass of the window shatters into a million pieces. I’m showered with glass. My friend starts to floor it, but I yell at him, “Stop! Stop! Stop the car!” So he stops, and I say, “If you need a ride we’ll give you a ride.”

Something jumps into the back of the truck. We can feel the truck shift with the weight.

When we get to where we were going, we hear a woman's voice say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

The next day, the broken window was completely fixed.

Calling Spirit in Wailua

2011-06-05T00:00:00.011-10:00

Informant: Male/22/Hawaiian – Portuguese ancestry

Location: Wailua, Kauai

I was around 8 years old when this happened, I had just started going hunting. Me, my cousins and my uncle went hunting one evening in Wailua. By the time we were done we were about a mile away from our truck. It was about 9pm. My uncle said “I’m going to go get the truck, you kids wait here.” But my cousins wanted to go with my uncle. I said “I’ll wait right here. You come get me, I’m not walking.” My uncle was like “You sure you wanna wait alone?” I said "Hell no I'm not walking, I'll wait." So he said he would be back in half an hour with the truck.

Not too long after they left, I heard something moving in the bushes. Then I heard my uncle’s voice. “Hey! Come on let’s go.” I said “Hell no I’m not walking back!” And then my uncle whistled. You know when you’re out playing with the other kids in the neighborhood and your dad whistles for you to come inside and you know with that whistle you have to go? That’s the kind of whistle it was. So I jump up and start walking.

My uncle is talking, saying things like “You don’t wanna listen and you gonna get in trouble." Then he says, "Come on lets go down here.” I said, “But I thought we were going back to the truck?” Just then I see head lights, and I hear my uncle’s stereo; the only song he ever plays when we go hunting.

I start running.

Something grabs my backpack, and I let it take my bag. I get to the truck and my uncle asks, “Where’s your stuff?” I point back to where I was and say “I was following you. “ My uncle yells “Get in the car now!!”

I’m bawling, I’m scared. I know I messed up. I know you never answer when someone calls, but it sounded just like my uncle. Now when I go hunting, I never answer when anyone calls my name.

Wasn't That You Just Now?

2011-05-20T19:59:00.009-10:00

Informant: Female/48/Japanese ancestry

Location: Molokoa II, Kauai

This is just a weird thing that happened to me one night, when I was getting ready to go to sleep. I was laying down on my pillow and my husband hadn't come inside the room yet. We had the AC running so the bedroom and bathroom doors were closed. I heard the bedroom door open and I looked but I had my husband's pillows sort of blocking part of my view. But I could see part of the hall way light shining though the doorway, and only the left side of my husband entering through the bedroom door, closing the door behind, and opening the bathroom door and closing it.

Then five seconds later the bedroom door opened and I looked thinking it was my daughter, but it was my husband. I sat up and asked, "Didn't you just come in through that door?" He said no, and opened the bathroom door and closed and brushed his teeth and came out. When he came out I was sitting on the bed and said "You are joking with me right? You came in before this right?" But he said no! Then I said "There is a ghost in this room because someone came in here and opened the door and went into the bathroom and then closed the door just like you did!"

My husband didn't want to talk about it because it gave him chicken skin. But thank God it never happened again! Of course I couldn't sleep that night either! Just to think that a spirit can physically open a door and do the same routine that my husband would do is too creepy!

He Came Out of The Water

2011-03-15T16:34:00.001-10:00

Informant: Female/20's/Mixed ancestry

Location: Fuji Beach, Kauai

My friend sent me these pictures. Her son was in the back of the truck playing with the phone as they were driving past Fuji Beach in Kapaa, also known as Baby Beach. As they're driving by he sees what looks like a white man coming out of the water, so he snapped a picture. As they passed by him, he snapped another picture. This is what he captured.

Here I've cropped, zoomed and adjusted the color and light balance to get a better view.

This is the same beach where the fireball was spotted. Perhaps the two are related?

The Forgotten Music Box

2011-01-22T17:06:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/26/Chinese ancestry

Location: Pahoa Valley, Oahu

A friend of mine who works in real estate came over one night to shoot the breeze. He was telling me about a certain apartment in a certain building somewhere in Makiki that was impossible to rent.

From what he knows, weird things would happen in the kitchen. Doors and drawers would pop open on their own. If you've ever seen the movie Paranormal Activity 2 and remember the kitchen scene, the occurrence is something along the lines of that. People would move in, and they would move right out.

As my friend is telling me about this, we hear a few lines of a faint melody. Faint music box music. And we're both thinking, what the hell? Is that a music box? Then I remembered that I did have a music box that I was given years ago by my parents. It was somewhere in my room, in a box buried somewhere. When I looked for the source of the music, I found my music box. It had fallen out of a box that I thought was in the back of my closet, but there it was on the floor.

It was probably just a strange coincidence, but it did provide a soundtrack for the conversation.

New Year's Spectre

2011-01-02T10:52:00.001-10:00

Informant: Female/26/Korean ancestry
Location: Kalaheo, Kauai

I got a phone call from my friend on New Year's Eve while on my way to Koloa. She was on her way to Kalaheo when she saw something really strange.

"There's fireworks going off everywhere, aerials too. I don't know where I am, I'm almost to Kalaheo. But sudenely I see this ball of light flying across the sky. It didn't look like an aerial. It was changing from red to blue to green to purple. It was changing colors consistently! And it wasn't falling to the ground or shooting into the sky. It was just flying across the sky, changing colors. I was following it in my car! It flew off into the mountains."

To which I replied, "I don't think that's a firework."

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T16:22:00.000-10:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe holiday season. I haven't posted anything in a while, but I have collected a few stories recently that I will be sharing next week!

I also wanted to let you know that posting might become a little sporadic. I started a new job and my schedule is going to be all over the place. Bear with me!

I hope you all have a great Christmas. Eat, drink and be merry (but responsible)!

Red Eyes in The Tunnel

2010-11-14T00:00:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/26/European ancestry

Location: Koloa, Kauai

Underneath my house there is a tunnel that runs the whole length of the structure. It was used back in plantation days, but I don’t know what for. When we were kids we used to play in that tunnel all the time.

One day I was playing when I noticed it was getting really late. I started to make my way through the tunnel to the other side of the house. Halfway through, as I was crawling, I could see the other end, and at the end there were two big, glowing red eyes. I stared at them, and they stared at me.

I figured, well, I can’t go forward, so I’ll just go backwards really slowly. Each time I moved back, the eyes moved with me. It followed me through the tunnel, but it always kept its distance, and it didn’t follow me out.

I knew it wasn’t a cat because cats don’t have red eyes, and they were far too big to be any animal. I still don’t know what it was.

Spirits in The Bank

2010-11-07T12:14:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/26/Chinese ancestry

Location: Kapahulu, Oahu

I work at the Kapahulu branch of a certain bank. One day recently I was on my lunch break eating with my boss in the break room when I feel a slight tug on my shirt collar. It felt like someone was trying to fix my collar. I turned around and nobody was there.

I asked her, “Did you see anything behind me?” which sounds completely crazy already, so I told her I felt someone tug on my collar. My boss was like, “You’re just tired.” Which I was, but I know what I felt and it definitely felt real. The tugging felt like an actual hand.

A few days after that I was coming back again on my lunch break with some food and I walked into the office, where my boss was again. Out of the corner of my eye I see someone’s shadow walk into the hallway heading in the direction of the bathroom. I thought it was another employee, but when I walked into the hallway nobody was there. I didn’t bother asking my boss if she saw anything.

A similar thing happened to a coworker at another branch. She had just closed down and was checking to make sure everything was in order. She looked at the door, and in the reflection of the door she saw a little boy. When she turned around, nobody was there. She was the only person there.

I mean, I’m known for being nail-bitingly neurotic when it's busy, but I know what I felt, and I know what I saw.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T23:12:00.001-10:00

Happy Halloween everyone! My favorite time of the year! I love it more than Christmas, more than my own birthday! What are you all dressing up as this year? I'm going as the Queen of Hearts, but kind of gothed out.

So sorry about last week! I was out of town and set this thing to post on Sunday but it failed. So I'm giving you two stories this week! Woohoo!

I would like to take this time to do some shameless self promotion! See the like box on the left? You should totally 'like' me on facebook.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe halloween!

The Bowling Alley

2010-10-24T00:00:00.005-10:00

Informant: Male/26/Japanese ancestry

Location: Lihue, Kauai

Actual picture of the back of the bowling alley

I’ve worked at the bowling alley for a few years, and a lot of the time I have to do mechanic maintenance in the back of the lanes. One night I was working in the back, and exited a side room that goes right out onto the back of the lanes. The lane right next to the door is Lane 28, and sitting right there on the wood part of the lane was a black figure. It just looked like a pure black figure, sitting there. But I didn’t think much of it, because I had seen it before.

Another time I was working in the back cleaning up some tables and chairs. As I walked down the lanes, I passed lanes 7 and 8 and sitting there was the black figure again. I passed right by it, turned around, and it was gone.

Everyone who has worked at the bowling alley long enough has seen the black figure. One employee was working underneath the pinsetter and looked up through the holes and saw the black figure.

Other employees have heard phantom bowlers late at night bowling on lanes 13 and 14. They’ve heard the ball go down the lane and pins being hit. They’ve also seen balls falling off the rack, pushed by nobody.

The bowling alley is full of ghosts. Rumor has it someone committed suicide there when it used to be a grocery store. Lots of old timer bowlers have told me that story, but I forget the name of the person. A senior citizen died there from a heart attack while bowling.

The bowling alley was a grocery store up until the mid 90's. Could it be the location of the meat room incident?

The White Wind

2010-10-21T13:30:00.003-10:00

Informant: Male/26/Japanese ancestry
Location: Wailua, Kauai

It was late one night and I was sitting at my computer like I usually do. My mom was asleep on the living room couch, and my dad was in another room right next to mine with the door closed. Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone walk into my parent’s bedroom. I see clothes move.

I know it’s not my mom, because she’s sleeping. I know it’s not my dad, because if he opened the bedroom door it would make a crapload of noise because it’s warped from the hurricane. The figure was white, and it was like the wind. It moved passed and rustled the clothes. I couldn’t make out if it was a man or woman.

I’ve seen the figure before, when both of my parents were asleep. I’ve moved my computer monitor since then.

Giveaway Winner!

2010-10-18T16:07:00.000-10:00

Thank you to everyone that entered! Congratulations to the winner!

Halloween Giveaway!

2010-10-10T13:56:00.005-10:00

Hello faithful readers! To thank you for your support, and in the spirit of Halloween, I'm having a special giveaway!

The lucky winner will receive a copy of Obake Files by Glen Grant. It's my favorite ghost story book. I read it so much it fell apart, so I had to get another copy!

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment in this post telling me what your favorite story on this site is. That's it! I will pick the winner by putting all your names in a hat and drawing randomly. If you are an anonymous user, please leave me a name of some sort so I have something to put into my hat of magical drawingness.

The winner will be announced in ONE WEEK (Sunday October 17) right here on the website via VIDEO! I'm getting fancy, I know!

So go leave me a comment and good luck!

The Knudsen Gap Hitchiker

2010-10-02T23:43:00.005-10:00

Informant: Female/??/Japanese ancestry
Location: Knudsen Gap, Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

It was 10:30 p.m. and my sister was leaving work from Kalaheo and heading towards Lihue. She notice that she was the last car as she passed the Tunnel of Trees. As she was going down the slight hill where there is an old, short concrete bridge, she notice out of the corner of her eye there was a really bright light shining from the passenger seat window. She suddenly realized a very dark figure had entered her car and was sitting in the passenger's seat. The air suddenly became extremely cold; so cold that her teeth started chattering. She didn't dare look at the dark figure that was sitting right next to her. She just kept asking out loud, "Is that you, dad? Is that you, dad?"

This lasted the span of about a minute as she was about to make the turn that goes between the mountain. Suddenly the dark figure jumped out of the car into the hao bushes. The air in the car returned to normal. She wasn't freezing nor were her teeth chattering.

That dark figure scared her so badly that her husband had to drive her to work for about three weeks until she felt comfortable enough to drive by herself again. She never encountered that scary ghost hitchhiker again nor does she ever want to. That stretch of road is called the Knudsen Gap, and there have been quite a few tragic accidents on that straight away. I think (don't quote me on this) it might have to do with that dark figure that jumped in her car.My sister didn't look at it so she wouldn't crash. I can only imagine what that thing looked like. Scary...

Dad Doesn't Like You

2010-09-26T14:26:00.009-10:00

Informant: Female/22/Japanese ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kauai

This happened a really long time ago in May of 1990 when I was 22 and my boyfriend at the time was 25. It happened between 11:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m.

We were going to bed around 11 p.m. and I went to close the bed room door. But I didn't want to get off the bed so I just put my hands down onto the floor and the rest of my body was still on the bed. I reached for the door which was only a foot away from the bed but I just couldn't find. I was swinging my hand around when all of a sudden I looked toward my left and right at the foot of the doorway I saw wrinkled, pale white feet standing right there! I froze and my eyes started to slowly look up, following up to the shin and knees. I jumped onto the bed and my heart was pounding!

I told my boyfriend that someone was standing by the door! He said" What?" I said, "Someone is standing by the door!" So he go up and took a look around the house but there was no one to be found. I told him that it look liked my dad's legs when I used to massage them when he was dying of cancer. He said, "What, you think your dad is visiting you?" I said "Yes. I do dream about him and he always says to me that he is always here with me!"

The next morning he woke me up and asked me why, around 3 a.m., I was smothering him with the plastic bag, the one with the huge purple stuffed bunny in it. I said " What? I didn't do that. Why in the world would I do that to you?" He said, "Yes, you did it twice! So I punched that stuffed animal across the room!" I didn't see it across the room, so I looked at the end of the bed and there it was, the purple bunny in the plastic bag on the floor. I just look at him and said, "OH MY GOD, MY DAD DOESN'T LIKE YOU! IT WAS HIM THAT DID THAT TO YOU!"

Even though it was my dad, he did scare me that night! It was a warning from him because we did break up a few months later. Now I am married to the most wonderful man that God could bless me with! Thank you dad, I love you and miss you a lot. Amen.

Take Uncle Back

2010-07-27T15:00:00.004-10:00

Informant: Female/28/Japanese ancestry
Location: Kekaha, Kauai

A bunch of friends and I went drifting at Triangles in Mana on the west side of Kauai one night. We had all gathered along that long stretch of road along the beach in Kekaha when we noticed one of the cars lagging behind. Suddenly all we see is the car burn rubber and race over to where we were, and the car doors flew open and people jumped out.

The driver was screaming “Get the f*** out of my car! Get out now!” The rest of us were baffled. I thought to myself, “I know we didn’t do any drugs tonight. What the hell is going on?” Finally the driver said, “I was driving and then all of a sudden there was a man in the back seat of my car! I saw him in my rearview mirror, and he won’t get out!”

I have an ability to see and feel spirits, so the driver and my boyfriend pleaded with me to go over to the car and take a look. I refused, but I told the driver, “It’s just a gut feeling I have, but uncle wants you to take him back the way you came. You were driving too fast and he couldn’t get out of the car. He wants you to take him back. That’s just what I feel.”

The driver refused to get back in the car with the spirit. So finally, after a lot of pleading, I gave in and approached the car. I covered my eyes, and when I got to the car I felt for the door and spoke.

“Uncle, I’m sorry, but you gotta get out of the car.”

If that spirit was a real person, I would have run for my life, because I felt such an immense anger coming from him that I started hyperventilating. He was pissed. I told the driver he had to take him back, and he had to take him back now. He finally sucked it up and got back in the car and sped in the other direction.

I had my eyes closed the whole time, but even then I could see him without even having to open my eyes. He just looked like a regular guy. Not big, not small, not old, just like a regular guy. But he was pissed, and he wanted to go back.

The Spirits in the Basement

2010-07-27T14:39:00.003-10:00

Informant: Male/26/European ancestry
Location: Koloa, Kauai

The house I’ve lived in all my life was one of the original plantation houses on Kauai. It had a basement that was used as a prison for plantation workers that refused to do any work. One Halloween night my friends and I decided to go down there at midnight with a tape recorder and a video camera to see if we could catch any activity.

After a few minutes of recording with the camera and recorder, all three of us felt a chill down our spines, at the same time. It got cold, and the video camera started going out of focus. But it wasn’t the whole picture that was blurry, it was only certain parts of it. Like in the very center it would be out of focus, but the rest of it would be fine. We spent half an hour down there when we decided enough was enough.

When we reviewed the tape recorder, we could hear multiple voices that weren’t ours. We knew it wasn’t anyone from above in the main house because that dungeon, for lack of a better word, was completely sound proof.

I don’t know what happened to the tapes, and we can’t replicate it again since my dad has since sealed the basement.

The Poi Pounder

2010-07-27T14:37:00.012-10:00

Informant: Male/26/European ancestry
Location: Koloa, Hawaii

When I was a boy, I never believed in any of the Hawaiian superstitions or traditions. My house has a lot of Hawaiian history that could be found in the most normal of places. I found a King Kamehameha coin in my back yard, and borrowed my friend’s metal detector to see what other kinds of treasures I could find and possibly sell for a profit.

The detector picked up a signal, and I unearthed from my backyard an ancient poi pounder. It made no sense to me that a metal detector should detect rock. I decided it would be awesome to take to show and tell the next day, so I put it on my nightstand and went to bed.

That night, I had the worst nightmares I have ever had in my life. I was dreaming that Hawaiians were stabbing me with spears, all over my body. Finally in my dream I got stabbed in the hand, and I woke up. When I looked at my hand, there was a line of blood running down it. When I wiped it away, there was no wound.

I didn’t waste any time. At four in the morning I grabbed a shovel and a flashlight, found the place where I dug up the poi pounder, and put it back in the ground. I apologized profusely. The next day at school I told my friends what happened, and they scolded me saying “Don’t you know that only a Kahuna can remove those things?” to which I replied, “I never believed that stuff!” “Well, I bet you do now!”

I certainly do.

Lights in the Deep Water

2010-07-27T14:34:00.003-10:00

Informant: Female/28/Japanese Ancestry
Location: Ahukini Pier, Kauai

I was down at Ahukini one night with my boyfriend and some friends fishing. While everyone else was doing their thing, I went out onto the pier. I was looking at the water when I noticed a light in the distance. I thought it was the reflection from the moon, but when I looked up, the moon wasn’t above. The light started to come closer to the pier where I was standing, and I couldn’t figure out what it was.

Was someone diving there? It could be a dive light, but I knew from my boyfriend that you can see the beam of a dive light, and there was no beam visible, just a glowing light deep under the water. I started to get that sinking “Oh crap” feeling in my chest, and I yelled for my boyfriend to come over.

He came, and I asked him if the light could be a diver. He said no, because you couldn’t see the beam of the light. It finally came over to the pier where we were standing, and we stood there looking at it, wondering what it was. Suddenly the light dimmed out and vanished. Two seconds later, it reappeared out in the bay, where I first saw it.

There’s no way a human could have swam that quickly. To this day we still don’t know what it was.

The White Spectre in the Tunnel of Trees

2010-07-27T14:29:00.003-10:00

Informant: Female/28/Japanese ancestry
Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

Three of my friends were heading home through the tunnel of trees late one night from a party. They had a bunch of food with them, but were sure they didn’t have any pork, because everyone knows that you should never take pork through the tunnel of trees.

Two friends were in front, blasting the music. The third friend was in the back of the truck with the food, alone. As they started driving through the tunnel, the friend in the back noticed something rise up from the road. It was white, and it started coasting along the road, dipping and floating and getting closer. He started pounding on the window to the cab, but since the music was so loud the two friends in the front couldn’t hear him. The white thing, which looked like a big white sheet, caught up with the truck.

The truck stalled, and the two friends finally heard the frantic pounding on the window. The white sheet flew up over the truck and down the road. It then turned around and came back, over the truck, and down the other side.

By this time the two friends in the front were trying to pull the friend from the back inside. They watched as the sheet went up and down the road countless times. They finally decided to check all the food, throwing off all the tinfoil. They discovered an entire pan of kalua pig, and threw it out the side of the truck. The white sheet passed over it, then descended on it, and vanished along with the pig.

The Walking Doll

2010-07-25T13:21:00.009-10:00

Informant: Female/28/Japanese Ancestry
Location: Unknown, Kauai

My boyfriend and I decided to crash at a friend’s place one night. He showed us to the room we would be staying in and we starting settling in when he says, kind of as an afterthought, "Oh by the way, there's a doll in that closet in a showcase, and it likes to walk around the house at night."

I was like, sure, yeah right. I thought he was messing with us. The doll was a Japanese Ichimatsu doll in a blue kimono, locked in her showcase in the back of the closet. The kind of Japanese dolls that aren't uncommon in lots of houses. The closet door always stayed closed, my friend said.

In the middle of the night I'm woken up by strange sounds coming from the closet. It sounded like a small commotion. And then suddenly, I hear the closet door slide open. It wasn't loud, but I heard it slide open really slightly. I'm laying there thinking, "Oh heeeeeell no."

And then I heard little footsteps.

Really slight, rapid footsteps, kind of like when you hear a rat running across a floor. It walked out of the room, down the hallway, and I could hear it in the kitchen and living room area, walking around. Then it came back to the room, and went back in the closet.

Oh hell no! That doll is not walking around the house! I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but I didn't dare get up to look at it.

The next morning I told my boyfriend what happened, and I told him to check on that freaky doll in the closet. The closet door was still open slightly, and when he looked inside, the doll was out of her showcase leaning against the wall.

My friend told us that he tried to burn the doll and bury it, and even took it to the dump. But the doll always finds its way back into the house, back in the closet.

Dream Faces

2010-07-19T00:51:00.000-10:00

Informant: Female/25/Korean ancestry
Location: unknown

During a class party with my all-female group, I mentioned that I had a website full of ghost stories. My students then begged me to tell ghost stories, and then they began telling some of their own.

One of my students, an 11 year old, told me something that I found interesting. She said she can sense spirits and she can see their figures, but she can never make out their faces. But when she goes to sleep at night, she dreams of the spirits she saw, and she can see their faces. But she can only see their faces in her dreams.

Strage Occurences at Solomon Elementary School

2010-07-03T18:41:00.004-10:00

Informant: Female/59/Puerto Rican ancestry
Location: Schofield Barracks, Oahu

Solomon Elementary School is located on Leilehua Plains on the base of Schofield. Legend has it that it’s a gathering place of Hawaiians and Hawaiian military operations happened there. Solomon is also in the path of the night marchers. Many teachers have reported strange unexplainable things happening both in after-school and during-school hours.

Teachers have reported hearing people outside the doors, walking up and down when they have been working late in the evening. When they would look, nobody would be there. Teachers have also experienced in a certain room the radio turning on all by itself. It always happens in the same room.

One of the portables near the fields would experience a locking phenomenon. Whenever a teacher would leave, the door would lock from the inside. It’s a deadbolt lock that you can’t lock it from inside, because if it locks from the inside, logically the students could lock you out. In this same room quite recently (maybe a year or so ago) teachers and EA’s reported that their phones would inexplicably call each other. The teacher’s phone would call the EA’s cell phone when neither of them were touching them. Another instance reported that one day the teacher turned off Sesame Street and all of a sudden things started to fly off the shelves. They actually flew around the room. They turned Sesame Street back on and it stopped.

Then a few years ago a teacher was leaving late one night when she saw a group of Hawaiian - clothed people walking past the room. She saw them and quickly left the area.

My classroom would occasionally get broken into by kids. But these kids were good about breaking in, oddly enough. They would do strange things like clean up all the garbage and never leave a mess. One morning we came into work and found that they broke in, but the room was left open and messy. It was covered in trash and we think the kids got scared off by ghosts, but we will never really know.

Personally, I’ve experienced times where I’d been sitting at the computer with my back to the desk, no one around and the windows closed, and I would hear things rattling on my desk, like papers shuffling. There would be no wind, and when I would look up it would stop. But once I looked away it would start again. I would say “Cut it out,” and it would stop. This has happened more than once. I would also be at the door talking to someone in my empty room empty when I would see a man walk from my room to the next, but there would be no man there. Another thing that would happen frequently is that my door would open and close, open and close, all on its own. The kids would always go to see who it was, but there would never be anyone there. According to the Hawaiian priestess, the area that my classroom is in is a porthole or hot spot for activity.

There have been so many strange things happening at the school that they would constantly get it blessed. When the rooms were renovated, the construction workers got the two rooms that have the most spiritual activity blessed, without previous knowledge of the hauntings. The school didn’t tell them anything about those rooms.

Solomon Elementary School has been blessed by a baptism minister, by the school kupuna, and by Hawaiian priests. One Kahuna spread a little bit of light on why the school may have such spiritual activity. She said that there is a lot of activity there because it is close to the Kolekole Pass where the warriors of Wahiawa and Waianae would meet in battle.

The Haunted Oahu Post Office

2010-06-27T14:41:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/63/Japanese ancestry
Location: Honolulu, Oahu

Strange things happen at the main post office near the airport on Oahu, where I used to work. A colleague of mine was walking down one of the hallways when he saw a dog. It ran away when it saw him, and suddenly he saw a big Hawaiian man without a shirt on. He called out to him, “Hey, what are you doing?” The Hawaiian man walked away and disappeared through some equipment.

Another time after using the bathroom, I was washing my hand at one of two sinks when suddenly the faucet of the other sink turned on by itself. I looked around, but there was nobody else in the bathroom with me. I was totally alone.

I don’t know the history of the building, but people say that it is supposedly haunted.

2010-06-21T00:00:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/30/Filipino ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kauai

My grandpa was in the hospital, so I decided to go visit him before work. It was really early in the morning, around 6am. Before I went to his room, I stopped to use the bathroom on the ground floor. I was the only one in there when I entered one of the empty stalls.

While I was in there doing my business, I heard the door open and someone walk in. I looked under the stall, but I couldn’t see anyone inside walking around or in the stall next to me. Then I heard the door open again, and footsteps again. This time it was a real person. I could hear him walking and see his feet. Then I heard the door open as he left.

After he left, I heard the door open yet another time, and again, I couldn’t see anyone in the bathroom. When I got out of the stall, there was nobody there.

Voices at Anini Beach

2010-06-13T22:23:00.003-10:00

Informant: Female/12/mixed ancestry
Location: Anini beach, Kauai

Me and my family went camping at the end of Anini beach one weekend: me, my mom, dad, brother, and my dog and cat. That first evening we were there my dog, who was right next to me, all of a sudden got paralyzed. My cat went over to him, and my dog growled and swiped at my cat, but missed. But my cat fell to the ground, his chest all scratched. When we looked closer at the scratches, there were human fingernails in the wounds.

The next day my whole family went to gather some firewood in the nearby mountain. My dad was far up ahead, and me and my brother were together, with my mom not too far behind. Coming from the bushes we started hearing whispers coming from all around us. Suddenly a black shadow passed by us. My dad was too far up ahead to hear anything, but my mom called out from behind us asking if we heard anything. She was behind, but she had heard it too.

Pork in The Tunnel of Trees

2010-06-06T22:45:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/27/Hawaiian-Korean mixed ancestry
Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

A while ago, when my parents were just married, they were coming back from a party with my uncle and his wife around 2am. Being local, they had a bunch of food with them from the party which included kalua pig among other things.

To get back home, they had to drive through the tunnel of trees. When they entered the tunnel, their car started acting funny. They thought that my uncle was messing around with everyone, but when they looked at his face, he was pale. They realized he wasn't messing around. His foot was on the gas, gunning it, the car still running but not moving.

Finally someone realized why they weren't moving and yelled, "The pork! Get rid of the pork!" So they threw the pork from the car and the car shot forward at full speed since my uncles foot was still on the gas. They moved so quickly they almost flew over the side of the road.

Strange Things in The Cabin

2010-05-30T12:58:00.003-10:00

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.

Footprints in Koke'e

2010-05-24T15:35:00.002-10:00

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

Me and a bunch of my friends were staying up in a cabin in Koke'e for a weekend. When we went to sleep, we stretched out or sleeping bags on the floor, feet facing each other in two rows. This night was cold. Koke'e is usually cold, but this night was unusually cold. It was freezing.

I woke up in the middle of the night because I had to pee. The moon was full and light was streaming in through the window. I could see the room lighted up. I sat up to head to the bathroom when I saw something unusual.

You know how when you walk on sleeping bags you can see the indentation of the feet? Well I saw footprint indentations...but in motion. Someone was walking across the feet of our sleeping bags and I could see the footprints as it was moving. It walked in a circle into the center of the sleeping bag feet, and suddenly I saw the fabric indent, as if a body had just laid down. And as soon as I saw it, the fabric lifted. Whatever was there was gone.

Nobody else saw what I saw, and I don't think anyone believed me either.

The Gliding Woman on The Bridge

2010-05-16T23:47:00.003-10:00

Informant: Male/25/Filipino ancestry
Location: Hanama'ulu, Kauai

My friend and I were driving another friend back home. We were crossing the Hanama'ulu bridge right after the stoplight when we all see a woman walking on the side of the road across the bridge. She was in a mu'umu'u, jacket and hat. It's not strange to see someone walking on the side of the road at night, but this woman wasn't walking the way that a normal person walks.

You know how when you walk you have a natural bounce? This woman didn't have that. She didn't bounce. She glided. It was almost like she was floating.

We passed by her in the car and nobody said anything. Finally my friend in the backseat broke the silence."Wow did you guys see that lady?" We had all seen the way she glided. Weird.

The Vanishing Road

2010-05-09T00:27:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/25/Filipino ancestry
Location: Koloa, Kauai

My neighbor across the street had recently gotten into a car accident near the Hyatt hotel in Poipu. Me and some friends decided that we wanted to go see the site of the accident, so we decided to drive through the Koloa bypass. The way we decided to go normally only takes like five minutes. From my house in Koloa to the Sheraton only takes about five minutes. It's a route we all drive all the time.

My friend was driving, and he lives right around the corner from me. Somehow what should have taken five minutes turned into 45 minutes. We didn't know where the hell we were, or why it was taking so long. What you have to understand is that we were raised on the South side. We know all the back roads like the back of our hands. But we had no idea where we were. Nothing looked familiar.

Finally we found our way out and ended up by the fire station. On the way back home we even tried to find the strange road that we had driven on, but we couldn't find it ever again.

The Haunted Arcade

2010-01-24T19:48:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/40’s/European Ancestry
Location: Kapa’a, Kauai

A friend of mine worked at Fun Factory in Waipouli for a few years. In the time that she worked there, she had experienced some pretty strange things.

A new game had come in one day, but it was too big to get through the doors without having to unhinge them. They couldn’t leave the game sitting outside, so a small group of them camped out in the store to make sure the game wasn’t stolen.

My friend had set up a tent inside the store, and within view she could see her other friend asleep. In the middle of the night, she heard what sounded like someone hitting the game machines. She said it sounded like someone walking passed all the games with their hand out. She sat up and looked through the mesh to see if it was her friend, but he was sleeping in the same spot. There’s no way anyone else was in the store.

Another strange occurrence happened in the storage room. My friend saw that it was closed, but heard all kinds of noises coming from inside. Underneath the door she could see that someone was moving around in there. Thinking it was her coworker, who often used the store room to change his clothes, she didn’t think much of it. She walked over and knocked on the door, but nobody answered. She tried to open the door, but the door wouldn’t open. She thought a pole had fallen and was blocking the door, or that her coworker was messing with her. But just then he walked in the front door, wondering what she was doing.

My friend explained that the door wouldn’t open but there was someone in there. When her coworker tried, the door opened easily for him. Nobody was in there.

Now, a family friend has a daughter who works at Fun Factory. Recently the nighttime janitor told them all something strange: “I don’t wanna freak anyone out,” he said, “but I see strange things here at night. I saw a man hanging in the back.”

According to legend, there was a true report of a man having committed suicide in that area before Fun Factory existed. Maybe it was him causing all the mischief?

A Sister's Guiding Hand

2010-01-10T17:19:00.002-10:00

Informant: Female/25/Korean ancestry
Location: Apia, Samoa

I work at one of the local schools, and one of the people I work with had recently lost his daughter in the tragic tsunami in Samoa. He came to the classroom to raise awareness about the relief fund in Samoa. But he also came to share the story about his granddaughter, which he read to us from an email sent by his son.

She was only nine years old when she died. Her body was found in her parent’s truck washed out onto the reef. Her younger sister, who was only three or four, was also washed away with the waves, but managed to survive when a boy clinging to a coconut tree grabbed her and pulled her up. But before that, something miraculous happened, which she told to her family.

She was being swept away with the water, and she was completely submerged. Then, suddenly, a hand reached down and grabbed her. When her head breached the water, she saw her older sister holding on to her saying “Don’t worry, I got you.”

By that time, her sister had already drowned.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-27T13:07:00.002-10:00

I missed Christmas, but happy New Year to everyone! New stories will be posted after the new year. Have a safe and wonderful time ringing in 2010!

Choking in the Tunnel of Trees

2009-12-20T12:30:00.002-10:00

Informant: Female/24/Mexican-Filipino ancestry
Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

There’s a well-known story among our circle of friends that involves someone we know that has a penchant for seeing and experiencing spirits. One of the most memorable stories goes like this.

While driving through the tunnel of trees one night with her boyfriend, our friend, who was in the driver’s seat, experienced something unexplainable. The tunnel filled with fog, and then suddenly, something started choking her.

With her hands still on the wheel, and her boyfriend watching the whole episode from the passenger’s seat, the car shut itself off and drifted into the oncoming lane. By the time the choking stopped, she was at the end of the tunnel. Luckily there was no on coming traffic. After calming down a bit, they continued on to the boyfriend’s house.

When they got there, she was understandably shaken, and in pain because of the burning mark on her neck. Where she was choked was the imprint of a large man’s hand. By the next morning, the mark had disappeared.

When she got to her cousins house later that day, her cousin asked “What were you doing last night?” She replied, “What do you mean?” and the cousin said, “Look at your car.”

The sides of the car were a bit muddy, and in the mud were hand prints, all over, as if someone was trying to get in.

Serenity

2009-12-13T13:02:00.000-10:00

Informant: Female/24/Mexican-Filipino ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kauai
I had another strange dream when I slept over at my boyfriend’s house. In my dream, I was with the family in the living room but I had to use the bathroom. For some reason nobody told me where the other bathroom was, so I had to find it myself. When I came back, I plopped down on the couch and stretched out. Then a little boy approached me.

He had the most peaceful, serene look on his face. I had never seen anyone so peaceful looking in my whole life. And he opened his arms and hugged me, with his head in my lap. Then my boyfriend’s mom walks in and says to me, “Oh, I want you to meet Serenity.” She actually said his name was Serenity in my dream. And then I woke up.

I told my boyfriend about the dream, and he says to me, “Come. I want to show you something.” He walks over to a closet and pulls out this Wyland-esque painting. “My mom wants to put this painting in every single room of the house.” The plaque at the bottom of the painting bore the name: “Serenity.”

The Old Kauai County Jail

2009-12-06T22:55:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/ 65/ Portuguese ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kauai

The old county jail on Kauai, when it existed, was known by everyone on the island to be haunted. There were stories of bars slamming, mumbling, and even choking ghosts. In those days, there were only two guards on duty at all times, so if one of them took the day off, the rookie cops were sent in to be stand-in guards. Sometimes my dad was one of them.

The jail had two floors, and there would never be any occupants on the second floor, because that’s the floor that was haunted. Weird things could be heard coming from the second floor. Things that sounded like doors slamming, or dragging tin across the bars. The prison wasn’t always full, and sometimes there were no occupants at all. He said they used to threaten misbehaving inmates with incarceration on the second floor because everyone was so scared of it.

My dad himself heard bars slamming on the second floor, but upon inspection, found nobody. On nights when there was nobody in the jail, some of the rookie cops would get so scared they would sleep in their cars outside in the parking lot instead of staying in the jail. There have been no stories of the new jail that was built in it’s place. Do you think it may also be haunted?

Name Calling in Waikiki

2009-11-29T19:24:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/25/Chinese ancestry
Location: Waikiki, Oahu

I used to work at a certain high-end retailer in Waikiki. There were stories of weird things happening in that particular branch. I heard from a coworker that he saw a bag fly off the shelf. I didn’t really trust him though, because he was known to embellish his stories a bit. But he did seem genuinely freaked out by his experience. It wasn’t long before I had my own.

It was during the day, from what I remember. Me and another coworker were in the store. My coworker was maybe like, 3-5 feet away from me at the counter. I was just standing there, and suddenly I heard a loud whisper saying “Ken!” or something like that. I just remember it being really, really in my ear. It was a really loud whisper. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.

I turned back to see if maybe my coworker was calling me, but right at the same time she looked up and asked me, "Did you say something?" At this point I’m going "Uh...I thought you said something." She says "Oh, I thought I heard somebody saying something, like Kay or whatever."

Nobody else was in the store. If she didn’t call my name…then who did?

The Cubrant and Portuguese Witch Doctors

2009-11-22T15:31:00.003-10:00

Informant: Various/Individuals 25–65/Portuguese ancestry
Location: Various locations, Kauai

My family has always been devout Catholic throughout the generations. We’ve never been the type to believe in hocus pocus. My family came to Hawaii from Madeira and the Azores, Portugal, and with them they brought unconventional practices that mingled with their conventional religiousness.

There is a term that I have grown up all my life hearing: Cubrant. Roll your tongue when you say it, so it sounds a little more like “cublant.” I have no idea if I am spelling this right or not, as none of us have ever seen it written anywhere. This word roughly translates into “curse,” carrying much of the same meaning as the Japanese word “bachi.” I usually hear this word jokingly, when I hear someone saying something like “She put the cubrant on me!” I had never heard it used seriously, but the cubrant is not always a laughing matter.

When I was young, whenever I was in a stressful situation my stomach would double me over in pain. It was some sort of psychological response turned physical whenever something upset me. I was taken to doctors but nothing they gave me helped the pain or made it go away. Finally, deciding that someone had possibly put the cubrant on me, my parents took me to a Portuguese witch doctor.

I remember going into her house and being led to her bedroom. There, she made me lie down and proceeded to rub my stomach with oil (I believe it was olive oil). She massaged my stomach and prayed for I don’t know how long. What I didn’t know was that my mom brought with her the shirt that I had worn all day, because she needed something that contained my sweat. As payment she brought various things like canned foods, or a dozen eggs. Portuguese witch doctors never accepted money.

After I visited her, I never got stomach pains again.

When my older sister was younger, she had what my family called “opu huli,” which pretty much translates into “flipped stomach.” Another stomach ailment. My sister went to an Aunt of ours (who had died by the time I was born) who was also a Portuguese witch doctor. My mom brought her the shirt my sister wore all day, and again brought food as payment. She massaged my sister’s stomach with oil and prayed over her too, and she too was cured of the cubrant.

My dad remembers his father going to her for some sort of ailment, but he can’t remember what. What he does remember, though, is his dad sitting on a chair with a glass of water on his head. And this glass of water started bubbling. He also saw her put a candle under a glass and put it onto stomachs. This created a vacuum of sorts. It was said to relieve gas pains. The Chinese also do this in their folk medicine.

When my dad was younger, he went to this same aunt for a broken finger, which she massaged into place. These witch doctors were available for any sort of ailments, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at any time of the day or night.

My mother asked a cousin why she didn’t become a witch doctor too, and she replied “You can’t just become one. You either have it or you don’t.” I haven’t seen or heard of one since my childhood, and I don’t know if they exist here on the island anymore. I wish I knew what they were traditionally called. But I hope that there is someone out there still perpetuating this strange and wonderful part of Portuguese culture and folklore.

The Bloody Girl at the Golf Course

2009-11-15T15:23:00.003-10:00

Informant: Male/early 20's at time of incident/European ancestry
Location: Kona, Big Island

Many, many years ago, I worked as a busboy at the Keauhou Golf Course Country Club and Lounge. I worked the night shift. After work one night I hopped on my moped and headed down the golf cart path to the nearby scenic lookout where we would all gather after closing and talk stink about the customers, management, make plans for the next day, and just generally hang out.

Around the second hole this huge white shape swooped out of the sky into my headlight and nearly took my head off. Scared me so bad I nearly fell off. It was the biggest white owl I have ever seen. I didn't even know there were white owls in Hawaii. So anyway, I made it to the lookout and was telling the guys about the owl when all of a sudden we heard loud tire squeals coming down the road. This car was doing about 90mph and skidded around the corner and zoomed off down the road.

Right after that this girl, who looked about 18, covered in blood from head to toe, walks up to us out of the blackness and asks for a cigarette like there's nothing the matter at all. She tells us that she just jumped out of the car that sped by. Weird. We say, “Hey, let us take you to the hospital or something.” But she just wants a cigarette and a ride to this club in town. A couple guys who shared a ride to work volunteered and all three got into the car and took off.

The next day at work I asked about what happened. They said they took her to the club and let her out and watched her walk in. They took off but decided to go back to the club for a beer. They looked around for the girl but they didn't see her. One of the guys was friends with the doorman, so he asked him what happened to the bloody girl. The doorman said he never saw her, and nobody they talked to that night saw her either.

Weird Hawaii on Facebook

2009-11-08T23:44:00.001-10:00

I've established a Weird Hawaii fan page on Facebook. If you have a Facebook, please come and join in the discussions and meet other fans!

Dreams That See

2009-11-08T22:41:00.005-10:00

Informant: Female/24/Mexican - Filipino ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kauai

One night I slept over at my boyfriends house and had a strange dream. I dreamed that I was with his family watching TV and hanging out, and his dad was missing a few teeth. And my boyfriend's sister was playing with a boy around her age; a white kid with blond hair, freckles and blue eyes.

The next day I told my boyfriend about how I dreamed that his dad was missing teeth. He says, "Are you joking?" I said "No, why?" He says, "My dad is actually missing teeth, he just wears dentures." Then I told him about the little boy I saw his sister playing with in my dream. He looked at me and says, "Are you kidding me?" I say "No, why?" He goes on to explain that his sister has a playmate that lives a few houses away, and he looks just like the boy that was in my dream: blond, freckles, blue eyes.

I had never seen his dad without his dentures before, no pictures, nothing. And I've heard his sister and her friend playing upstairs, but I've never seen them. I've never seen the boy in my life.

Strangely enough, my sister had the same type of dream before she met her boyfriend's family who came from the mainland. Maybe it runs in the family?

Hooded Figure at the Falls

2009-10-25T12:14:00.004-10:00

Informant: Male/23/mixed ancestry
Location: Wailua, Kauai

On my way to my friends house in Wailua Homesteads, I really had to use the bathroom so I pulled over at the Opaeka'a falls lookout to use the one there. The bathroom was still under construction, so the inside was pitch black. There weren't even light switches.I decided to use the stall closest to the door, because I was already freaking out about being in there. The only light I had was my cell phone.

After I finished I hightailed it out of there and jumped in my car, feeling a little nervous about it being so dark. I turned on my car and flicked on my headlights, when I saw a black cloak run past my car.

All I saw was a hood, and the cloak behind it. I couldn't make out a figure of a body, it ran so fast past my car. I looked around, but I couldn't see anything or anyone.

Next time I'll wait till I get to my friends house to use the bathroom.

Haunted Refrigerator?

2009-10-12T19:56:00.004-10:00

Informant: Female/25/Korean ancestry
Location: Kaimuki, Oahu

This may not be scary, but it baffled me beyond belief.

My roommate and I had purchased a rather large pitcher to store our juice in. This pitcher was about as tall as the bottom level of our fridge, and very large. It was impossible not to see it when you opened the fridge. You'd have to be blind.

One day my roommate came to me asking where the pitcher was. I told him it has to be in the fridge, where it always is. It wasn't on the usual bottom shelf. It wasn't on the top, or on the door (not like it could have fit there anyway). So we decide to check likely places like the sink and the dishwasher, and even unlikely ones like the cabinets and even our bathrooms. We couldn't find it. The pitcher simply disappeared.

He asked me if I took it anywhere, to which I said no. I asked if he did, and he said no too. There had been no visitors since the last time we saw the pitcher, so nobody could have taken it. Where could it have gone?

Then a couple days later, my roommate walks into my room holding the pitcher. I asked where it was, and he said "On the bottom shelf of the fridge." He could have been messing with me and hid the pitcher that whole time, but he was sort of a scardy cat and he looked a bit pale and perplexed.

Not too long after that episode, I was in the kitchen cooking myself some breakfast. I usually take out what I need, like the eggs, butter, etc. The last thing I always do after making breakfast is to put the ingredients away, and take out the Tabasco sauce. I opened the fridge and my hand automatically went to where the Tabasco always is, except it wasn't there. I looked all over the fridge and even in the cabinets, but it simply vanished.

Finally I gave up and turned back to my plate, and lo and behold...there was the Tabasco, sitting on the counter next to the stove. I know I didn't take it out. If I had taken it out with my ingredients, there would have been condensation on the bottle since it was sitting next to the hot stove. But this bottle was ice cold like it just came out of the fridge.

I muttered an awkward "Thank you," just in case I had some sort of helpful kitchen spirit.

The Strange Occurrence in Room 406

2009-08-02T13:28:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/age unknown/ethnicity unknown
Location: University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hale Aloha

I had just moved from Kauai in the summer of 1996, to Oahu, where I was to begin my freshman year at UH Manoa.

Through student housing, I was placed in one of the round dorm towers, in the Hale Aloha complex -- Hale Aloha Lehu, to be exact, room 406. My roommate, whom I had never met before, was from Kailua and we hit it off pretty quickly.

Things went well for the first two weeks. School was school, and dorm life was interesting. It was like living in a zoo filled with cartoon characters: People from all over the place smooshed into these small living spaces, away from whatever small towns and homes they had been trapped in. Exciting times.

Saturday rolls around and my roommate, being from Kailua, decides to go home for the weekend, leaving me to fend for myself in the dorm. With no car and nowhere to go, I figured I'd hit the sack early. I take a shower, come back to the room, get ready for bed.

I clean the top of my desk off and put some trash into the wastebasket under my desk, sitting next to my chair. I look across the room, and see my roommate has a wastebasket and a chair just like mine, under his desk.

Our windows face the parking lot of the Lehua dorm, and just as I go to turn out the lights, a gang of moped bikers decide to roll up into the area, and begin revving out someone in the dorm -- the irritating sound of unsuppressed two-stroke gas engines fill the night air. I hope they don't stick around for long. Eventually they leave, and I fall asleep.

Then, a huge BANG. And then a CRASH!

I wake up, startled, sitting straight up in bed. It's dark, and except for the street lamps outside, and the light seeping in from under the front door (from the hallway), I can't see anything.

What was that? What time is it?

I check my wrist watch. It's only 12:00a.m. I've been sleeping for two hours. I get up and walk to the light switch near the front door. I flip it up, and the fluorescents flicker on.Then I see something strange.

There's my wastebasket in the middle of the floor, and it's fallen on its side, the contents spilled out.

I can remember thinking, "What the hell is that doing there? I left that under my desk.”

Okay, so maybe I did leave it in the center of the room. Maybe I'm just drowsy. But how did it fall over? The wind?

No, the wastebasket had fallen TOWARDS the window. The wind blows from the outside in. If the wind blew it over, it would have fallen towards the door, on the opposite side of the room, away from the window.

Curious. But that wasn't the strange thing.

The strange thing was -- sitting right next to the fallen wastebasket, in the very middle of the room, was a CHAIR, with a WASTEBASKET STACKED ON TOP OF IT.

Now, I KNOW I didn't do that.

And now I'm scared because of those ghost stories you hear about UH: the screaming spirits in the Biomed building, the poltergeists of Hamilton Library, and not to mention the ghosts in the dorms! They all come rushing to my mind, and I'm worried. Should I be? I don't know, but I am!

Hold on, wait. Maybe my roommate is screwing with me. Maybe he came in when I was sleeping and did that to scare me. Maybe not.

In any case, I put everything back where it should be, and grab my flashlight, and take it with me to bed...I settle in and try to fall asleep.

I lay alert and awake for the next 45 minutes, until -- a sound at the door. The knob is being jostled. The lock turns, the door swings open, and....my roommate walks in.

I sit up in bed, the Mag-lite in my hands. My roommate looks at me funny, and I ask him if he's been back at any time tonight.

"No, we were in Waiks", he says. "All night. Just came back right now. Forgot my knife."
He goes to his desk, pulls open a drawer and rummages through. Not where he thought it was. Then he goes to his closet and looks through. Not there either.

He checks the shelf above his bed and it's there.

"Found it," he says. I pause, and think -- is he screwing with me?

"Something happened..." I say. "What?" He sees the Mag-lite in my hand.
"Some weird s!@# just happened in here..."

"What you mean? Like ghosts?"

"Yeah, kind of like that."

My roommate laughs -- thinks I'm being funny. But the look on my face says otherwise.

"Are you serious? No way..." he says, not convinced.

But he would be. Because a week later, he would have his own episode of weird s!@# go down in the dorm.

And that was just the beginning.

Shadow on the Porch

2009-07-19T13:48:00.003-10:00

Informant: Male/age unknown/ ancestry unknown
Location: Omao, Kauai

This happened when I was about four years old or so, on Kauai -- in a small subdivision called Omao.

It was a late summer afternoon, and my dad and I were taking a nap in the living room -- he in a sofa chair, and me slumbering in his lap. As the sun settled down for the night, I woke up. I could see the sky, turning a rosy-pink to a deep purple, and I remember thinking that was something I had never seen before.

And then, through the bank of large picture windows in the living room, I saw a man standing outside on our front porch. Or rather, the silhouette of a man. I couldn't make out any details, as he was back lit against the colors of the approaching night; but I got the feeling that he was looking right into the house, and right at us.

Strange.

I turned to my dad, and shook him awake.

"What?" he asked.
"There's a man outside," I said.
My dad leans around me, and glances out the windows, to the front porch.
"There's nobody there".

I turned back to the window, and sure enough -- just the yard. Trees, and the driveway, and the light from the setting sun. No man.

My dad settled back in ,and so did I. Closing my eyes, I remained puzzled, but relieved.

Until I cracked my eyes open again, and saw The Man -- this time, leaning in from the side of the picture window, so that I could only see his torso, like he knew I was watching.

And as my eyes flew open, he slipped out of view, off to the left, where a wall and the front door was.

"Dad! There's somebody by the window!" I whispered, trying not to alert whoever it was outside that I knew he was there.

I sensed my Dad was a little more concerned this time, and he sat up in the chair, squinting, trying to focus in the dimly lit living room, trying to get a bead on the alleged stranger outside the house.

A minute goes by, and we are still. Very still.

"I don't see anybody," my dad says.
"I saw him..." I protest.
"Go back to sleep."
"I saw a man."
"You just delirious or something. Go back to sleep."

I was a little upset at this point. My dad didn't believe me. And I know what I saw. So I played it cool.

Dad settled back into the chair, and so did I.

But this time, I would only PRETEND to sleep. I leaned back into my dad's arms, and closed my eyes -- half way. So if someone looked in on us, they would think I was sleeping, but really I would be watching them. The lighting was still good, as there was just enough light outside, so that I could see through the small crack between my eyelids.

So, I feigned sleep. I waited. And nothing happened.

Then...

The Man slowly revealed himself -- an inky black shadow bleeding out from the corner of the picture window, leaning into sight like he was trying to hide behind the outside wall of the house. And I just remember feeling really, really scared -- like this is not right.

It was dark, but I could tell this figure had no depth. It looked like a man, very clearly it was shaped like one, with arms, shoulders, a neck and a head, but it was flat; like it had no weight, no substance to it. It wasn't transparent, but I just felt it wasn't right. That's the only way I could put it.

I jumped off my Dad's lap...

"Look! There's the..."

And before I could finish, my dad was up off the chair, and on his way to the front door, Mag-Lite in hand. And it was one of those 4 D-Cell ass whooper Mag-Lites cops use, and he was ready to let it swing, if it came to it.

He whipped open the front door, as I stood inside the house, frozen -- in excitement, in fear of the unknown, I don't know, maybe both. He closed the door behind himself, and ventured outside.

I watched as the beam of his flashlight swept the porch, and I watched as he went around the house, looking for the peeping tom.

A few minutes went by -- I wanted to go to the window, but I was too scared. I wanted to call out to my dad, but I wasn't sure what I would do if he didn't respond.

Then...

Footsteps up the stairs. Footsteps on the porch. The doorknob jiggles. Then turns, and the door slowly opens.

But no one comes in.

"Dad?"

Silence.

The porch creaks. I swallow hard. Is it the man? What happened to my dad? I want to call out for my mom, but I am stuck. Frozen in place, like I was chained to the floor.

And then my dad steps in and closes the door. He shakes his head, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

"Who was it?" I ask.

"Nobody there," he says, locking the door. "Must have been your imagination."

I remember him saying that to me -- but I don't know if he believed that himself. I had a feeling he was watching the last this time, that's why he reacted so quickly when I shouted my last warning. Had he seen? Did he know who it was? Or who it was supposed to be? I don't know.

I don't know what it was that I saw that day, all I know is I DID see it. I don't have any doubt of that. And I've never seen it since.

The Sound of Children Laughing

2009-06-22T00:23:00.001-10:00

Informant: Female/age unknown/Portuguese ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kaua’i

I used to work in a two-story office building on the bottom floor. It was converted into an optometry office from a pediatric office of a very well – loved doctor that had died. After I started working there, I would hear things coming from the upstairs part of the building.

It sounded like children. It sounded like they were running around upstairs laughing and screaming. I would hear these noises often enough to know it wasn’t my imagination.

One night I was working late, and my husband came in to drop off some dinner for me. The noise started. He said, “It sounds like there’s children playing upstairs…” It was far passed closing time. There’s no way any children would be up there.

Things Will be OK

2009-06-07T18:45:00.002-10:00

Informant: Female/42/Haole
Location: Maui/New England

When I lived on Maui for a few years, I became emotionally close to a coworker. He was a local boy, and I remember him telling me his chicken skin stories about encountering weird happenings growing up on the islands. That said, we're both believers in the unexplainable. After I moved back to the mainland, this friend was killed a year later in a traffic accident in Kahului. I didn't hear the news until a month after he died, when someone emailed me the story from the Maui News. When I read the terrible news, I cried and cried. I was really distressed. This was right before I went to sleep that night.

Later, in the middle of the night, I heard a male voice calling my name. He said, "Jenn!" directly into my right ear. I definitely wasn't dreaming, because the voice woke me up out of a dead sleep. And I'd recognize that voice anywhere - it was that of my friend who had died a month earlier! I opened my eyes and froze. I felt his presence, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. I know he was just letting me know he's okay because I was so sad, but it still scared me.

The Rosary

2009-05-31T02:58:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/31/Filipino ancestry
Location: Koloa, Kauai

Everyone in my family has their own rosary in a different color. My rosary is blue. We switch rooms a lot in my house, so me and my dad decided to switch. When I moved into that room, I hung my rosary over my mirror. Later that night before I was about to go to bed, I noticed that my rosary was gone. I asked everyone if they had seen it or taken it, but they all said they didn’t and that they hadn’t seen it anywhere. Not really suspecting anything strange, I just decided to go to bed.

Later that night I woke up for some reason, and I looked over at the mirror at the end of my bed. I saw my rosary. But it wasn’t on the mirror like I had put it, it was in the mirror. It was open, as if someone was wearing it around their neck. I thought, “Oh, maybe I hung it on the window above me,” so I reached up above my head expecting to feel it, but it wasn’t there. I decided to just go back to sleep.

When I woke up, the rosary wasn’t anywhere to be found. And I still haven’t found it.

The White Lady of Punahou School

2009-04-12T16:04:00.003-10:00

Informant: Male/22/ unknown ancestry
Location: Punahou School, Oahu

My story takes place about 9 years ago on the campus of Punahou School.

I was walking from the gym to the pick-up area after a school dance. At that time there was construction going on and I was just looking around the campus 'cause it was the first time that I was there that late at night (like about 11 or something like that, I don't remember anymore).

In any case, I happened to look towards the construction area and I saw this lady in white just walking through the construction yard. I thought it was strange and stared a little bit longer. However, by this time, I had reached the end of the field and could no longer see the construction area. I just wrote it off as being kinda late and the strobe lights at the dance and such.

The following Monday, I happened to mention what I thought I saw to a professor and he responded that it was just the 'white lady' who walks around campus late at night.
Since that time, I've been on campus late at night multiple times and every once in a while I still do see her.

Pressing in Hale Kahawai

2009-03-29T15:09:00.005-10:00

Informant: Male/20/ Japanese ancestry
Location: Hale Kahawai, UH Manoa, Oahu

I’ve lived in Hale Kahawai for two years in the same room, with the same roommate. One night while I was sleeping, I woke up to find that I couldn’t move. I was conscious, but I couldn’t move my body, and I couldn’t speak no matter how hard I tried. A week later, I woke up to a pressing sensation on my chest. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t see anyone or anything on my chest, but something was pressing me.

I talked to my neighbor the next morning about what happened, and he told me that he also experienced something strange. He woke up one night to find a Hawaiian man dressed in a malo sitting on his bed. He just rolled over in bed and pretended not to see the man.

I took a look in Glen Grant’s Obake Files book, and found a similar story about choking ghosts in my dorm. The first year that I lived in Kahawai I had a bag of Hawaiian salt, and nothing strange ever happened. When I started my second year there, I didn’t have any Hawaiian salt. Maybe that had something to do with it.

Treasures From The Rock

2009-03-15T14:20:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/40s/European ancestry
Location: Big Island

“Why would you take that home with you? Are you crazy?”

It might not be the wisest idea to verbally berate your doctor, but at the sight of his slightly-swollen hand, I felt the need to further drive the point home that taking home strange objects found in lava rock is never a good idea.

While on vacation to the Big Island, my doctor and his family decided to visit the volcano. While they were there, he happened to notice a gold ring sitting in a crack in the lava. He decided to take a stick and fish it out, and took it home with him.
“It’s probably just coincidence, “he said as he showed me his now-healing broken hand. But that wasn’t the only unfortunate accident that had befallen him and his family since he had taken the ring home. His daughter, while on a camping trip in the mountains, ended up breaking her leg in a freak accident.

Still, he seems content with the reasoning that it was all just an unfortunate coincidence, but I could sense a bit of wavering in his voice. Nevertheless, on 8/8/08 he decided to go back to the Big Island and return the ring to the spot that it was found. There have been no accidents since then.

But that in itself might be short-lived, since recently he decided to take the tusks from a boar carcass that he found. Maybe the next time I see him, he’ll have a new story to tell.

The Legend of Kaluako’i Akualele

2009-03-09T10:24:00.003-10:00

[This article was written for the Nalo News, a community newspaper published by the Waimanalo Council of Community in the late 1970's. My uncle's mother, Mrs. Julia A.F. Enoka, wrote numerous articles on ancient Hawaiian folklore and myths. This story was written by Tracy Tengan.]

In ancient Molokai, long before the dawn of recorded history, there lived a powerful Kahuna called Maka’u. Maka’u was feared because of her great power, or mana. She lived in the area of Kaluako’i where the trees had evil spirits trapped inside them, causing them to be poisonous only on Moloka’i.

Maka’u’s powers came by her being able to release these spirits by akualele, or fireballs. Those who had the mana and could see these blue and green balls of flame spoke of their great power and destruction. When Maka’u sent one of these akualele, nothing was able to stand against it.
The people of Molokai lived in constant fear of Maka’u and finally pleaded with the rest of the kahunas to unite and battle against her. The kahunas had never united before, but decided that the reign of terror of this one evil kahuna and her evil powers had to end.

Together they travelled to Kaluako’i, to the head of Waiahewahewa Gulch, to the old heiau of Hina at the head of the spring that always was present there. Maka’u saw them coming and took her malama pu’olo (bundle of sticks from which to release her evil spirits) and prepared for battle.

When the kahunas were close enough, Maka’u commanded them to stop. As she took out the most powerful piece of wood, she began to use the chant of complete destruction. The kahunas were fearful, but continued to move forward, and then began to chant “Ho’i no’ai I kou kahu,” and “ho’i no kau me ‘oe,” which means “Go back and destroy your keeper and what you have just given to me, return to you.”

As the brilliant blue akualele was released from the stick, it heard the chant of the kahunas and returned to Maka’u. Maka’u’s eyes grew as the brilliant blue akualele began to veer and return to her. The horror that filled her was clear to all the kahunas. The blast and the blaze of the fireball sent the kahunas tumbling to the ground and the earth shook with the power of the “god’s” anger. As they recovered they saw that the spring that never failed was dried up and completely destroyed, and there was no sign of Maka’u.

The kahunas united in one last ceremony. They formed a circle around the spring and chanted. They begged Hina to forgive the destruction of the old heiau, but pleaded with her to see that the good of the people goes before any one place of worship. Even to this day, the spring is gone, the heiau is still in ruins, but the lesson of Maka’u still remains.

Tengan, Tracy (1979, February). Legends: The Legend of Kaluako'i Akualele. The Nalo News.

Kamapua'a at The Merrie Monarch

2009-03-01T21:54:00.008-10:00

Informant: 14 years old/female

Location: Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, Big Island

For the past 30 years my grandma's hula halau, has been in the Merrie Monarch hula competition in Hilo on the Big Island. One night, my cousin and I went walking around the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel at three or four in the morning. We walked out to the beach and we sat on the dock just talking.

We looked out to the ocean saw this small cat-like figure on the rock wall in Hilo bay. My cousin and I started freaking out. We decided to walk down the road to the gardens at hotel and we looked back and saw a black pig following us. We started to get scared. We go back to the dock and the pig was there again. My cousin and I were wondering what the heck a pig was doing following us.

After this, a young but older lady came up behind us and she started chanting in Hawaiian. Her presence was very warm, but my cousin and I were still scared as ever. I speak fluent Hawaiian; the lady chanting was saying, "Kamapua'a leave these girls alone. You are a pig, and a pig you will be."

My cousin and I looked at the pig and it just disappeared. We turned to the lady and she told us our grandma was looking for us and we should go back upstairs. We got back upstairs and told our grandma about what we saw. She told us that around Merrie Monarch time, Kamapua'a comes around Hilo in search of Pele. Legend says they had a thing going on.

Every year since that incident my grandma has made sure that my cousin and I stay in our rooms. But every Merrie Monarch since that night, my cousin and I go outside to go look at the dock and we see that same lady we saw from 2003, making sure that we are safe. My grandma said it's Kapo, Pele's best friend keeping us safe from harm.

Ancient Religion and the Heiaus

2009-02-22T21:18:00.004-10:00

[This article was written for the Nalo News, a community newspaper published by the Waimanalo Council of Community in the late 1970's. My uncle's mother, Mrs. Julia A.F. Enoka, wrote numerous articles on ancient Hawaiian folklore and myths.]

The Hawaiians had four main gods that they worshiped-- KANE, the creator-god; LONO--the God of Storm, Rain, and Fertility; KU, the God of war and strenuous activities, and KANALOA, the god of Sea and Death. When the Tahitians migrated to Hawaii they brought their worship of Tane (Kane) and Taaroa (Kanaloa). This was the religion in the ancient days, similar to that of the rest of Polynesia.

Heiaus are enclosed areas built of stone where the Hawaiians worshiped their Gods and held religious ceremonies.

On the Island of Hawaii there are two known heiaus built by Pa'ao, a Samoan priest who left Samoa and went adrift on the high seas, finally landing at Puna. He built the heiau Wahaula at Puna and Heiau O Mookini at Upolu Point.

There are six known heiaus in Waimanalo. KEIKIPUIPIU heiau was situated on Quarry Hill, just above Kalaniole Highway directly opposite the Olomana Golf Course. Traces of this heiau were destroyed when W.G. Irwin and the Maunawili Ranch planted pineapples on the hillsides.

The Hawaiians made their adzes and small chisels from the stones at Quarry Hill. Adzes are made from very hard basalt rock and the rocks at Quarry Hill were considered some of the best. (The Hawaiian word for adze is ko'i.)

POHAKUNUI is a small heiau (50' x 90') on the crown of a hill at the base of the Koolau Mountains. The heiau is located on Ekahi Farms on the hill between Kaulukanu and Mahailua Streets. The site is in a fairly good state of preservation.

There is a possible heiau of stone ruins above Kaikaina St. Its size is about 130' x 110', but archeologist were unable to give a detailed inspection of the area due to the heavy growth of underbrush.

There is also an unnamed heiau on the Waimanalo side of Olomana ridge facing the Koolau Range. According to McAllister, the archeologist who researched the site, the heiau consisted of two terraces and was 50' x 130'.

The largest of Waimanalo's heiaus is PUEO, located above the University Experimental Farm on Waikupanaha Road. It is 130' x 150' and is still well-preserved.

There was another heiau in Kaupo Village at Makapuu. The heiau was situated in the present Sea Life Park area. In 1853 there was a small pox epidemic and many Hawaiians moved to Kaupo Village to escape the quarantine. Most of that site was destroyed when the present highway was built.

PUUHONUA heiau is located on a coral hill just a short distance from the main entrance of Bellows Field. This hill was a sacred place of refuge and all who sought safety there had their lives spared. On all of our islands there is a PUUHONUA. Most famous of these sites is our National Park City of Refuge at Honaunau on the Big Island.

Enoka, J. A. F. (1979, February). Old Waimanalo: Ancient religion and the heiaus. The Nalo News, [4(2)], [4].

The Little Green Man

2009-02-15T14:08:00.000-10:00

Informant: Male/26/mixed ancestry
Location: Hanama’ulu, Kauai

When I was about 3 or 4, I was playing in the backyard of my house in Hanama’ulu, where we lived at the time. I remember turning the corner and seeing a little man with dark skin dressed in green near the corner of the house. The minute I looked at him, he disappeared, like he jumped into the ground.
I was terrified. I yelled to my older sister and my mom and told them what I had seen, but they didn’t believe me. But thinking about it now, the little man I saw could have been a Menehune wearing green.

Pele in the Tunnel of Trees

2009-02-08T13:17:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/40/part Hawaiian ancestry
Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

A friend of mine was driving home to the south side of Kauai to Koloa town one night. In order to get to Koloa one must pass through the "tunnel of trees," one way in one way out. It was about 2 in the morning and he was driving home alone after a party in Lihue. The moon was full that night, but as you enter the tree tunnel there are no street lights, just glimmers of moonlight shining through tree openings flickering like a strobe light. As he entered the tree tunnel, he noticed an old lady dressed in white hitchhiking in the middle of the night. He thought it odd, but just kept driving and stepped on the accelerator to get out of the tunnel as fast as possible. He did not recall the events that took place after this; all he remembers is his car had skidded to the side of the road and stalled. When he looked in his rear view mirror the old lady dressed in white was sitting in his back seat. He did not stick around to ask her how this happened but just ran as fast as he could through the tunnel of trees to get home. He was clearly shaken when retelling the events of this night, but speculates that this person was "Pele."

Pele at Halfway Bridge

2009-02-08T13:14:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/64/Portuguese-Filipino ancestry
Location: Halfway Bridge, Koloa

My grandfather had a job as a taxi driver on Kauai. One night as he was driving toward the west side, he noticed an old woman in white walking on the side of the road. Since it was his job to drive people where they needed to go, he instinctively pulled over and asked the woman if she needed a ride. She didn’t say anything, but just got into the car, and my grandfather drove off again. After a little while he turned around to ask the old woman where she was heading to, but when he looked in the backseat, she had vanished. He immediately knew that the old woman he picked up had to have been Pele.

Menehune at Marine Camp

2009-02-01T00:36:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/64/Portuguese-Filipino ancestry
Location: Marine Camp, Kauai

When I was around 7 or 8, me, my brother, my dad and his friend went to Marine Camp to fish. This area at the time was very remote, with no houses around. Even today it’s still a hard place to get to with just a bumpy dirt road. We had planned on staying the night, so after fishing we set up our tents and went to sleep. When we woke up in the morning, we discovered footprints all around the tents. Not just regular footprints, but prints that were only about 4 inches long. They were small, like a toddlers. And there wasn’t just one pair, there were many pairs, like many little people had been running around our tents. My dad’s friend, who was half Hawaiian, said nonchalantly, “Ahhh, that was menehune.”

The Haunted Desk

2009-02-01T00:35:00.000-10:00

Informant: Female/62/Portuguese ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kauai

A colleague of mine at the school I taught at was having some problems in her classroom. Not student problems, but mysterious problems. The lights would go on and off on their own, her TV would turn on and off on its own, things like that. She knew that I was Catholic, so she asked me if I could come and bless her classroom.

She didn’t always have these problems. They all started when she got a new teacher’s desk (a hand-me-down) for her classroom. The flickering lights and TV she could handle, but when it started to follow her home, that’s when she got scared.

She picked her kids up after school one day, and noticed that her infant stared at the ceiling of the car laughing the whole ride home, as if being entertained by something. When she got home, stranger things happened. There was a wind chime by the door that rang every time someone came near the door. She heard it ring and asked her older child to check who was there. Nobody was there. It rang again, they checked again, and still nobody was there.

So finally I was asked to bless the classroom. When I walked into the room, it felt very cold and ominous. Just a strange feeling. I said a few prayers, sprinkled some holy water, and that was that. When I told this story to my daughter, she asked me if anything was in the desk. My colleague said when she had gotten it, the only thing in it was an old bible in one of the drawers which she threw away. My daughter was sure that the bible was left there to keep the spirits contained.

Door Stopper

2009-01-25T00:32:00.001-10:00

Informant: Female/24/Korean ancestry
Location: Kaimuki, Oahu

My apartment was on the side of the building that got the best breeze. Because of this, all the doors in the apartment had to be closed carefully. If they were let go, they would slam so hard the hinges would come loose. I had to have a repair man come to fix that problem once with my front door, and was careful not to let the door slam ever since.

The bedroom doors were also subject to severe slamming. I secured my door with a case of blank CD’s most of the time. One day I was sitting at my computer, and I saw out of the corner of my eye my unsecured door start to close. I braced myself for the violent slam, but right before it slammed, the door stopped abruptly, as if someone had grabbed it. Then the door opened slightly, and closed gently.

What freaked me out the most was that it looked like someone had grabbed it right before it slammed, opened it wide enough to walk into the room, and closed it gently behind them. Was it a strange wind vortex phenomenon? I’ll never know. I had never seen it happen before, and I never saw it happen again.

Billowing Curtains

2009-01-25T00:20:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/25/Portuguese – mixed ancestry
Location: Hilo, Hawaii

One day my cousin, my brother and I were in my room getting ready to go to bed. It was about 12 pm, all the lights were out, and it was completely silent. This was Hilo before all the coqui frogs invaded, so really, it was just about completely silent. Suddenly I get this feeling, like something is watching us. You know that feeling? Like something is just standing there and watching you? All of a sudden the curtains on one of the windows starts flapping in the breeze. But there was no breeze, no sound even. They just started billowing like something was strolling under them to take a look out the window. A few seconds later they fell back down, and I realized….the windows were closed. The door was closed.

How did that happen? Pressure change? Maybe. But no one was awake in the house except us, and there was definitely no opening of doors or anything anywhere. So I said to my brother and cousin, "Hey, did you guys see that?" They were both awake, and had seen it too -- by chance maybe. After a few minutes I got the courage to recheck the windows -- and yep, they were closed. Really though, I’ve never understood how curtains could flap back and forth for a few seconds like there was something under them, even if you take in to account the possibility of pressure change in the house.

Wake Up

2009-01-18T14:17:00.003-10:00

Informant: Female/23/white - Hawaiian ancestry
Location: Kilauea, Kauai

I had an early wake up call in the morning, so the night before I asked my mom if she could wake me up. As I was sleeping, I heard someone whisper in my ear, "Liana, Liana, wake up," and I felt someone shake me, as if trying to shake me awake. I woke up, but nobody was there. Nobody was in my room. I looked at the clock, and it was still the middle of the night.

I went upstairs to my parents room to see if my mom had tried to wake me. I walked in and she was still sleeping, and I said, "Mom, did you just come downstairs to wake me up?"

She didn't.

A Faceless Woman at St. Joseph High?

2009-01-06T08:53:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/40/Portuguese ancestry

Location: St. Joseph High School, Big Island

This was a story that the upperclassmen would tell the incoming freshman each year at St. Joseph High School.

The story goes that during 70's, two girls were in the restroom getting ready for school to start. While they were applying their makeup, there was a woman in the restroom with them, brushing her hair over her face. The girls just assumed that the woman was one of the sisters. After the girls were done with their makeup, one of them turned to the woman to ask to borrow her brush. The woman turned to them, revealing her missing face.

Twin Spirits

2008-12-21T00:43:00.004-10:00

Informant: Male/24/Filipino-Irish-Hawaiian ancestry
Location: Waialua, Oahu

Back in the 11th grade, my girlfriend at the time slept over. She noticed that when I sleep, I don’t sleep very soundly, on account of insomnia. Well one night, we slept at a cabin in Waialua on the north shore of Oahu as a summer retreat with family. My girlfriend noticed that I was silently sleeping... a little too silently.

I was having a nightmare about drowning. I was dreaming that I was being thrashed around under the water. My girlfriend said that she turned on the light and saw that I was soaked in my own sweat and I wasn’t breathing. In my dream I was with this lady in white...her white see through body grabbed my hands and then pulled me above the surface of the water. In that instant I woke up, my vision fuzzy and the feeling like someone was lying on my chest. After about 3-5 seconds that pressure went away, my vision became clear and I immediately sat up and took a huge gasp of air, still perspiring like crazy.

I looked over my girlfriend’s shoulder and I swear to god...I saw the back end of an apparition walk through the wall. But the apparition was all black; the one in my nightmare was white. The white one felt non-threatening, but the black one felt malicious.

Come to find out later that in the 1940’s a lady killed her own twin sister and then herself on that very property.