Ghosts Next Door

Ghosts Next Door
by Lopaka Kapanui

Oct 31, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 - One more

THE STRANGER

You know me, we've talked before. Well, I talked, you listened. You know what it is that I do. I don't have a boss that I report to. I work for myself and my services are such that I can set the terms of my contract in whichever way I choose.

Oct 30, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #1

FORGET TO REMEMBER

Some things you're never taught or prepared to learn because a moment happens where it's suddenly thrust upon you and you have no choice.

Oct 29, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #2

HO'OKO

All these years later the name of the location escapes me, but as a child, I heard a story regarding a missionary who had come to the Wai'anae coast to relieve the native Hawaiians in that locale of their savage ways.

Oct 28, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #3

'A'AHU

Hula is a beautiful and exquisite art and for those who are meant for it, the rewards of what it has to offer are priceless. Hula is also a jealous art and much like other art communities, it is rife with gossip and high drama.

Hawaiian Ghost Stories Halloween Video Countdown #11 - Supernatural Sex

Oct 27, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #4

GIRL

I met her coming out of a bar in Wahiawa near Kemo'o farms; well, really, I almost ran her over, but I stopped at the last second, and there we were literally faced to face.

Oct 26, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #5

HERMANS

The accident was horrible and I was dumbstruck myself as it unfolded in front of me. An errant driver in his Cadillac SUV with no care for his safety or anyone else's came at an alarming rate of speed from behind me.

Oct 25, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #6

DON'T BOTHER

The elder Filipino lady crossed the street from Sacred Hearts to the McDonald's with a great degree of strange difficulty. She would arrive halfway towards her destination and freeze on the spot until the traffic light turned green and frustrated drivers would beep their horns at her.

Oct 24, 2018

Hawaiian Ghost Stories Halloween Video Countdown #13 - Bacon and Eggs

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #7

NEGOTIATION 

When things got dark and I had no job and neither my family or friends found me bearable, I decided it was only natural to kill myself. The Kaimuki Jade building seemed to be the best place to end my life.

Oct 23, 2018

Hawaiian Ghost Stories Halloween Video Countdown #14 - Eyes of the Dead

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #8

CONTRITION 2

Lunch was uncomfortable because the air conditioning in the Vietnamese restaurant we ducked into was broken. We opted for take-out back at Keith’s office which was an old Matson container that he converted to his personal space. Pretty smart.

Oct 21, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #10

CLUNEY

My brother's name was Clarence, but because of a speech impediment I had when I was younger I could only call him 'Cluney.' I guess the name stuck and my brother didn't mind. We were as close as brothers could be and our favorite thing was Harry Houdini.

Oct 20, 2018

Hawaiian Ghost Stories Halloween Video Countdown #18 - Toe Tag

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #11

NEED A PASS

It's a big thing to go somewhere and do something with your father or one of your older brothers no matter what the reason is. The best part about going to the event is the drive to and from, that's where you get to talk and have cool conversations.

Oct 19, 2018

Hawaiian Ghost Stories Halloween Video Countdown #19 - Rock Talk

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #12

FRANCESCA

The sweet mystery of first love while you're on the precipice of your teenage years and adulthood leaves a lasting impression on your memory no matter how long the passage of time may be.

Oct 17, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #14

VISION

He saw his own death and he didn't do anything to try and change his destiny. Rather, he determined to help those people in his vision who he saw die around him. Perhaps he'd be able to save them. In the vision, he was on a flight. There was an offshore storm that happened to make landfall just as the plane was about to touch down. The downdraft slammed the plane into the ground and snapped it in two. In the vision, he and several other people were ejected from the plane while still strapped into their seats. They were thrown several hundred feet away from the plane and died on impact when they hit the ground. He'd had this dream several times before but it's visitation increased during the week of his flight out.

The afternoon had come when he stood at the airport gate awaiting his flight. He'd been presented with many opportunities along the way to delay the flight, he could have unholstered a gun from one of the airport's security or he could have rested the steel french fry basket from one of the burger king kiosks. He realized it wouldn't work, he'd either be killed or taken away to jail. So, he bided his time.
The flight arrived and everyone boarded without incident; when the flight reached it's elevation and leveled out, he unbuckled himself and went for the emergency exit. It was his one and only hope. Pretend  to open the emergency exit, they'll have to turn the plane around and go back. However, there were much too many good samaritans on the plane. After he fought off the flight attendants. the passengers came after him and beat him to a pulp. When he awoke, it was to the voice of the captain who said that the flight would be landing shortly. He directed all attendants to take their seats. He mentioned a bit of a storm they were flying through but that everything should be fine. Everything was until the plane was struck by a tremendous downdraft that slammed the craft to the ground with such brutal force that it snapped in two. The front half went in one direction and the back half went off in another. He and the people around him were catapulted from where their seats were fastened with such savage speed that they had no time to think. A hundred yards later, some were slammed to the pavement on the runway. Others landed with such force that they were thrown off of their chairs while still strapped in. Body parts and torsos would be found several more hundred feet from the impact. As for him, he was found on a thick grassy area uninjured. He really didn't appear to be dead so much as he seemed to be asleep, almost as if he were dreaming.




Oct 16, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #15

PU'E ONE

DRESSING ROOM

She held the inkwell close to her eyes so that her tears would fall directly into it. Her heart was broken sufficiently enough that the salty water came without effort and formed its own minute pool, which floated just above the thick black substance.

Oct 15, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #16

I, ME, MINE

Sitting in front of the mirror I undo my hair and let it fall at my shoulders. I shake my head a bit to let the full body of it spread out more. Both my hands rub the sides of my face and then my temples.

Oct 14, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #17

TANOMOSHI: TIME TO COLLECT

Dying was not as bad as Yuta had heard. Sure being shot through the abdomen was incredibly painful but in the end, dying brings on a gradual kind of fatigue that just makes you want to fall asleep.

Oct 13, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #18

TANOMOSHI: DIVIDENDS

With his newly acquired position as the supervisor of his division, Yuta now had the financial means to buy a new house for his family. It was a two-story home built in 1921 and it sat just above the last block of the Kaimuki tract.

Oct 12, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #19

TANOMOSHI: YUTA'S CREDIT

FIVE YEARS LATER


Yuta took the thousand dollars given to him by the old Hawaiian man and invested it into moving off the plantation and moving into a very small one bedroom house on the Makiki tract. While there he was able to procure a decent job working as a clerk for the local phone company.

Oct 11, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #20

TANOMOSHI

Yuta tired of the drudgery of plantation life. Although a hard worker, he did not possess the thrift that was needed to improve his personal circumstances.

Oct 10, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #21

GO FUND HER GO KILL HER

Her body was found in an open field just shy of a mile from the Kunia golf course. The white silk robe she wore with embossed designs of crows and strange symbols lay spread open beneath her.

Oct 9, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #22

DOUBT FILLS THE GLASS

I remember the day I lost my faith. It wasn't an accumulation of several events or of one traumatic incident. It came during a lackluster mundane moment of clarity.

Oct 7, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #24

KNOWING


I recall my childhood days when we lived in Kalihi Valley. To be more specific we lived on Machado Street which as I understand has always been haunted.

Oct 6, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #25

PIKAKE

Waikiki is a moving cluster of people jostling for position and direction in a once-exalted location now mired down with high-end boutiques and five-star hotels. Nothing of its sacred history is visible anywhere unless you accidentally wander into the lobby of a few hotels whose selling point has to do with the history of Waikiki.

Oct 5, 2018

Hawaiian Ghost Stories Halloween Video Countdown #27 - Ghost on the Tour

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #26

GOSSAMER

The afternoon sun left a shimmering spectrum of light on her wedding gown that it made her appear otherworldly. It was not a material he immediately recognized but never the less, his soon to be bride wore it beautifully.

Oct 4, 2018

Hawaiian Ghost Stories Halloween Video Countdown #28 - Secret Service

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #27

HO'OLAUNA


"You know this is all your fault right?" You know that?" Justina was beautiful but she had this thing where she could change the rise of her eyebrow or the intensity in her eyes to let you know she was mad.

Oct 3, 2018

Hawaiian Ghost Stories Halloween Video Countdown #29 - "Dang Kids!"

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #28

WARMTH OF FLESH


Her hand is warm, the blood pulses evenly, and there is a rosy glow to her flesh which tells me that there is still hope in her. There are schedules she'd meant to keep and goals which she determined to accomplish.

Oct 2, 2018

Hawaiian Ghost Stories Halloween Video Countdown #30 - "Non-Believer"

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #29

POLENA I KA UA

JANUARY 29, 1891.


A wind stirs from nothing at the point of Mokapu and filters along the ahupua'a past pu'u o kaha'i. The warm air from the marsh rises up to meet the phantom wind and carries it mauka until it takes a slight pause between Konahuanui and Lanihuli as if contemplating its next direction.

Hawaiian Ghost Stories Halloween Video Countdown #31 - "Bait"

Oct 1, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #30

MELE


Save for the beautifully hand sewn quilt, the room on the second floor stood empty. It was where the queen had been imprisoned for the better part of eight months.