100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #5 The Klausen.

 The Waikiki hotel is unassuming and very nondescript. 

It sits in the middle of one of those tiny side streets off a very beaten path. If you weren't explicitly looking for the Klausen Hotel, you'd stroll right past it. In your vehicle, while perusing the byways of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, the Klausen is one of those random sites you pass every day without a glance. Yet, it's filed away somewhere in the back of your mundane memories, revealing itself in those quiet moments at the end of the day when you're lying in bed and the only thing living between your two ears is all the white noise you've accumulated from sunrise to sunset. 

Roman Texeira drove up to the address and was surprised to see that there was valet parking.

"I didn't think a place like this could afford valet parking, much less have parking spaces," he scoffed while tossing his keys to a middle-aged Samoan woman. "I won't be staying long."

"Very good, sir," the woman replied. Her name tag read Vili.

Room 326 was his destination. He was miffed to find out that the Klausen had stairs instead of elevators. Luckily, the first-floor rooms were actually on the ground floor, so that gave him two flights of stairs to ascend. Maxine would be waiting, as she always did. Dutiful, demure, and always giving. The two met in a video store, where she worked as a clerk. The attraction was immediate, and within a week, they were having sex in her car at the employee parking lot and any other location that struck their urges. A short time later, a woman and three kids came in to rent movies for the weekend. Her name was Daphne. She and Maxine struck up a great conversation about appropriate films for kids, schools, and playdates. 

"Do you have kids?" Daphne asked.

"No," Maxine smiled. "But I did meet this amazing guy, so if things go right, who knows?"

Maxine rang up the price for three kids' videos, popcorn, and milkduds. "That's fifteen dollars even. I just need to see your membership card!"

"The card is under my husband's name, but I can show you my driver's license," Daphne volunteered.

"Oh no, it should be fine," Maxine waved her off.

When she received the card, Maxine saw that the name on it read "Roman Texeira."

Roman would later say to Maxine that he was in the marriage for the kids and that there wasn't any real love lost between him and Daphne. The lies continued like that for six more months until one morning, Maxine began throwing up. A home pregnancy test would reveal that she was expecting. A later visit to the doctor revealed that she was four months along. There was no doubt in Maxine's mind that her pregnancy would be the catalyst Roman needed to leave his wife. Instead, Roman fell off the map. His cell phone no longer worked. He moved from his current address and no longer worked at his state office job. Well, he did, but per Roman's request, they moved him laterally. 

At this moment, Roman's confidence and ego are boosted, and he is ready to go. That morning, he received explicit pictures from Maxine doing very sexual things to herself.

"Can you come help me finish the rest? Room 326 at the Klausen,"

Roman was a bit winded when he finally found the door to room 326. He gave it a knock, and the door opened on its own. Sauntering in with arrogance, Roman stops in his tracks when he sees me standing near the bed. Before he can react, I give him a punishing strike to his sternum, and he crumbles to the floor. 

"Maxine Ka'aihue killed herself in this room," I tell him. "You get to be possessed by her spirit from now until the sun comes up. You get to experience her pain of heartbreak and the finality of her mortality because of a rotten son-of-a bitch like yourself. Let's hope you survive."

I opened a bamboo container, and out came a billowing black smoke that entered every crevice of Roman's body. He began gasping and choking, and his body vibrated violently. I left Maxine's spirit to its own devices, because it was the revenge she deserved. As I left, gently closing the door behind me, I had a moment to hear Maxine's voice.

"Thank you, Boy," she whispered.