100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloweeen 2025. #67. Substation.

 The residents of the 1950s two-story, six-unit apartment needed a blessing.

Their accounts appeared to be identical. Feeling out of sorts, equilibrium off, sudden feelings of dread and anxiety. Sightings of shadows, filtering through the small two-bedroom units, or encounters of other people in their units who look lost and disoriented themselves. One moment they're there, the next they walk into the bedroom or the bathroom, and they're gone. At first, the residents had collectively watched the Japanese urban ghost stories that were popular in the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s. I agreed that Sunday was a proper time for me to assess the situation first before deciding if a blessing was needed. The place wasn't just in Maikiki, it was right off the main thoroughfare in plain sight. I asked that the landlord, developer, or building be the one to meet me and guide me through. She was an elderly Chinese woman who owned a large parcel of land, including all the units and houses on it. 

"We don't have a Taoist temple here, so that's why I let these people choose who they can call for a blessing," the woman explained. "I thought maybe they would call a priest or something, but I never know, still get Kahuna left these days."

"I'm not a Kahuna," I laughed. 

"Eh, no need be humble with me," she said. "If das what you are, then das what you are. No dishonor your people."

We went through the bottom units first and then the units on the top floor. That's when I saw it. When she brought me out to the lanai facing 'Ewa. The lot next door was a Hawaiian electric substation.

"There's your spirits," I told her. "The power coming from this substation is more than likely what's affecting the people in this building."

"Aaaah," she nodded. "Makes sense, makes sense! Kinda like radiation, but not to that extreme. My parents escaped communist China before they came to Hawaii. They worked in a factory that had various kinds of substations nearby just like this one but way, way bigger. Plenty of people got sick, starting to hallucinate, my parents told me. Finally, those people died. So? No need for a blessing then?"

"Maybe for their peace of mind, I should do a blessing," I replied. "But what you decided to do after this is the real question."

The blessing was done with all the people living in the small apartment building, as well as the other residents living in the houses and other units on the same property, who, it turns out, were having the same collective experiences. Does any of you reading this story live next to a similar kind of substation from Hawaiian Electric?