100 Numerous Ghost Stories 2025.

 2026 will mark 10 years of this blog, which we named GhostsNextDoor.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #100. Keala.

 I felt sorry for him.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #99. George's Mixtape.

 He'd been in a coma for a while now.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #98. Kindness.

 She, as I knew her, would never have given me or anyone else the time of day.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #97. Kalei.

 I lay on my side, the finely manicured grass my comfort, while I watch him discover the wonder of everything around him.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #96. Cave Diary 6.

 The tourists weren't at all impressed with the cave when they saw it from across the street in the dirt parking lot.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #95. Cave Diary 5.

The Army, in a show of community support, went into Kaneana cave and sprayed black paint over all of the graffiti that festooned the walls of the sacred cave. 

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #92. Cave Diary 2.

We were drunk and stupid, and we needed to piss really badly.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #94 Cave Diary 4.

We parked in the dirt lot across the street from the cave.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #93. Cave Diary 3.

The argument started in our car from Hawai'i Kai and concluded inside Kaneana cave, not by choice, mind you. It happened to be where we stopped and where we ended up. The dirt parking lot was crowded with so many vehicles, but we thought nothing of it. Except when we entered the cave, no one was there. Not that we could see right away. Once our eyes adjusted to the dark, we saw them. As grey as the dirt and the rock walls, there they were strewn about, lying in different awkward positions, but dead. Very dead. As we ran out of the cave, fighting back our horrific screams, we looked back for a second, and we just caught a glimpse of a woman, climbing up to the top of the cave on all fours. We screamed then for sure. The argument was a minimal cog in the wheel of our marriage. Driving home, we cried and professed our love for one another. Priorities.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #91. Cave Diary 1.

 One day, I took a random drive out to the Wai'anae coast for no real purpose, just because I felt I should go there. 

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #90. Color Co-ordinated.

 I always remeber what I was wearing when something significant happened in my life.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #89.

 "How long do we have to wait?" My brother asked.

"As long as it takes," I said. "Stop asking the same question all the time!"

"We've been waiting so long, it's all," he sighed.

"Just be patient, they'll be here soon," I droned because he was getting on my nerves.

Sure enough, there they came. Driving up into the driveway, and when that got too crowded they parked on the street. It was a horde of people this time. All kinds of people. All sorts of people made it more fun.

"Don't get carried away this time, alright?" I warned him.

"I don't get carried away," he said defensively. He gets that way, when he knows he's wrong. 

"You broke up somebodies marriage the last time," I reminded him. "And the time before that, a bunch of people tried to kill each other."

"I was curious that's all," he deadpanned.

"Just stick to the plan, you keep changing the plan and the plan is going to change you," I don't know how many times I'm supposed to tell him.

As soon as the mob was festooned around the front driveway, I began counting down. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two..aaand one!"

This time, I didn't wait for him to get on cue because there was always the chance that he was going to do something stupid. So I shoved him out the window. He went crashing through the thick pane of glass and did three unintentionally planned somersaults until he hit the ground neck first and died in a very gruesome spectacle. As usual, the crowd lost its mind and ran screaming from our house, with some people falling on the ground and being trampled over. 

This time, my brother didn't reanimate. He was dead for real. I told him not to keep changing the plan, the destiny. Now look, it changed him.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #88. Strange Space.

 Screaming violins permeated the room, leaving no corner untouched by their high, shrill crescendo.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #87. Water Bar.

 "I built this place from nothing," he said as he slid the glass of water across the bar in front of me. "My whole life became this place, and now retirement is coming, and I've got no one to take it over. It will die with me."

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #86. Times Like These.

 The sheets become cool in that hour between the blackest dark and the sunrise.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #85. Elana.

 The intensity of her emotions nearly burned a hole in her heart.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #84. Cherish Keeps Holding On.

 Devon didn't marry the girl he asked to the prom.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #83. Nure Onago.

 Our karate sensei, Mr. Miyaji, once told us a ghost story, which he emphasized was true. As a young man growing up in Japan, he and his friends traveled to Shimonseki, the southernmost point of Honshū, to visit the site of the famous sea battle of Dan-No-Ura, which took place in 1185. The general Minamoto no Yoshitsune, along with his clan, defeated the Taira clan, where all members perished, including the boy emperor, Antoku.

He and his friends walked as close as they could to the waters where the famous sea battle took place. Soon, it was time to leave, but Mr. Miyaji mentioned that they noticed one of their friends, whom he referred to as Jiro, had a female companion with him. He and his friends thought it was proper to give Jiro and his new female companion their space, and so they walked ahead of them, and by the end of the day, they'd taken the train home separately. 

Sensei said that after that, every time they saw Jiro and his girlfriend, he did not look happy. Despite her beauty, she carried a horrible odor about her. Then, one day, Jiro was gone. In fact, as the sensei told us, Jiro wouldn't be seen for the rest of the year. The following school year, Jiro was sitting in class with everyone else, not looking unhappy or helpless at all. When sensei and his friends asked Jiro about where he'd been, he said he'd been in a monastery for the whole year, mired in prayer and meditation. When asked why this happened, Jiro said it was because of his girlfriend. That day on their jaunt to Shimonoseki, at Dan-No-Ura, he saw her standing there and noticed how beautiful she was. She smiled at him.

"My mistake," Jiro told Sensei and the rest of his friends, "was that I smiled back. She was a Nure Onago, a spirit. A spirit who mourns the death of her husband lost in battle, particularly sailors lost at sea or who drown at sea during a battle. If you smile at a spirit like this, she becomes attached to you, and she won't ever let you go. I had to go to a monastery for a year and do nothing but pray and meditate. The only way to get rid of an Nure Onago is to ignore it. It took a year, but I finally got rid of her."

"Dan-No-Ura," Sensei said. "The famous battle, where the Taira clan drowned. That spirit must have been one of the grieving widows."

"Even today," Sensei told us. "When I think about that time with my friend Jiro, I get creepy goosebumps. It could have happened to any of us, but it happened to Jiro, and guess what? Jiro's last name was Taira."

credit @matthewmeyer. @yokai.com

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #82. Purpose.

 Let me worry about the things that are in this house. 

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #81. 'Olu'olu Li'ili'i.

 The peaceful chill life in Hawai'i is what visitors become enamored by when they first arrive in the islands.

100 Ghosr Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #80. Samples.

 Today was the day for food samples being offered at Costco Hawaii Kai. I don't bother with food samples because it's just not my thing.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #79. In Jail.

 Daniel didn't like visiting his mother in jail.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #78. The Demon's Achilles.

 The evil in the house was already there.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #77. Regreta.

 "Pain killers," I suggested to my client's wife. "You should take painkillers."

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #76. The Line. #2

Winning a million dollars proved to be no small feat for Calvin, who had sacrificed his mental and physical health to achieve his goal.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #75. The Line.

 The concept of standing in line patiently waiting for your turn, for whatever reason, is ingrained in us as an everyday task, almost as natural as breathing. 

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #74. Sam's Darkness.

 How could there be darkness in paradise? 

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #73. House On East Hind.

 The bed covers were slowly pulled off the mattress toward the left corner.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #72. John Left.

 The overseer of the left and right game misunderstood what he saw on the four internal cameras in the vehicle.

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2025. #71. Right On Time.

 Good job.