| abstract | - If you aren't, then you are probably lost already. The gist of it is, it's a supposedly haunted place deep within the twisting trees and vines of the Pali Road, overlooking Nu'uanu. It is easily enough found, as it has gained a lot of popularity over the years, so a quick search on Google can give you the address, but I beg you not to venture there. I want to save as many adventurous souls as possible from that gateway into Hell, which is the reason I wrote this for you all. Hopefully my story of my experiences there will take away any desires to go this awful place. I was a 14-year-old at the time, very interested in the occult, the paranormal, anything weird or creepy really. Hawaii was a great place to study these subjects, as the island chain is full of haunts and spectres. When I tried to think about why such a beautiful place was filled with so many spirits I had came to this conclusion: The isles are not "haunted more", it is just that the haunting is condensed. The spirits are basically water, and their container is the land. Every area in the world generally has the same amount of "water", but every place is a different size of container, Hawaii being as small as it is, must have a very small container; so small in fact, that the water was basically overflowing at the rim. This made things much clearer to a 14-year-old reading ghost stories and "Obake Files", and I decided to stick with it. Two years later, in the year of 1996, I found about the place that was called "Morgan's Corner", and how there were ghost tours for going to this place. I saved up enough money and on Halloween, took a few of my friends along with me to go check it out. The tour started at about 8:30pm, and drove us up to the Pali to start the hike to the destination. If you have ever been in a forest at night, with no street lights, the black void would still be consumed by the pure darkness that is a Hawaiian jungle. Armed with only our flashlights we all inched forward, while making jokes at each other's cowardice. The entire tour party was pretty silent and, to be honest, we didn't see much. The darkness of the entire thing was really bothering us, and we were not allowed to bring any cameras along with us so in short, we didn't see jack shit. We followed a dirt road between bending trees and grasping vegetation for about a half an hour, there was an intersection in the road, and we took a right; half an hour again passed, and we were back at the road. "Okay, so this was a waste of my money," I thought. I just paid money to walk around in darkness while my friends giggled like school girls looking at the super model with nice hair. To be honest, I was pretty pissed off. But one thing stopped me from feeling completely let down: there was an intersection, we went right. Right was the direction that led us back to the same way as the road. Left was a path that led deeper into the forest, and I did not recall seeing the path leading to a giant tree and ending at it, which was the trademark for Morgan's Corner. Thinking about all this, I planned to come back alone and take the path going left. Two days later on a Sunday, I decided to take my leave for the corner. Taking a backpack, a flashlight, some water and a video camera with me, I left my house under the guise of going on a camping trip with my friends. Taking two city buses to the Pali wasn't hard, and the walk down the Pali Road was long, but again, not hard. The only problem was now, I had no idea where I was supposed to go, we had arrived at the opening in the jungle at night, and I'll be damned if I can remember a small hole in miles of banyan trees. It took me about three hours and twelve minutes of walking before I finally reached something that looked somewhat like where we entered. Since it was getting around 7:00pm and already getting dark, I figured this was my best shot at getting to the corner tonight. Luckily enough for me, it was the correct path. A long, dark, dirt road was before me, the trees and shrubbery swayed in the wind and trees creaked as moved against each other. I took out my camera, flipped on the night vision setting, and started to walk forward, the camera being my guide. About 15 minutes later I hit the intersection, I looked through my backpack and of course, the recording discs for the camera were shattered. Probably by my own carelessness on the trip here, sighing I went down the left road and glared through my window into vision. The darkness was back in full force, it was so pitch black that without the camera I could not tell if I was closing my eyes or if I had them open. Being alone in a pitch black, dirt road in Hawaii's outback is the most unsettling experience I have ever had in my entire life. There's no real danger from the wild animals, considering that the most dangerous animal to humans is a boar, but I still felt like I had someone silently following my every step. Breathing cold wind down the back of my neck, while his brethren stare at me through openings in the treeline. The unsettling atmosphere was not going to stop me, of course. I was here for a reason, and I was too deep into it to turn back now. Besides, going back would take hou-. I tripped on a stone. My camera smashed against the ground and my window into light sputtered out. Picking up my dead lifeline, I felt a sharp piercing pain, and threw it down. The lens had shattered and the glass had cut my hand when I grabbed it. I was completely in the dark now. I only knew of two truths: There is a path behind me, and there is a path in front of me. I got up, stored my broken friend in my pack, and walked forward, carefully watching my steps now. Not having the gift of sight makes all your other senses heightened to almost inhuman levels, the swaying of the trees, the creaks, the bugs and frogs making their orchestra, all rang in my ears clearly, and loudly. The smell of dirt and mud, fresh rain, and forest filled my nose. The wind chilled my skin, and the mud seeped into my shoes. I walked. I don't know how long I walked in the darkness, I could not keep track of time by any means. I can't tell you how long it was until I heard it. The sound appeared fast, and without warning, but it was loud and clear, as if right behind me. It was a low-pitched, droning sound, much like a tugboat's horn, but much more gutteral, more organic, and the sound lasted much longer. I spun around to the source of the sound, only to be met by darkness. I could not see anything. The droning sound grew, much angrier, filled with malice and horror. It was like this, thing, was screaming and snarling all at the same time. Then the pats happened. Pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat. What was that?... Patpatpatpatatatatatatatat. Fuck. Whatever this was, it was following me. Fully sprinting towards my location, I knew that if it caught me, I would be begging for a death that would not come soon. Running in the opposite direction, I exploded forward. My heart thumped hard in my chest, begging for relief. My lungs filled with fire as I pushed forward into the void. The entity behind me was catching up, moaning and shrieking while hunting me. I saw light ahead. There was a light ahead of me. Was this my chance out? I didn't care. I ran for it. I ran as hard as I fucking could toward the light. I dropped my backpack, I dropped everything, I ran to my light. I noticed something though: the light was coming from the moon, in a small opening through the treeline. The light illuminated the ending to the path, in which a large banyan tree took residence in. I stopped at the base of this massive tree, my only way out has now become the ending to me. I turned around back at the path, and it emerged. It was like a human, bare, pale. It was missing its head though; a hole where the head should be instead created the droning sound. Teeth encompassed the "mouth" of this neck, as it drooled and panted in a way that I cannot begin to describe. It ran like some sort of ape, on all fours, except it had more than four limbs. It smelt like death. The limbs moved in spasmodic ways that mimicked a spider, or a scorpion in its final moments. I looked up to the banyan tree, hoping to climb it for safety. What I saw in the tree's branches has forever changed me. Thousands of eyes, thousands of organs, children's heads talking to me, whispering sweet nothings. Dogs flayed open on the branches. Horrible, horrible images of gore, death, and disgust. I woke up in Haihaione, a valley far away from the Pali the next week. My parents cried tears of joy when they finally saw me again for such a long absence. I lost my ability to digest some foods after that, I had to get a surgery to replace some organs that were gone. I will never return to that place.
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