Spooked - Keep It Pono - Classic

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

If you live in Hawaii, you know that if you see the ancient Night Marchers of the King’s Guard, you bow in reverence. And you don’t look them in the eye, under any circumstances. But Obake, Dee, and Joe Bones? They haven’t learned this lesson… yet. Mahalo, Obake, for sharing your story with us. If you're interested in more stories from Obake, check out his YouTube channel, Ghosts of Hawaii. Produced by Chris Hambrick, original score by Richard Haig, artwork by Teo Ducot. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Remember, ignorance is never an excuse. You're listening to Spooked. Stay tuned. I imagine how he decided to give it to me. Probably smiled to himself thinking, it's the only way to make sure that boy shows up on time. And it was beautiful to me. Wrapped in the parchment paper with his neat handwriting

for my nappy-headed grandbaby. his pocket watch the one he always carried around I think he gave the chain to somebody else but I get the watch Hamilton I remember watching him polish it until it's shown

so I polish it until it shines as well and I imagine him saying now that's how you do it everything can only be done one way with him what's the way we do it boy the right way

That's right Do things the right way You can't go wrong I must forget From now As I was then That's why I never Carried Granddaddy's watch with me

I'll lose it Break it But I know me No way I can let that happen Instead I keep it hidden Squirled away in my special spot So imagine my shock

When I reach my hand Into the bottom of my sock drawer and it's not there and only after frantically ripping apart the entire dresser do I understand that I have been robbed a ring a frame and my grandfather's watch stolen and I'm sick

sick how dare someone put their filthy hands on something Batman gave to me that's not a watch to me it's him it's a piece of him And see, everything I own is scuffed, it's torn, it's chipped, it's broken my bike, my jeans, my shoes, but I'll be goddamn. That watch sparkled at least that because you polish it the right way. So I holler, I scream, I plot my revenge, I want the person who took it to pay, I want them to suffer, then I think about someone else.

holding a piece of my grandfather in their nasty pocket and I know with every fiber of my being I know that will suffer. Luke starts. Now, we're lucky today because I bet you thought we'd only take you to Hawaii once, am I right? We spare zero expense at spooked and if we're going to go back to those white sand beaches

and dip our toes into the turquoise water because there's a story we've got to get. Well, sometimes you have to suffer for the truth. But in this case, make no mistake, understand. There is darkness in paradise. I lived on the windward side of the island. You know, being very tired from work, I would sit down and maybe have a beer or two. And one night, I'm doing that, and I have a friend of mine with me.

We're just sitting around out in the yard in front of the house, Dee and my brother, JJ. And we're just kind of like shooting debris. and talking, when all of a sudden this car comes just screeching down the street, and it just pulls up in the back of Dee's car. So we all kind of like stand up really fast, and we look in the direction of this car. My friend, we call him Joe Bones, just, you know, threw the door open and came out. He's only wearing shorts, and he's got this look of sheer terror.

His eyes were just huge, and at first he has a hard time talking. And so I go out and say, Joe, hey, what's going on? You know, I mean, is everything all right? We call people like him, Kalabash cousin. He's not family, kind of like adopted in a way. But, you know, he's very close to my family. And finally, he's able to say that we had to go to his house. And we had to go there right away.

And he was insistent on that and kept repeating himself about that. Something had gone on at his house. that he had just moved into. You know, I'm thinking, wow, how big is this? I get into the car with my friend. We're sitting in the front seat. My cousin and my brother jump into the back seat. We got about 15 minutes to get to the location itself.

As soon as we get onto the highway, Joel starts to describe why he came to see us. He really starts just unloading. And that was scaring me because the words and everything were coming out so fast, he begins to tell us he had just moved into this house, which is near a place

called Kawai Nui Marsh. He was moving in with his girlfriend, and he was very, very happy about the circumstance. In the back of the house, there's this big plumeria tree filled with these beautiful flowers as well. People use them to make lays. And so the first day, they're in the house,

they start to unpack. That evening, they start to hear from out of nowhere the beating of drums, what we call in Hawaii Pahu. And it just kept building and building up. And it sounded like it was everywhere, like outside of the house, around them and everything. It's coming from the back of the house. And the only thing that's back there is that marsh. And he took a good look at that marsh.

There's no houses. There's nothing there. And so eventually the drumming stops. Joe said they call it a night and then they go to bed. The next day he goes to the back of the house and he looks around. And a beautiful Plameria tree that was there is now dead, shriveled up. The flowers are gone and the tree is wilted.

And he looked on the ground and there were these footprints. To come up to the tree and go around the tree and then go off again, off into the distance, something is definitely not right with this situation. He's very, very scared. He goes back into the house. The sun goes down. He just wants things to be normal. Driving down the highway, you could hear the fear in every single word that came out of his mouth.

When he was saying, I know I'm not crazy, I know what I saw is real, and I just need you folks to be there. I need you to tell me that this actually is happening. And he was telling us, as the night goes on, and everything goes quiet, those drums come back. It's extremely loud. It's outside. It's everywhere.

And they look to the back of the house and one by one with each window. faces started to show up. The windows are pretty much high off of the ground, and there is these faces of these men looking into the house. With complete fear, they back away from that part of the house. So he goes, I got away from the windows.

I didn't go near that part of the house. They just kind of like waited it out to see what would happen, and eventually the drums start to fade out. out and everything gets quiet again. So the next day they go outside again, there's more footprints outside, but it's cold. The third night, before he came to see me and my brother and my friend,

he said we were in the house, this time totally terrified. And all of a sudden, again, the same thing, the drums, extremely loud. and they look to the windows, are the faces going to show up this time? You know, maybe it'll just be the drumbeats tonight. Who is making those footprints? Are they out there as well?

Should we run? What should we do? So they take a glance towards the windows, and again, faces pop up in each and every one of those windows. But this time, the faces press against the window. And as they do, they begin to go through. through the window and their bodies start to show up and they're very, very large men. And they're walking with a sense of purpose through the house. That's when he left, got into his car, drove up to my house to seek help.

He said, I don't think I can even go back there, but I need to understand that, you know, I'm not crazy with what I had seen or experienced. I had this feeling of dread when he was explaining what happened. No two ways about it. Was I thinking that it was night marchers? Yeah, in a way I was. One of the first things that happened

with an experience with the marchers of the night, the night marchers, you can hear the drums, you can hear the conchel. All of these are sounds of the past, coming into the present. These are the gods of old Hawaii. They can try. travel at incredible speeds.

Say you hear them, and they're way off in the distance in the dark. All of a sudden you see torches, foo, foo, foo, foo, foo, they all show up. And you hear them approaching. What you're supposed to do is take off all of your clothes and lay down,

preferably with your face into the dirt and not move, not breathe if you can and just hope they will not come in your direction. And if they do, you have to be very, very quiet because they will say out loud that this is shameful, this is shame what you do.

When I was growing up, you occasionally would see these signs that would say kapu, which means forbidden for people to be at because of the fact that these are the paths of the night, Night marchers. You call them Kings Trail. We call it Kings Landing. Night marchers based upon stories that have been collected and shared over many, many years can be very intense in the way they react with people. And it's an interaction between them and us. And it's

the ways of the old and the ways of the new that create this interaction. And sometimes it could have very terrible consequences. The main thing is to give them as much space as you possibly can. And then there are the situations with the night marches where they will march through your home. And you better get out of their way when they come. That house was apparently what it seems like is that it was built upon a path of the night marchers.

And now we're going towards this. We are now going towards this circumstance. he just experienced. As quickly as he's talking, my mind is racing along as well. You know, trying to keep up with all of these facts that are going on. My friend Dee is just driving and she's looking very, very concerned. I'm sitting next to her.

We're both giving each other's looks as he tells me about this last night. And we're getting very, very close to this house. By the time he finishes up his story or he gets to the part of them going through the walls and everything, We've already pulled up to the place. I said, D, I want you to pull into this parking lot across the street from this house. As she stops the car, Joe turns to all of us. Will one of you please come with me to the back of the house? This is why you're here.

I want you to go and look with me to see if there's anything going on. I was not eager to do this at all. Whatever it is, whatever kind of lease agreement you have, You know, it's not worth it. But my brother had enough in him to say, you know what, let's get out of the car. We're going to go across the street, and we're going to go check this out.

So my brother gets out of the car with my cousin. They were gone for a couple of minutes. I'm very quiet. I'm just sitting there with my thoughts. And so is my friend Dee. It's just this silence that is like shared between us. So all of a sudden, here comes my brother, here comes my cousin. They come from the side of the house.

They run across the street super, super fast. They climbed the embankment. And instead of opening the doors, they went through the window to get into the car. Scambling in legs and limbs and everything. And my cousin just screams, go, go, go, go. We got away from that place. as quick as we could, but as we were driving back, my brother said they went to the back of the house and it's pretty dark back there. None of the lights are on. So him and my cousin are looking around

and my brother's like peering into the dark and it just got bone-chilling cold. They both look out into the marsh. They saw what they thought at first. We're people. They could see the faint out. lying around them in the dark, they start kind of like to glow. There's like this orange golden glow around all of these people. But after a while, they knew them to be spirits. It's terrifying. You go back to my house and, you know, at this point, my cousin, he feels like,

okay, I'm not crazy. You know, he thanks us for going down there with him. And after talking for a while, I'm pretty sure I gave him a beer or two or three or four, he went home, wherever that was. I know it wasn't at that house. After Joe leaves, we went to bed. But the next day, that story stayed in my head. I can't tell you why.

All I knew is that something wanted me to go there. So I went and I spoke with Calabash family. I said, you know, I got to go back there. If anyone wants to come with me, you know, you can. I'm going to go get some tea leaf, which is what you use to ward off spirits, and I'm going to take a look at this place for myself. And so we all got together. There's more of us now.

There's about 10 of us. And we all decided to go back to the house. I'm so scared. I'm not only holding on the tea leaves. I have a tea leaf lay around my neck for protection. As we go to the side of the house, this is narrow walkway, and it's pitch black. And we're all walking single file. And no one's really talking.

It's really quiet. As we walk to the back of the house, it starts to get cold. I am just edgy. And I'm looking around, peering into the dark. It's like, I want to see yet not see. My fighter flight is in overdrive. We get to the back of the house I still feel this force

that has brought me to this moment everyone else is standing there totally scared holding on through their tea leaves and our eyes are darting around in the dark we're looking out into the marsh and they were there in the marsh itself were people

yet they're not people you know, they're ghosts and they're glowing. They're giving off this weird golden color something otherworldly and there was like a group of them and they were bending over

and picking up rocks or planting something in the marsh. Others were going about walking around and off to the side of this group of spirits, these ghosts, was this really tall Hawaiian warrior. Very big, muscular guy. He was wearing Amalo. Amalo is like a loin cloth. He's about eight feet tall.

His arms are crossed, and he looks like he's watching over the rest of the spirits, and he's looking in their direction. That was absolutely overwhelming. And we're looking at this site that's in front of us, My friend that was driving the car that night, she decided to bring binoculars with her. And so she puts these binoculars up to her eyes. And she's looking at these spirits. And right at the moment she does that, that huge Hawaiian guy, eight foot tall, built, like a bodybuilder,

just kind of like snaps his head in our direction. Boom! And he's looking at us. And my friend practically dropped the binoculars at that point. This is a very intimidating looking spirit. I can tell you right now, he was not happy with us being there. He finally saw us and I could feel the tension with everyone around us. They kind of like stiffen up.

I pushed myself a few steps back and we're all kind of like taking a couple of steps back. And because I was facing the marsh, the house is behind me and my back goes right up against the house. Boom. And right at that moment, from inside of the house, every single cupboard, every single door started to slam. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Over and over and over and over again. I got so scared, I felt like, you know, my heart not only leaped out of my chest, it went running back to my house. I didn't want to be there.

and I whipped off that tea leaf lay and I threw it on the ground and I said, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, I'm leaving right now, I'm going, we're leaving. I look and everyone's just booking it out of there, going through the side of the house, squeezing themselves to get out of that walkway, going to their cars and saying they don't want any more part of this at all, that it was done. I was on the same page. Kind of like the spell was broken. We got into the car and we just left.

Everything has changed. Absolutely changed. We've done something wrong. They were coming for us. There's very few things that will stop night marchers. They are a force to be reckoned with. They can do so many different things to you, which means something will happen to you.

physically, spiritually, probably both. Crippled, or your life is just falling apart. It was a huge, huge concern that we had interfered with something that we shouldn't interfere with at all. And now it was too late. Now all I could do was hope that in some way that things could, be made better. We didn't have many options. We went to where I felt safe.

We get back to my house, and I left my brother and my friend outside. Got out of the car, and I went straight into the house, got myself a bowl and put water in it. I had tea leaf already with me, so I just went to the corners of my house, and I started sprinkling water, and I started praying. and I'm doing it from one corner to the house to the next, just in desperation, sprinkling the water, letting it hit the wall, and just asking, you know,

for whatever it just happened to stay away from us. And I did all four corners of my house with that. And by the time I hit the fourth corner, the light started to flash off and on, off and on. And I knew that it was. was then. And that, you know, it made me almost drop the bowl to the ground. I was so scared. I practically screamed. And I went to run outside of the house. And at this point, I don't know what else to do. I am spent. I really need to clear myself. I'm thinking, what can I do?

I have used up all of my resources at this point. There was nothing much left in me to do, but to just try and put together bits and pieces from other things that I knew. So I went into the house and, you know, oh, I see the pork, okay, grab the pork. And then I saw the tea leaf, okay, I have tea leaf. And I saw the rock outside. One of the most basic types of peace offering

was to take a rock and wrap it with tea leaf. So I get the tea leaf, I get the pork, I go outside, my heart is just beating so far. fast. I take this rock, I put it into the center of the yard. I can't wrap it because the rock is too big. So I just have a couple of tea leaves underneath this rather large rock. I grabbed the pork and I put it on top. I just put everything that I had into apologizing. In a place where I didn't even know existed inside of me, I said, I am so sorry. I am so sorry that this happened, hoping that these spirits would acknowledge it.

I apologize profusely. I'm trying my best to, you know, explain that I am sorry and this will not ever happen again. Because I was wrong for what I did. Plain and simple. I was wrong. We all were wrong. And while this is going on, D and JJ are looking up into the sky. They saw all these clouds come from me.

different directions in the sky, and they all gather over the house, and they all are starting to come together. And at one point with me talking and saying, I'm sorry, it just stopped. It paused, and then it slowly started to go back in every direction that all of those clouds came from. I needed to make things right. So that was my heartfelt gesture. So I was a heartfelt gesture. So I was doing Pono to write the wrong that I did. It's from the heart and it's from the spirit to live like that, you know, to live in harmony. Thank you, Obaki, for showing us the path. If I ever cross the King's Guard, I promise you, I will bow my head in reference and get the heck out the way.

If you want to hear more, the magical man himself, Obaki, we'll have a link to all of his channels and handles and all that good stuff on our website. website, spookpodcast.org. The original score for that piece was by Richard Hay. It was produced by Chris Hamrick. Story. It is never over, never. Let everyone know. Don't real people, real stories, spooksters.

Be afraid. If you dig your storytelling under the light of the sun. Get our sister podcast, Snap Judgment. Movies of the mind, cinema of sound storytelling with a beat. Spooks brought to you by the team that never talks to dead people. Run. Hide your face. In terror.

For Mark Ristich, from Anna Sussman, our chief spookster is Eliza Smith. Chris Hanberg, Annie Nguyen, Marissa Dodge, Lauren Newsom, Renzo Giorgio, Worme, Leon Mornik, Tiffany Delisa, Ann Ford, Ergania, Son of Khan. The Spook Beam song is by Pat Massidi Miller. My name is from Washington. when you have guests over to your home, you want to be accommodating to other people's ways and doing things, that's all well and good.

You are a good person. Let them know as they prefer. They can pick this cereal. You don't even care if they wear shoes inside the house or not. It's all good. But never, ever, ever, never, never, never, never, ever, ever, ever turn out. The lights.