Spooked - Kualoa Ranch

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

Seashell is a tour guide at Kualoa Ranch, a nature reserve on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu. The land there is rich with history—and that history wants to be known. Thanks Seashell for sharing your story! Produced by Zoë Ferrigno, original score by Lalin St. Juste, scouted by Ixchel Lopez, 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.

When darkness falls across the land. You hide the secret best you can, you whisper, Go back where you began. But you're the monster's only friend. And so the knocking starts again. You cross over his boot. Stay. I hadn't seen her.

For a long time. Such a long time. It was breaking me. So I read. I studied. they said what you should do is make a habit a few times a day. Rub your fingers together. Look around. Notice, is this actual, is this regular?

Really look. Question, does it look off? Does it look strange? So that's what I did for days. For weeks. I kept rubbing my fingers together, peering around again and again and again. And then when I go to sleep, I wake up. look down, rub my fingers together, and I see my fingers pass through each other. I look up, and this sky is not blue, it's not cloudy, but swirling.

This warm magenta, the trees, these trees, these are not really trees at all. They're made of Plato, and I laugh, because it worked just like they said, my own lucid dream. I draw a circle in the air, take three steps, and I'm in Detroit. Standing on Churchill Avenue in front of her house, there are no people, no smells, no traffic. Just the sound of the ice cream van, tinkling off from the distance. I stepped up the porch, push open the door. You hear the theme from all my children playing on the TV.

I turned into her living room, look past the chairs covered in plastic, because on the sofa she sits shining, smiling, holding out her arms, then pat me on the head, Granny. I know, baby, I know. We're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about everything. Yes, as soon as we get to the commercial. We're about to hear from Seashall.

A few years back, Seashow, she got a job working as a tour guide. a Kualoa Ranch, a 4,000-acre nature reserve on the windward coast of Oahu. And as a kid, seashell had only seen the ranch and glimpses through breaks and the tall fence that surround the land. But now, now she's getting to know every cave, every valley, every waterfall, every shadow. And today she's going to take us there. It's a place, one of you may not have heard of before, but chances are you've seen it. You've seen Jurassic Park. Right? So it's the part where Dr. Grant and the Hammond Grandkids, Tim and Lex, they're on a hill and they're watching the Gallimus dinosaurs.

And then little boy's like, um, they're blocking this way. So they run across the road and hide behind a dead tree. And then after they hide behind the tree, they're watching the dinosaurs keep going, they're running. And then the T-Rex comes out and she eats one of those Gallomimus dinosaurs. So that is the only scene, what I call a cameo, that was filmed at the movie. ranch. But that cameo put us on the map. An average day at the ranch is, you know, basically four 90-minute tour. We have our jungle tour, which is my personal favorite tour.

90 minutes on the back of a truck, somebody talking story, playing music for you while you look at something gorgeous. The truck ride is going to take us up to at least 2,000 feet in elevation, and there you have a little optional wall. up a little ridge line to look into both valleys. Our South Valley is more dense jungle, more fauna, more greenery there. So a lot of thick vegetation out there as well. So that's where the indigenous plants are. The North Valley, very green as well, but very, very dry. But all in all, like beautiful. The cliffs are just magnificent. It's gorgeous. One day, I got my truck loaded. We're about to start the jungle tour. Driving through the forest, it opens up into Hockipoo Valley. Now as we keep going through the valley, we were driving next to a river. All of a sudden, I start to see these shadows. They're weaving in between the tall kukui-nut trees. I see the shadow just zoom right past the truck. I was like, okay, holy crap.

So I start glancing around, pause a little bit, not really slamming brakes, but I pause. Look around. They look like just tall figures, just shadows, silhouettes, you don't really see a face. They came across pretty much right in front of my truck. Went straight and kept weaving in between the kukuna trees. It's a bit rattling. I have my hair standing up on both arms. but I try not to freak out.

My guests are in the back. I have to push through. I just try to put it in my back of my mind, and I'm like, you know what? Just continue on with the day. One night, after a pretty stressful day, having all four tours, I get home, I eat dinner, go to shower,

finally get to sleep. I have this dream. In the dream, it's the same place that I see the shadows. I'm standing there, I hear all of our native birds just chirping away. I hear the river flowing beneath me. And I smell the ginger flowers right next to me in the riverbed.

But then I notice after about a minute or so, I smell rotting flesh. The smell is nauseating. As if it's, you know, maybe a dead pig, something that's definitely not alive. It's rotting. That's when I finally looked down at the river. Bright, red, and then it goes dull red. I'm panicking a little bit. I don't know where the source is coming from.

But the smell is what's getting me. So I start to follow the smell. I keep walking maybe about a hundred feet. And I get this eerie feeling. So I turn around. I see seven or eight tall gentlemen are just standing there staring at me. The one that's in the center, he's the chief. He's wearing a bright yellow headdress, almost dandelion. These feathers, oh my God, they're so beautiful. You can tell the work that was

put into the weaving. Now his cape, his cape does not flow all the way down to the ground. In traditional Hawaiian times, when you see the short cape, that means. That means. he's going to war. The other gentleman that are standing there with him, the other Kanaka, they're just super thick, muscular, and bronze. They're barefoot, and they're wearing something called a molo. So it's a loincloth that, you know, has an open back, covers the goods in the front. That's what we would see back in the 1700s, maybe even before that.

Then I hear a thunder clap. And then, Kahikili, as if, you know, he's saying his name, announcing his presence. And with that deep kind of guttural voice, it's like, okay, it strikes a little bit fear, especially as Native Hawaiians. We learned about Kahikili growing up. Now, I already knew, okay, I don't mess with this guy. I mean all sorts of respect. But we lock eyes, he turns around and points to the left.

He turns around, I hear it in my head. It's over there. So I replied to him, oh, what's over there? And then, I wake up as if I'm Nospheratu sitting up in my coffin, shaking to my core, get up, get ready.

I'm thinking about it the entire time. There was something about the dream that made me feel like it was more than a dream. seeing these shadows, you know, I didn't have a dream about the place. It feels like there is a purpose that needs to be fulfilled. There is something that needs to be found around lunchtime. So it's about 12.30. We're in our small little break room where we can barely fit all 20 people in there.

We're all eating plate lunches. I'm eating an ahikatsu plate. So that's fried fish. That's lots of. beautiful sauce on top with some rice. This dream that adds, it's been kind of nagging me, kind of bugging me. So I look around and lo and behold, the two that I trust the most out of everybody that worked that day, my two friends, Cyrus and Halem.

Cyrus, he's, let's just say he's a Virgo, okay? So he's a little bit grouchy on the exterior, but on the inside, he's kind of soft and gooey when he stops deflecting. I think of him as a younger brother that, you know, I did not have. Hala, on the other hand, he's a little bit older than I am. He is the walking encyclopedia of his family.

He knows everything from his own genealogy all the way to, I joke with him, all the way to King Kamehameh the First. So because his dream is bugging me, I just, you know, kind of invite him over, like, hey, I got to talk to you guys. I got to tell you guys something. I chose those two because both are very strong and, you know, independent men

and they believe very strongly in our culture as well, as Native Hawaiians. So trust came very easily with them. And I'm just like, hey, we have to go and check this out. That's what the dream is telling me. We have to go and look. They say, all right. So we finish up the day. We end up taking the truck out into the southern valley, Haki Poo.

I take them exactly where I had the dream. We parked the car, we all got out, checked our surroundings, and we all started our trek towards the river. The sun is already on the other side of the mountain, and Hockey Poo Valley is very dense forest, so it gets a little bit darker, very cool in there. but as we started walking next to the river, all of a sudden it starts to feel hot.

It's a searing kind of hot, almost as if I'm touching a hot plate. And then I start to feel claustrophobic. Like the walls are getting a little bit higher in this little riverbed we're walking through. Then the headache starts, and I start to feel really, really irritated. I get the feeling that I want to fight with someone. Now, I know that Cyrus is feeling this way because when I glance at him, his posture starts to shift a little bit. He went from standing up tall street to a little bit hunched over.

I see his eyes get a little bit hooded. And then he starts to baw his hands up into fist. So I touch his arm real fast, I bump him. He feels very very. very tense. He's like a statue. The look in his eyes was a dark one. I don't understand why we're feeling this way. But while Cyrus and I are feeling all of these emotions running through us, Halem is fine. Halem is tra-l-la-law. He is walking around through the river, still looking in the same area. He doesn't notice that Cyrus and I are having these issues.

I said, hey, bro, we got to go. And he turns around and says, you guys okay? And I reply, I'm like, we have to go. Something is not right here. So he starts running back to us. We all start to make our way back to the truck. He's still fine. As we loaded up into the truck and left the area,

got away from the sounds of the river, I no longer feel hot, the urge to fight. This weird feeling is gone as we get further away. So I felt relief. But six months go by, one day a bunch of us jump on the back of one of our trucks. We're going to go out and check one of our trails. It's me, Cyrus Halem, and about 10 more of our other coworkers in the department.

We start our journey into Hockey Poo Valley. I was sitting on the back of the truck as well. It felt good to have a breeze in my face. but as soon as we start to hear and see the river, I start to have that same hot feeling that I had. That's when I started to smell. Rotting flesh. It smells like meat that's been, you know,

left out in the sun for days. Like, immediately I was nauseated. And then I started dry heaving, spitting stuff off over the side of the truck. Everybody else is kind of sitting around. They're more concerned on if I'm okay than if they smell any sort of rotting flesh either. So nobody really has a reaction.

Then I start to get this mean headache. And then when I close my eyes, instead of darkness, there's just this bright light. As if I'm on the operating table and there's all the lights all around me. It just materializes. I can see the river, I can see Hockeypool Valley, and then I see those seven or eight Kanaka that I seen from my dream.

And they're stacking bodies upon bodies in the river, making a dam. Some of them still had blood dripping off of their bodies, bright red as if they were just sacrificed, as if they just went to war. And that's where all of the blood comes from, and that's why it's flowing into the river. Nobody is aware that I'm there. It's as if I'm looking through somebody else's eyes

as it's happening, through the chief's eyes at what his men are doing in front of him. And then it all starts to fizzle away. I'm just back to the drive. The further away we get from the area, everything subsides. I don't feel any sort of heat.

I don't feel nauseous. But it shook me. I'm terrified that I'm going to pass through this area on another tour and another vision's going to hit me while I'm driving. You know, something's going to follow me home. One day, I was thinking about it very heavily. I was like, okay, I need to go visit this area. It's really, really nagging at me.

I want to find out like what happened here, why am I seeing it? Yeah, I jump in my truck. I'm driving to Hockipoo Valley. It's after all the tours. Now around 4.30, 5 o'clock p.m. I parked the truck. I can only hear the birds. It's so peaceful.

Find the river and start walking next to it. The more more I got further up the river. I start to get all warm and whatnot. The further I kept walking, I was like, okay, I noticed it started getting more intense. I do have to stop walking and, you know, kind of like hold my head just my temples and my third eye right in the center because of that searing pain. All of a sudden, I see his bright white light, and then I see the chief. wearing his yellow headdress, almost like a mohawk,

beautiful yellow feathers, his cape ready to go to war. His back is facing me, but I see the side profile of his face. I can clearly tell that's chief khaki-me. When I see him, what I feel is, like, a lot of reverence for this guy.

But I do feel fear Because, you know, growing up and reading stories about him, he's a scary dude The vision of Chief Kai Kili It lasts between 5 to 10 seconds When this vision ends, it just dissipates The pain goes away, the bright lights go away And then I'm back in the forest One day, after everything happens,

I get off a tour and, you know, I'm coming back to the break room, I see Halam, he's the only one in there. So I just go up to him, start talking story, just sharing a little bit more of the ordeal, let him know everything happened, and if he knows anything about the area,

about Chief Kai Kili. Of course, being the walking encyclopedia that he is, he knows something about Chief Kaki Kili. Halaam tells him in the story of how Chief Kahikili came from the island of Maui. Now, he was a very strong and powerful chief. When he came over, he wanted pretty much all the resources there, land, water that is deep into that valley.

That sacred valley of Hakibu. There was a big war that happened there. The chief was coming for war. And they would stack the bodies and the river creating a dam. So as he's sharing the story, I did have the chills. It confirms.

I'm like, okay, that is exactly what I had seen in all these weird visions. I'm not crazy. This guy knows the history. This is something that really happened in the area. I think the chief was really just trying to get his story out there. Like, yeah.

So this is what I did. here. And I just happened to be the lucky tour guide to pass through with the abilities. I feel like a better human, a better, a better native Hawaiian now that I know the history. When I do my tours now, I explain that there was heavy trauma and that there was, you know, great war that happened there. That, you know, there were chiefs that came before us. And, you know, what they did back then is very different than what we do nowadays.

I don't go too much in-depth about Chief Kahikili. When I do go in depth, it's not on tour. It's just with some of my coworkers who truly understand the culture. I no longer have the same visions, but every once in a while, I'll drive for the Hockeypool Valley, and I'll still see the shadows.

It freaks me out at the very first second, and then I start to feel relief after, like, okay, we know we're here. You know, we can acknowledge each other. Like, I'm just here on tour, you know, I'm just passing through. Thank you, Seychelle, for sharing your story. That piece was scouted by Ishael Lopez, the original score. It's by Laleen St. Juice was produced by Zoe Frigno.

Our quest does continue. If you yourself fight, face, run, tackle, or block the dark shadow, please, let me know. Spook to snapjudgment.org because there's nothing. better than a spook story from a spooked listener. And yes, Snap Judgment, our good twin podcast has amazing stories from the bright light of day, the spook underground catacombs,

are deep beneath KQED in San Francisco. Absolutely no Snap Studios content may be used for training, testing, or developing machine learning or AI systems for prior written permission. Spook just brought to you by the spook team that knows full well if you get pushed off a building and dream. You wake up, spat on the ground, except for Mark Ristich.

He says it's the other way around. On Team Spooked, a union representative, producers, artists, editors, and engineers are members of the National Association of Broadcast, Employees, and Technicians, Communications, World America, AFL, CIO, Local 51, and... And there's David Kim, Lowy Fregnow, Eric Yonge's Teo de Kott, Versadage, Miles Lassie, Suu, Evan Stern, Eves Jeffcoat, Eishel Lopez, Jack Darrell, Doug Stewart, Nicholas Marks, the spook theme song is by Pat Massini Miller. My name is from Washington, and dreams reduce us. To our most vulnerable state, a person deep in dream cannot fight back, cannot run, cannot scream, defenseless. This weakness is built into the fiber of even our most powerful, our kings, our giants, our fighters, sleep,

will find you, whomever you are. Every night risking a blade to the throat. Some of even gone so far as to dismiss sleep as a design flaw. Why? Because you don't understand that it is a power. A portal to infinite possibilities, infinite worlds, and every power has a cost. How you wield this power matters.

What you shape and dream is cast. in reality, the dragons you slay in slumber fall before you in light, but doors open both ways. Monsters fought in darkness know exactly where you rest your head. Know exactly whom you love, what you fear, what brings you joy, what leaves you terrified. Do not let them fool you. Understand if something matters it is real. And this matters. Never, ever.

Never, ever.