The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. It’s as if that single isolated illumination not only lit up the room, but also felt like it surged into the forest. From birds chirping to streams running, this pocket of the island felt alive, as if it just sensed my presence and it gave me a sense of dread, yet the most amount of calm I’ve ever felt in my life. I came searching for answers and I may soon regret it….
I find myself in the middle of the Iao Valley on Maui, finally locating my grandfather’s cabin, hidden behind the lies and cover ups of the little family I have left, acting as if any mention of my grandfather is some sort of plague or bad omen. My entire life, I was kept in the dark from my hawaiian culture and the roots of my family, even from my own father, who just barreled through life once he moved to the mainland, never looking back, repressing any knowledge of his past. Any questions about it, I would be shot down in an instant, eventually I learned to just keep my head down low just as he did. It seemed like the only trace of my ancestors I had was the necklace my dad gave me when I was born, made from petrified volcanic rock and the plague of bad luck that seemed to follow my father. He single handedly experienced divorce, death, illness, loss, without even questioning why, as if he knew this chain of awful events were his destiny, until death finally claimed him 2 days ago.
Out of nowhere, alone, just me, my father’s necklace and an old notebook I found hidden in the floor boards of the vacant house of his, with only one page filled out, simply giving directions to my grandfather’s cabin in unknown handwriting that I’ve never seen before. Desperate for answers of what really happened on that island that drove my family to become torn apart by secrets and bad luck, I embarked on a plane to find the cabin, not knowing what I was about to get myself into, but have nothing to lose, just the hope this is the start living a life full of answers, even if I have to get them myself.
So here I am, in a dingey run down cabin that hasn’t seen life in years, in a valley that feels so cut off from society, that I can’t help but feel like I’m disrupting something. The inside leaves a lot to be desired, no electricity, a rocking chair, a fireplace, one bedroom, and the existential feeling that it would’ve just been existing in the abyss without a soul knowing about it if I hadn’t opened up that door.
Illuminating the room with that single candle, I notice a note on the table, which looks so old that it’s almost fused to the table.
“My dearest Keiki,
I leave this note, hoping you find your way back to where you belong. Beware the Night Marchers.
Love, Your Makuakāne”
A fossilized hopeful cry for help to my father from my grandfather. A meeting that’s lost to the ether now. These two people who had the biggest impact in my life, one I never met and the other a shell of his former self, never being able to see one another on this realm with me as a witness.
That thought alone was enough to stop me in my tracks, just an overwhelming negative emotion, but I had to press on. I had more concerning thoughts and questions that linked to my own well being at this moment.
Why did my father hide from this place?
What was so important here to keep my grandfather here?
Most importantly…. what’s a Night Marcher?
Without even finishing that thought, the hoot of an owl and the vibrating sound of a body contacting the door of the cabin repeatedly filled the room. Over and over, for what felt like an eternity, my heart racing in tandem, freezing in place, eyes focusing on the ember of the candle shaking with every slam. Then the sound of drums.
Drums filling in the backround noise, copying the tempo of my heartbeat, and then drowning everything out, including the brutal noise of the owl slamming itself against the door with reckless abandoned. Then the whistling swirl of what my mind associated with an arrow or some sort of projectile deafening the night, the sound of something penetrating flesh to an animalistic shriek to the sound of a body hitting the ground and then absolutely nothing.
Not a single sound…. Except for my own pulse taking over the airwaves. I brought myself to inch closer to the door, afraid to see what waited beyond.
I hesitated, freezing where I stood but then had the sudden spark of energy to rush to the door. A deep breath being taken as if my body subconsciously knew that once I opened that door, my night was about to get worse. I gingerly swung open the door, the darkness of the forest being lit up by a spear erected in the ground with a glowing blue aura around it, then disappearing in an instant. My attention was then brought to the lifeless body of an owl. I don’t know what came over me, but my body instinctively walked towards the corpse to check on it, leaving the safety threshold of the cabin.
The door swung closed. The little amount of light illuminating from the candle dissipates. I lunge back to try to open the door.
Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
The sinking feeling of “I just made the biggest mistake of my life” surges through my body. The door is locked. And will not budge. “Use force” comes to mind foolishly.
I dive shoulder first into the wooden door. A sudden cracking sound gives the short lived joy that it was the door. No. It was my shoulder dislocating. The pain was delayed from the adrenaline but rushed through my whole body when I realized. My heart rate and my short breaths were going at the same momentum, tears welling up from the stinging and then….
I make another huge mistake. I loudly scream from the agony without even thinking. Like my mind could no longer make rational decisions and my body took over in survival mode, but just ending up making things worse….. My mind finally catches up and my eyes widen knowing I just made a grave choice.
Almost instantly, distant drums fill the air again. I take my gaze off the cabin door and slowly focus behind me, seeing patches of light throughout the trees, going every direction, no clear path, not coming towards me, but almost just aimlessly wandering, torches bobbing through the darkness, the same blue aura of the spear, but brighter, like the brightest blue flame and several of them, some moving in groups, others breaking off on their own, like they were looking for something or someone. Like they were hunting me….
Too busy focusing on the internal battle of sinking dread versus wincing pain taking over my body, I suddenly get taken off guard by a giant gust of wind hitting me from the right side, like a force just stampeding through me, almost dropping me to the ground. I look to the left, as if I was expecting to see what had to just plowed through me, but notice wind rustling away leaves, revealing a secret path, now illuminated by the moon. I take it as a good sign, desperate enough to believe it at least, and run towards it.
Running straight on for what felt like 10 minutes, I reached a clearing and a sense of odd calmness and serenity. No strange blue flames in sight, no drums, not a single sound. I stand still to catch my breath and with an out-of-the-blue sense of courage rolling over me, I bite down on my lip and suddenly jerk my arm back into place.
Trying to hold any noise in this time around, I bite down so hard on my lip, I draw blood, but it works, the pain still there, yet the pulsing calms down. Feeling like things may be turning around in my favor, a sudden booming voice fills the area….
“You are not my Keiki and you should not be here”
Chills run down my spine, not sure if I’m hallucinating from the pain or if my estranged grandfather is speaking to me from the sky. At this point of the night, I’ll believe anything.
I speak with hesitation, “I’m… I…. I think I’m your grandson”
A long enough pause to think I’m going crazy occurs and then….
“Ah. I can sense our connection. However, you come here with a sign of your father’s betrayal, you should not be here.”
Fear becomes curiosity as I ask “what do you mean? What is this place?”
“For centuries, your bloodline was tasked to live in that cabin you entered, sacrificing a normal life to act as the guardians of this place, to keep all the spirits at rest and to protect the rest of the world from their presence. Fallen warriors from years of bloody battles and vengeful spirits reside here, the Night Marchers. We were chosen by the gods to watch over them and your father was next in line, as I taught him the ways while we lived here together. However, he felt as if he was wasting his life away for something bigger than he could grasp.”
My heart start to race, needing to more. “What happened?”
“One fateful day, he chose to betray his ancestors, betray me, and left, stealing a piece of the valley as protection, a single volcanic rock. Little did he know, stealing anything from the island and leaving is a bad omen and bad luck follows… Years went by, trying to bring him back, but nothing. I went from being angry with him for betraying his destiny to sadness that I lost my son. I died, yearning for him to come back.”
The necklace. The damn necklace. All this suffering over a rock. My father hated this place so much that suffering through life was worth it? I could feel anger start to boil through my body.
“For decades, the cabin has been uninhabited, the spirits growing uneasy, more unruly after every passing year. With your arrival, the spirits believe you are your father and you are in danger, for once you enter the valley at dusk, there is no way out.”
Those words hit me so hard, I feel like the wind just got knocked out of me.
“What do you mean, no way? You clearly some sort of mystical being, isn’t there anything you can do?” The anger is getting worse, my muscles are tightening.
“I am just an Aumakua now, a guiding spirit and my power is growing weaker as I can only manifest into nature twice, once as the owl and now as the trees. I’m sorry little one. The spirits have grown stronger than they ever have been before.”
Desperate to survive this night, I ask “what… if I take over the cabin? Hand off the necklace as a peace offering and everyone’s happy?”
A pause. The longest pause of my life, enough to make me think I was alone again.
“That… may work little one. But you must get to the cabin without being seen, if they touch you, you will perish. It seems like they have not found you yet so you……”
The voice stopped. The whistling noise of arrows and the raging growl of flames engulfed the trees around me. Blue flames. They found me. They found my grandfather.
I run. I run as fast as I ever have, the drums sounding closer, the shrieking war cries of the Night Marchers joining in, between the bright light, the disorienting noises and the heat, I felt like I was barreling through a maze, the terrain looking foreign yet familiar and feeling like I was going in circles.
I see the cabin…. my heart sinks…. it’s engulfed in the blue flames, no return, no home. Not only was my life about to be lost, but my ancestors legacy, destiny, all over, because of a selfish choice by my father. The anger has fully taken over now. I’m not running. Not like my father did.
I run to the tallest point I can find near the cabin, the Night Marchers finally in clear view, hundreds of tribal warriors surrounded by the bluest aura, marching with the purpose of finding me.
I save them the time. Without thinking, I rip the necklace off my neck, throwing it into the abyss. I wanted to scream so many angry words at them, but could only let out a single whistle. They stop for a moment and then in a split second are all surrounding me. My heart still racing but I’ve gotten adjusted to the feeling. I’m surrounded, and the flaming forest surrounded them, it’s over.
Suddenly, they approached closer, but all kneel around me. A sudden rainstorm erupted, dissipating the flames slowly. I felt… respected by the spirits, like they knew what I was feeling. They reached out and all touched me, like completing a ritual. The calmest feeling rushed over me, then a tingling numbness, then nothing….
Except I didn’t die. Well, not completely. I think they sympathized with the anger and fury raging through my body and chose me to be one of them.
So now I march. I march aimlessly around the valley, a wandering angry shell with a tribe of lost souls.