Hi'iaka.

Hi’iaka. Hi’iaka. Hi’iaka.

The faint chant of her name whispered with the wind as it blew through the leaves of the surrounding trees. Dark clouds rolled in and the sky thundered as rain began to pour in a heavy downfall. The pueo lay dead before the boys on the pavement. Bloody and motionless. La’akea shuffled away from it, but Kai’s bare feet were planted in place. His fist still tightly gripped the metal rod he used against the barn owl.

“I can’t believe you killed it.”

Kai breathed hard through his nose as water dripped down his face. His chest rose and fell with every breath. His blood ran hot through his veins, still angered from the encounter. Kai had small cuts on his arms, face, and neck from being pecked at by the pueo. He showed no remorse for his actions, and glared in annoyance at his friend. “It wouldn’t stop attacking me,” he snarled, dropping the metal rod on the ground. It clattered on the pavement beside the body.

“That doesn’t mean it deserved to die!” La’akea snapped back. He ran his fingers through his thick long brown hair, drenched and tangled from the rain, and forced himself to look at the pueo. He dropped to his knees. His eyebrows scrunched together, and his lip quivered, pained by the sight of its broken beak. “We have to bury it.” He took the shirt off of his own back and carefully wrapped the owl.

“I’m not touching it.” Kai rolled his eyes and jingled the keys in his pocket, wiping his face with his free hand. “And you aren’t bringing that pest into my car.”

La’akea looked down at the corpse in his arms. “I’m not leaving it here, Kai.”

“Then you can walk home.”

Kai didn’t wait for a response. He got into his car, and after a loud slam of his door, he drove off, not looking back.

La’akea walked to the edge of the nearby beach close to the road and with his hands, he dug into the soft dirt. As he buried the body wrapped in his clothes, he closed his eyes and apologized to Hi’iaka, the Hawaiian goddess to whom owls were sacred. “E kala mai ia’u.” Tears gathered in his eyes. “Forgive me for not stopping him.” His hands were placed over the disturbed soil, pressing down gently to settle it. Wind blew in strength around him. Trees swayed and leaves rustled. The rain gushed from the sky, and thunder roared ahead.

Hi’iaka. Hi’iaka. Hi’iaka.

Everything stopped.

She watched La’akea from afar, hidden between the wooden bodies of trees and ceased her storm. When he left the burial site, she approached. Kneeling on the wet earth, Hi’iaka gently pressed her forehead and nose to the ground, and breathed. The spirit of the pueo rose from the ground. The faint, translucent owl bowed to the goddess before taking flight, fading over the ocean and into the night sky. When she got to her feet, Hi’iaka looked out into the darkness of the direction which Kai had headed. Her dark eyes narrowed and without breeze, her hair blew violently in the still of the night.

Kai and La’akea didn’t speak again, and their friendship crumbled.

A week passed, and the wounds Kai sustained from the pueo remained as fresh as the day he received them. Sat on the counter in the kitchen, he winced as his girlfriend cleaned the cuts. “It hurts more today,” he grumbled, flinching as she pressed the alcohol against his cheek.

“Maybe that means you’re finally healing,” Anela said, tossing the bloody gauze into the trashcan.

“Maybe,” he reluctantly agreed quietly. She turned away from him to wash her hands. Glancing in her direction, Kai had to look again. Perched outside was a pueo in broad daylight, seeming to stare at him intently with its dark eyes.

Anela turned around and leaned back against the sink as she dried her hands with the towel. “Well, it usually has to get worse before it gets better, right?” She smiled reassuringly. He rubbed the back of his neck and returned her smile with a rather apprehensive one of his own. When Kai looked out the window again, the owl was gone.

But as the days went on, his injuries only worsened and more pueo gathered around his home. The cuts bruised the surrounding skin, and bled profusely. Kai bandaged his arm and taped up the gashes on his face.

Kai found La’akea at his job at Rainbow drive-in just outside Waikiki. He was on break, chatting with his coworker who ran the small gift shop for the tourists that frequented the area. Kai gripped his shirt and shoved him into the wall. “What did you do? After I left that night — what did you do?”

“Me?” La’akea grabbed Kai’s wrists and pushed him off. “I’m not the one who killed a messenger of a goddess!”

Kai’s lip curled and he shoved him. “Shut up! What did you do?” he demanded.

“I buried it, Kai! Just like I said I would!” La’akea shoved him back. To his surprise, Kai winced and recoiled. La’akea frowned. “What’s wrong with you?”

“It’s not healing,” Kai mumbled, pressing his fingers gently against the tape on his face. He turned away from the gift shop worker who began assisting a tourist.

“What?”

“The attack from the pueo. It’s not healing. I’m not healing!” Kai pulled up the sleeve of his jacket. Blood seeped through the bandages of his arm.

La’akea’s eyes widened. “But that was —”

“A month ago. Yeah, I know.” Kai yanked his sleeve back down. “That’s all you did? Buried it?”

La’akea nodded. “And I asked her to forgive me. Maybe you should do the same.”

Kai inhaled sharply and turned away from him. Shoving his fists into the pockets of his jacket, he headed home.

Hi’iaka. Hi’iaka. Hi’iaka.

As witching hour approached early that morning, Hi’iaka stood outside of the window positioned above the head of Kai’s bed. She watched him sleep peacefully, and patiently awaited the departure of his soul. Souls would wander at night, and she would be there to catch his.

Kai panicked at the sight of her and his soul attempted to bind back with his body, but Hi'iaka was too quick. She reached through the window and grabbed his translucent throat. “There is only hate and selfishness in your heart, Kai.”

“I’m sorry!" he cried. His ghostly hands continued to pass through hers as he struggled under her grip. "I’m sorry, Hi’iaka!”

“No,” she whispered in a stern voice. Her dark eyes bore into his. “You aren’t. And that’s the saddest part.”

Hi'iaka yanked him through the window. Dozens of pueo sat perched on the houses that surrounded his. She dragged his body through the darkness of O'ahu and up to Kaena Point. Little balls of light leapt from the point, descending into the darkness. The open mouth of the underworld.

“Forgive me, Hi’iaka.” Even as a spirit, she could see his eyes were red from his self-inflicted agony. She threw him off the cliff and Kai fell to his demise, swallowed by the depths below.

“No.”