Tangled Lives

This is a submission that is not something I have experienced personally. This is a account of what had happened to two (2) of my aunts. For one; it cost her her youth, the other her life. This is the story.

My first aunt is the eldest of my father's siblings. She was said to be beautiful, very elegant, very attractive growing up. She worked at the only hotel at the time on the island during the late 60's early 70's. She was very well liked by everyone. Her coworkers, her bosses, her patrons. Everyone loved her. Everything did too.

My last post talked about aitu's, sauai's and aitulua. This entity was of the latter and has a very decorated history. (I only wished that many of the families that were affected had written accounts for historical purposes.). He was the son of one the kings (tafa'i fa (tah-fah'ee-fah) of Samoa. He was known as the beautiful prince because he had bright red hair, fair skin (which was not a Samoan trait. He was not as fair as a caucasian, just fair in comparison to other Samoans especially his father), a word to summon up this being, I would use the word Adonis. He was sought by women and his hunger was not satisfied by just them, he had to have everything he wanted, and everyone. Upon him taking on his celestial body, he became even more possessive. He would ave ola (uh-vay -oh-la) kids, men, women (especially beautiful ones) for his own. After he was done with them and had returned them to their villages or families, those victimized were never the same. Those were the lucky ones. There are still those who have not returned home. (another story for another time).

He is revered and feared on the islands because of his very real presence (the last case of him showing his will is a young man who was slapped so hard he flew out the back of a pick up truck and had no injuries other than the hand print that covered half of his face.) I will call him Adonis. He was also attracted to my aunt during this time.

One night on her way home from work, my aunt (let's call her Ina) Ina and three friends were walking towards the central market to catch a bus/taxi home. As they walked from the village of Utulei to Fagatogo (about a mile and half distance) they stopped in front of the Fono building to catch their breaths. There was a woman already there wearing a red hibiscus in her ear. She made simple conversation asking where my aunt and her friends were headed. They replied scattered home, we just got off of work. Meanwhile, my aunt had to use the ladies room because she had forgotten to before they left on their walk to the market. Picture their surrounding. A circular building with a big veranda with about 12 steps heading to the top platform. Flower bushes flowing from the edges of the veranda to the sidewalk. Benches on either side of the steps at the bottom. Behind one of the benches (on the eastern side of the building) there was a boulder that was big enough for someone to crouch behind and not be seen. This is where my aunt decided to do her duty. Mind you her friends are making small talk to keep this old woman company and distract her from what my aunt was doing too. As my aunt was coming back to the front of the boulder, her friends got up and excused themselves from the old woman's company. She bid farewell and they left.

They did not catch the bus as the buses stopped running around 10 PM. So they decided to walk home. This was no easy feat. By car at the top legal speed of 20mph, this distance to our village is about a 30 minute drive if there are no cars on the road. So, Ina and her three friends made their way. When they had gotten into the village of Pago Pago, they found a car heading east past our village and so they hitched a ride. My Aunt got home after midnight which worried my grandparents. She got in and went straight to bed after talking to my grand parents. My grandmother knew something was not right, but was too exhausted to stay up. So they all went to bed. The next couple of days, my aunt was starting to feel strange. She would notice people out of the blue who was wearing a red hibiscus in their ear and would be waving and occasionally saying hi. It did not seem too out of the ordinary until she was starting to get sick.

After about maybe a period of two to three weeks; family member starting seeing her acting strange. Talking to no one they could see, being very closed off even speaking ill to my grandma. (which a very big no no in Samoan culture.) This is when my grandmother knew she was gradually being possessed by something unearthly. So my grandmother had to summon a fofo (foh-foh) (witch doctor who specializes in possession.) For the ceremony usually one would do but my grandmother had a gut feeling that this one would take more so three were summoned and she would be their herbalist. Now I did not see this take place and I am piecing bits and pieces of information together to bring you this encounter.

They arrived the next day and were immediately taken aback by the overwhelming feeling of a very powerful entity in the house. They started to bless the house with samoan coconut oil and the vine herb called the aupa (ahoo-pah) mixture used to purify rooms for cultural exorcisms.

As they did this they could hear my aunt in her room cuss and swear at those who are trying to separate them. My aunt at the time (early 20's) was about 5 foot 2 and weighed about 130-145 lbs. She was throwing things and pounding on the walls and screaming in what everyone else heard to be at least six different voices in unison. When the room was ready, my father and his brothers and cousins were asked to bring her into the living room. They tried to pry the door open but it seemed as if the door weighed a thousand pounds. One of the fofo's told the being to let the door go and the door came flying open. My aunt was standing there with a very crude grin on her face as if saying here I am come get me and that is exactly what happened. It took 11 men to carry this woman out of the room. (My father, his 3 brothers and cousins and neighbors). They could not believe how strong she was.

The main fofo spoke and told her to relax and they were there to help. She wailed and fell to the ground (she sat up after being carried to the living room). The fofos then took leaves from the noni tree and the red tea leave and doused them with coconut oil and sitting in a triangle (one at her head and the other two close to her feet) they all started to massage her body and speak to the entity to identify itself. Many different accounts about what happened next but the gist of it is as follows:

Adonis mocked the fofo's. He would toy with them by speaking different languages (fijian, tongan, hawaiian.). He would also change his voice to an elderly woman, a young boy, a mean old man and something unearthly. As they continued, he finally revealed himself and told them why he had chosen her. He felt that she had disrespected him by urinating in one of the places he frequents. He was just going to punish her but was taken in by her beauty and demeanor. So he decided to wait and see if she was rude or was she just acting out. He found that she was someone he wanted to be with and so started to court her. Now that he is wtih her, he was not letting her go.

The fofo's continued their part and tried to sever the bond and were successful to a point. He released her finally after about half a day of the exorcism. He left with a warning that she would never be free. "She will always be mine." were his final words as he left her body worn and wrinkled (literally, her skin on her body and face had wrinkled like she was at least in her late 40's). Even the fofo's hands had left imprints on her skin. My beautiful aunt went from looking her beautiful 20's self to looking like an aged woman in the span of a night. (She is in her 70's but looks as if she is older). She still see's him once in a while in her home in the states, on flights, on the freeway. I feel for her.

Fast forward about 20 or so odd years. My beautiful aunt Rain. She too was a beautiful, vibrant, attractive woman. A strong mother of 7, she was absolutely breathtaking. She too worked at the hotel (at the time it was still the only one on the island). She was there for about 15 to 20 years when things went from happy to grim for my family. She had contracted breast cancer in the late 80's early 90's and had to have one of the removed to stop the spread of the cancer. She had just arrived home from being in Hawaii for Chemo and treatments. She was recovering well until about 2 to 3 months after she had arrived. She caught the flu (or so we thought) and was rushed to hospital. The hospital had told my uncle that she was fine and that she was only feeling like this due to the wounds from the chemo that was still healing. So after a night in observation in the hospital, we brought her home. She then started to act very peculiar. Like one day she was prancing along outside like Ginger Rogers in a musical and smiling like there not a care in the world. The next she would sit and sulk like an old man just mad at the world. We all figured it was just a phase she was going through because of the healing process.

It was then we started to see the entity trying to house itself inside her. She would take long swims at sunset. I believe its called the twilight hours in some accounts. In Samoan culture and lore, this is also the divide between the living world and the supernatural and it is also when the veil that separates both is at its thinnest. She would swim around like there not a care in the world. When she would come out and shower and settle in for dinner and such she was so beat. It was puzzling. My grandmother once again summoned the fofo. (this time there were only two as the third one she had known had passed away a couple of years prior.) My grandmother did not want to alert my aunt to what was going on because she wanted to trap the entity and vanquish it once and for all.

Of course this was to no avail because as soon as the fofo's showed up, my aunt went into a violent rage. It took my uncle (a 6 foot 2 235 police officer, and 4 brothers of equal or bigger in size) to hold her down. They struggled and pulled and pushed her back into the house as she was cussing in a very shrilly tone. She was almost mocking everyone especially my grandmother. My grandmother took the part of tether as she tried to connect to my aunt as the fofo started the ceremony. My aunt Rain, screamed in different tongues saying that this is what my aunt gets for being so beautiful. If I can't have her no one will. The entity, spoke what sounded like a oriental sounding dialect that left everyone baffled for a minute. As I approached the house, we could hear my uncle who is a reverend tell the entity to leave her body and the entity laughed and said to him "what can your god do to me if he and I are of the same?" (in Samoan of course). My Tongan uncle started cussing and cursing out the entity to speak its name and it replied I am not one but I am many. This is when things go a little haywire.

Mind you now, I am about 10 feet from the front of my uncles house. The front of the house is a porch with four gate openings. The closest opening is where I am standing with my aunts oldest son consoling him. She then turns to the window and says my name and her sons and says in a laughing manner "you think you can take me?... I am coming for you next!...". This not only manages to piss off her son and me but the rage I feel is so strong that I could feel as if something else was fueling my anger. I get to the door hanging on to him trying to stop him. This is when I can finally see my aunt. She was sprawled on the floor, sitting up in what could be one of the most uncomfortable positions I have eve seen (it looked as if was cut in half at the waist and reassembled so her feet were facing the wall and her upper body facing the door). Her eyes were rolling so we could only see the white when we saw her. When it sensed we were closer, her eyes stopped rolling and her eyes burned red like something you might have seen in a horror movie.

She spoke and this is where all the anger subsided and genuine fear started to creep up my spine. Her voice was mixture of three different tones. The one that I heard clearest was the lowest because it sounded like something you would have heard in a narration of a movie or a scary villain that a deep voice. Almost like the guy who plays Candyman in the movie of the same title. It was as if the entity was really looking for a fight. "What are you two worthless worms doing here?. Do you want her alive? Come and get her, she is not going to come free I am telling you. I own her.".

This is when my whole family realized they knew all along who the entity was all along. The head fofo "Adonis leave this vessel. Why do you torment this family? ". He replied "They cost me my beloved so I found another and I am not letting her go." Both fofo's and the members of the family all in unison try to drive him out. She is struggling now. Flailing about and she literally levitated off the ground about 1-2 feet before her body was laid flat and with the gentlest of touches. It was over. But the ordeal had taken the life and the fight out of my aunt. Her cancer had come back and spread even faster through her body. She passed away about a month after.

When we get together (my cousins and I), we reminisce on past times and tend to bring up this incident. I have seen and heard him on occasion and so has my cousin. We are not afraid because we too have ways to fight the entities. I'll explain that in a later post. Adonis is known by many names and he is definitely one of the most violent entities I know of. I'll give you all a oral history of what has passed on of his victims. I know when or if the day comes, I am going to put up the fight of my life.