Midnight has passed, and in the stillness of these hours, the hauntings are never silent.

This is Real Ghost Stories Online.

After midnight.

Page was already there that afternoon, working her way through the last of the Christmas decorations,

while her mother moved slowly between

the counter and the stove. The house had that quiet, emptied out feeling that always followed the

holidays, when everything bright had been packed away and the rooms felt slightly larger than they

had a week before. Boxes sat open across the living room floor, tissue paper half half folded ornaments gathered into uneven piles that would eventually disappear into storage for another year it was slow work the kind that didn't require much thought but took more time than expected

lillian could no longer manage it on her own, "'and Paige had fallen into the habit of coming over

"'when there was something physical to be done,

"'lifting, carrying, reaching.

"'Things her mother would attempt anyway, if left alone.

"'They didn't talk much while they worked.

"'They didn't need to.

"'The rhythm of it had settled into something familiar.

"'The knife only came up because Lillian reached for it and didn't find it where it should have been.

It was nothing important.

A small pairing knife with a worn wooden handle used often enough that it usually stayed on the counter near the cutting board.

Page had seen it earlier that afternoon, resting beside a half-prepared meal

that Lillian had paused while they finished packing away the decorations. When it wasn't there,

neither of them reacted immediately. Page checked the sink, the drawer, and the narrow space beside

the stove where things sometimes slipped. She moved a stack of mail, lifted a towel,

...