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

This is Real Ghost Stories Online.

After midnight.

The first apartment never felt haunted in the beginning.

That was something Kara tried to remind herself of later after everything that

happened because fear had a way of rewriting memories. It would have been easy to pretend she sensed

something wrong the first day she carried boxes inside, but the truth was far less dramatic.

At first, the apartment was just old. The building sat above a row of

struggling storefronts on a narrow downtown street where traffic never fully stopped, even after

midnight. Pipes knocked inside the walls whenever tenants upstairs used hot water. The windows

rattled when trucks passed outside and the floors creaked enough

that footsteps could seem to come from almost anywhere.

Kara moved in with her friend Megan when she was 22 years old and trying hard to feel

like her life was finally beginning.

Rent was cheap, both of them worked inconsistent hours, and neither cared much that the apartment

looked worn down as long as they could

afford it. The footsteps started first. Kara heard them one afternoon while folding laundry in the

bedroom. Slow movement crossed the living room, paused near the kitchen, then continued toward the hallway.

She assumed Megan had come home early from work until she stepped out and found the

apartment empty. The front door was still locked. She blamed the neighbors. A week later, Megan

heard the same thing while showering alone. After that, strange sounds became part of the apartment

and the way odd things sometimes become part of older buildings.

...