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

This is Real Ghost Stories Online.

After midnight.

When they signed the lease, it didn't seem like a big deal.

An affordable apartment in Iowa City, close to work, close to downtown.

The realtor mentioned the property line bordered a cemetery, but they both laughed it off.

It wasn't creepy. It was historic. The stones were weathered and leaning, the kind of old-world

charm you tell your friends about later.

They were 19, newly independent, drunk on freedom and young love.

They spent those first weeks making the small apartment theirs,

cheap curtains, mismatched furniture, the smell of takeout clinging to cardboard boxes that hadn't yet been broken down.

Life was loud and hopeful, but the quiet that

came after dark felt different. The air seemed heavier like something unseen was holding its

breath. It began the way these things usually do, small enough to dismiss. The hallway light

flicking on and off while they watched TV, the faint sound of

movement when the building should have been still. They blamed faulty wiring, the upstairs

neighbor, anything logical. Then one afternoon he came home from work and noticed the curtains in

the office were wide open. He and his girlfriend always kept them drawn. The window faced the cemetery and there was

something unsettling about seeing those crooked stones from the desk. He closed them and didn't

mention it. A week later, it happened again. Curtains opened, sunlight spilling across the carpet.

But this time the desk chair had been turned away from the table,

angled perfectly toward the window,

...