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

This is Real Ghost Stories Online.

After midnight.

He was 21 years old when he finally admitted to himself that fear had been part of his life longer than he could remember.

He lived in New Jersey now, but he hadn't always. Before that, he grew up on Long Island

in houses that felt ordinary on the outside. There were no stories attached to them. No rumors,

no warnings. If anything strange, it followed him. Through the years years it hadn't announced itself loudly. It stayed

close, quiet, persistent. And the feeling started when he was around 12 or 13, and at first he blamed

himself. He watched a lot of scary movies and paranormal shows, the kind that crept into your

thoughts long after the screen went dark?

It made sense to assume his imagination was running ahead of him. He told himself,

that was all it was. But the feeling didn't fade when the shows stopped. By the time he was 16,

he hated being alone in the dark. Not in the casual, childish way most people dislike it, but in a way that

made his body tense, his breathing shallow. Darkness felt dangerous. It felt like the moment something

could finally reach him. He didn't tell many people that part. Teenagers weren't supposed to be

afraid of the dark, and he already

felt different enough. Things grew worse after his mother passed away. Grief changed the texture

of his life. Sleep became unreliable. His dreams turned harsh and violent, full of panic and

confusion. When he woke his heart race as if he had been running.

Sometimes he woke already terrified, unsure what he had been dreaming at all, only certain

that something had been wrong.

When he was home alone, the feeling returned stronger than before.

...