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

This is Real Ghost Stories Online, after midnight.

Some stories don't stay behind when you move.

They don't belong to one building or one moment in time. They attach themselves

to a person, following them through years, through relationships, through every home that was

supposed to be a fresh start. This is one of those stories, a haunting that didn't care about

leases or addresses, and certainly didn't care whether the people involved believed in it

or not. It began when he was 19 years old living in Iowa City and it continued long after

he tried to leave it behind. He and his girlfriend had just moved into an apartment together.

They were young, excited, proud of being on their own for the first time.

Life felt open and full of possibility.

The apartment itself was nothing special.

Standard beige carpet, thin walls, an awkward little office space. But it was theirs, and that was enough.

If the complex happened to be bordered on three sides by a cemetery.

That was just another quirk of the place.

They joked about it.

Nineteen-year-olds don't think cemeteries are omens.

At first, everything seemed normal.

A light flickered now and then.

Pipes made noises at strange hours. They heard the occasional thud or creak in the night. It was easy to dismiss. Buildings make sounds. Old wiring acts up. Nothing worth worrying about. But then the curtains in the office started opening. It began quietly, so quietly that he didn't think much of it the

first time. He came home from work, tossed his keys into the dish by the door, walked into the

office, and noticed sunlight flooding the room. The curtains, which were always kept closed, were pulled

...