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

This is Real Ghost Stories Online, after midnight.

Lena didn't believe him the first time he said it.

She and Jesse had known each other for years, the kind of familiarity that made it easy

to fall into something without thinking too hard about it. When they finally started dating,

it didn't feel complicated or rushed. It felt like picking up a conversation that had already

been going on for a long time, which was probably why she stayed on the phone with him

that night longer than she normally would have, long enough for things to shift into something

more serious. That was when Jesse told her. He didn't ease into it or try to soften it. He said it

plainly like it was something he had already accepted.

When he slept, things happened. He didn't give it a name, didn't try to explain it beyond that.

He just said people had told him he moved in his sleep, reacted to things that weren't there,

and that sometimes he woke up with scratches he couldn't explain.

Lena didn't take it seriously.

It sounded like something pulled from a bad story,

"'something that didn't belong in real life,

"'and she treated it that way.

"'She laughed it off, told him it was probably stress or bad dreams,

"'and moved on.

"'Jesse didn't argue. He didn't try to convince her.

"'He just let it drop like he had already learned not to push it.

A few weeks later, he started staying over. At first, nothing about it felt unusual. They would stay up too late, talk until they ran out of things to say, and fall asleep without much thought.

...