Anthology of Awful: The Haunting of Linda Thimbles

Ghosts.

The spirits of the departed, returned from the grave to haunt the living?

Maybe.

Or maybe...something more...sinister?

For 29 year-old accounting assistant Linda Thimbles, it was to be the latter.

One night, Linda Thimbles was preparing for bed, having had an exhausting day assisting accountants with their accounting duties.

She fell gratefully into her bed, turned off her bedside lamp, and drifted into a much-needed sleep.

Hours later, Linda Thimbles snapped awake, and immediately sensed something was deeply wrong. Her room was freezing cold, and she felt she was being watched by eyes that were not of this world.

She glanced up at her alarm clock, and noticed it was 3:30am. She sighed, remembering that in less than three hours, she would have to get up again, for another day of assisting accountants.

Linda Thimbles groaned, and decided to put aside her apprehensions, and go back to sleep. However, as she turned over in her bed, something caught her eye.

Something that made her quite literally freeze in fear, although not in a literal sense.

There, at the foot of the bed, was the unmistakable white figure of a GHOST.

The spirit flapped about gently, but made no other motion and did not advance upon Linda Thimbles. Yet she remained uneasy, sensing that, although the apparition had no eyes, it was carefully WATCHING her.

Then she noticed something else.

The ghoul seemed to be patterned, with dozens of little pink bunny-rabbits adorning its body.

Then Linda Thimbles realised - this was no ghost. This was just one of her duvet covers, gently flapping in the breeze from the open window.

Just a duvet cover...

Just?

Oh, dear readers, had it been a simple ghoul we could have all rested. We know where we are with ghouls, and many of us can go a lifetime without ever meeting one.

But knowing that it was, in fact, a duvet cover - like the ones you or I own, means that we too could be startled by a piece of linen, at any time. Night or day, today or tomorrow. We will not know when to expect it, but when it occurs, and the sheet carries out it's terrifying duty, we will shit ourselves for a few, agonizing seconds.

And that is the terrifying truth.

Sleep well.

- The Book-Keeper.