Linda

 When the room went dark, she heard her name. At least, she thought that she heard her name. Not wanting to get out of her warm bed, she peeked her eyes over the top of the edge of her goose down comforter. The springs in the mattress creaked slightly and she nearly screamed at them to shut the hell up. The wind blew dreamily through the crisp autumn leaves still clinging to the tree just outside of her bedroom.

Slowly she pulled the comforter further down over her face, cautiously exposing her nose, lips, and then her mouth. She desperately wanted to sit up in bed to see what, if anything, had called her name from the far corner of her room. As her brain tried to command her muscles to sit her torso up in bed, she found in horror that she was somehow unable to move. No matter what commands she gave to her body, she just couldn’t seem to manage to move her upper body.

Linda…

The raspy voice whispered seemingly in her ear, Cold chills ran up her spine. She could feel the goose flesh on her arms standing the fine blonde hairs nearly up on end. The wind gusted slightly outside her window, rattling the leaves like a baby’s favorite toy. The foundation of the house creaked and somewhere in the vents, she could heat the groaning of the duct work cooling down from the last time the furnace warmed the house. She jerked the covers hastily over her head, bundling them under her arms, accidentally allowing her feet to become exposed as the bottom hem of the comforter jumped over her toes halfway up her shins.

She sneaked the top of her blanket back down over the tip of her nose, her eyes darting left and right. Some arcane piece of folklore flashed through her mind, reminding her that monsters from under the bed were allowed to snack on parts of your body not concealed by bedding. Their favorite, of course, were the juicy toes jutting so temptingly from the foot. As she tried to remind herself that she was an adult and there was no such thing as monsters, the voice struck again,

Liiindaaaa…..

It was closer now. The chills in her spine spread to her very bones, seeming to make the marrow feel like ice. Her heart pumped a mile a minute while the blood in her veins ran cold, making it just that much more imperative to cover those juicy toes sticking out. The vents carried a faint tapping sound from the basement to her ears. She was sure it was just the furnace making some kind of noise that she had never heard it make before. Yeah, that was it. Just the furnace starting back up.

Slowly, but surely, she turned oh so carefully on to her side, working harder than the logical part of her brain told her she should be at making sure that the mattress springs didn’t creak again. She ignored the panicky jolt she felt in her stomach as the furnace kicked into life down in the basement. The wind whistled past the window frame, making the siding rattle ominously against the side of the house. She inched her legs upward toward her torso, intent on getting them back under the far edge of the blanket, which seemed to have all but disappeared. Kicking her left leg out several times, she finally hooked the edge of the blanket with her big toe. A feeling of illogical relief washed over her as she carefully dragged the edge of the blanket down over her other leg while peering out from a tented up fold in the hem of her comforter.

Linnndaaa…

She yanked the covers back up over her head, curling her whole body under the covers. She stifled a scream as her sudden movement almost pulled the bottom end of the blanked out from under her feet again. The voice was nearly in her ear now. Cold and scratchy in timbre, the voice seemed to chill the very air in the room. She moved the edge of the covers up ever so slightly, seemingly a millimeter at a time, until she had just enough space to allow one eye to dart around as much of the room as she could. She hoped beyond all hopes that there wouldn’t be a shadowy figure with a knife waiting to stab her to death. She lifted the covers up a few more inches, propping the edge of her comforter with her outstretched fingers.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Again, she moved the edge of the covers down over both of her eyes. Still laying on her right side, she found herself staring at her closet, the top appearing ninety degrees widdershins due to her positioning. Was the door jutting out just a bit in the center? She could have sworn that she shut it all the way after she hung up her dry cleaning earlier that day. Allowing herself to be brave, her eyes tracked upward to the sideways clock which displayed a scornful 3:00 a.m.

She reminded herself that she needed to be at work and ready to perform tomorrow. No sense in worrying about how she left the closet earlier that day. The wind increased in speed outside her window, removing several dozen of the dry, colorful leaves from the branches as the branches themselves waved around like skeletal hands in the full moon light. The eerie glow painted the wall in a silvery white light as the shadows danced a frightening burlesque on the wall.

She turned over on her other side, contemplating how she would be getting back to sleep. She also started thinking about whether or not she wanted to get up and close the curtains on her window so she wouldn’t be bothered by the trees and the light. Her mind was in criticism mode, mocking her for caving in to childhood fears. Be a grownup, it said. Just close your eyes and go back to sleep. She pulled the top of the covers all the way down over the bottom of her face, smiling slightly as she snuggled under her covers. After all, there’s no such thing as the boogey…

LINDA!

The voice was short and curt this time, just as raspy and all the more frightening. She sat bolt upright in her bed, pulling her knees up to her chest and clutching the covers up under her chin.

There’s no way, she said to herself. There’s no goddamn way that this is real. It can’t be real. It’s my imagination. Yeah, that’s it, just my stupid imagination trying to play tricks on me so I have to drink two pots of coffee just to get through the day. Just as she was considering how much concealer she would have to use under her eyes to conceal the bags that would surely be there in the morning, she remembered there were three more hours till she had to be up. Three goddamn hours and…

LINDA!

She could swear it was louder. She pulled the blanket up over her head while still sitting upright, toes be damned. As she slid the covers back down over the top of her head, she swore she could hear a faint laughter from the closet. She pulled the covers back up to just under her nose. She stole a glance towards the closet, trying to convince herself that she had actually left it slightly ajar, the center fold of the doors stabbing into the room like the tip of a knife. There couldn’t possibly be anyone in there…

LINDA!

She flipped over, prostrating her body and screaming into the pillow. More laughter seemed to be emanating from the closet, floating through the air to her ears, driving her to the brink of madness. No, no, no, no, no…no flippin' way. No way. I’m not gonna die tonight. None of this is real. The door jostled a bit, and the center bumped further into the room. She gripped her pillow tight to her chest and sat up again in bed. She squinted and squeezed the pillow as tight as she could. Oh god, oh god, oh god…

Just then, the closet burst open, and Linda’s best friend jumped out from inside.

“SURPRISE, BITCH!” Janice pealed with laughter, falling on the floor and holding her sides, barely able to contain her apparent glee at the prank she just played.

“Oh my god,” she laughed breathlessly. “You should have seen yourself.” Her face was red in the moonlight, barely able to talk between the guffaws. “Oh shit, that was priceless.” She fell back over on the floor roaring with laughter while Linda stared at her nonplussed, mouth agape and pillow now in her lap as her arms rested nearly lifelessly on the pillow. A friendly rage built up inside as she clutched her pillow in tight fists.

Linda leaped out of bed and began clobbering Janice over the head with the pillow.

“You stupid ass!” she yelled in mock anger, punctuating each of her words with a new blow to her conniving friend’s head. She switched to a sideways swing, still punctuating each word with a pillow smash against Janice’s ribs. “This is the last time I let you stay over at my house after we go out for drinks.” Linda was trying not to smile and feign as much rage as she possibly could.

She continued to smash her friend with the pillow, but was running out of steam. “Next time we go out,” she said with a weak pillow blow, “you get go drive home,” hammering the last two words home onto Janice’s attempts to block the strikes with her arms.

“And when you get arrested for drunk driving,” Linda continued with two more pillow attacks at the end of her sentence, “you can just call someone else.” Three more blows over the top of Janice’s head emphasizing the last three words represented the coups de grace of her faux ire.

Worn out, Linda let the pillow fall to the floor with a soft thump. Her tousled hair dangled a few strands wispily over her left eye. She blew upward, a faint smile starting to crack the side of her mouth. The two friends stared at each other for a moment, then both fell over laughing.

“You gotta admit, I got you good,” Janice cackled.

“Yeah, you got me,” Linda responded breathlessly as her laughter subsided. ‘You just wait until I get you back, because thith meanth war,” doing her best Daffy Duck impression at the end.

They both roared with laughter again, this time falling down into the bed together. As the laughter died down, they covered themselves up with the blankets and passed out from joyous exhaustion.