Free Figures of Fear: An anthology by Graham Masterton

him. On one side of the wardrobe rail there were six or seven empty wire coat hangers, which jangled for a moment and then stopped jingling.
    All of Dawn’s coats and dresses and skirts were hanging in the wardrobe, and all of her shoes and boots were neatly arranged underneath them. On one side, there were six shelves on which she kept her sweaters and her underwear and her socks.

    But there was no man standing or sitting in the wardrobe, and the only smell was the light flowery fragrance of Allure, Dawn’s favourite perfume, on her clothes.
    Dawn looked up at Jerry and shook her head. ‘He’s gone. I don’t understand it. Where did he go? He must have hidden in the wardrobe. There’s absolutely nowhere else.’
    Jerry reached into the wardrobe and rapped his knuckles on the back of it. ‘Solid. No false back to it. And in any case, it’s right up against the wall.’
    ‘Oh, Jerry,’ said Dawn, and she suddenly burst into tears. ‘I must be going mad! I swear I saw him! I swear it! His face was all black and horrible like he’d been burnt or something and he grunted at me and he was coming to get me but the light bulb popped and it all went dark again and I was so scared , Jerry! I thought he was going to kill me!’
    Jerry held her close and shushed her. ‘You had a nightmare, that’s all. Plenty of people have nightmares when they think they’ve woken up but they haven’t really.’
    ‘I’m going mad! I know I’m going mad!’
    ‘You’re not going mad, silly. You’ve just been overworking, that’s all. Too many split shifts at that crappy restaurant. You haven’t been very well, either, have you?’
    ‘No,’ she said, miserably.
    ‘Listen, come back to my place and spend the rest of the night with me. I’ll call up the restaurant tomorrow for you and tell them that you have to go to the dentist or something. I’ll take a day off and we can go for a walk around Kew Gardens or down by the river or something. It’s about time you had a break.’
    Dawn nodded, and said, ‘All right. I’d like that. Thanks, darling.’
    She dressed and brushed her hair and collected a few clothes together in case she wanted to change later, including her favourite pink jumper. When she was ready, she closed the wardrobe door. Jerry was waiting for her in the hallway and he smiled when he saw her locking it, too.
    ‘There’s no horrible black-faced man inside there, sweetheart, I promise you.’

    Dawn said nothing. She still found it hard to believe that the man had been nothing more than a nightmare. She locked the bedroom door, too, and set the burglar alarm before they left.
    Jerry put his arm around her and gave her a comforting squeeze. ‘I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen somebody setting an alarm to stop an intruder from breaking out .’
    The following evening Jerry drove her home and came in to check the wardrobe and reassure her that there was nobody in there, or anywhere else in her flat. He even lifted up the cushions on the sofa bed in her living room, in case there was a black-faced man hiding inside it.
    ‘There’s nobody here, sweetheart. You can see for yourself.’ He walked through to the kitchen and opened up the oven door and said, ‘See? Empty. You’re completely on your own.’
    ‘You don’t have to make fun of me.’
    ‘I’m not. I’m just trying to convince you that you’re perfectly safe. I wouldn’t leave you alone here if I thought that there was a prowler around. But – listen – if you do hear anything, or get frightened about anything – just give me a call. I’ll come over straight away.’
    ‘Thanks, Jerry,’ she said, and put her arms around him and gave him a kiss. ‘It’s just me being stupid, you know that.’
    ‘That’s why I love you, stupid.’
    That night she dreamed that she was sitting on a veranda overlooking a weedy, unkempt garden. The grass was almost knee-high and all the laurel bushes surrounding the lawn were overgrown. Above