The Thing of Rags

The ‘head’ was a bunch of rags with long strips of frayed cloth

As I’ve grown older (I’m now 55) I have trouble sleeping and staying asleep. I can only sleep through sensory deprivation: I have to block out the street lights as much as possible with blinds and curtains, I wear an eye mask/blindfold and use ear plugs. We always keep the bedroom door closed at night. Even so, I am acutely aware of any small sound or movement around me (think Edgar Allen Poe’s Roderick Usher). I will wake up if my son walks across the landing, or if someone opens or closes a door in the house.

So at the end of June 2021 I was asleep, with my blindfold on and earplugs in, when I woke up and sensed that someone was walking lightly around the bed. They were on my side of the room, which is closest to the bedroom door. I even felt the slight waft of air you get when someone swishes past. I thought my husband must be moving about the room, and I lifted my blindfold to see what was going on. That’s when I saw a Thing made of rags, standing in the corner of my bedroom by the door. It was roughly person-shaped. The ‘head’ was a bunch of rags with long, loose strips of frayed cloth like old ripped bandages or ragged cloth ‘dreadlocks’. There was no visible face; it was all just rags. Its ‘body’ was also made up of the same ragged bits of cloth or stained bandages. Some of the rags were dull white, some greyish, some darker. The Thing was maybe 3-4ft (90-120cm) tall – as it stood, it seemed slightly taller than the door handle. The Rag Head Thing seemed to sense I was awake and it had been seen. It moved toward the door and was gone. The strangest part for me is that I wasn’t frightened. After a moment or two of wondering what I’d seen, I pulled my eye mask back down and managed to go back to sleep.

I suppose it could have been a waking dream, but the detail was very real. For instance, I know it was around dawn, 4.30am, as it was light enough to see the Thing in the bedroom. I wasn’t imagining things in the dark.

I love FT and have been subscribing for about 35 years.

Jacqueline Steel

Godalming, Surrey