The Haunted Housekeeper

Preston is a cheapskate, so he rents a haunted house. On his first night, the faucet turns itself on, and when he yells at the empty air about the water bill, the water stops at once. The next morning a lavish breakfast waits on his table, and after three days of freeloading he leaves a note asking the cook's name. The reply, in beautiful handwriting, reads Evelyn Hartley.

Evelyn keeps cooking, and Preston keeps eating, until he pushes his luck with a shopping list of lobster, Kobe beef, black truffles and caviar. The table stays empty, and a single cold word appears: Wasteful. Then his smug coworker Marcus Quinn invites himself in, sneers at the dump, and grabs an antique vase. It stops a centimeter above the floor and floats back to the table, and Marcus flees in terror.

When a three-thousand-eight-hundred-dollar electricity bill arrives, Preston's fury at Evelyn's midnight lights and phantom meals boils over. He demands she pay it, and a silhouette darker than the darkness peels away from the wall. A cold voice speaks directly into his mind: Say that again.