Welcome Home

Dear Newest Residents,

Please consider this my warning to you.

Most people don’t leave this house… alive.

You will be driven into complete madness until you take your own life, or the life of someone else living with you.

I always begin with this letter, but no one ever listens.

Next, I’ll start with small things.

Windows will open and close at will, especially when you’re asleep at night. You’ll wake to a sudden chill, maybe blame your partner for not closing it before bed.

Your car keys will move. You’ll have to search the entire house from top to bottom. Swearing you left them on the key hook by the door, you’ll remember it vividly.

A baby crying every night around midnight, just a faint cry off in the distance. Enough for you to wonder if there really is a baby crying, or if you’re imagining it.

That baby once lived here too.

After that, I’ll move on to bigger things.

For you, I think, it will be sudden waves of crippling sadness when you enter certain rooms. You’ll be completely overcome with depression so deep, you don’t think you’ll ever be able to pull yourself out.

Then come the nightmares. I’ll creep into your mind when you sleep at night. Lucid fever dreams will torture your thoughts in the dark, but they’re just dreams… or are they?

Finally, you’ll come downstairs one day, and the raw, coppery smell will hit you. Blood. A crimson wave cascading down the walls. A slick, viscous surface spilling onto the floors. A thin crust forming around the edges, like a festering scab waiting to be picked.

You’ll spend all day cleaning it, but when you come down the next day, it will be there again.

You’ll be driven to the brink, and then, just as suddenly as it started, it will stop. But only long enough for you to think it’s all over… before it starts again.

Nobody will believe you… until they become my next victim.

Author’s Note:

This story was written for the Tales From Beyond: The Haunted Letter Challenge, an unofficial Vocal challenge.

You can find the full details here: