Don’t forget who came before you

Dear Resident:

This letter gives notice that you are illegally occupying my home! Just because you cannot see me, does not mean that I am not here! I am watching you!

I saw you come in with the realtor! You commented on the red stains in the bathtub, but you signed a contract to take the sale “as is” meaning that you cannot require the seller to make improvements to the house.

You cannot stop the sale because you do not want to have blood spots in your bath tub! They are evidence of my murder.

My spouse was angry that I took long baths. She leaned over me, and she stabbed me.

It happened quickly. I bled out into the water.

She drained the tub and buried my body.

You must not remove the mound of dirt under the oak tree. You cannot require the seller to landscape the yard.

Failure to appear at the closing, or to sign the contract will result in a transfer of my ghostly substance to your person for ever. I will haunt you for as long as you violate these contract terms! No stain removal, and no back yard landscaping.

I look forward to seeing you at the settlement. Directions to the Coventry office are enclosed. If you have any questions not covered by this letter, please reach out to the realtor.

Best Regards,

G. H. Osterman esq.

Coventry, CV6 4LN

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The publishing mother ship.

Ghostly Complaints was originally published in Entropies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Everything was going reasonably well until the old people showed up

Father Time first came knocking on my door last year.

He brought flowers.
Packages.
Questions.
Occasionally bad news.

I began to think of his visits as little horoscopes. You never knew what time was going to leave on the doorstep.

Then he came back.

This time, he brought clocks.

Apparently, Father Time wasn’t the only one thinking about getting old.

The old people had been thinking about it too.

They had reached a different conclusion.

Process & Credits
Images created with Midjourney and Photoshop by the author and animated with Kling AI. Video editing and sound design in CapCut. Music and sound effects licensed through Epidemic Sound.

More Time Creeps:

Peepholes of Time
Where Father Time first came knocking.

Don’t Let the Old One In
On staying engaged while time keeps moving.

Support writers. All our non-profit’s offerings here.

The publishing mother ship.

Father Time Loses It was originally published in Entropies on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.