A Sincere Warning About the Entity in Your Home

by Jason Arnopp

"Dear friend,

This is no chain letter, hoax or prank.

It is a sincere warning about your home and the entity which dwells within.

Your home has been haunted for quite some time.

I am sorry that I could not personally deliver this document. I did not even post it myself. The postmark on the envelope will not help you, should you ever attempt to locate me.

When this letter is complete, I shall entrust a friend in another country with repackaging and sending it on my behalf. This letter also may or may not have been translated from its original language.

You do not know me. You must never know me.

Neither do I know you, beyond your name, address and appearance. I have seen you in person but you have not seen me.

Think back to the day that you moved into your home. I contrived to casually pass by as you stood outside. I saw your face, but you did not so much as glance my way. I did not stop walking. I simply committed your face to memory and moved on before you became aware of my presence.

Why did I want to see you?

I suppose my conscience drove me to it. Just as it compels me to finally write this letter.

I wanted to see exactly who I was passing the entity on to."

A NEW CONCEPT IN FEAR...

Imagine a supernatural horror story in which the paranormal activity happens within YOUR home.

A SINCERE WARNING ABOUT THE ENTITY IN YOUR HOME takes the form of an anonymous letter sent to YOUR address. It details the terrifying events which happened in your home and which continue to this day.

You have inherited a curse and are being preyed upon by a bone-chilling apparition. This 10,000-word letter from the previous resident advises you how to cope, while detailing the unthinkable ordeal they suffered before you.

A SINCERE WARNING ABOUT THE ENTITY IN YOUR HOME is the ultimate way to scare yourself in your own home, because it's the only ghost story which takes place IN your home. Dare you read it?

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Ghosts, Novella, Paranormal, Thriller

38 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 18, 2012

About the author

Jason Arnopp is the author of the chiller-thriller novels Ghoster (2019) and The Last Days Of Jack Sparks (2016). He is also the co-author of Inside Black Mirror with Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones.

Arnopp wrote the Lionsgate horror feature film Stormhouse, the New Line Cinema novel Friday The 13th: Hate-Kill-Repeat, various official Doctor Who works of fiction (including the BBC audiobook Doctor Who: The Gemini Contagion) and script-edited the 2012 Peter Mullan film The Man Inside.

Arnopp has also written 2012's Beast In The Basement, a horror novella available at Amazon, and experimental ghost story A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home.

He is the author of non-fiction ebook How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else. He is on Twitter here, and is represented by literary agent Oli Munson at The AM Heath Agency. He is also represented for film and TV by Lawrence Mattis at Circle Of Confusion.

He runs a private cult - sorry, that should have read CLUB - at Patreon, where members enjoy various perks.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between two lungs it was released
The breath that passed from you to me
It flew between us as we slept
That slipped from your mouth into mine

And my running feet could fly
Each breath screaming: "We are all too young to die!" *

Basically, the title of this one says it all. Here is a warning and instructions for what to do when you begin to notice bizarre happenings in your home . . . and you will.

And it all starts with habitual sleep disturbances.

(Hmm, I don't remember the last time I had a good night's sleep...)

This may not be everyone's cup of but I thought it was extremely creepy. And I wish to hell I hadn't read it right before bedtime.

*Between Two Lungs by Florence Welch & Isabella Summers

[Dannii Elle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This cover and this concept, of a letter penned to a new house owner from its previous occupant, was disturbing and intriguing in equal measures. I also loved how you could purchase a personalised copy of this letter, to be posted to yourself or anyone you know!

I appreciated how genuinely creepy this was. It gave me chills throughout and the ghostly apparitions detailed were as eerie and as sinister as I anticipated they would be. However, the conclusion was unrealistic and halted any further enjoyment.

I don't need to believe every story to enjoy it, but if one is based in reality then there need to be certain factors that remain logical and rational, which this failed to include. I can't give any more details without spoiling the ending but it did not work for, for this reason.

[Heidi Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was a kid, I read a story that really invaded my brain (I wish I knew its name!); it threatened that merely being in possession of the book (the one YOU are reading! Yes, THIS BOOK!) would bring a deadly fate down on your head. Absolutely terrified by the somehow credible threat, I took it back to the library pronto, and felt sick and slept badly for days. I was like 11 at the time.

"A Sincere Warning . . ." works along similar lines, consisting of a letter from the last tenant of YOUR NEW HOME. This letter describes the truly horrible things the titular "entity" visited on him over his time there, very nearly destroying his life before he freed himself. (At least he's moderately apologetic, now that he's found a loophole and left it behind for YOU to deal with.)

Reviews on GR overwhelmingly said this story really spooked them. They said don't read it alone / at night / in bed, or you'll have a terrible time sleeping ever again. It's tailored to magnify fears by reflecting your own back at you. I was stoked.

Unfortunately, "A Sincere Warning . . ." creating that level of fear relies on the reader's own circumstances a little too much -- it's about the house YOU have just moved into, for starters. But it's hard to buy into the shtick when you've shared a flat for 10 years, with someone who's had it for 30 . . . one assumes any horrifying spectres would already have manifested, no? (Sadly, our precious, rent-controlled flat isn't nearly as haunted as it ought to be, given its age and location.) Most of the side-effects from the entity's visits, while not unscary, trigger standard human fears: illness, insanity and invasion. Worrying over those things is the human condition. The tale also prominently features sleep disturbances (apnea, insomnia, sleep paralysis, night hags), and these days I sleep like a champ. Even after reading this story alone, at night, in bed.

That being said, "A Sincere Warning . . ." is absolutely a fun read, and I'm not likely to forget it. The epistolary format contributes to the unfolding of suspense, and the ghoulish entity's attacks are genuinely frightening. I also read it as an allegory about the way adulting just sucks the life out of you (maybe that's just me). I honestly think I'd have liked it much better without the clever framing device: it was a constant distraction, insisting on itself when I couldn't quite relate. 3 stars

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that this story struck me as very original--especially as it was written in the form of a "letter" warning a new homeowner. This was a very creepy read that built up the tension slowly until you reached a complete and utterly hopeless dread for the recipient of the letter. I thought the method used to convey this was a great form, intensifying that all-consuming fear until you reached the ending.

Recommended!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is fine. A fun little short story if you will. It isn’t given enough time to be super disturbing or get inside your head, but there is that one part where I had to look away from the page. Lol.

[Heather V ~The Other Heather~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - what a weird little book this is!


Are you like me? Do you experience sleep paralysis? I have, and I do, at least on a weekly basis for my entire life. It's no big deal to me; I've never known any different. It's a pain in the arse sometimes, especially if I'm woken by my phone ringing and I can't move my damn arm to pick up, or if my dog decides to attack my face and I can't defend myself against the ensuing tongue bath, but beyond that it's little more than a minor nuisance. For other people, though, it's absolutely terrifying, and it's thought to be what's behind unexplained phenomena like alien abductions, visions of The Hag (<--click it, go on, click the link, you know you want to, that is some scary shit right there), or the sensation that one is suffocating because there's some freaky imp thing sitting on your chest while a horse looks on.


...what do you mean, you've never had this experience?


I mention all of this because the novelette at hand, cleverly titled and conceived, brought sleep paralysis to my mind as soon as I started reading it. You see, every so often I've woken up, sort of, and have had the sense that there's something in the corner of my bedroom, staring at me. This is apparently quite common among RISP sufferers...and yet here comes Jason Arnopp, telling me I could be experiencing something altogether very different. And much worse.


Believe me when I say that sleep paralysis is most decidedly not what you're being warned about in your home. You will wish it was sleep paralysis. You'll understand why the condition came to my mind about three pages in. Assuming I haven't put you off reading it already with that glorious Fuseli painting up there.


This is the first thing by Arnopp that I've ever read, and I'll be reading more of his stuff in the future now. The conceit of A SINCERE WARNING... is one that (mostly) works and feels unusual enough to be almost unique: It's epistolary in nature, directed right at you, the reader, and is imparting some important information about why you've been experiencing odd or unpleasant things in your home at night.


I read the first half while in bed, in the middle of the night, and I have to strongly recommend that you do the same; it's at its peak effectiveness that way. The second half I read on a train during daylight hours, which I'm sure impacted my enjoyment of the overall experience. Don't do that. Read it all in one sitting (er, one "laying?" I dunno) and do it at night. Alone. No TV or music on.


The ending took it a bit too far for me (it's pretty out there, and made it feel less like it was a scary-ass letter written just for me), thus the less-than-perfect star score, but overall I liked this brisk little creepfest, and I'm sold on Arnopp's storytelling talent. He packs a lot of wallop into a tiny novelette.


Further reading of possible interest:

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an unusual little book, like an old fashioned haunting but with some new additions. It was clever in some ways and I like the way the story was told as a letter to someone else.

The writer however starts with saying he/she wants to warn you but won’t help you and won’t tell you everything and you won’t even know who they are. Then goes on to tell the reader everything, helps them immensely and practically gives away who he/she is. Seemed strange and pointless to say at the start this wouldn’t happen and that annoyed me a bit.

Overall a short but enjoyable read with a fair bit of tension for a short book. I was eager to find out what would happen and how could a person escape, and it was an interesting read. The ending was ok, not brilliant but it’ll do. This is probably a 3.5 but I’m rounding down today.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun novelette with a very novel idea. Written as a letter from a previous home owner to the current one regarding...well you can figure that out by the title. It has that campfire spooky tale vibe, my better half and I actually took turns reading it to each other, which was awesome and gave me a renewed appreciation of the professional audio book readers. Very entertaining creepy supernatural story.

[Tanzil Saad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh boy! What a rollercoaster creepy ride that was! It almost took my "breath" away! 😬 And my dumbass read it in the night just before going to sleep. Man, I was genuinely scared while reading it (but then again I get scared very often). But It's a worth reading.

[Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warning: Do not read this late at night alone in bed.

[Elusive · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 'A Sincere Warning About the Entity in Your Home', one of the previous occupants of a haunted house leaves a warning letter in which alarming details are divulged to the next unlucky occupant.

This short story was chilling in parts, namely the first time the mysterious letter writer witnessed something terrifying. His / her experiences as well as efforts to learn what exactly was happening kept me reading. The explanations made sense and the character's emotions were believable but certain things could've been done better:

- The character was flat. It wouldn't have hurt to include more details.
- The solution required suspension of disbelief. The patient's ability to receive a new set of lungs so quickly aside, his / her bizarre requests were entertained with little to no hesitation on the doctors' part. This seemed highly convenient and unlikely to me.

Overall, 'A Sincere Warning About the Entity in Your Home' was a quick read with a few well-written scenes. However, the matter-of-fact tone, unrealism and dull character made it mediocre.

[Meels · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read someone complain it wasn't "scary enough" and some one else describe it as humorous. I found it properly creepy, and not at all funny. Short, and improbable, but creepy.

[Felix Zilich · Rating 5 out of 5]

«Дорогой друг! Моё послание - не «письмо счастья», не мошенничество и не пранк, а искреннее предупреждение по поводу вашего дома и сущности, которая в нём обитает. Мне очень жаль, что я не смог лично доставить этот документ. Или даже сам отправить его по почте. Отследить меня по почтовой марке вы тоже не сможете. Когда письмо будет закончено, я сначала отправлю его товарищу в другую страну, он поменяет конверт и переправит его дальше. Быть может, он даже переведёт его с оригинального языка, а, быть может, и нет.

Вы меня не знаете. И никогда не должны узнать. Я тоже не знаю про вас ничего, кроме имени, адреса и внешности. Я видел вас собственными глазами, но вы меня не видели. В тот день вы переезжали в новый дом, когда я решился пройти мимо. Я видел ваше лицо, но вы даже не посмотрели в мою сторону. Я хотел лишь сохранить ваш облик в своей памяти, а потом исчезнуть до того, как вы успели бы меня заметить.

Почему я хотел вас увидеть? Возможно, меня привела совесть. Она же заставила наконец написать это письмо. Я хотел собственными глазами увидеть человека, которому передаю эту сущность. Есть вероятность, что вы уже с ней прекрасно знакомы. В таком случае вам, хотя бы, станет утешением тот факт, что мой партнёр Том (я буду называть его Томом, быть может, он мужчина, быть может, нет) и я испытали все те страдания, которые выпали сейчас на вашу долю.

Сущность обитает внутри вашего дома. Возможно, вы этого еще не знаете и уж точно не скажете спасибо за мой рассказ. Но прошу вас - поверьте, она существует. Понимаете, мы с Томом жили по этому адресу за несколько лет до вашего приезда. И я вам очень сочувствую, ведь я отчасти несу ответственность за вашу ситуацию. Теперь уже вы застряли с этим призраком. Боюсь, что не могу рассказать, как от него избавиться. Могу лишь передать некоторые намеки и идеи, чтобы удержать ситуацию под контролем... »

Безупречная хоррор-новелетта от британца Джейсона Арноппа. За 60 страниц автор превращает страшилку про дом с привидениями из какой-нибудь телеантологии типа «Байки из склепа» в блестящее стилистическое упражнение в приёме «ненадёжный рассказчик». Респект.

[Kelly Van Damme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five stars for the concept and the creepiness, I like to freak myself out so I read this in bed in the dark and I did need to check whether there wasn't anyone or anything sitting on the edge of my bed.

Unfortunately, it lost me at the end with how the previous owner got rid of their ghost / demonic possession. I have no issues with having to suspend disbelief, least of all with a horror story, but if you're going to incorporate an element like the one the author used, it had better be a lot more realistic than it was. That's all I can say without spoiling the story.

[Blossom Machado · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute little short story. I didn't think it was very horrific at all but the author writes well!
It was very reminiscent of creepy pasta stories that used to scare the hell out of me in middle school. So A+ for nostalgia!
B+ for writing and maybe a C or D+ for originality and a good story line? The end was kinda lame but I mean it's just a nice lil creepy short story. I'm not mad at it. It was fun enough to read.

[Elmarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fun Read

A fun read that reminded me of something I would find on No Sleep. It was an interesting take on the paranormal.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this short story in bed last night, had nightmares, was convinced there was someone in my room at least twice and had to punch my sleeping husband because he was making choking noises...go buy it!!

If you want to freak out a close family member/friend/enemy you can buy the story as a personalised letter to them.

Awesome concept for a story!

[Adele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story strikes such a chord with me. The style and content are riveting(to me.) I am so freaked by this one that I had to put a review on here for it.

Why did this one trigger me so?

My family moved into a new house when I was a perfectly happy, healthy and 15 year old that seldom even got a cold. By 16, I'd developed asthma which plagues me to this day. My asthma 'attacks' have never been the wheezing struggle for breath I associate with the condition. When I have an attack, it's very much like a hand squeezing my throat. It creates this sensation of a void in my chest that I desperately need to fill with air but no matter how my mouth gapes and my body strains to draw breath it cannot get past the restrictive grip on my throat. These attacks seize me most often when I'm tired and I am tired more often than not these days.

I remind myself that this story isn't real. This entity can't be real. My asthma is asthma and my inhaler helps. There is no Josef. I say this and I know I know this. But I have this cat. He sleeps with me. I cannot tell you how many times I wake up (in the middle of the night or on the morning) to find my cat sitting up straight, ears perked alert and wide unblinking eyes trained on the foot of my bed like he sees something that I don't. Something that he wants to protect me from.

This is just a bit of fiction. Like a creepypasta; good and effective for some hair-raising mental images, but harmless and unreal.

....if I had the means, though, I might totally look into the unnecessary transplant solution, but that scene was a whole extra nightmare.

Must read more from this writer!

[grammarchick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not believe this book was as unsettling as the Amazon reviews claimed. I WAS WRONG. It should be called A Sincere Warning That This Will F- Up Your Chances of Napping. Brilliant idea, very unnerving. I wavered on the rating because I hate the sort of story wherein the author says "oh by the way, now you're involved in this horrifying crap, good luck to ya" (Creepypasta has given me the willies with these many times). I have to acknowledge that this is really the most disturbing one I've read and I simultaneously wish I'd never heard of it because I get spooked pretty easily. If you are the same, please take me seriously and don't read it. If not, go for it. Sorry I can't be more helpful than that.

[Syon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great piece of fiction from Jason Arnopp. Loved THE LAST DAYS OF JACK SPARKS, and was throughly entertained by this unique tale of demonic harassment. Arnopp is a talented author who seamlessly blends elements of literary fiction into his writing style. His work is very fast paced, original, dark, and easy to read.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, scary read. Very good. I was caught up in the emotions of the narrator, and the terrifying antagonist is memorable to say the least. I wonder if this was loosely based on the real life event in which a family kept receiving anonymous threatening letters from the former homeowner?

[Tattooed Horror Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little novella - a fun approach for a ghost story. Definitely recommend!

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad short story. Written in an interesting perspective, worth a read but it is very short!

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spoilers.

First, I’m not your friend, and by page three, I’m annoyed at how ‘nah nah nah nah, boo boo’ the author of this letter is by rubbing in the fact that he knows who I am but I don’t know who he is. We’re definitely not friends.

And yet, he insists on telling me all his bad sleeping habits. Hesitate, and after calling himself out, continues on anyway with the same repetitive woe is me related stuff while tossing in sleep apnea, carbon monoxide poisoning, and snoring.

He starts seeing things and this short story suddenly becomes Paranormal Activity. Unfortunately, the child entity isn’t described in much detail and I’m missing the tingly creepy senses that come along with this type of experience.

Ghosts have frequencies? Like radios?

Tom, the partner that may not be male, dies. It’s anticlimactic. The author of this letter has seen more than enough dead people that I wonder what his profession could possibly be! Doctor or someone who works in a hospital, perhaps?

Still not your friend.

The wheezy child likes you! Author of letter realizes he’s boring me with his boring travel schedule and needs to stop being boring and get to the point. Pointless conversation leads to nowhere. Wait, a doctor-specific clue!! So back home and onto a séance. The wheezy child doesn’t like you anymore.

Writer of letter, who was so impressed with how sneaky he was in the beginning, informs me of not only his life story but a previous job that would logically be nearby, suddenly giving me a way to track him down and very incidentally informs me how to get rid of the specter.

Writer of letter then rubs in how awesome his life is now that he’s pawned off said ghost-child on me and, out of a false sense of camaraderie, continues to call me friend. Then, to be a jerk, I’m informed he’s stuffed his lungs in the floorboards of one of the rooms but won’t tell me which. They stink. It's hateful.

This story is missing all the things that make short horror stories so horribly great. The sensory markers, the freak incidents (beyond the child just appearing and feeding), the dreaded anticipation, and the honesty of the author of the letter. All of these are overlaid by repetition, constant self-consultations, and an exalted triumph of the author's escape and my current demise.

In praise, I can say that the story is complete, compelling enough to make me want to finish, and has good depth. But in all honesty, I find that the author of the letter came away with far more knowledge about this specter than is normal, with frequencies and past stories and whatnot, that in this particular case, I believe that less is more.

[Anomaly]

Read Sample, Didn't Buy

I fell in love with the opening page of this book. The writing style was engaging and creative and actually sent a little shiver down my spine. I was hooked...

...and then it all unraveled. The writing style changed, the narrator's voice changed, and things went from "a sincere warning for you" to "let me whine about what happened to me."

Also, the more faux-vague details the narrating character gave, the more the premise completely fell apart. It already requires that the reader be able to imagine themselves as a fresh homeowner of a property once owned by many others - something which doesn't apply to me, since I live on farmland in a home that has always been in the family. But I was willing to ignore that. It's just... The 'letter writer' can't actually stay anonymous no matter how many overseas friends they bounce the letter through, given what they shared.

They're someone who lived with their partner in the home. They refer to passing the haunting on to the reader, which slightly implies the previous owners. Even if not, they divulge that their partner had a vastly different line of work from themself and that they had a line of work where small mistakes could cost lives. Already, this gives an easy means to narrow down identity from the previous owner options and increases the likelihood of the right candidate having been in local news once or twice. Maybe it's harder in real life, but this exists in the realm of fiction and those clues alone are enough for any amateur investigator in fiction to solve the crime within a couple days of perusing the local library's microfilm and town hall's residency records.

So, yeah. With the premise falling apart and the writing style shifting to something I didn't like - which no longer even felt like a letter but rather first person prose - I just wasn't interested enough to buy this one. 🤷‍♀️ Hopefully someday a book or story with the same premise that sticks properly to the letter format will come along.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining, fast and creepy read

“A bomb which, as far as I was concerned, had been detonated by the entity with whom we shared our home.”

“A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home” by Jason Arnopp gets 4 out of 5 stars!

What would you do if you received a letter from the previous owner telling you that your new home is haunted with no way to escape?

This short story comes to readers as an anonymous letter that explains in chilling details that an old entity follows wherever you sleep. There’s no getting away from the nightly dread even after learning of its origin. It’s a paranormal parasite that clings to its new hosts and takes their life little by little until there’s nothing left. Death and sorrow only help it move on. Witchcraft, seances, ouija boards, exorcising or any other form of protection proves the entity is immune and will only become enraged. There’s nowhere to turn and, obviously, you can’t kill something that is already dead.

Overall, this is an entertaining, fast and creepy read. I enjoyed the format as well as the flow of the writer’s experiences. It kept me wanting to find out what happened next and I couldn’t put it down.

Please visit my website or GoodReads account for more reviews! Thank you!

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was a bit worried when I started reading this as I am very easily creeped out, and whilst I love horror as a genre, actually setting it in my own home made me worried I'd never sleep again!

However, as it turns out I didn't need to worry. The premise is that this is a letter from somebody who lived in the home before you, and now they're writing to tell you that you're being haunted and that it's not going to end well.

*Massive spoiler warning from here*

The problem is that the author of this letter is a doctor and therefore says a few medical things.

This meant I could not stop laughing when he got to the hospital and they warned him that the side effects of what the entity is doing to him could cause...priapism (Google if you don't know). I mean, yes, it's an emergency, but if you are going for the horror factor, I'm not sure it's the one to throw in there.

I'm not going to debate the rest of the medical stuff in the story as that would be boring, but it was mostly in the realms of unbelievable and/or impossible.

2/5 from me as it has made me avoid staring in the mirror for a bit too long and was somewhat entertaining, but the research and execution was lacking.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In only 63 pages, this book packed a punch and managed to scare me! It had some unique concepts in it that I really enjoyed. The style of it being a personal letter to YOU was very cool and well done. Also the entity itself was quite creepy and the way it haunted was very interesting and chilling. Despite its length, it was still a full and well rounded story, I really loved this read!

[Bridget Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis: An anonymous letter from the previous owner of the reader's home, with a warning of the terrifying spirit that haunts its walls.

Thoughts: This creepy little novella actually had me turning my lights back on towards the end, haha. Well-written and intriguing.