I Bought a Murder House

The protagonist is a real estate agent who is considering buying a house at a discounted rate due to the previous occupants being murdered. The house is in prime London and the previous occupants were inspected just months earlier. The protagonist suspects that if the estate had been cleaned, there would have been more buyers and the price would have risen through the roof. However, blood stains and the smell of death put off even the most forgiving buyer.

The protagonist finds his own murder house, which doesn't look as bad as the brochure portrayed. The living room is barely touched, except for a single line of bloody footprints that ruined the carpet. The kitchen sink is stained brown with dried blood as the killer had tried to wash their clothes, the garments long since gone into evidence. Red handprints decorate the walls, like an over-active child had run rampant finger painting.

The box room is particularly tragic, and the protagonist thinks it is why this place didn't have more bidders. A single bed, sans mattress and sheets, stands testament to the memory of the family's only child. The nightstand left untouched, and a single nightlight, a porcelain rendition of the crooked man's house, sat in darkness, waiting to be lit by someone who was no longer here. The cupboard and chest of drawers were filled with children's clothes, and the protagonist makes a note to give those to charity.

The bathroom is a mess of white arrowed labels, pointing to brown marks that speckle the tiled walls and shower curtain. The master bedroom is also tragic, with bloody footprints exiting the room. The protagonist leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

The protagonist decides to invest around £6,500 to get the place ready for selling, unfurnished. Furnished houses could be double that, but they wouldn't see a profit in that case.

The protagonist notices a hatch leading to a cellar or basement, but it doesn't budge. They make another note that no-one really bothers with the cellar when selling a house, unless it is very spacious. They ignore the damp odor that sometimes persists and advertise it in the brochure but selectively forget to include it in the tour.

The protagonist leaves the house, feeling a shiver down their spine as they step over the threshold. This wasn't the first house they needed to renovate before selling, but it was the most gruesome.

A small gentleman asks the protagonist if he can see inside the house, but the protagonist declines. He raises his camera and reels off a couple of shots, but the protagonist doesn't mind. The next morning, the protagonist contacts a company she's used before, but not one so gruesome.

The narrator is hired to clean a house he is paying the mortgage for, but is unsure of the cost. After finding a company willing to do the work for less than his estimate, he is offered 25% off if they don't finish the work in a week. He spends the next days in a hotel, staying in a room of the house until workers need to go in.

News reports cover the family's murder, but the details are not detailed enough. The narrator is awakened by a phone call and finds the house gutted and the walls stripped. He is asked to get lunch for the painters and decorators, but the narrator is hesitant to let the regular painters in. The narrator is left feeling sick and unsure of what to do with the children's clothes.

"Don't be a stranger," he said