Youth Be Heard
closet, phantom, 2020 writing contest
2020 Writing Contest,  Fiction,  Short Stories,  Writing

Phantom

By Ryiesha Harris, 16

Sitting before the closet, she bent down to take off her shoes. Glancing at the dark void between the two doors, she saw it. Black smoke darker than the night sky seemed to seep out of the closet. She looked up, up and up. Until she made contact with two piercing white eyes. She sat frozen. Heart beating like a drum.

She rubbed her eyes. It was gone. And what replaced it was a streak of sunlight, coming in from the window behind her. She backed up from the closet. Ran to the door. And left. She moved out that day. As if that would change anything.


I wrote this story segment about a phantom creature I made up. This was to get an idea of how they would come to life in writing, and I wanted to write something genuinely scary. This segment is something that might be developed into a full blown book, so I figured why not put it out there. This piece that can be continued, but also left as it is.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao

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