“Phantoms” appeared on January 3, 2022, in Five Minutes. Click here to see the original publication.

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It was well past witching hour. We huddled together, silent, as we tiptoed past tombstones and stumbled over crumbling stone walls, the moon our lone guiding light. When ghosts appeared, we bolted back toward base, trying to avoid their ghastly flesh. We drank the sweet summer air in gulps. The man who lived in the nearby trailer threw his front door open, aimed his shotgun in our direction, and yelled wild whiskey curses into the night. By the time he fell silent, we had morphed into phantoms, shadows, creatures of the night – quiet as the dead beneath our quivering feet.

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