7. Phantoms in the Hall
Phantoms in the Hall is about a child haunted by dark spirits who were drawn not by fear, but by
the heavenly residue still clinging to a fallen angel trapped in human flesh — they
didn't come to frighten him, they came because they could smell his wings.
By Thomas J. Allen, © 2026
Verse 1
The floorboards breathe beneath my bed,
The air is cold, the dark turns red.
A whisper hums through static snow,
The TV glows — it wants me to know.
Verse 2
Shadows move where walls should stay,
Eyes in the mirror won't look away.
I close my lids, but still I see,
The phantoms staring back at me.
Chorus
Phantoms in the hall —
Still waiting there beyond the wall.
They call my name through the plaster wall.
Red eyes gleam where silence falls,
I was never alone at all.
Verse 3
Left alone in a silent room,
Night pressed tight like a closing tomb.
I fell asleep to shadows deep,
But something watched me as I'd sleep.
The air grew thick, the dark grew tall,
Red eyes hovered above the wall.
I woke to find them circling me —
The phantoms staring endlessly.
Chorus
Phantoms in the hall —
Still waiting there beyond the wall.
They call my name through the plaster wall.
Red eyes gleam where silence falls,
I was never alone at all.
Verse 4
A voice like wind beneath the floor,
Keeps saying, "You've been here before."
Black masses shift along the seam,
Turning childhood nights into a fevered dream.
I hid beneath the sheets in vain,
Their whispers crawled inside my brain.
They leaned in close when I would wake —
As if deciding what to take.
They felt the light beneath it all —
the heavenly residue from the fall.
Chorus
Phantoms in the hall —
Still waiting there beyond the wall.
They call my name through the plaster wall.
Red eyes gleam where silence falls,
I was never alone at all.
Phantoms in the hall —
They watched me rise, they watched me fall.
Bridge
They knew me…
Before I knew myself.
They sensed the angel buried deep —
A broken throne inside this shell.
They didn't come to comfort me…
They came because they smelled my wings.
They came because the darkness sings
for fallen things.
Chorus
Phantoms in the hall —
Still waiting there beyond the wall.
They call my name through the plaster wall.
Red eyes gleam when night would call.
Through the static, I hear their drawl —
They were hunting me all along.
Outro
"You're just clay now... like the rest of them."