Iris Harris
Bio
An aspiring novelist. I enjoy writing ghost, horror, and drama. Occassionally, I dabble with some essays. You can find more of my work with the link below:
Stories (128)
Filter by community
Trespasser
My eyes flutter open, awaken by the soft glow of the sun’s ray invading through the curtain. Black out curtains, my ass. The morning haze fogs my mind and it takes a minute before I realized, the bed feels lighter. Four years of living together and I’ve come accustomed to the weight of another person lying next to me. “Yalissa?” Her name scrambles out of my mouth, a jumble mess of letter. I try again, more awake. “Yalissa.” No response. Where could she be? My brain still processing from its stroll in dreamland. I sit up, feeling each strand of my brown hair fall over my bosom. Better find a shirt first. I push the heavy quilted covers off to the side and reach for my beige colored T-shirt. Where is Yalissa? Throwing the shirt over my head, I push my hair out and let it fall on my back. My head turns to my cell phone displaying the time and the date. 7:42. December 25th. Shit. It’s Christmas.
By Iris Harris15 days ago in Horror
‘Tis the Season
She stares down at her paycheck. Two weeks of work, after taxes and other deductions, the take home pay comes to $900. Fortunately, she shares her one-bedroom apartment with a roommate. The rent of the two-bedroom apartment currently stands at $1800, but the landlord already announced a rent increase after the holidays. Her $900 contributes to her half of the rent. The threat of taking up another part-time job lingers over her head. Why can’t she just work one job, when the corporation who employs her profits millions of dollars daily? What would happen if her roommate decides to leave? Or worse, suffer a life-taking event? After rent and paying for food and other essential commodities, she barely scraps by. Worse, her saving account remains smaller than an anthill. At least she’s alive and healthy, right?
By Iris Harris2 months ago in The Swamp
Tis the Season
She stares down at her paycheck. Two weeks of work, after taxes and other deductions, the take home pay comes to $900. Fortunately, she shares her one-bedroom apartment with a roommate. The rent of the two-bedroom apartment currently stands at $1800, but the landlord already announced a rent increase after the holidays. Her $900 contributes to her half of the rent. The threat of taking up another part-time job lingers over her head. Why can’t she just work one job, when the corporation who employs her profits millions of dollars daily? What would happen if her roommate decides to leave? Or worse, suffer a life-taking event? After rent and paying for food and other essential commodities, she barely scraps by. Worse, her saving account remains smaller than an anthill. At least she’s alive and healthy, right?
By Iris Harris2 months ago in The Swamp
Senator Jeff Merkley’s Announcement
October 22, 2025. Jeff Merkley (D) from Oregon, stood on the Senate floor during a federal government shutdown for nearly 24 hours to share an important announcement: An Authoritarian Government in the United States is no long coming, but here.
By Iris Harris3 months ago in The Swamp
United States’ Serious Problem
I don’t care about Charlie Kirk. You can not ask any BIPOC or member of the LGBTQ+ to have empathy for a man who claimed empathy is a made up word. A man who built his wealth by attacking marginalized communities. Who also claimed “in order to protect our GOD GIVEN right to the second amendment” gun violence is justified. I am neither here to mourn nor celebrate what happened to him. Simply: you reap what you sow. However, the United States suffers another political blow to democracy because of Kirk’s assassination.
By Iris Harris4 months ago in The Swamp
Mental Health and Gun Control. Top Story - September 2025.
School buses line up on the curb. Little feet race off the bus and into the adjacent building. Excitement of new clothes, faces, and supplies buzzes the air. A school bell silences the youthful voices as the adult voices rise, delivering instructions for the young scholars to follow. The morning progresses seamlessly, unaware of unexpectant invasion on campus. A spray of popping echoes through the academic hallways, shattering the studious atmosphere within every room of the educational building. Scrapping of floors spills out in between each terrifying burst. Aggressive pounding replaces the popping briefly before the unwanted cascade of bullets striking wooden doors return. Blood curling scream deafen the popping for a few seconds before the restoration of silence.
By Iris Harris4 months ago in The Swamp
Workplace Religious Expression
Lunch time! Makayla smiles, knowing she has been sitting at her desk all morning, buried in paperwork. She hides her crystals back into her desk drawer, then stands and walks to the small break room. The cravings of her prepared pita and hummus overwhelm her. As she opens the doors, she freezes. The sight of her colleagues standing in a tight circle, heads bowed and hands linked in prayer, strikes her. Her chest tightens. An awkward feeling washes over her. She hears John, her supervisor’s voice.
By Iris Harris5 months ago in The Swamp
Modern Day Inhumane Camp
The suffocating, putrid smell of urine and human waste and sweat attack my nostrils, jolts me awake on the floor. The overhead lights sear my retina. How long was I out? I glance at my wrist. No watch. No concept of time. Hell, a small ventilation window mocks me eight feet overhead. Hard to determine the time of day. My stomach groans with emptiness. I know. Why am I here? A man with black curly hair sobs, repeating over and over words I cannot comprehend. He probably misses his family, like I do. Others also sob silently. No privacy. No beds. No means of obtaining proper rest. The lack of food and sleep for three days takes their toll and my body struggles to move. Burning hunger curls inside me like smoke. When are we getting any food? I try to recall my last meal, however my weakened state and the extreme heated conditions of the area create a harsh obstacle for thinking. Mind-numbing silence doesn’t help either. No one dares to speak. Either we lack the energy to talk, or fear stole our voices.
By Iris Harris6 months ago in The Swamp
SCOTUS vs LGBTQ. Top Story - July 2025.
What is the purpose of schools? To educate the next generation of citizens for our country. To prepare them to become a functional member of society. When you live in a country created from a diverse set of cultures, then schools need to prepare the next generation to collaborate with a diverse workforce. Most educators would agree with this ideology of education and design classrooms to accommodate a diverse range of students from any background and culture. On June 27, 2025 the Supreme Court ruled against diversity, excluding LGBTQ+ representation in public schools.
By Iris Harris7 months ago in The Swamp
Battling Political Fatigue. Top Story - May 2025.
Has the news sucked the very life out of you? Do you find yourself scrolling on social media, desperate for any signs of radiant hope for the current state of our country, here in the United States? You may suffer from political fatigue! Like many of you, I feel the same way.
By Iris Harris8 months ago in Psyche
The Farming Valley
The buzz of the engineers collaborating creates a blissful symphony in the control room. A wide wall screen reads: Plexi-house A-203, with an inner temperature displays in the upper right corner reading 29 degrees Celsius. Smaller screens surround the main one, showing other plexi-houses, each growing different fruits or vegetables. Deleyza focuses on the main screen. Knowing the outside temperature is pushing over 40 degrees, she quickly calculates the optimal temperature for the plexi-house, and orders her team to lower the temperature. They send a message to the house team and wait for a report on the conditions. Lettuce, their sector’s main produce.
By Iris Harris8 months ago in Futurism
