Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

They said the Bone Trail only appeared after sunset.

A crooked path of ivory markers winding through the bloodgrass of Widow's Valley—each bone bleached under a pale moon, each one pointing forward like a skeletal compass. No one knew who laid the trail, only that it was cursed.

Or worse—alive.

Ren and Theo, scavenger twins hardened by the zombie outbreak, didn't believe in stories. They followed trails for supplies, not ghost tales. But that night, beneath a swollen red moon, the Bone Trail called to them—literally. A low, rhythmic hum echoed across the valley, vibrating through their marrow.

Then they saw it.

Bones. Dozens. Clean, glistening, freshly laid.

And leading somewhere.

They should've turned back.

But greed is louder than fear.

The trail led them past hollowed corpses of beasts stitched together with bramble, past trees with ribs for branches, past a crumbling statue of a blindfolded woman holding her own skull.

Theo, ever curious, touched one of the bones. It pulsed under his fingers.

That's when the whispering started.

"You walk where the dead walk. Tread light, lest you join."

Ren thought it was the wind.

Theo knew better.

They pushed on until they reached a clearing—moonlit and perfectly circular. At its center, a mound of bones shaped like a throne.

Seated atop it, a translucent figure with a crown of vertebrae: the Warden of the Bone Trail.

Its eyes were hollow pits filled with writhing shadows. Its voice came from behind them, inside them, beneath their feet.

"One walks forward. One must stay."

Theo stepped forward.

Ren grabbed his arm.

The bones beneath their feet began to rattle, each one singing a different name—the names of those who'd vanished in the valley over decades. Some they recognized. Most they didn't.

Ren refused the deal.

Theo didn't.

In a flash of bone and light, Theo disappeared—his body crumbling into dust, his name etched into the throne.

The Warden stood, turned to Ren, and pointed backward.

A silent command: Leave.

Ren ran.

By dawn, the trail was gone. No bones. No throne. No Theo.

But Ren knew better.

Now, at night, he hears the whispers in his dreams. He sees bones on the roadside where there shouldn't be any. And always, always, he sees a figure watching from afar, crown of vertebrae gleaming under moonlight.

Waiting.

Because the Bone Trail never ends.

It just waits to begin again.