Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

In the shadow-swallowed corners of Red Hollow, beyond the burned-out chapel and the brittle scarecrows, there stands a field that no one plants, no one tends, yet each October it blooms in sickly gold.

The villagers call it The Offering Field—a cursed place where the Horned Ones reap.

They are not gods. Not demons. Something older.

Something hungry.

Each fall, when the moons turn a rusted crimson and the wind hums like a throat being slit, the field stirs. The stalks sway without breeze, tall and skeletal, roots writhing like veins in the soil. Faces grow in the corn—real faces—mouths sewn shut, eyes wide and weeping. They're the missing, the forgotten, the unwanted.

And when the harvest moon rises full?

The Horned Ones come to collect.

No one remembers how the pact began, only that it must be honored. Each year, a child is chosen.

Not killed.

Given.

They vanish into the rows, barefoot, blindfolded, hearts trembling like leaves. No one follows. No one speaks their name again. Because if you speak the name of the offered, they'll remember you.

And the Horned Ones will come for more than a child.

They are tall as trees and shaped like men carved from bark and sinew. Their horns twist like antlers dipped in blood and bone. Their voices don't echo—they invade, burrowing straight into your skull with promises and lullabies. Their mouths never move.

But their teeth twitch when they smell fear.

Last year, the harvest failed. The chosen child, Josiah Rell, escaped into the forest. He made it to the village gate before his skin turned to husk and his bones caved inward, like dry corn shells crushed underfoot.

No body was left.

Just the blindfold.

And a note carved into the wood above the church door:

"You owe us double."

Now, the villagers gather trembling in the fog-choked square. Two children stand at the field's edge, hand in hand. Brother and sister. Twins.

They don't cry.

They've been prepared since birth.

The stalks part with a sigh, revealing a tunnel of shadows. The Horned Ones wait just beyond sight, antlers gleaming like sickles.

The twins walk forward, swallowed by the gold.

And for a moment, the village breathes again.

Until the winds shift.

The scarecrows turn their heads.

And something new blooms in the field—faces no one remembers offering.

Mothers. Elders. The priest with the stitched lips.

This year's harvest is not done.

The Horned Ones are still hungry.

And they remember.

If you hear the corn rustle without wind…

If you smell smoke but see no fire…

If a shadow taller than the moon watches you from across the field…

Do not run.

Do not whisper your name.

Harvest is coming.

And you might already be growing.