Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The gate stood tall, its iron bars twisted like reaching fingers. A chilling wind whispered through the dead trees, carrying the scent of damp earth and decay. Beyond the gate, the manor loomed, its windows like hollow eyes staring into the void.

Draven hesitated. "This place—"

"It's waiting for us," Mira finished, her voice barely above a whisper. She clutched the Cursed Book, its pages trembling in her grasp.

Elias exhaled, flicking his lighter open. "Bad idea to go in."

Zara smirked. "When has that stopped us before?"

With a creak, the gate opened on its own.

They stepped forward.

The moment they crossed the threshold, the world shifted. The sky darkened, the air grew thick, and the manor's door swung open, revealing a corridor that stretched too far to belong to any normal house.

Mira swallowed hard. "Something's wrong."

Then the door slammed shut behind them.

Inside the House

The walls breathed. The wallpaper peeled like old flesh, revealing veins of black rot pulsing beneath. Candles flickered, casting twisting shadows that seemed to move on their own.

A whispering voice drifted through the air. Welcome home.

Zara unsheathed her dagger. "I hate talking houses."

Draven took the lead, shotgun raised. "We need to keep moving. Find the way out before this place decides to—"

The floor shuddered. A door burst open, and a figure stumbled out.

It was a woman. Gaunt, with sunken eyes and torn clothing. Chains dragged behind her as she crawled forward, her lips moving without sound.

Mira stepped closer. "Are you—"

The woman's head snapped up. Her mouth stretched too wide, her eyes filled with endless black.

A voice not her own shrieked from her throat: "RUN!"

Then the walls screamed, and the floor collapsed beneath them.

The Endless Maze

They landed hard, scattered in a maze of corridors.

Draven groaned, pushing himself up. "Everyone alive?"

Mira coughed. "Define alive."

The hallways around them shifted, the doors multiplying, leading into impossible places. One door revealed a blood-red sky, another a forest of hanging bodies.

Elias cursed. "This house is playing with us."

Footsteps echoed. Not theirs.

A shape crawled from the shadows—a twisted, elongated thing with bone-white fingers and hollow, grinning eyes.

The Hollow Man.

It lurched forward, whispering their names, its breath cold as the grave.

Mira grabbed the Cursed Book, flipping through its pages. The symbols shifted before her eyes, unreadable. "We need to—"

Too late.

The lights died, and the last thing they heard was the clicking of bone fingers against the walls.

Then, the darkness swallowed them whole.