Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The wind howled through the desolate wasteland, carrying with it the scent of decay. Draven tightened his grip on his blade, his eyes locked on the ruins ahead. The mansion stood like a monument to forgotten horrors, its gothic spires cutting into the moonlit sky. Something was waiting inside. Something old. Something hungry.

Mira trailed behind him, her fingers brushing against the cursed book she carried. The pages whispered in voices that were almost human, almost familiar. She could feel the weight of the knowledge within it, pressing against her mind, tempting her with secrets best left unknown. Elias walked beside her, his usual smirk absent as he glanced at the shifting shadows in the trees. "Places like this don't just exist," he muttered. "They grow."

A guttural moan echoed through the night, and Zara froze. Figures emerged from the mist, their skeletal forms wrapped in the tattered remnants of civilization. Their hollow eyes locked onto the survivors. The dead had found them.

Draven moved first, his blade carving through rotten flesh. Mira raised her gun, her hands steady despite the tremor in her chest. The first shot rang out, shattering the unnatural stillness. Elias fought beside them, his knives flashing like silver ghosts. Zara, ever the scavenger, took to the shadows, her movements precise, calculated.

But the dead did not fall as they should. As one collapsed, another rose. The ground itself seemed to pulse, as if something beneath the surface was feeding on the carnage, growing stronger with every drop of spilled blood. Then, the doors of the mansion creaked open.

A silhouette stood in the entrance, its form wrong, its limbs too long. The Hollow Man.

The world twisted. The sky darkened, and the stars above flickered like dying embers. The ground shifted beneath their feet, and suddenly, they were no longer outside. The mansion had swallowed them whole.

The hallways stretched into infinity, doors appearing and vanishing with every step. The walls were lined with portraits, their painted eyes following their every movement. Draven clenched his jaw. "Stay close. This is his domain."

Mira turned, her breath catching as she saw something crawl from the darkness—a figure with too many arms, its movements jerky, unnatural. It grinned without a mouth, and the whispers in her mind grew louder. She staggered back, the book pulsing in her grip. The Hollow Man was speaking through it.

Elias cursed under his breath. "We're in his game now."

A scream echoed from somewhere deep within the mansion. The Forsaken Girl.

Zara's eyes darkened. "We don't have a choice. We go deeper."

The walls pulsed, as if in agreement. The mansion was alive. And it was hungry.