Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The door groaned open, revealing a chamber bathed in flickering candlelight. At its center sat a massive wooden desk, its surface littered with ancient tomes, bloodstained ledgers, and rusted quills dipped in something too dark to be ink. The air smelled of burnt parchment and decay.

Draven's grip tightened around his blade. "A study?" He didn't trust it. Nothing in this mansion was just a room.

Mira stepped inside, the Cursed Book in her hands burning cold. The presence of this place called to it, as if they were two halves of the same evil. The flickering flames of the candles wavered, bending toward the book.

Elias approached the desk. The ledgers were written in a language he couldn't understand, but the names etched into the brittle pages were clear enough. His breath hitched. "These are people's names."

Zara leaned over his shoulder, her face grim. "Not just people." She ran her fingers down the list, stopping on a name. "This one belonged to someone in my old crew. He died six months ago."

Mira turned a page in the Cursed Book, and a single word burned itself into the paper, written in fresh blood: "Debt."

A low growl rumbled from the shadows.

Draven's eyes snapped toward the corner of the room, where a hulking figure emerged from the darkness. It was dressed in tattered formal wear, its skeletal frame barely held together by strips of blackened flesh. Its head was wrapped in chains, and where its eyes should have been, only hollow voids remained. It carried a massive ledger clutched in its bony hands.

The Ghoul Accountant.

It exhaled a sound that was almost a chuckle, flipping through its cursed tome with deliberate slowness. Its voice came like a rustling of dead leaves. "You are in my domain now."

Mira staggered back as the Cursed Book trembled violently in her hands. "It's bound to this place."

Elias reached for his knives, but before he could move, the creature snapped its ledger shut—and the room itself lurched. The walls twisted, bookshelves crumbling into dust. Figures began to rise from the pages of the ledgers, spectral forms clawing their way into reality.

Zara cursed under her breath. "The dead... they're contracts. These names—these are souls."

Draven raised his shotgun. "Then let's break the deal."

The first ghost lunged. Draven fired, but the blast tore through it without effect. The specter's hand passed through his chest, ice racing through his veins. He stumbled back, breath turning to fog.

Mira's eyes darted to the Cursed Book. The whispers screamed. "We need to sever the contract!"

The Ghoul Accountant tilted its head, amused. "Then make an offering."

Elias turned toward Mira. "We need a name."

The book's pages turned on their own.

And then—it stopped on one name, written in fresh ink.

Mira Caldwell.