Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The train thundered through the void, rails twisting through broken skies and shattered stars. A crimson moon hung overhead, unmoving, watching. Inside the phantom cars, time bled differently—memories drifted like smoke, and ghosts whispered from every corner.

Zara sat by the window, her fingers twitching against the cool glass. Outside, the dead walked beside the train, pacing it, never blinking. One of them looked just like her brother. But she didn't say a word.

In the dining car, Elias confronted the Ghoul Trainmaster—a crooked specter with a face stitched from the mouths of liars. His hat smoked. His whistle cried without wind.

"You said there was one stop left," Elias growled. "Where?"

The Trainmaster grinned, revealing a map made of skin. "The heart of the rot. Where the first gate broke. Where the Rotting King was born."

Meanwhile, in the caboose, Mira flipped through the flaming pages of the cursed book. But the pages were blank now—except one:

"The girl is the lock. The king is the key."

She turned to the Forsaken Girl, who stood silently at the rear, staring into the storm behind them.

"You knew this was the end," Mira whispered.

The girl nodded. "He's waiting."

Suddenly, the train screeched violently, lanterns flickering out. A hulking shadow had landed atop the engine.

The Hollow Man.

He ripped through the roof of the front car, pulling crew and steel into the black. The Forsaken Girl didn't flinch.

"He's trying to stop us."

"No," Mira said, rising. "He's trying to rewrite us."

Draven, recovering still, clutched his journal. "We can't fight him here. The book's rules don't apply on the train."

"But what about off the train?" Elias asked.

Zara's machete glinted. "Then we jump."

Outside, a crumbling station appeared out of the mist—Black Hollow Depot, a ruin swallowed by rot. Vines made of ash, signs that bled, and shadows that wore faces.

"Jump now or die screaming!" Elias yelled.

One by one, they leapt. The train burst into flames behind them, derailing in a shriek of metal and ink. The Hollow Man vanished into the fire.

They stood before the depot's gates, moonlight leaking through the broken windows above. Every step forward sent a ripple through time itself. The cursed book trembled in Mira's hand.

"This is it," Draven whispered. "Where it all began."

The Forsaken Girl turned to them, her voice barely audible.

"He's awake now. The Rotting King remembers."

From the dark, something moved—giant, slow, decaying. Chains dragging. Eyes like lanterns made of rot. And beneath the station… something ancient began to rise.

The final arc had begun.

And the world was out of time.