Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

Smoke curled like fingers from the edges of the cursed book, now aflame in Zara's trembling hands. Pages tore themselves free midair, spinning around her in a halo of ruin and revelation. The depot trembled as ancient magic ignited—The Rotting King watched from his throne of bone, unmoving, his undead host twitching in anticipation.

Draven stepped forward, shielding Mira and the Forsaken Girl. "This ends here."

"No," whispered Mira, staring at the words bleeding onto the last burning page. "It only begins."

Suddenly, the train's lights flared blinding white. A figure emerged from the shadows—a gaunt woman with cracked skin, chains dragging behind her like forgotten sins. It was Maera the Veiled, once a seer, now a servant of the Hollow Man. She approached the girl with reverence.

"You carry the wound of the world," Maera rasped. "And he comes to feed."

All eyes turned toward the crumbling tunnel beyond the tracks. A breeze spilled out—icy, rotten, unnatural. Then The Hollow Man crawled through.

Long limbs bent like splinters. A face smeared in darkness. He hissed a thousand names in one breath.

"I smell your terror," he grinned at Elias.

Elias, undeterred, poured glowing liquid into a broken flask and hurled it—a burst of green fire lit up the depot, consuming half the Harbinger's puppets. Screams echoed like gunfire. Yet the King remained seated, unmoved.

Mira opened the final page.

"When the blood moon rides the rail of bones, the cursed child may break the seal with flame or fall."

It was time.

The Forsaken Girl took the book, now burning, and stepped onto the platform where the Rotting King waited. "I'm not afraid of you," she whispered.

"You were made of fear," he replied with sewn lips. "You are my undoing."

A sudden roar split the sky—a second spectral train, ethereal and ablaze, crashed through the wall behind the depot. The Ghoul Trainmaster leapt out, spectral lantern in hand.

"I made a deal," he said with a crooked smile. "One soul for a thousand damned."

The Forsaken Girl looked back at the group.

"I'm ready," she said.

The Ghoul Trainmaster lifted his lantern. The girl stepped inside. The King roared—vine-tongues and plague-slick chains lashed toward her, but the lantern's light repelled them.

She was gone.

The train vanished into the void.

The Rotting King rose, his fury shaking the depot, but something had changed. His minions collapsed. Maera screamed and turned to ash. The Hollow Man shrieked as a rift split the tracks—reality unraveling beneath his feet.

The book exploded in light. The final seal had been broken.

The King stepped forward once more.

"You delay nothing," he growled. "The end has always been coming."

And then—

A voice, not human, echoed from the gate.

"You're wrong," it said.

From beyond the shadows, Father Alistair returned…

…with something monstrous at his side.