Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The train screamed as something massive clawed at its roof, the metal groaning under the weight of the unseen force. Draven cocked his shotgun, eyes darting to Mira, whose fingers trembled over the Cursed Book.

The Trainmaster stood unmoving, his skeletal grin widening unnaturally. "You should not have come."

The windows rippled, the outside world twisting into something worse than darkness. Instead of a barren wasteland, they saw a void filled with writhing figures, their mouths stretching open in endless, silent screams.

Zara unsheathed her blade. "I swear, if this is some kind of undead funhouse, I'm killing something."

The floor buckled. A clawed hand burst through the boards, then another. A chorus of whispers swelled, each voice layered on top of the next.

"Come with us… join the Hollow…"

Mira gasped as skeletal hands wrapped around her ankles, dragging her down. Draven fired, the blast splitting bone, but more hands emerged, grabbing at Elias, at Zara—at all of them.

The Trainmaster merely watched.

"You cannot escape," he murmured.

The train lurched, and suddenly, the outside shifted again—this time revealing a station, one that should not exist. The platform was made of crumbling stone, its walls etched with names that flickered and changed. Black lanterns bled wax, and at the far end of the station stood a gate of twisting iron, its entrance shrouded in a swirling abyss.

The Hollow Junction.

The doors rattled open, and the whispers became a chorus of wails. The corpses lining the train began to twitch, their fused bodies peeling from the seats.

Elias lit a cigarette with shaking hands. "Well. This is a special kind of hell."

The Trainmaster turned to them. "Leave, or stay forever."

The choice was an illusion. The train was dying around them, the walls peeling like rotted flesh, and something above them was still trying to break through.

Draven grabbed Mira, hauling her toward the exit. Zara slashed through another grasping corpse, its head rolling onto the floor, its mouth still moving.

Then the roof caved in.

A massive, rotting figure dropped down, its body shifting like a mass of writhing worms, its face a stitched-together nightmare of screaming mouths. It let out a sound like a thousand tortured voices crying at once.

The Hollow Man.

The Trainmaster bowed deeply. "Your stop has arrived."

The Hollow Man lunged, and the world erupted into chaos.

Draven fired. Zara screamed. Mira clutched the Cursed Book and whispered a name that should never be spoken.

The station shuddered, the gate creaking open, and the abyss stared back.