Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The woods were silent, too silent. Even the wind had abandoned this cursed place.

Draven wiped the blood from his temple, staring at the decrepit house on the hill. Its windows were dark sockets, its roof sagged under the weight of years, and the skeletal trees surrounding it twisted unnaturally, as if writhing toward the sky.

Mira shivered. "This place wasn't on the map."

"It wasn't anywhere," Elias muttered. "Things like this don't just… exist."

Yet, the house did. Squatting on the hill like it had been waiting for them.

A single light flickered on in an upstairs window.

"Someone's inside," Zara whispered.

Draven's gut churned. Every part of him screamed stay away. But they needed shelter, even if it meant dealing with whatever horror lurked within.

The front door was already open.

With no other choice, they stepped inside.

The air inside the house was stale, thick with decay. Dust coated every surface. Rotten furniture slumped in the dim candlelight. The fireplace was cold, yet footprints disturbed the dust on the wooden floor.

"We're not alone," Elias murmured.

Mira ran her fingers over the wall. Symbols had been carved into the wood—warding sigils, but they were slashed through, as if someone had tried to erase their power.

Something moved upstairs.

A slow, deliberate creak of footsteps.

Zara's hand went to her knife. "We're wasting time. Either we deal with whoever's here, or we leave."

Draven exhaled. "We check upstairs."

The staircase groaned under their weight. Shadows danced along the peeling wallpaper as they climbed, the candlelight barely piercing the gloom. At the top of the stairs, a single door stood slightly ajar.

Draven pushed it open.

Inside, a woman sat huddled in the corner, wrapped in tattered cloth, her arms covered in deep, self-inflicted scratches. Her eyes were pure black, like twin voids.

"They're watching," she whispered.

Mira knelt beside her. "Who's watching?"

The woman's gaze snapped to hers.

"The ones in the walls."

The house groaned.

The floorboards bulged, pulsing like something alive. The walls shuddered, splitting open—and dozens of skeletal hands began clawing their way out.

"MOVE!" Draven shouted.

The woman screamed as she was dragged backward into the wall, her flesh melting into the wood.

The house was eating her.

Elias fired his revolver. The bullet tore through a skeletal figure emerging from the wall, but it barely slowed.

Mira flipped open the cursed book, chanting desperately. A burst of violet energy surged outward, forcing the creatures to recoil.

"This whole house is a goddamn trap!" Elias yelled.

The walls closed in, groaning hungrily.

Zara kicked open a window. "Jump or die!"

One by one, they leapt into the night, escaping just as the house swallowed itself into nothingness.

The hill was empty.

The house was gone.