Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition
Chapter 948 - 948: Story 948: The Whispering One

The temperature dropped, the air thickening as the massive figure in tattered robes rose from the chasm. The mask of bone and shadow obscured its face, but the whispering never stopped—thousands of voices murmuring at once, each syllable crawling under their skin like insects burrowing deep.

Draven steadied his shotgun, his grip tight. "If we run, we die."

Mira's hands trembled over the Cursed Book, the ink on its pages writhing as if it knew what stood before them. "He's not just a phantom," she whispered. "He's something worse."

Elias flicked his lighter open, but the flame bent away, recoiling from the presence before them. "That's a problem."

The Whispering One tilted its head, the motion unnatural, deliberate. The walls groaned, and the portraits hanging in the mansion began to weep black sludge, their painted mouths contorted in agony.

Then, it spoke.

"Your names are already written in the hollow pages. There is no escape."

The whispers swelled, pressing into their skulls, filling every corner of their minds. Memories twisted—Draven saw his sister's face, half-eaten, reaching for him. Mira's vision blurred into a lab filled with screaming experiments, and Elias found himself back in the wreckage of a burning bar, his own reflection laughing at him from shattered glass.

Zara dropped to her knees, gripping her skull. "Get—out of my head!"

The Whispering One raised a hand, and the shadows pulled toward it, stretching from every corner of the room, forming jagged tendrils that lunged for them.

Draven fired first. The shotgun blast tore through the air, but the pellets vanished before impact, swallowed by the darkness itself.

Mira flipped through the Cursed Book, searching for something—anything—that could fight this thing. The pages fought against her touch, as if resisting, as if the very book feared what it knew.

Elias, jaw clenched, grabbed a bottle of absinthe from his coat, doused a bullet, and fired. The flame roared on impact, the bullet hitting something real, and the Whispering One reeled back, its form flickering.

The whispers stuttered. The mansion shook.

"That worked?" Elias smirked, but the expression faded fast. The shadows thickened, pulling themselves together, and the Whispering One grew larger, its mask cracking, revealing—

Mira screamed, slamming the book shut before she could see. "Don't look at its face!"

Too late.

Zara's eyes widened, her breath caught in her throat, and then she collapsed, body seizing violently.

The Whispering One let out a sound—something ancient, something wrong—as if laughing without lungs.

Draven gritted his teeth and grabbed Zara, pulling her back. "We need to move!"

The shadows surged forward, and as the mansion began to collapse, they ran—but the whispering followed them.

Because once the Whispering One knows your name…

It never forgets.