Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition
Chapter 949 - 949: Story 949: The Devourer’s Dwelling

The wind howled as the survivors stood before the rotting mansion, its iron gates twisted like skeletal fingers reaching for them. Beyond the fence, the house breathed, its wooden beams shifting as if it were alive, watching.

Draven adjusted his grip on the shotgun. "This place stinks of a trap."

Mira pressed a hand to the Cursed Book, feeling its pulse quicken. "It's more than a trap. It's a feeding ground."

Elias flicked his lighter, staring at the gargoyle statues perched along the roof. "Let me guess. We don't have a choice?"

The ground trembled. Behind them, the dead stirred—shambling figures emerging from the mist, their eyes hollow, their mouths whispering a wordless chant.

"No choice," Draven muttered, pushing the gate open.

The house groaned in anticipation.

Inside, the walls pulsed like flesh, and the floorboards shifted beneath their boots, sticky with something warm and wet. The air reeked of decay, a mixture of rot and something older, something that had been festering for centuries.

Zara's eyes darted around the twisting hallways. "This place… it's wrong."

A whisper slithered through the air.

"You entered. Now you belong."

The doors slammed shut, sealing them inside.

Draven raised his shotgun. "Of course."

The chandeliers flickered, casting grotesque shadows that moved independently, writhing along the walls. The portraits lining the hallway wept black sludge, their painted faces shifting, twisting in silent agony.

Then, something crawled from the ceiling.

A figure, limbs impossibly long, its face stitched shut, dropped onto all fours. It twitched, sniffing the air before its mouth tore open, revealing rows of needle-like teeth.

It lunged.

Draven fired—the blast ripped through its chest, but the creature didn't fall. Instead, it grinned, tilting its head unnaturally.

Then it screamed.

The walls trembled, the house reacting to the pain, and suddenly, more figures crawled from the cracks, their bodies fusing with the walls before tearing free.

"The house is birthing them," Mira gasped.

Elias yanked a Molotov cocktail from his coat. "Then let's make it regret that." He lit it and hurled it forward.

The fire caught.

The creature shrieked, the flames spreading unnaturally fast, consuming the walls like dry paper. The mansion screamed, its structure twisting, the floor cracking open to reveal a massive, gaping maw beneath them—a chasm of teeth and pulsing veins.

Zara grabbed Mira's arm. "We have to move!"

They ran, dodging grasping limbs and shrieking shadows as the mansion tried to consume them.

Draven fired at the front door—it shattered, and they burst outside just as the mansion collapsed inward, imploding into a pit of darkness.

For a moment, all was still.

Then the whisper came again.

"You left a part of yourselves inside. And I will come collect."