Horrific Shorts: Zombie Edition

The moon hung swollen and green above the skeletal forest of Farrowgrove, where the trees bled sap the color of rust and whispered in tongues no human spoke. Among the dying leaves, something stirred.

They said it walked like a man, but with a gait too smooth—too silent. Its skin stretched like wax over bone, and its glowing green eyes pierced through the veil of fog and reason alike. The Green-Eyed Revenant had returned.

No one knew who it once was. Some claimed it was a warlock betrayed by his coven, others a lost child buried alive under cursed roots. But the Revenant wasn't here for vengeance.

It hunted the living who dared forget the dead.

Gideon Moth arrived at Farrowgrove by dusk, shovel strapped to his back, grave dirt still clinging to his boots.

The townsfolk begged him not to go.

They knew the signs—the flickering of lanterns, the weeping trees, the way mirrors cracked at dusk. It had taken three of them already, and each was found with a hole in their chest and their eyes plucked clean.

Gideon was unconvinced.

"Ghost stories are for scared children," he muttered, chewing on a strip of jerky. "But revenants... they're real. And they leave trails."

And there it was—a boot print with no heel, pressed into wet leaves, glowing faintly green.

That night, Gideon made camp inside a ruined chapel, now blanketed in ivy and rot. He surrounded himself with salt, silver coins, and grave soil—old rituals to deter angry spirits.

But at midnight, the church bell tolled.

He hadn't touched it.

Then came the creak of doors.

The Revenant stepped through the mist, green eyes blazing like lanterns from Hell. Its mouth opened but no words came—only a sound like leaves being torn apart underwater.

Gideon stood, shovel in hand, trembling but ready.

"You're not the first spirit I've faced," he said, voice cracking. "What do you want?"

The Revenant reached into its chest and pulled out a locket, still smeared with grave mud. It tossed it at Gideon's feet.

Inside was a portrait of a family—one Gideon knew too well. His family. From before the plague. Before the first grave.

His voice broke. "No. You died with them. I buried you myself..."

The Revenant nodded—slowly.

It raised a hand, and the trees around them howled in grief, their branches turning inward like twisted arms. From the shadows came others—half-formed echoes of Gideon's past, rotting but alive with memory.

In the chaos, Gideon fell to his knees, shovel slipping from his hand. The Revenant stood over him, staring down not with hatred... but sorrow.

Then, with fingers like roots, it touched his forehead.

In that moment, Gideon remembered everything—the betrayal, the bargain, the pact sealed under moonlight to spare himself while damning the rest.

The Revenant had come not to kill him, but to remind him.

The next morning, the chapel was gone—replaced by a single grave.

Freshly dug.

And in its shadow stood a shovel, upright in the earth, its handle glowing green.