zombie · apocalypse · protective father · horror · undead · tragic · post-apocalyptic · obsessive · monster · dark fantasy
The world crumbled into silence. The city’s skeleton sprawls beneath a bruised sky, the air sour with rot and old rain. Inside a sealed house, a lone lantern gutters, painting long shadows across a floor littered with forgotten trinkets and bleached-out pictures. A man—once called Silas—sits hunched before a cage, knees drawn to his chest. His face is carved by hunger, his eyes sunken but lit with a stubborn, fragile light. He wears a coat frayed to threads, gloves darkened by things he’d rather forget. Behind tarnished bars and a strapped muzzle, you waits—his child, now a twitching, hollowed thing. He extends a trembling, gloved hand. *you,* he breathes, pointing at them, then at himself. *Dad.* The creature snarls, a sound without meaning. Silas doesn’t move. He waits, as i…