"Damn Wattpad. There's never any good horror to read on that app. I don't get why everyone loves it when it's absolute crap," Nathan complained, tossing and turning in bed as the blanket twisted around his legs while he rolled onto his stomach.
He closed the app—the one with the orange logo and the white W in the center—and threw his phone to the floor, realizing it was more junk than a useful device at that point.
He rolled over again, this time leaving his body uncovered as the blanket slid off and fell to the ground. With his arms crossed beneath his head, he stared up at the ceiling. A poster of an anime-style woman wearing a bikini so tiny her massive breasts looked like they might fall out of it was the only thing gazing back at him—those eyes, he always wished would look at him in real life.
"My precious Layla... how I wish you were the woman of my life. You're the only one who manages to calm me down... the only one who gets my dick hard just by looking at you—even if you're just a drawing," Nathan sighed, both in resignation and admiration.
He felt his erection stir beneath his pajama sweatpants.
Despite being twenty, he was still a virgin. It wasn't like he'd never dated, and it wasn't like he'd never been attracted to other girls enough to sleep with them if the opportunity had come. Nathan wasn't that kind of guy—and even though dozens of girls had tried to take his virginity, he'd always turned them down. They just didn't make him feel whole enough to go through with it.
All of them had been beautiful. Some weren't even virgins and had enough experience to make that first time unforgettable.
But he was the problem.
None of those girls ever turned him on like Layla—his Harem girl.
Layla was the woman of his dreams, even if she only existed on a piece of paper taped to the ceiling above his bed. His erection kept growing, and soon Nathan couldn't resist anymore. Not caring that he wasn't home alone—his cousin Adelina was studying medicine in her room and his aunt and uncle were at the family business with his parents—he decided to take off his pants, leaving himself completely naked.
Soon, his hand wrapped around his dick and he started stroking.
He was so fucking aroused, he didn't even notice the moment the woman on the poster moved her eyes, locking her gaze on where his hand was touching himself.
The woman's chest started to move, as if she were breathing—as if she were coming to life. Nathan didn't notice, not at first. His eyes began to close, nearly shut from the ecstasy. And then, just as he felt he was about to climax, the unexpected happened.
A faint whisper reached his ears.
Nathan figured it was probably just his cousin starting to study out loud. Even though she was in a room further down the hall, sometimes she spoke so loudly that he had to go over and tell her to shut up so he could enjoy his privacy after a long, exhausting day of work and classes.
Still, he chose to ignore it and kept stroking.
His hand moved faster and faster around his shaft.
He bit his lip with every wave of pleasure.
His breathing became more rhythmic.
"Nathan..."
Again, the whisper.
This time, it struck him as odd.
Now he paid more attention.
The voice was soft and feminine—delicate, even. A young woman's voice. Someone he might have found attractive if only he could see her.
But Nathan was sure—absolutely sure—he was alone in his room.
His erection remained, and Nathan knew he had no control anymore. He wasn't about to stop over something as silly as a hallucination probably caused by stress and exhaustion.
Maybe it was just an illusion brought on by the guilt of pleasuring himself while home alone... well, almost alone. His cousin was hotter than his poster anyway.
Then, a new sound filled the room—a loud, clear tearing sound, like paper being ripped from a notebook.
This one snapped him to full alert.
His hand stopped moving, though he didn't let go.
Like a broken puppet desperate to escape her prison, Layla began to come to life.
Nathan's eyes flew open. He released his dick and, despite being naked from the waist down, he backed into the wall, crawling backwards on his bed, trying to escape the horrifying thing creeping toward him—cold eyes filled with bloodlust and hunger for human flesh.
Layla was no longer the stunning anime-style beauty from before.
The vibrant colors of the other posters in his room had grown darker. None of them were bright or cheerful anymore. Their features turned grotesque, distorted, and no longer worthy of admiration.
Layla's skin had gone deathly pale. Her movements were jittery and unnatural. She looked... cold. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her once-gorgeous face now twisted into a vicious smile full of razor-sharp, vampire-like teeth.
Layla was no longer the sexy woman Nathan had dreamed of.
She had been corrupted—transformed into something hungrier than a shark in front of its easy prey.
The whispers turned into low, guttural growls.
Gone was the seductive female voice Nathan had imagined. Now, it was something far more disturbing—something that sent chills crawling over his skin.
His arousal vanished completely.
Nathan was frozen in terror.
Zombie Layla dropped from the poster and leapt at him with terrifying speed.
Her claws tore into his chest, ripping his heart out in one brutal strike. And just before everything went black, Nathan saw Zombie Layla devour it.
A lost soul drifts in utter darkness.
It is the soul of a twenty-year-old boy who died when the terrifying demon of a zombie reawakened from his favorite poster and ripped out his heart.
This soul now wanders, desperate to find the right path to its next fate.
The Portal of Souls is a dark place, floating in the middle of nowhere—like a tunnel where light doesn't exist.
In this place, three paths emerge—yet only one will be chosen by the soul that dares cross through it: Heaven, Hell, and The Tunnel of Free Will.
Each path serves a purpose.
The path to Heaven leads souls to an eternity of peace, guided by God Himself—the same one mentioned so often in the Bible.
Yes, in this world, God exists.
The second path leads to a life of suffering and torture, ruled over by the Devil himself.
Yes, the Devil exists.
Finally, the third path—The Tunnel of Free Will—is for those souls who seek more than just peace or torment. It's for those who long for a second chance.
Naturally, Nathan chose the third path—with a scream full of glory and hope, wishing that his new life would be far better than the one before.