Creepy Worlds #125

An American tourist wandering through Venice's art galleries falls asleep in her hotel room—only to awake and discover her ruby necklace stolen. The next morning, a museum attendant makes a baffling discovery: the missing necklace, placed around the neck of an ornate stone magpie sculpture on display. What force, natural or supernatural, could compel a work of art to steal?

When a rebellious seventeen-year-old named Gene Markham—call sign Knuckles—decides the only way to earn respect from his street gang is to become the first human in space, he sneaks aboard his uncle's experimental rocket at the Markham Institute of Rocket Research. What begins as a daring stunt to impress the Arrows gang becomes something far more harrowing when Knuckles finds himself alone in the void, facing the raw isolation and terror of space itself. As the automated craft carries him deeper into the unknown, survival becomes less about glory and more about whether a delinquent kid can keep his nerve long enough to get home.

In "Dreams Come True!", Ed Farraday finds himself haunted by a recurring nightmare of walking through a wall and toward a blinding light—only to wake up in his crumbling family mansion, overwhelmed by debt. When a psychiatric doctor suggests the dream is just wish fulfillment, Ed decides to take it literally, uncovering a hidden panel and a secret chamber that leads to a treasure beyond his wildest hopes. The story blends quiet surrealism with a touch of magical realism, turning a nightmarish vision into a real-world revelation.

When a German U-boat is crippled and trapped on the ocean floor during World War II, its commanding officer—a fanatical Nazi named Otto—discovers an unread letter from his estranged father, Karl Sternhardt, a world-renowned magician and escape artist. As Otto learns the contents of the letter, which speaks of his father's lifetime discovery regarding dematerialization, he faces a final, impossible choice in the face of certain death. This haunting tale explores the collision between a father's love and a son's ideological corruption, set against the backdrop of war's devastation.

In 1966, rocket scientist Andrew Moss vanished during humanity's first deep space mission—or so the world believed. The truth is far stranger: Moss crashed on the paradise planet Excalibur, where death itself has been conquered through advanced science, and the inhabitants welcomed him as a guest and teacher. After years of labor, Moss builds a rocket to return to Earth carrying Excalibur's life-giving secrets, gifts meant to transform his world—but Earth's fearful defense systems mistake the approaching vessel for an invasion.

Harvey Meek, a perpetually unsuccessful man crushed by his dreary job and romantic rejection, accidentally discovers a hidden underground civilization of cave-dwelling people while exploring a never-before-mapped cavern with his spelunking club. When he learns that Targi's tribe faces destruction from the warlike Gurr-din, Harvey seizes the chance to become the leader and hero he could never be in the world above, offering to teach them advanced weaponry to defend themselves. It's a strange turn of fortune for a man who was nothing but a failure—until now.

In "The Strange Ones!", Glenn Parker’s late-night drive ends in a crash after two mysterious lights appear—lights that seem oddly concerned he survive. As his obsession with building a strange machine grows, his wife Olga grows fearful, prompting a visit from the family doctor. Under hypnosis, Glenn reveals the truth: the lights are aliens, and his machine was meant to give them a physical form for an Earth invasion. When the doctor and Olga arrive in time, the aliens emerge—only to destroy the machine and vanish, leaving the threat seemingly ended.

When a mysterious fog settles over a small town and suffocates it for nearly a month, Mayor Gordon and his desperate citizens turn to a quiet stranger who arrives with an offer to help—and a bizarre contraption built from scrap. After the stranger successfully clears the mist, the mayor's attempt to shortchange him backfires when the fog returns worse than before, forcing the town to reckon with what truly matters when they beg for his return.

A salesman's car crashes on a notorious stretch of road north of Charlestown, and he's rescued by a helpful doctor who tends to his injuries—but the locals have dark warnings about Terrace Road and its grim history. Oscar Gibson soon discovers that his mysterious benefactor, Dr. Ralph P. Whitney, may not be quite what he seems, and the truth about that fateful night becomes far more unsettling than any ordinary accident.