Forbidden Worlds #21

A scientific expedition to South America brings back something sinister—soldier ants controlled by a mysterious force—and when Chick Evans and Professor Thorne return home with specimens, they find themselves enslaved by an otherworldly intelligence calling itself the Ant Master. Now Evans must use his wits and the professor's own resources to stop a growing army of transformed humans before the creature's grip spreads across the globe.

When Roger and Hilda Jenkins move into a bargain-priced house shadowed by two centuries of tenant misfortune, they receive an unsigned letter predicting lucky days—and Roger's life transforms overnight with a promotion, a raffle win, and sure bets that make them wealthy. But the mysterious messages keep coming, each one steering his fate, and when Roger finally confronts the source of these letters from beyond, he learns the house's curse demands a terrible price for those who accept its gifts. A deliciously twisted tale of greed, destiny, and the cost of ill-gotten fortune, "Letters from the Unknown!" shows what happens when you're too eager to ask questions about your luck.

When scientists unearth an enormous ruby from the tomb of Haaken-Ishtar in 1896, they're immediately struck by disaster—the tomb itself seems to turn against them. As the precious gem is transported by caravan across Egypt and then by ship to England, a series of catastrophic events unfolds: a devastating sandstorm decimates the caravan, and the vessel carrying the ruby succumbs to violent seas and sinks into the Mediterranean. Scholars would later attribute these calamities to a mysterious curse tied to the Pharaoh's Ruby itself, now lost to the ocean depths.

On a remote South Pacific island outpost, Commandant Paul oversees brutal justice with cold efficiency—until a mysterious woman appears at the governor's reception, claiming to be a messenger of Belhoa, the natives' spirit of vengeance. When Paul fires at her in terror and she vanishes, his grip on reality begins to crumble, driving him toward a desperate confrontation with the very pit where the natives have called down their curse. Marie and Fred watch helplessly as Paul races toward a reckoning he may not survive.

Jim Cullen, a struggling young writer, crash-lands on a remote island during the war and unknowingly becomes entangled with an ancient death cult when he bleeds before their god's statue. Years later, the cult tracks him down and coerces him into becoming their agent in the modern world, promising him wealth and power—but his growing devotion to Zeni, the god of violent death, comes at a terrible cost to those closest to him. As Jim transforms from desperate dreamer into a tool of dark forces, he must navigate between the cult's demands and the life he once cherished, all while Zeni's influence spreads across the globe.