Forbidden Worlds #8

When Jim and Nora inherit Uncle Fred's estate, they discover a gruesome necklace of pointed fangs hidden in his safe—a mysterious object that immediately draws the attention of a vengeful phantom. As a supernatural creature hunts them down for the cursed artifact, Jim is bitten and begins a horrifying transformation, forcing Nora to search Uncle Fred's journals for answers before dawn breaks and the change becomes permanent. With the phantom's true identity finally revealed and time running out, the couple must uncover the dark secret of the werewolf's fangs before Jim becomes the very monster that's hunting them.

When Susan Wright encounters Dr. Esproc in a graveyard at dawn, she has no idea he's a centuries-cursed zombie forced to raise the undead—or that a lunar eclipse six nights away will destroy him if he fails. As Dr. Esproc grapples with Susan's unexpected affection and an internal struggle between his dark hunger and an uncharacteristic pity, she invites herself aboard his ship to Haiti, where the real test of his cursed nature awaits.

Postman James Pritchett begins seeing the ghost of Myra Carlisle while delivering letters to the Carlisle mansion, and through a trail of increasingly nearby postmarks, he deduces that someone is traveling toward town. When he discovers the ghost of Morgan Carlisle approaching the estate on the very night his calculations predicted, Pritchett realizes the two spirits are bound for a final reunion in the family burial ground.

Fred Bostwick, an insurance investigator, attends a mysterious circus run by the sinister Dr. Namirha—a traveling show that conveniently performs at hospitals and convalescent homes where patients mysteriously die. When Fred sneaks into the circus wagons at night, he witnesses something that shatters his skepticism: the doctor's horrifying claim that he can trap human souls inside animal bodies through dark transmigration. Now Fred must find a way to stop Dr. Namirha's supernatural murders before the next performance.

In 1652, Oliver Cromwell ventures into a gloomy forest near the battlefield with Col. Lindsay, claiming he must ensure victory over King Charles's forces—but what the Colonel witnesses is far stranger than any military strategy. Cromwell meets with a phantom and strikes a bargain in blood for triumph in the coming battle, though the creature warns him of a terrible price. Seven years later, on the exact anniversary of their meeting, the Lord Protector falls dead, leaving Col. Lindsay to ponder what unholy debt has finally come due.

Eric Vonn inherits Kallman Castle after ruining the Baron financially, but his triumph awakens a centuries-old curse when the ghosts of Hans and Martha Kallman—walled alive in the castle by an ancestor Eric centuries before—demand blood payment for their suffering. As spectral visions force Eric to commit murder and betray those closest to him, he discovers that some debts can never truly be settled, and that the eyes of death watch from beyond the grave.