Iskalde Grøss #6/1989

In "En apestrek," a young woman’s marriage to an older, poetic husband grows suffocating—until she meets a younger man and conspires with him to stage a fatal fall down the stairs. After the husband’s death, she adopts a monkey born on the same day, a creature that seems to carry the weight of the past. When her new lover, Howard, demands marriage and begins uncovering unsettling truths, the line between guilt and memory blurs. The story lingers in the quiet dread of what follows, as a familiar chair, a pipe, and a book of poetry sit waiting—unchanged, perhaps knowing more than they should.

In the frozen silence of an Eskimo settlement, a movie producer is drawn into a haunting encounter with a striking American girl, her presence as sharp and sudden as a winter wind. As he brings her to the States to build a life and a career, the fragile dream begins to unravel when her step-father arrives with a secret that turns the girl’s beauty into something far more unsettling.

In "Edel kappestrid!", Gus Forney and Lou Crebis, two bitter rivals with a history of high-stakes grudges, take their enmity to a grotesque extreme: a game of chop poker, where each cut with a cleaver brings them closer to ruin. With their doctors on hand to tend to the wounds, the two gamblers push past pain and reason—until their bodies are so shattered they can no longer continue.

In "Ansiktsløftningen!", a man’s Mardi Gras wedding takes a chilling turn when his bride, veiled in a hag mask, refuses to remove it—no matter how often he asks. As his unease grows, the tension escalates until he finally tears the mask from her face, only to confront a horrifying truth that defies what he thought he knew.

In "Korka!", a woman haunted by dark memories and a skeptical psychologist who cares for her seek answers from a mysterious swami. When the man claims her trauma stems from witnessing a grotesque, supernatural event—an obese man’s head detaching to release a Lamia that now possesses her—the woman flees in horror. Her panic leads her into the subway, where fate takes a brutal turn. The psychologist, moments later, erupts in maniacal laughter as the creature claims him.

In "Et råttent triks!", a man’s cruel betrayal catches up to him when he seeks refuge with a boat pilot who once loved the woman he abandoned—only to be delivered to an isolated island that doubles as a leper colony. The air grows thick with dread as his past begins to surface in the most unsettling ways.

In "Skulle ønske du var her," a grieving wife turns to a mysterious jade statue after her husband Jason dies in a sudden accident, hoping to undo the loss. Though warned by a fleeting memory of a tale about dangerous wishes, she makes her plea—only to discover that time and life don’t bend as easily as she’d hoped. The story unfolds with quiet dread, building on a single, desperate wish that spirals into something far darker than she ever imagined.

In *Den nye*, a decaying mansion whispers secrets from a past too long buried. When a weary traveler stumbles into its shadowed halls, he awakens to a terrifying truth: the old woman’s twisted devotion has found a new vessel, and he is now the one bound in chains, her latest “baby.”

In "Teleskop," Eric Walford finds himself stranded on a desolate island after a shipwreck, his only companion a starving rat. As hunger drives both to desperate acts, the fragile balance of survival shifts with each passing moment—until the island’s hidden dangers come to life.