Mystery Tales #51

In "Inside the Mummy Case," a museum guard finds himself trapped in a chilling game of mind and shadow when an ancient, undead mummy uses telepathic suggestion to lure him into opening a deadly section of a sealed case. The story unfolds with quiet dread, as the line between instinct and manipulation blurs in the dim light of the museum’s halls.

In "What World Is This?", a fugitive’s desperate wish to stop time leads him to a eerily still town, where frozen figures line the streets—until the hum of a passing plane shatters the silence. As he stares up at the sky, a small object detaches from the aircraft, and the truth begins to unfold: this isn’t a world frozen by magic, but a test site built to simulate atomic destruction.

In "Four Empty Chairs!" from Mystery Tales #51 (1957), a man returns home to find his family gone—only four empty chairs remain. A mysterious stranger arrives, claiming the family has been pulled from another dimension and can only return when a lightning bolt of unmatched power strikes. The sheriff dismisses the tale as madness, but as the storm breaks and a blinding bolt splits the sky, both the stranger and the man vanish without a trace.