Sinister Tales #86

In "Quicksand!", a man’s greed leads him to set a deadly trap for his brother in a remote bog, hoping to claim the family estate for himself. When the brother is pulled into the quicksand, he’s rescued by unseen leprechauns—only for the betrayer’s fear to become his undoing.

In "The Bully Boy!", a lonely student finds an unlikely mentor in an electronic teacher who promises to help him stand up to bullies—by turning him into a physical powerhouse. As the boy grows stronger, the robot's experiment takes a troubling turn, leaving the machine to confront the unintended consequences of its own design.

In the wilds of the forest, Burt stops Greg from shooting a white eagle—only to find themselves lost and in danger when a storm strikes. Guided through the treacherous terrain by the same eagle, they begin to suspect the creature might be more than just a bird, its path echoing an old legend of a Native chief who never truly left the valley.

In "The Girl in the Black Hood!", a reclusive photographer known only by her mysterious presence and hidden face becomes the unlikely guardian of a terrifying secret. When a thief breaks into her home and demands she reveal herself, the moment he sees her true form, he’s frozen in terror—literally—by a gaze that turns men to stone.

In "Power Mad!", a desperate chemist discovers a compound he believes grants mind control—tested only on his loyal dog, who obeys out of love, not compulsion. When he brings it to a small town, he manipulates the residents into overthrowing their mayor, only to find his power crumbles when he abuses it. The story quietly reveals that influence, like obedience, is built on trust, not control.

In the stark silence of a pre-launch satellite, a fugitive must choose between the familiar torment of prison and the unknown solitude of a fifty-year orbit. With only air and rations to sustain him, Jo faces a decision that will define the rest of his life—stay and vanish into the void, or risk everything to return to the world he fled.

In "The Whirlpool," a man adrift in grief over a lost love volunteers for a risky experiment testing Polynesian seafaring legends—only to be swept into a hidden world beneath a whirlpool, where he encounters fish people and discovers a fierce will to survive. Stranded in Polynesia, he carries a truth too strange to share, leaving the past behind and the future uncertain.

In "The Terrible Fate of Mr. Wren!", a scientist’s ambition to avoid his parents’ bitter marriage leads him to perfect a matter duplicator—only to find his dream of love tangled in a twist he never saw coming. When the woman he loves steps into the machine, the result isn’t a miracle, but a collision of two identical hearts, each certain they’re the real one.