Spellbound #16

In the chilling holiday tale "When You Believe" from Spellbound #16 (1953), a fugitive convict targets his defense lawyer on Christmas day, seeking revenge against the man who let him go free. Armed with a mysterious disintegrator gun as a gift, the lawyer’s young son becomes the unexpected guardian of his family’s safety—his innocent hand the only thing standing between his father and a deadly reckoning.

In "Too Human to Live!", a factory worker who looks entirely human but is secretly a robot begins to question his existence after meeting a young woman and dreaming of a life beyond his assembly line. As he dares to escape his mechanical world, the other robots—mindless and relentless—drag him back, leading to a desperate flight and a tragic fall. The story’s quiet, haunting final line underscores a chilling truth: even in pretending to be human, he was never meant to live.

In "Only A Rose!", a woman’s growing suspicion of her husband’s infidelity leads her down a dark path when she discovers he’s been giving flowers to young girls—only to learn too late that his intentions were far from what she feared. Written by an unknown author and illustrated by an unknown artist, the story unfolds with quiet dread, turning a tale of jealousy into a haunting meditation on mistaken trust and unintended consequences.

In "A Very Grave Matter," two brothers take night jobs guarding a cemetery, but a single misstep plunges one into a grave—only to spark a deadly misunderstanding. When a passerby tries to help, the other brother, convinced of grave robbing, fires a shot, unaware of the terrible price his actions will exact. A month later, the buried man returns, and the past comes back with a vengeance.

In "Behind the Door," a reclusive millionaire, obsessed with defying fate, constructs a mysterious device that reveals the one thing he fears most: Death itself. As the beam grows stronger, he seals himself in a vault, surrounded by guards, desperate to outwit the inevitable.