Strange Suspense Stories #34

A ruthless businessman systematically destroys his partners' fortunes to gain control of National Cement, but when a mysterious scar begins appearing on the faces of those around him—a harbinger he can't ignore—his guilty conscience unravels. As the scar haunts his every waking moment, Gaines spirals into paranoia and desperation, unable to escape the weight of his own crimes. What price will he pay for his ambition?

John Hawkins wakes up on a country road with no memory of how he got there—and discovers his face has been replaced with someone else's wearing his identity at home. Desperate to prove he's the real man, Hawkins turns to the police with a wild story about alien abduction and body-snatching, only to find that the invaders may have planned more perfectly than anyone imagined. A tense race against time ensues as authorities scramble to expose the impostor before it's too late.

A meek Pentagon clerk finds himself caught in a spy thriller he never asked for when foreign agents mistake him for someone far more valuable—and the government decides to use him as bait. With bullets flying and his nerves shredded, Wade is swept across the country in a bewildering game of cat and mouse, desperate to understand why his ordinary life has become anything but ordinary.

A chemical warfare officer awakens from suspended animation in the desert after decades, discovering the abandoned tank he left behind during wartime—and plotting to use it to reunite with old allies and spark a new global conflict. As he repairs the vehicle and prepares to cross the endless sands, the desert itself becomes his adversary, testing his resolve with its oppressive vastness and the creeping dread it inspires in all who face it. In this tale from Strange Suspense Stories #34, the pitiless wasteland proves mightier than any weapon or ambition.

A farmboy taken in by the McGregors toils endlessly on their land, his only solace a mysterious book that whispers of escape—until one day he scrapes together enough money to buy a mirror and discovers the book's secrets might actually work. When Mr. McGregor discovers what the boy has done and moves to destroy his precious book, the desperate farmboy races to the attic with a wild hope burning in his chest. What unfolds is a strange and touching tale of imagination as a lifeline, powered by the fantastical logic of a very special story.