Strange Suspense Stories #38

Jack and Helen Curtis take a leisurely drive down a remote Connecticut back road and stumble upon the quaint town of Quinley—only to find its residents dressed in period costume, its buildings shuttered, and danger lurking in the form of armed Indians preparing to attack. As the couple witnesses the town consumed by fire, they realize something deeply unsettling is unfolding before their eyes, prompting a desperate escape back to the main road. When they seek answers at a nearby gas station, their account of what they saw becomes far more troubling than they could have anticipated.

A laboratory assistant from the Caribbean island of Barda arrives in town seeking Professor Ryan, the man who left him in charge of a delicate chemical experiment—one that catastrophically went wrong. Now invisible and desperate, the stranger must convince a skeptical police force to help him track down the only person who might restore him to visibility. In this eerie 1958 tale, a man literally erased from sight confronts the challenge of being believed when no one can see him.

Professor Gaines has staked his reputation on a bold claim: that Cro-Magnon men from prehistoric times will materialize at his home on May 6th, 1958. When newspapers and colleagues dismiss him as a crackpot, the professor must wait to see if the mysterious visitors he contacted months ago will actually keep their word.

Oliver Jones, a burnt-out office worker stuck in the same routine for two decades, encounters a mysterious curio with a legend of granting three wishes—and accepts a second chance to reclaim a lucrative business opportunity he'd once refused. But as his wishes reshape his past, he discovers that some roads not taken were left behind for good reason, and the life he thought he wanted comes with a price far steeper than boredom.

Olaf Olafsson and his Viking crew are blown off course by an Atlantic storm and wash ashore on unknown land—what will one day be called Nova Scotia—where they encounter peaceful natives willing to provide food for their journey. As the weary sailors prepare to depart, the natives reveal themselves to be something far more than they appeared, with designs on these peculiar visitors from across the sea. A cleverly twisted tale of first contact that turns the tables on the assumed hunters.