Strange Suspense Stories #54

A humble janitor named Henry harbors a desperate wish to become the brilliant Dr. Charles Dumas, idolizing the scientist even as he witnesses the doctor's cruelty to his wife and child. When Dr. Dumas boasts of discovering a forbidden secret—the power to transition between life and death itself—Henry finds himself caught in a supernatural reckoning that forces a terrible choice between who he is and who he's always wanted to be.

Jim Watson's fishing vacation takes a shocking turn when he witnesses a flying saucer land nearby and watches its alien occupants transform into human form before his eyes. Racing back to camp to warn his wife Myra of the invasion, Jim discovers that the threat may be far closer than he imagined—and that the aliens' plans for Earth run deeper than anyone could have suspected.

Jeb Heston digs a well on his struggling farm during a drought, but discovers the water carries an unsettling sulfur taste and an even stranger presence lurking below. When a mysterious figure emerges from the darkness one night, Jeb must confront the eerie implications of what he's awakened—and decide whether to risk a second encounter.

Kirby is a waking failure—a hollow shadow of a man shuffling through his days as a bar janitor, invisible and unremarkable in the eyes of the world. But when sleep comes, he enters another realm entirely, where he becomes a hero and finds true love with a woman named Tala. As Kirby's dream-life and waking existence begin to blur in ways neither world can quite explain, the question becomes whether he'll ever truly return.