Strange Suspense Stories #58

When four-year-old Cathy brings home a stray kitten, her parents reluctantly agree to let her keep it—but the cat begins growing at an alarming rate, fed on vitamins and whatever else the young girl can find. As the feline swells to monstrous proportions and escapes into the countryside, terrifying the community, only Cathy seems able to control the creature, leading to an extraordinary confrontation that solves the problem in the most unexpected way. A science fiction twist on a child's devotion to her pet, this 1982 tale explores what happens when love and hunger collide on a growing scale.

A spider-obsessed professor pursuing the legendary Emperor Spider—a creature no living person has ever seen—receives a prophetic dream that shakes him to his core and forces an immediate retreat from the jungle expedition. The professor's account of his vision to his companion Marsden reveals why the hunt for the rarest specimen must be abandoned, no matter the cost to his life's work.

A speed-obsessed hotrodder named Ray Connack pursues faster and faster thrills—from his souped-up car to the Air Force cockpit to an experimental rocket sled—chasing what he believes is a beautiful woman who calls to him whenever he accelerates. When he triggers an unauthorized launch of a cutting-edge space capsule, he finally reaches the ultimate velocity, but Jerry Anderson and the military brass discover something impossible on the biosensors: Ray is not alone on his final ride. A sci-fi meditation on obsession and the price of chasing the unattainable, told with Charlton's signature blend of pulp momentum and cosmic twist.

This one-page story plunges into the lore of fantasy's most fearsome creatures—dragons, griffins, the chimera, and more—exploring how myths across the ages have always built their monsters from combinations of real animals that mankind recognizes. It's a brisk, colorful tour through the beasts that have haunted human imagination since ancient times, celebrating the clever artistry behind folklore's most enduring horrors.