Strange Suspense Stories #72

A simple coal miner's quiet life shatters when he discovers a hidden laboratory beneath his property—and the brilliant, vengeful scientist who controls it. Frank Wilton finds himself trapped as Dr. Norgo demonstrates the power to command minds across the globe, preparing to enslave all humanity with a single lever pull. As the madman's plan reaches its climax, Wilton must find a way to survive the unthinkable.

Hal Astor believes in his mother's childhood prediction that he can only meet death on the fourteenth of the month—a conviction so unshakeable that he dismisses his wife Mona's premonitions and drives in a dangerous race. When his car crashes spectacularly, survival seems impossible, but Astor's faith in the mystical rule may protect him in ways both he and Mona never imagined.

Elwin Hanson, a quiet, overlooked man, wanders into a peculiar bookshop on Christmas Eve where the enigmatic proprietor offers him a mysterious book that promises to fulfill his deepest desires. As Elwin loses himself in its pages, the line between dream and reality grows perilously thin.

Jake Taylor is a talented painter consumed by self-doubt, content to paint commissioned portraits of society clients rather than risk his reputation with a true exhibition—until a mysterious compulsion forces him to paint a portrait of a stranger he's never met. When the painting comes to life and begins tormenting him about his cowardice, Jake realizes he can't escape the face on the canvas or the truths it demands he confront.

Professor Kaz has spent years in obscurity perfecting his Kazmachine—a device he claims can restore youth to the aged—and now the moment of truth has finally arrived. After a successful test on a chimpanzee named Jarvis, the Professor insists on being the first human subject, setting the machine to reverse thirty years of aging. When the Kazmachine malfunctions and reduces him to an infant instead, his desperate assistants must race against time to find a way to undo the catastrophe.