Tales of Suspense #26

In "It Crawls by Night!", Jed Hanson’s experimental night-blooming plant spirals out of control, devouring everything in its path under cover of darkness. With his son Bobby, wife Ann, and neighbors Fred and Tommy scrambling for safety, the family finds an unexpected refuge behind a mysterious meteorite—only to discover the strange rock holds the key to stopping the monstrous growth.

In "Never Trust a Martian," a group of Communist spies scheme to stage a fake Martian invasion to destabilize Earth, but their plan takes a deadly turn when the real Martians intervene—abducting and eliminating the impostors before their deception can unfold. The story unfolds with tense paranoia and a classic sci-fi twist, where the line between threat and illusion blurs in the most unexpected way.

In "Seven Long Years," Vince Jordan, a man who once vowed to leave crime behind after shattering a mirror, finds himself drawn back into a life of theft—only to repeat his past mistake in the most literal way. The story unfolds with a chilling sense of fate, as one broken mirror echoes seven years of consequence.

In "The Face!", a desperate thief fleeing a cursed ruby finds the Lama’s haunting visage looming in every reflection, on every surface—until the train he’s fleeing on becomes his final trap. As panic sets in, he yanks the emergency cord and leaps into the unknown, unaware the train’s stopping point is a perilous trestle bridge.