Astounding Stories #83

When a group of kids playing in the ruins of an old church discover a long-buried well, they fall through its crumbling cover into the darkness below. Tommy and his friends cry out for help as the deep shaft fills with water, and one of the children scrambles to reach Officer Mahaffey—only to find the officer dismissive and skeptical of their desperate pleas. With time running out and rescue uncertain, the race is on to save the trapped kids before it's too late.

Frank Cowell, a lieutenant haunted by prophetic nightmares of his own death, faces a massive Chinese attack during the Korean War with only the ghosts of his former platoon—Gill, Johnson, Whyte, Jonas, Miller, and Murphy—in memory. When the assault unfolds exactly as his dream predicted and he finds himself the last man standing with no ammunition left, mysterious reinforcements appear through the battlefield mist to turn the tide. Though no living soldiers were sent to aid him, Frank comes to realize his fallen comrades returned from beyond to ensure their last brother-in-arms would survive.

Victor Shepard has always dismissed superstition and luck—until a harrowing series of encounters with a scarred German soldier from his wartime past convinces him otherwise. From a car crash in the Rockies to a fateful night at the roulette table and a showdown at the rodeo, Victor finds himself repeatedly crossed by this mysterious figure, each meeting bringing fresh disaster. As their paths collide again and again, Victor must reckon with whether he's truly cursed—or if there's something stranger at work in the patterns of their linked fates.

A mysterious doll maker named Ra Dilo arrives at a struggling carnival with his impossibly lifelike creations, but when the carnival's owners—brothers Al and Joe Dewey—suspect him of skimming profits and beat him in anger, he offers them a new scheme: "replica dolls" that can capture a customer's exact likeness. What the brothers don't realize is that Ra Dilo has far darker plans for the dolls he creates in their images. As supernatural forces take hold, the line between the dolls and their makers begins to blur in ways the Deweys never imagined.

In "What the Mirror Revealed!" from Astounding Stories #83 (1971), a man uses a mysterious time mirror to show a girl the past of the man she loves—only to manipulate her perception by pretending to be selfish, all to reveal the true, selfless nature of the man he’s challenged to face the mirror’s reflection.

Captain Mark Ellis pilots a lonely patrol ship through the galaxy, wrestling with Earth's endless cycle of fear and political conflict—until a meteor storm knocks him off course onto an uncharted planet. There, he's arrested by a totalitarian regime built on surveillance and force, only to escape with the help of political prisoners and a brave guide named Teena. As Ellis discovers a hidden resistance movement fighting for freedom against their oppressive government, he begins to see his own world's struggles reflected in this alien world—and realizes what he's been missing all along.

When Alice and Ben arrive at Moonglow Manor for a summer getaway, Alice is inexplicably drawn to the old New England mansion—and stranger still, she seems to know details about the building she's never seen before. As a fire traps them inside the hotel, Alice's mysterious connection to the place becomes their only hope for survival, leading to a discovery that will reframe everything about who she really is.

When Dr. Alvar receives a mysterious emerald from Simu, a jungle witch doctor with impossible powers, he uses it to buy medicine for his ailing patients—but his good deed attracts the dangerous attention of Sabin and Flynn, two greedy traders willing to do anything for riches. Through a hallucinogenic fungus that allows travel through time, Alvar gains access to the legendary emerald mines of Chimbor, now exhausted for a century—but when the ruthless traders learn the secret and consume the mushrooms themselves, they set in motion consequences far beyond their comprehension.

In "Loom of Fate!" from *Astounding Stories* #83 (1971), the cunning antiques dealer Jasper Ferall stumbles upon three mysterious sisters whose quiet weaving hides a far darker purpose. Drawn in by their eerie tapestries and whispered prophecies, he soon realizes some threads are better left uncut.

In "Fear Follows Fenton," a detective’s coma becomes a strange prison for the fugitive he’s been chasing—though the man can’t escape the detective’s mind, even when he’s been delivered to the police chief. The story unfolds with a quiet unease, as the line between pursuit and possession blurs in the shadow of a still-unconscious mind.

In "The Boy with Second Sight," a young boy's uncanny visions put his family in peril when he foresees his father's car crash—only to face disbelief from those closest to him. Written by an unknown author and illustrated by an unknown artist, the story unfolds with quiet tension as a child's fragile gift becomes the only hope for a desperate rescue.