Creepy Worlds #125

A young American tourist visiting Venice is startled when her ruby necklace vanishes overnight, only to find it mysteriously perched on the neck of a stone magpie in a museum. The gallery attendant is baffled by the theft, as the magpie sculpture—crafted with such lifelike detail it seems almost real—appears to have stolen the jewel. The story leaves the strange event unexplained, hinting at the bird’s uncanny connection to gleaming objects.

James F. Corning, a man who always gets what he wants, becomes obsessed with acquiring a jeweled idol known as the Goddess of Fate, believing it will make him a fortune. After paying a hefty sum to mysterious dealers and securing the idol, he begins to experience strange, unsettling events—accidents, dizzy spells, and visions—leading him to question whether the idol is truly cursed. As he tries to flee India with the idol, a violent storm and a series of inexplicable disasters follow, leaving him to wonder if fate itself is reclaiming what was never meant to be taken.

Gene Markham, a rebellious teen known as Knuckles, hatches a daring plan to become the first human in space by sneaking aboard his uncle Professor Markham’s experimental rocket—claiming it will make his gang, the Arrows, legendary. As the rocket launches into outer space, Gene faces isolation, fear, and the vast emptiness of space, testing his tough persona in ways he never expected.

In "Dreams Come True!", Ed Farraday finds himself haunted by a recurring nightmare of walking through a wall and toward a blinding light—only to wake up in his crumbling family mansion, overwhelmed by debt. When a psychiatric doctor suggests the dream is just wish fulfillment, Ed decides to take it literally, uncovering a hidden panel and a secret chamber that leads to a treasure beyond his wildest hopes. The story blends quiet surrealism with a touch of magical realism, turning a nightmarish vision into a real-world revelation.

In a wartime U-boat trapped on the ocean floor, a young Nazi officer named Otto Sternhardt, son of the famed magician Karl Sternhardt, stumbles upon a letter from his estranged father revealing a secret that could change the course of the war—and his own fate. As the submarine’s crew faces certain death, Otto is forced to confront the legacy of a man he once rejected, and the truth behind his father’s mysterious disappearance.

Andrew Moss, the pioneering rocket scientist who vanished in 1966, awakens on the alien paradise of Excalibur, where death has been conquered by advanced science. After years of living among its immortal inhabitants and building a rocket to return to Earth, he launches his vessel carrying the planet’s gifts of peace and immortality—only for Earth’s defenses to mistake it as a threat and send the deadly M-14 missile to intercept it.

Harvey Meek, a man overlooked and dismissed in his everyday life, finds himself separated from his speleological group deep within an uncharted cave. There, he encounters Targi and her people, descendants of ancient humans who have lived in isolation, facing threats from a feared enemy known as the Gurr-Din. As Harvey’s ingenuity begins to inspire the tribe, he earns their trust—though not without doubt—when he proposes using his knowledge to build weapons that could defend them.

In "The Strange Ones!", Glenn Parker’s late-night drive ends in a crash after two mysterious lights appear—lights that seem oddly concerned he survive. As his obsession with building a strange machine grows, his wife Olga grows fearful, prompting a visit from the family doctor. Under hypnosis, Glenn reveals the truth: the lights are aliens, and his machine was meant to give them a physical form for an Earth invasion. When the doctor and Olga arrive in time, the aliens emerge—only to destroy the machine and vanish, leaving the threat seemingly ended.

In Plum Corners, the town’s beloved handyman Horace Frisbee astonishes everyone with his uncanny ability to fix anything—until a mysterious device left by Mrs. Forbush triggers a sudden, inexplicable shift in reality. As Horace and his wife Martha stare out the window at a sky they don’t recognize, the world around them has changed in ways neither can explain.

When a mysterious mist blankets the town, plunging it into darkness and fear, Mayor Gordon and the townspeople desperate for relief turn to a quiet stranger who claims he can lift the fog. As the townsfolk grapple with their own greed and fear, the stranger returns not for money, but for the simple acknowledgment of gratitude—offering a quiet lesson in humility and kindness.

Oscar Gibson, injured in a car crash on a secluded road, is treated by a doctor who claims to be Dr. Ralph P. Whitney—though the doctor’s identity becomes deeply unsettling when Gibson later learns the doctor’s name belongs to a man who died sixty years prior. As Gibson tries to make sense of the encounter, he begins to question whether the man who saved him was truly a healer or something far more mysterious.