Haunt of Fear #2

In "Room for One More!" from Haunt of Fear #2 (1985), young Jo, raised by his relatives after losing his parents in a car crash, grows up with a quiet dread of the family crypt. When he turns twenty and realizes there’s only one casket left, he makes a desperate, dark choice—only to learn the dead have their own claims.

In "The Basket!", a man with two heads hides his true nature by carrying a basket on his shoulder, shielding the world—and himself—from the truth. When the darker of his two minds begins to take over, the remaining head faces a terrifying choice: surrender control or end it all.

In "The Howling Banshee!", a fugitive with a violent past seeks refuge in Ireland, where he encounters a woman who warns him that the Banshee’s wail signals the death of a blood relative. As his pursuers close in, he’s thrust into a night of terror and fog, where every shadow holds a threat—until a single gunshot changes everything, leaving him trapped between the ghosts of his past and a fate he can no longer outrun.

In "Hounded to Death!" from Haunt of Fear #2 (1985), a man whose cruelty to his hounds mirrors his treatment of others finds himself hunted in turn when a corpse he thought he’d buried comes back to claim its due. When his wife’s lover is discovered, the husband’s cruel game of deception takes a deadly turn—only to awaken something far worse than he ever imagined.

In "Diminishing Returns!" from Haunt of Fear #2 (1985), a man’s dark bargain with the Jivaro head-hunter tribe takes a terrifying turn when a mysterious package arrives at his door. Inside, he finds the shrunken head of his most recent victim—now staring at him with eyes that open in horror. The head lunges, biting his ankles and dragging him down before delivering a final, fatal strike.

In "The Irony of Death!" from Haunt of Fear #2 (1985), a newly wealthy man—now the owner of a steel mill after marrying his boss’s daughter—takes a grim delight in testing the very iron maiden he helped create. When he tries it out for size, the museum exhibit’s mechanism seals shut with chilling finality.

In "Warts So Horrible?", two mischievous nephews dig up their miser uncle’s grave at midnight, hoping to steal the diamond ring he supposedly buried with him—only to find themselves trapped in a far darker fate. The story takes a chilling turn when the corpse grabs them, and the scene shifts to two young boys who’d been watching from the cemetery, their own spell for wart removal now echoing in the eerie silence.

In "Forbidden Fruit," two survivors of a crashed plane find themselves stranded on a remote island where a single tree bears fruit behind a stockade. The lone inhabitant warns them the fruit will cause their skin to rot, but when they dismiss his claims and return at night, they’re forced to confront the truth of his words—and the unsettling sight of him.

In "The Age-Old Story!" from Haunt of Fear #2, a young woman’s marriage to a wealthy older biologist takes a dark turn when she abandons him for a younger lover. After he offers a final toast, she unknowingly drinks a potion that rapidly ages her into a withered crone—leaving her trapped in a body far beyond her years.

In "Gorilla's Paw!", Floyd’s curiosity leads him into a curio shop where he buys a mummified gorilla’s paw for twenty-five dollars—just a strange trinket at first, until it starts rewriting his reality in terrifying ways. What begins as a simple purchase spirals into something far darker when the paw begins to grant his wishes, each one leaving a trail of blood and regret.

In "Grave Business!", a greedy undertaker meets his match when an accident leaves him paralyzed—and buried alive—by his own deceitful partner, who uses the man’s own tricks to exploit the situation. Written by a master of macabre twists, this chilling 8-page tale from Haunt of Fear #2 (1985) turns the funeral trade into a deadly game of irony.

In "The Vamp!" from Haunt of Fear #2 (1985), a man on a European vacation finds himself drawn to a mysterious woman who reveals a terrifying secret—she’s a vampire, and she’s fallen for him. When he rejects her, she vows revenge, but the real horror begins when he returns to find his wife transformed and hunting him.

In "My Uncle Ekar!", a young boy named Jo claims he’s actually 24 and spends his days watching his uncle, Ekar, commit murders—something he says he wants to do when he grows up. When police track down the boy’s strange claims, they find a chilling truth in the woods, and the horrifying revelation follows them home. The story’s unsettling tone and eerie final image linger long after the last page.

In "Bum Steer!" from Haunt of Fear #2 (1985), a disgraced matador, bitter over losing his lover’s affection to a younger rival, takes twisted revenge by training a half-blind bull to attack the young man using the scent of her perfumed handkerchief. As the bull’s fury turns deadly, the matador’s cruel plan spirals beyond his control—only to be undone when the corpses of his victims return in the dead of night.

In "The Acid Test!" from Haunt of Fear #2, a woman’s simmering resentment toward her seemingly devoted husband erupts in a shocking act of violence—only to unravel in the courtroom, where his impassioned plea for forgiveness may be the most dangerous lie of all. With her fate hanging in the balance, she plays the role of repentant wife, but the truth behind his calm demeanor is far more chilling than she ever imagined.

In "Extermination," a weary exterminator wakes from a nightmare in which the insects and rodents he’s killed rise up to torment him—only to find himself back in reality, face to face with a single cockroach on his floor. As he crushes it with his shoe, the creature lets out a scream that echoes far too clearly, blurring the line between dream and dread. The story, written by an unnamed author and illustrated by an unnamed artist, turns a simple evening into a chilling spiral of unease, where every shadow feels just a little too alive.

In "Ear Today... Gone Tomorrow!" from Haunt of Fear #2 (1985), two business partners who run a fertilizer factory near a cemetery dig beneath the ground to harvest bone meal from nearby graves—only to find their success comes at a terrible price. After fulfilling a large order, they take a vacation, but their car breaks down in a cornfield fertilized with their own product, leading them into a field where the husks begin to move with unnatural life.