Haunt of Fear #3

In "Poetic Justice!" from Haunt of Fear #3 (1985), a kind-hearted town garbageman becomes the target of a cruel scheme by a wealthy man and his son, who want his property. When the old man’s simple life is unraveled by a series of calculated attacks—first through a new license law, then through the isolation of the children he cared for—his fleeting hope on St. Valentine’s Day turns to heartbreak when he discovers the cruel messages meant to destroy him. The story unfolds with quiet dread, building to a chilling, symbolic retribution that lingers long after the final page.

In "…On a Dead Man's Chest!" from Haunt of Fear #3, a man’s world unravels when his younger brother begins an affair with his wife. After a night of drinking, the elder brother gets a tattoo of the three of them arm-in-arm on his chest—unaware it will become a chilling witness. As the brother and wife conspire to stage his death as an accident, the tattoo’s eerie reflection may be the one thing that can’t be faked.

In "What's Cookin'?", two longtime restaurant owners welcome a new partner with big ideas, transforming their roadside diner into the "Chicken Coop" with a focus on broiling and deep frying. When greed takes over, they plot to eliminate him—only to find their former partner returns, forever changed, with a very different kind of recipe in mind.

In "For the Love of Death!", Jo, a man consumed by envy of the attention given to the dead, devises a macabre plan to take center stage at a funeral by murdering the town’s wealthiest man and taking his place in the casket. With a knife and a twisted ambition, he ensures the body is unrecognizable—only to discover too late that the deceased had already arranged for cremation.

In "Fed Up!", a darkly comedic tale from Haunt of Fear #3, a sword-swallower finds her patience worn thin by her increasingly gluttonous husband, whose endless appetite drains her earnings. When she decides to turn the tables, she pushes him to master her dangerous act—only to leave him trapped and helpless when the consequences of his excess catch up with him.

In "Minor Error!", a quiet neighborhood harbors a secret as the local boys grow suspicious of Ezra, the new kid who never plays outside. When they catch his uncle draining a victim at night, they’re certain they’ve found a vampire—and that Ezra’s isolation is a cover for something far darker. Armed with a stake and a plan, they confront the uncle the next day, only to uncover a truth far stranger than they imagined.

In the frozen silence of the Russian steppes, a sleigh hurtles through the snow as wolves close in. With only two bullets left, the officer fights to keep the pack at bay while the driver makes a desperate plea: one of them must be thrown to the wolves to save the rest. As fear grips the group—officer, woman, her newborn, and the old man—the choice hangs in the air, and the fate of one is left in the reader’s hands.

In "A Little Stranger!", a lonely vampire and a cursed werewolf find fleeting love beneath the moon’s glow, their bond tested by the very world that fears them. When the villagers destroy them in the devil’s graveyard, their love defies death—rising not for vengeance, but to begin a strange, eternal marriage.

In "Ship-Shape!" from Haunt of Fear #3, four survivors of a plane crash cling to a life raft only to drift toward a ghostly derelict ship cloaked in eerie fungus. When one of them dares to probe the strange growth with a pocket knife, the surface ruptures—releasing a corrosive fluid that consumes him in seconds. Now stranded and hunted by a silent, spreading menace, the remaining two face a desperate race for rescue—only to realize the raft itself may be the true threat.

In "This Little Piggy...", a British officer in colonial India ignores his uncle’s warning and hunts a sacred boar, only to serve it at dinner with chilling ritual precision. The horror unfolds not in violence, but in the quiet dread of a retribution that mirrors his own act—when the native servant’s horrified gaze becomes the first sign of a reckoning that will follow the officer beyond the next morning.

In "Chatter-Boxed!" from Haunt of Fear #3 (1985), a man prone to cataleptic fits takes extreme precautions to avoid being buried alive—no embalming, a phone in his coffin, and a desperate hope for rescue. When a car accident leaves him presumed dead, he awakens in the suffocating dark, frantically dialing loved ones and doctors, only to find every line silent. As the air grows thin, he makes one last, doomed call—just as history itself blocks the connection.

In "All Washed Up!", a desperate man’s attempt to win his love by eliminating a richer rival takes a horrifying turn when the corpse he’s buried in an old well reaches out to claim him—just as he returns to retrieve a stolen diamond ring. The story unfolds with chilling precision, blending quiet dread and sudden terror in a tale where the past refuses to stay buried.

In "Death of Some Salesmen!" from Haunt of Fear #3 (1985), a stranded salesman finds himself trapped in the unsettling home of an elderly couple whose appliances seem far too well-maintained—and far too familiar. As the old man returns with a peculiar new device, the salesman realizes too late that his wares might not be the only thing on display.

In "Nobody There!", a man’s obsession with escaping his own body leads him to a desperate gamble—transplanting his head onto another man’s frame, first to hide a deformity, then to chase immortality. As the surgeries multiply and the doctor’s conscience begins to fray, the final operation leaves the head alone on the table, abandoned and uncertain.

In "A Creep in the Deep!" from Haunt of Fear #3 (1985), a man fishing alone on a lake witnesses his wife attacked by a vampire while rowing. When he returns days later and learns of bloodless murders tied to the same waters, he realizes she may now be one of the undead, trapped beneath the surface. Armed with a sharpened spear, he prepares to face the horror he can no longer ignore.

In "The Coffin!" from Haunt of Fear #3 (1985), a man’s macabre invention meant to cut funeral costs takes a horrifying turn when his lazy brother dares to test it—only to find the coffin has a mind of its own, complete with a shovel and a taste for the living. The story unfolds with a chilling blend of dark humor and creeping dread, as the machine’s final act becomes far more personal than its designer ever intended.

In "Horror We? How's Bayou?", a man in the Louisiana swamp uses his isolated mansion to lure travelers, feeding his brother’s gruesome appetites. After one such kill, three grotesque corpses made of mismatched body parts rise from the quicksand—only to turn on their creator, reassembling him in a horrifying new configuration.

In "Gorilla My Dreams!", a desperate brain surgeon’s experiment goes horribly wrong when he transplants a dying man’s mind into a gorilla from a carnival. Now trapped in a creature’s body, the man—once a doctor, now a beast—wakes to a world that no longer recognizes him, haunted by the memory of his family and the cold certainty that he belongs nowhere, not even in the cage meant for animals.

In "A Likely Story!" from Haunt of Fear #3 (1985), a tyrannical queen's endless demands push her castle's seamstress, decorator, and artist to a breaking point. When the artist finally snaps, the trio's dark collaboration turns a portrait into something far more sinister—crafted from the queen’s severed head, stitched to canvas, and framed for display.

In "Garden Party," a man’s attempt to host a peaceful backyard barbecue turns tense when his guests inadvertently trample his wife’s prized flowers. Her obsession with perfection snaps when the damage is done, and she turns on her husband with a carving knife, her calm demeanor shattered by the sight of ruined blooms.