Monsieur Sourire #[nn]

In "Le cercueil," a man's desperate attempt to cut funeral costs leads him to build a self-operating coffin—complete with music, a recorded service, and a shovel on its side. When his lazy brother decides to take a nap inside, the machine activates with chilling precision, revealing a far darker purpose than mere convenience.

In "L'empreinte," Acton’s desperate attempt to erase every trace of his presence at Arthur Huxley’s home after the murder spirals into a tense game of psychological unraveling, where the very act of erasing evidence begins to consume him. The story, written by ? (traduction), unfolds with quiet dread as the line between guilt and obsession blurs.

In "Time Safari," Mr. Eckles joins a high-stakes expedition through Safari, Incorporated’s time machine, trading $10,000 for a chance to hunt dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period. Armed with a warning to stay on the path—lest they alter history—his group ventures into the past, where the thrill of the hunt quickly blurs with something far stranger.

In "La grande roue," two boys stumble upon a sinister carnival attraction: a Ferris wheel that can bend time with each spin. When a man exploits its power to reverse his age and infiltrate a kind old woman’s life, the boys must act before he escapes into the future—leaving only the wheel’s eerie creaks as proof.

In "La dame qui hurlait !," young Margaret stumbles upon a haunting mystery while fetching ice cream—her footsteps echoing over an empty lot where a woman’s voice cries from beneath the earth, pleading to be freed. When her parents dismiss her tale, a quiet unease settles in, especially after they mention the long-ago broken engagement between Mr. Leary and Helen Nesbitt, the woman who once wrote a song for him. Returning later, Margaret hears the same melody—sad, familiar—rising from the ground, as if the past refuses to stay buried.

In "Le lac," a man returns to the beach where he once played with his childhood love, Tally, whose sudden drowning left him with a lifetime of unanswered grief. Years later, confronted with a haunting memory and a shocking discovery, he rebuilds the sandcastle they never finished—this time, with quiet resolve.

In "Poison, poison!", a haunted teacher haunted by a tragic past returns to his classroom, only to spiral into obsession after witnessing a child’s death. Years later, as he grapples with his growing disdain for students, he becomes fixated on a chilling game of hopscotch that blurs the line between memory and madness—until the sidewalk itself seems to whisper his name.

In "Regardez, les oiseaux !", Emperor Yuan’s fear of losing control leads him to silence a village inventor who’s mastered flight—though the true cost of that secrecy may be harder to measure than the sky itself.

In "Croque-mort," a mortician known only as Mr. Benedict takes grim revenge on those he believes have dishonored the dead—until a corpse still clinging to life hears his atrocities and calls upon the buried to rise. The story unfolds with chilling quiet, as the dead answer his plea and reclaim their final rest, one grave at a time.

In "Le petit assassin !", a mother’s growing dread turns chillingly real when she begins to suspect her newborn is out to harm her—only to find her fears are all too true. As the doctor who delivered the child discovers her husband dead and the infant’s unsettling presence, he makes a grim decision, one that blurs the line between protection and punishment.