Phantastische Geschichten #3

In the tense silence of a storm-lashed voyage, Jo stumbles upon the cursed stateroom 13, a cabin whispered to be haunted. When the ship’s crew begins to vanish and the sea grows unnaturally still, Jo must confront the truth behind the legend—the corpse of a man the captain once killed, now rising from the deep to claim its due.

In "Tödlichen Streich!", a group of reckless teenagers pull a deadly prank by swapping a corpse in a casket with one of their own, dressed as a mystically summoned monster. When the undertaker refuses to exhume the body—citing the dead man’s leprosy—the prank’s consequences begin to sink in as the teens stare in dread at their own hands, realizing too late they may have touched something far worse than they imagined.

In "Tödliches Rezept!", Jo’s growing concern for her brother’s health leads her to seek help from a doctor, who prescribes a remedy. When the old-fashioned druggist hands over the medicine, the doctor’s suspicion is piqued—something about the bottle’s contents feels wrong. As the substance is tested, the results reveal a chilling truth: for weeks, Jo’s brother has been slowly being digested alive.

In "Ein drohendes Verhängnis!", an artist’s strange sketch of a man with a circle around his face takes a chilling turn when he encounters a grave-stone cutter who matches the drawing exactly. As the two men meet, an old romantic connection surfaces—between the stone-cutter’s wife and the artist—drawing them into a dangerous reunion. The moment hangs in the air, charged with secrets and guilt, as the past threatens to consume the present.

In "Die Fahrt des Schreckens!", a twisted operator transforms his once-lurid tunnel of love into a nightmarish spectacle, replacing its gaudy wax figures with the eerily lifelike corpses of his victims—turning amusement into dread for those who dare to ride. The story unfolds through the chilling journey of unsuspecting guests, each moment more unsettling than the last.

In "Der Tod verfolgte ihn!", a desperate man's envy and ambition drive him to murder his rival for a woman’s love, only to find his twisted triumph haunted by the very symbol of his stolen victory—the tuxedo of the dead man. When the suit begins to claim him on his wedding day, he realizes too late that some debts cannot be buried with the past.

In "Das Ding aus dem Grab!", Bill’s jealousy turns deadly when he kills his rival Jim and tries to frame him as a deserter. As Laura refuses to believe Jim is gone, Bill’s guilt and rage spiral—until he traps her in a burning cabin, only to awaken the very corpse he buried.

In "Blutgruppe V," a man named Freddie rushes to help his unconscious wife after a car accident, only to find her bleeding out with no clear source of injury. When a stranger with the rare blood type offers a transfusion, she recovers—then vanishes, soon followed by a wave of mysterious vampire attacks. As Freddie investigates, he uncovers a chilling connection between the donor and the killings, leading to a deadly confrontation with a creature he never expected.

In *Der Tod ist an der Reihe!*, two ruthless amusement park owners lure a mysterious man into a partnership with promises of global fame, only to betray him the moment his world's fastest roller coaster is complete. When the man vanishes and they cover up his death as an accident, their triumph turns to dread on opening day—just as the roller coaster comes to a halt, they’re found dead, necks broken, their final ride a grim testament to their greed.

In "Der Fluch des Arnold-Clans!!", Jo stumbles upon an ancient book in the attic that warns of a grim tradition: every half-century, the eldest Arnold must be buried alive. When a costume ball’s scavenger hunt leads him to a musket hidden in the family crypt, he realizes too late that the curse is real—hiding in a coffin to escape the caretaker only seals his fate as the next victim.

In "Das Spiegelbild des Todes!", Al wakes after a car crash to find himself stranded on a desolate road, haunted by the terrified reactions of everyone he encounters—each fleeing from him as if he were something monstrous. As he stumbles through abandoned homes and desperate encounters, the line between nightmare and reality begins to fray, especially when he finally sees his own face in a mirror. The story unfolds with a creeping dread, built on isolation and the unsettling weight of unseen horrors, as Al’s journey spirals into a dream that may not be a dream at all.

In *Der letzte Festschmaus!*, Tony’s love for the wealthy but underage Anna leads to a secret marriage that unravels when her uncle threatens to annul it, driving Anna to a fatal illness. After her death, Tony takes a macabre pilgrimage to her mausoleum, where he becomes trapped and endures a grim survival against the odds—feeding on rainwater and the decaying remains of his beloved, until the very air he breathes turns deadly.

In "Seance!", Alan Bitsby stages a test to expose a medium as a fraud by demanding the spirit of his supposedly deceased wife be summoned. The medium, unaware that Mrs. Bitsby is still alive, enters a trance and succeeds in calling forth her spirit—leaving Bitsby stunned and furious. When he returns home, he finds his wife dead, and the truth of what happened during the seance begins to unravel in ways he never expected.

In "Tod durch Voodoo!", Jay and Bill stumble upon a forbidden voodoo ritual in Haiti, setting off a chain of terrifying events that follow them home. After Jay is captured and later reunites with Bill, a chilling package arrives at Bill’s door—a voodoo doll with a pin, which comes to life and attacks him. When Bill destroys it in the fire, he and Jay flee to safety, only to face a horrifying truth: the doll was sent to kill Bill, and Jay, now revealed as a zombie, is its unwilling puppet. The truth of Jay’s fate and the doll’s deadly heart leaves Bill with a final, devastating revelation.

In "Fledermäuse im Dachstübchen!", a deafened actor seeks a strange remedy from a reclusive healer, agreeing to a radical procedure that grafts a bat’s senses onto his own. What begins as a desperate bid to reclaim his hearing soon spirals into something far more unsettling, as his body begins to shift in ways he never anticipated.

In "Der lebende Tote!", two doctors vie for the affection of the same woman—until her heart tumor ends her life. Years later, when Dr. Manning faces his own fatal illness, Dr. Jerome saves him through psychosomatic medicine. But after a car accident leaves him dead for months, a post-hypnotic suggestion keeps him from decaying—until the word "Laurie" awakens the curse, turning him into a bag of rotting slime.

In "Mitternachtsimbiss!", Duncan Reynolds finds himself drawn into a surreal night of hunger and dread when a craving for food leads him to a strange restaurant serving grotesque meals. After fleeing into a cemetery, he digs up a corpse—only to wake with it half-eaten, fleeing as footsteps approach, and return home convinced it was all a dream. But when hunger strikes again, he opens his refrigerator, and the nightmare begins anew.