Shock Suspenstories #2

In "Beauty And The Beach!", two men reach breaking point when their glamorous wives prioritize modeling gigs and beauty pageants over them. As their frustration boils over, each takes a terrifyingly extreme step— one sealing his wife in plastic while wearing her bathing suit, the other trapping her under a brutal array of sun lamps.

In "The Bribe!", a fire inspector’s life unravels when a nightclub fire erupts under suspicious circumstances—just after he accepted a bribe to ignore safety violations. Haunted by the belief his daughter died in the blaze, he spirals into guilt and despair, unaware she and her fiancé had already fled town that night, leaving behind only a photograph that seals his tragic mistake.

In "Infiltration," a lone human agent in a government agency tasked with rooting out Martian infiltrators discovers too late that every colleague he's trusted is an alien in disguise—except him. Written by an unknown author and illustrated by an unknown artist, the story unfolds with chilling precision in just six pages, turning paranoia into a deadly reality.

In "The Small Assassin!", a mother’s growing dread over her newborn’s unsettling presence takes a chilling turn when her husband is found dead—just as the baby begins to show signs of something far more sinister. The doctor who delivered the child, now faced with the horrifying truth, makes a grim decision to handle the situation his own way.

In "Piecemeal," a woman's secret desire for her husband's younger brother leads her down a dangerous path, but when her husband takes a fatal dose of pills, his final act—summoning a massive shark into their backyard pool—upends her plans in ways she never expected. The story unfolds with chilling precision, blending domestic tension and surreal dread in a tale that lingers long after the last page.

In "The Assault!", Lucy returns home claiming she was kidnapped and assaulted by old Hodges—though her late-night absences were spent with her lover. When Hodges is found dead and Lucy rejects her lover, his sense of honor twists into a desperate, fatal act.

In "The Arrival," ninety-five thousand years after humanity’s self-destruction, evolved rats have mastered space travel and make first contact with the Martians—two species shaped by extinction, now facing an unknown future together.

In "Seep No More!" from Shock Suspenstories #2 (1981), a man haunted by a recurring bloodstain on his ceiling must confront the unsettling truth that no one else can see it—despite his desperate attempts to hide it, from paint to buckets, and even as detectives question him, unaware of the stain they can’t perceive.

In "Came the Dawn!" from Shock Suspenstories #2, a man’s growing unease about a mysterious girl he encounters in the woods takes a chilling turn when his girlfriend becomes the latest victim of a real escapee—one who may not be as dangerous as he feared, but far more relentless. The story unfolds with a tense, creeping dread, weaving suspicion and fate in a taut, atmospheric tale.

In "The Meddlers!" from Shock Suspenstories #2 (1981), a small town’s fear of a doctor’s forbidden experiments turns deadly when they destroy his lab—and inadvertently unleash a monstrous force from the sewers. As the townspeople’s rage gives rise to something unnatural, the line between science and horror blurs in a tale of unintended consequences.

In "Carrion Death!" from Shock Suspenstories #2, a man bound to a corpse by handcuffs struggles across a merciless desert, desperate to survive. As the sun beats down and the dead man's hand remains a tether to death, he makes a horrifying choice—lying down to let vultures consume the body, only to wake and find them already feeding on him.

In "The Sacrifice," a woman’s cold calculation unfolds as she orchestrates a deadly game of deception, drawing a man into a web where love and betrayal blur. With a lover in the shadows and a confession waiting to be written, she pushes her mark to the edge—until the final, irreversible act.

In "...So Shall Ye Reap!", a young man faces execution in the electric chair, his final thoughts flashing back to a childhood shaped by his parents' choices—choices they now recall with pride, but that he remembers with bitter clarity. The story unfolds through contrasting memories, revealing how the same past can be seen in vastly different lights.

In "Home Run!" from Shock Suspenstories #2 (1981), a tense journey to Mars takes a shocking turn when one of the crew confesses he’s actually a Martian who built the ship to return home. As the astronauts struggle to believe him, a sudden confrontation ends in tragedy—only to reveal a chilling truth after landing. The story unfolds with quiet dread, blending science fiction and suspense as the crew confronts the unsettling reality of what they’ve awakened.

In "Sweetie-Pie," a reporter named Philip investigates a series of gruesome car accidents where victims are found drained of blood and marked with puncture wounds—only four of sixteen bodies accounted for. When Philip and his new bride are caught in a similar crash, they’re thrust into a terrifying mystery that reveals a ghoul preying on the road, using roadside hazards to lure its next victims.

In "In Gratitude...", a Korean War veteran returns to his hometown, haunted by the memory of his Black comrade who sacrificed himself to save him—only to be denied burial in the local cemetery. The story confronts the weight of loyalty, racial injustice, and the quiet cost of heroism in a place that refuses to remember.

In "The Space Suitors," a woman and her lover plot to kill her husband during a mission to a remote planetoid, but their plan unravels when he uses a clever twist to turn the tables—sending a signal that triggers the rocket's launch, leaving them trapped and dying in the void. Written by an unknown author and illustrated by an unknown artist, the story delivers a chilling, tightly wound tale of betrayal and cold, cosmic consequence.

Jo’s husband, convinced his wife and his best friend are having an affair, sets a deadly trap—only to realize too late that their secret was a surprise celebration, not betrayal. Written by an unknown author and illustrated by an unknown artist, this chilling tale of misjudgment and tragic consequences unfolds in just seven pages of tense, suspenseful storytelling.

In "Deadline," a struggling ex-reporter named Larry takes a desperate chance at redemption when his old boss offers him a job back—if he can deliver a story. While nursing a drink in a dim diner, he overhears a violent altercation next door, then witnesses the owner confess to murder. With a fresh lead and a flicker of hope, Larry begins writing, only to find the girl he’d met earlier still alive—and right there in the diner, watching him.

In "The Kidnapper," a desperate father's world unravels when his infant is taken, plunging his wife into a spiral of grief that fractures her mind. As paranoia and guilt consume him, he makes a horrifying, ill-fated attempt to reclaim his child—only to be mistaken for a criminal and torn apart by a mob.

In "Fall Guy," a man released after fifteen years in prison seeks the woman who promised to wait for him, only to find she’s come not for love, but for the $100,000 he stole years earlier. Clutching at fading memories of a name he can’t recall, he’s driven to violence when she accuses him of forgetting, slashing her face in a moment of desperate panic. As the police close in, he leaps from a rooftop, his final vision a dying neon sign that spells out the name he once used—Brad Gilbert.