Shock SuspenStories Annual #2

In "Dead Right!", a woman takes a fortune teller’s warning seriously—when she’s told the man she finds repulsive will inherit $25,000 and die soon, she marries him, only to learn too late that the prediction was a twisted twist of fate. What she doesn’t know is that the fortune teller never mentioned she’d win the money herself, and when she tries to escape, the marriage turns deadly.

In "Sugar 'N Spice 'N...", a childhood prank takes a dark turn when Jo and her brother cross paths with the reclusive "Old Crab" after losing their ball in her yard. What begins as a simple act of mischief on Halloween night spirals into something far more sinister, as the past comes back to haunt them in ways they never expected.

In "Beauty and the Beach!" from Shock SuspenStories Annual #2 (1994), two men reach breaking point when their wives' obsession with beauty and modeling opportunities pushes them to extremes—each taking a chilling, twisted approach to reclaim control, one encasing his wife in plastic while wearing her bathing suit, the other roasting her alive under a battery of sun lamps. The story unfolds with cold precision, exploring the dark undercurrents of vanity and obsession in a setting that feels both mundane and deeply unsettling.

In "The Bribe!", a guilt-ridden fire inspector faces a devastating truth when a nightclub fire erupts under suspicious circumstances—his decision to accept a bribe to ignore safety violations now haunts him. Believing his daughter perished in the blaze, he's consumed by sorrow, unaware she and her fiancé never stayed for the show, having eloped earlier that night.

In "Infiltration," a lone human agent in a government agency tasked with hunting Martian infiltrators discovers too late that every colleague he’s trusted is part of the very threat they were meant to stop—leading to a chilling, desperate confrontation. The story unfolds with a quiet dread, turning the familiar paranoia of alien invasion into a deeply personal betrayal.

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. With the doctor who delivered the child now standing over the scene, his quiet resolve hints at a far more personal reckoning than anyone expected.

In "Piecemeal," a woman’s quiet obsession with her husband’s younger brother leads her down a dangerous path, but when her husband takes a sudden, unsettling turn, he surprises her with a bizarre final act—placing a massive shark in their backyard pool, a place she once thought safe. The story unfolds with a creeping unease, blending domestic tension with surreal horror, as the line between desire and dread blurs in the still water.

In "The Assault!", Lucy returns home claiming she was kidnapped and assaulted by the elderly Hodges—though her story doesn't add up. When Hodges is found dead and Lucy rejects her lover, his sense of honor twists into a desperate act of violence. Written by a mysterious hand and illustrated with stark, unsettling precision, this chilling tale unfolds in just seven pages, leaving the weight of choices and consequences hanging in the air.

In "The Arrival," ninety-five thousand years after humanity's self-destruction, evolved rats have mastered space travel and make first contact with the long-isolated Martians—a moment that redefines what it means to be sentient in a silent, ancient cosmos.

In "Seep No More!", a man haunted by a relentless, impossible bloodstain above him must confront the chilling reality that no matter how he tries to hide his crime—painting over the stain, catching the drip in a bucket—the evidence of his guilt refuses to disappear. As detectives listen to his confession, the line between madness and truth begins to blur, leaving him trapped in a nightmare he can’t escape.

In "Came the Dawn!", a man’s growing unease about a mysterious girl he encounters in the woods takes a chilling turn when his girlfriend vanishes—leaving him to confront the terrifying possibility that the real danger wasn’t the stranger he feared, but something far worse lurking in the shadows.

In "The Meddlers!", a small town's fear of a doctor's forbidden experiments spirals into tragedy when they destroy his lab, unaware that his failed creations have merged in the sewers below. As the townspeople turn on the man who dared to play god, something monstrous stirs in the dark—born not of science, but of their own cruelty.

In "Carrion Death," 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 grim choice—lying still to let vultures consume the corpse, 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 manipulation, leading a man to believe he's the only one who can save her—while she and her lover plot his downfall. Written by an unknown author and illustrated by an unknown artist, the story grips with a slow-burn tension, where every whispered promise and desperate plea hides a deeper, darker design.

In "...So shall ye reap!", a condemned man faces execution, his final thoughts drifting to a childhood shaped by his parents’ choices—choices they now recall with quiet pride. As he sits in the electric chair, their memories of the same past unfold in parallel, revealing a chasm between their recollections and his.

In "Home Run!" from Shock SuspenStories Annual #2 (1994), 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. When the others dismiss him as delusional and try to disarm him, a fatal shot rings out—only for the body to later reveal its true alien form. As the crew lands, they realize too late that the truth was real, and something far more dangerous is waiting outside.

In "Sweetie-Pie," reporter Philip investigates a series of gruesome car accidents where victims are found drained of blood and marked with throat punctures—only four of sixteen bodies accounted for. When Philip and his new bride survive a near-fatal crash, they're drawn into a terrifying mystery that reveals a ghoul preying on drivers with roadside traps.