The EC Archives: The Haunt of Fear #2

In "Room For One More!", young Rodney Whitman, newly orphaned and bound for a grim inheritance, finds himself at odds with fate when he discovers there’s only one casket left in the family crypt. As he contemplates securing his final resting place, a chilling realization takes hold—and he’ll do whatever it takes to claim it. The Old Witch watches, silent and knowing, as the past rises to claim its due.

In "The Basket!", the Crypt-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of duality and dread, where a man born with two heads hides his condition beneath a basket on his shoulder. As one head grows increasingly violent and the other faces an unbearable choice, the weight of his secret threatens to unravel everything.

In "The Howling Banshee!", a fugitive mobster seeking refuge in Ireland finds himself entangled with a local woman who claims the Banshee's wail foretells the death of her kin. As his past catches up with him in the form of ruthless gangsters, he survives a series of deadly encounters—only to face a horrifying twist on his wedding night, when a fog-shrouded confrontation leads to a tragic mistake. Now, with the Banshee's cry echoing in his ears, he must reckon with the cost of his choices, as both his enemies and his guilt close in.

In "Hounded To Death!", a man's cruel obsession with the foxhunt backfires when he tries to frame another man for his wife's infidelity. With the help of a cunning wife and a pack of starving hounds, he sets a trap—but the real hunt begins when the corpse returns, driven by vengeance. The Old Witch presides over this chilling tale of betrayal and retribution, where the line between hunter and hunted blurs in the dark.

In "Diminishing Returns!" from The Haunt of Fear #2, the Old Witch introduces a chilling tale of greed and retribution, where a man’s sinister bargain with the Jivaro head-hunter tribe comes back to haunt him in the most literal way—when a package arrives bearing the shrunken head of his latest victim, now very much alive and hungry for vengeance.

In "The Irony of Death!", the Crypt-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of twisted inheritance and ironic retribution. After marrying Sandra Kreegor, Jeffrey Slag—now the mill’s new superintendent—takes a dark turn when his father-in-law, Mr. Kreegor, meets a fiery end in the very furnace he once controlled. Years later, two steel ingots from that fateful day are forged into an iron maiden for a museum, and when Jeffrey tries it out for size, the device seals shut with merciless finality.

In "Warts So Horrible?", The Old Witch recounts a chilling tale of two greedy nephews who dig up their dead uncle at midnight, only to be seized by the corpse and re-buried—just as two young boys, trying a spell to cure their warts, watch in horror from the cemetery.

In "Forbidden Fruit," a pair of plane crash survivors stumble upon a desolate island where a single tree bears fruit behind a stockade, guarded by a reclusive Vault-Keeper who warns them the fruit will rot their skin off. Drawn by hunger and disbelief, they return at night to taste the forbidden fruit—only to confront the unsettling truth behind his warning.

In "The Age-Old Story!" from The EC Archives: The Haunt of Fear #2, a young woman's greed leads her to abandon her older husband—only to find herself on the receiving end of a chilling twist. As the Old Witch hosts this tale of vanity and retribution, a single toast becomes the moment that turns desire into a grotesque transformation.

In "The Gorilla's Paw!", the Crypt-Keeper spins a chilling tale of greed and consequence as Floyd, a man drawn in by a curio shop keeper’s eerie wares, purchases a mummified gorilla’s paw for just $25. What begins as a curious impulse soon spirals into dread when the paw starts returning with blood and impossible demands, each wish bringing a terrible price—especially when one of Floyd’s friends, Joe, is found dead.

In "Grave Business!", The Old Witch spins a chilling tale of a cunning undertaker whose greed catches up with him when a fatal accident leaves him buried alive—only to be exploited by his own partner, who uses the very tricks of the trade he once mastered to cheat the dead out of a proper burial and the estate out of its due.

In "The Vamp!", a man on vacation in Europe finds himself caught between two women—one human, one vampire—when his wife’s secret past collides with a dangerous new romance. As the line between love and bloodlust blurs, the Vault-Keeper warns that even the most desperate escape can be a trap.

In "My Uncle Ekar!", a young boy’s chilling claim during a police interview takes a dark turn when the officers track down the man he describes — only to find the child’s words were terrifyingly true. The Old Witch hosts a tale where innocence masks a monstrous truth, and a single wink in the final panel leaves no doubt that something far more sinister is at play.

In "Bum Steer!", the Crypt-Keeper spins a tale of jealousy and twisted revenge, where a disgraced matador, Manuel Rodero, turns his fury on a rival by training a half-blind bull to attack the young man who's won his beloved Maria Carlo’s favor. Using a perfumed handkerchief as bait, he sets the beast on his rival, only to face a grim reckoning when both the bull and the fallen matador return in the dead of night to settle the score.

In "The Acid Test!", the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale of twisted love and betrayal, where a woman’s fury toward her seemingly devoted husband erupts in a violent act of acid, leaving him scarred and blind. As she faces trial, she plays the part of remorseful wife with chilling precision—only to discover too late that her husband’s courtroom confession of love was just another performance, one that led to a final, horrifying twist.

In "Extermination," the Old Witch hosts a chilling tale of a man haunted by his own past, where a single cockroach on his floor triggers a nightmare so vivid it blurs the line between dream and reality. As he stumbles through a waking horror fueled by guilt and memory, every step toward the bug becomes a reckoning — and the scream of one small creature echoes like a death knell.

In "Ear Today... Gone Tomorrow!", the Crypt-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of greed and consequence, as two business partners, Irwin Durd and Elliot Unger, dig beneath a cemetery to harvest bone meal for their fertilizer business. When their ill-fated shortcut leads them through a cornfield mysteriously fertilized by their own product, the stalks come alive—turning their vacation into a gruesome reckoning.

In "Poetic Justice!" from The EC Archives: The Haunt of Fear #2, the Old Witch recounts a chilling tale of vengeance cloaked in holiday sentiment. When a wealthy man and his son orchestrate a cruel campaign to drive out a beloved town garbageman, their cruelty reaches a tragic peak on St. Valentine’s Day—only for the dead man’s final act to turn the holiday into a grim reckoning.

In "On a Dead Man's Chest!", the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale of betrayal and vengeance, where a wealthy steamship line owner’s life unravels after his brother and wife conspire to kill him. When the husband’s brother gets a tattoo that eerily captures the trio’s fateful night, the image becomes an inescapable witness to the murder—revealing the truth to those who can see it.

In "What's Cookin'?", the Crypt-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of betrayal and culinary revenge, where two restaurant owners’ greed leads them to a deadly scheme against their new partner. When their once-humble diner becomes the "Chicken Coop," their ambitions turn murderous—only to be met with a horrifying payback that leaves the kitchen as the ultimate battlefield.