The Hand of Fate #9

In "It Is Written: I Die Tomorrow!", gambler Paul Hulick confronts Fate, the enigmatic hooded figure, after a reckless betrayal. Given a chilling ultimatum—change his ways or drown tomorrow—he tries to reform, but his defiance in refusing to surrender the fated book leads to a desperate, fatal fall into a sewer manhole.

In 1903 Egypt, Professor Gerald Osgood and his young assistant Curtis Waite unearth the forbidden tomb of Pharaoh Rah-Tep—only to discover that the hieroglyphic warnings carved into the stone portal may be far more than ancient superstition. When a horrifying creature emerges from the shadows to claim a terrible price for their intrusion, Waite flees in panic, but a shock awaits him when he returns with help to retrieve his fallen colleague.

In "Secret of the Witch's Urn," Robbie Donegal’s reckless curiosity leads him to rescue a witch from quicksand, earning him a horn to summon her and an urn said to hold the ashes of his enemies—each gift bound by a strict rule: no one else must touch them. When his wife unknowingly breaks the vow, the witch’s demand for a sacrifice sets off a desperate flight through treacherous bogs, where past choices come to haunt him.

Guido Nicola, the world chess champion, receives a mysterious challenge from an unknown opponent at 17 Rue Noir—a cryptic invitation he's too vain to refuse. What awaits him is a chess game unlike any other: played with living pieces armed with real weapons, where each captured piece means death. As the game unfolds and Nicola's moves fail him again and again, a terrible truth emerges from behind his opponent's mask.

In the shadowed streets of 17 Rue Noir, a chess champion’s arrogance leads him to a deadly game where human pieces move with lethal intent. When the ghost of a fallen rival returns to settle a score, fate itself intervenes—stepping in to claim the prideful man’s life, not for the game, but for the sin of seeing what no mortal should survive.

In "Vengeance from a Restless Grave," Amos Langford—haunted by years of scorn for his looks—returns from the dead during a storm-lashed night, reborn with a fury that threatens to drown his tormentors. When his desperate plan to flood the town goes awry, he’s caught in the dam’s machinery and swept into the raging waters below.