The Vault of Horror #4

In the shadow of a crumbling castle, Howard Martin returns to claim a property he once tried to buy—only to find the past buried beneath the soil. With the estate now a curiosity and its former owner’s nephew Nathan Weatherby watching from the edge of the grounds, the air grows thick with secrets. The Vault-Keeper warns that some tombs are meant to stay sealed, and the mausoleum’s silence may not be peace—but a promise.

In "Let's Play Poison!", The Crypt-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of guilt and retribution, where a haunted teacher, Mr. Howard, becomes obsessed with a children’s game that mirrors his own buried trauma. After a tragic incident in his classroom, Howard returns years later to teach, only to find the past resurfacing in the form of a game played on sidewalks—where names are drawn like tombstones, and the line between play and punishment blurs. As the skull outside his window grows more real, the children’s game takes on a terrifying new meaning, and Howard’s fate becomes entangled with the very game he once tried to ban.

In a grim castle where Christmas brings dread instead of delight, a young whipping boy returns home for one night, desperate to believe Santa still sees him as good. As he hangs his sock by the fire, the boy’s father makes a quiet plea to the cruel King—only to find a horrifying gift waiting in the morning light. The Vault-Keeper sets the stage for this chilling tale of innocence, cruelty, and a Christmas miracle that comes with a terrible price.

In "Pickled Pints!", the Old Witch sets the stage for a chilling tale of greed and bloodsucking deception, where Cal and Warren exploit homeless men—like Jack and Tommy—for quick cash by selling their blood to a legitimate bank. When their supply dwindles after a death, they lure in a new mark, only to awaken something far more dangerous than they bargained for.

In "Split Personality!", the Vault-Keeper warns of a man who thought he could outwit fate by playing both sides of love—Ed King, a racketeer who tried to marry the Blair sisters, Amy and Susan, by pretending to be two men at once. When his elaborate ruse unravels, the sisters decide to settle the matter in the most literal way possible.

In the chilling tale "Who Doughnut?", The Crypt-Keeper introduces a grisly mystery: seven women murdered with doughnut-shaped wounds, their blood drained and traces of sea brine on their skin. When crime reporter Danny Hughes scoffs at the police's bafflement, his own secretary Pat becomes the next victim—only to be cleared when a similar killing occurs. Haunted by a strange figure near Pat’s home, Danny follows it to an aquarium, where he confronts a monstrous, blood-sucking octopus lurking in the shadows.

In "Practical Choke!", three pre-med students push the limits of dark humor with a series of gruesome pranks using real cadaver parts—laughing all the way until the prank turns deadly. When they return to hide the evidence, they don’t notice the coiled intestines beginning to move, leading to a chilling discovery the next day. The Vault-Keeper, Bill Gaines, and Al Feldstein present a tale where the line between medical study and macabre horror blurs in the most unexpected way.

In "Notes to You!", four men find themselves entangled in a web of anonymous, deadly letters that unravel their lives—one by one. As Judson Slack, Horton Cox, Averill Minton, and Bert Fields piece together the terrifying pattern, they uncover a chilling truth hidden in a bottle of disappearing ink. When the final letter vanishes, they realize the game is far from over—and the next note might be for them.

A young artist, haunted by loneliness and rejection, finds twisted inspiration in the wreckage of tragedy—each accident a canvas, each death a brushstroke. When his fiancée is injured in a devastating crash, he turns to desperate measures, seeking the perfect moment to paint, unaware of the cost. The Vault Keeper warns of the price of art born from suffering, as one man’s obsession with capturing life’s final moments begins to consume him.

In "A Peach of a Plot!", the Crypt-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of love, greed, and a tree that remembers. When Lieutenant Dolan arrives at Michael Lane’s estate, he’s drawn into a twisted mystery rooted in a peach tree that’s grown from a pit swallowed by a woman Lane once murdered. As the fruit bears a terrible secret, Lane’s nervous reaction to a single bite reveals a truth buried deep—both in the earth and in the past.

In "The Lake," the Vault-Keeper introduces a haunting tale of memory and loss, where a grown man returns to the beach with his wife, Margaret, haunted by a childhood tragedy. Years after his friend Tally vanished beneath the waves, he’s confronted by an old lifeguard who reveals a chilling secret—Tally’s body still lies beneath the sand. As the man rebuilds the unfinished sandcastle, the past rises with him, forcing a reckoning no one saw coming.

In "One Good Turn...", the Old Witch introduces a chilling tale of quiet domesticity turned sinister, as Jennifer, a woman whose kindness masks a deadly secret, reveals how her empathy has taken a terrible form. She’s been helping others find peace—by ending their suffering, one by one—and now, with her husband Edwin’s final moment, she’s found a new kind of fulfillment. The detectives arrive too late to stop the last act, but the truth behind her cheerful demeanor is anything but comforting.

In "Whirlpool," a woman trapped in a nightmarish sequence of torment begins to question her sanity—only to be told by three asylum employees that every horror was merely in her mind. As the lines between reality and delusion blur, her memories stir with a chilling revelation: the ones who claim to be saving her may be the true architects of her suffering.

In "Out of His Head!", the Crypt-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of guilt and paranoia, where a guilty lawyer named Alex Melton is tormented by the ghostly presence of his murdered law partner, Stanley. Haunted by visions of his victim at every turn, Alex’s descent into madness leads him to a desperate act—blinding himself—only to face an even more horrifying revelation when he regains his sight.

In a chilling tale from *The Vault of Horror #4*, Irwin confesses to his neighbor Bert the dark secret behind his and his late wife Hannah’s twisted love story—how her obsession with chocolate led to a fate far too sweet. As Irwin leads Bert into his home, the horrifying truth is revealed in the form of a massive, handcrafted chocolate box, each compartment filled with something far too real to be mere confectionery.

In "Funereal Disease!", the Old Witch presides over a chilling tale of revenge and twisted justice, where a gardener named Jasper Milliken, haunted by the unburied past of his parents, finds himself caught between desperation and death. When his employer, Niles Fairchild, and Fairchild’s accountant, Tom Kelton, murder him to steal his savings, Jasper’s final act is one of eerie retribution—turning the grave into his own stage, reclaiming what was denied him, and claiming a funeral of his own making.

In "Together They Lie!", Agnes Wheatley and her boss’s attorney, Alex Fairchild, conspire to manipulate Mr. Horton into a tragic downfall by fabricating an affair between him and his wife. When Horton, broken by the betrayal, changes his will and takes his own life, the two revel in their success—only to be interrupted by the sudden, horrifying return of the corpse they thought they’d buried. The next morning, Agnes and Alex are found dead atop Horton’s grave, the tombstone restored as if time had never touched it.

In a quiet town where curiosity about death stirs unease, a group of children’s innocent questions about punishment take a chilling turn when their fascination with the electric chair leads to a disturbing real-life event. As the kids parade down the street carrying a coffin, a mother’s frantic cry over her missing son shatters the moment—only to end in horror as the townsfolk realize the truth behind the burial. The Crypt-Keeper, ever the grim observer, invites readers to ponder what happens when justice is not just served, but made personal.

In "A Slight Case of Murder!", the Vault-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of terror from the hills, where Doc Sam Swanson investigates a string of gruesome killings in a decaying mansion. As the newspaper editor Phil Ingram and Sheriff Moulton piece together the clues, a shocking truth emerges—one that ties the murders to a deformed child hidden in plain sight, and a mother’s desperate secret.

In "Strung Along!", the Old Witch recounts the tragic tale of Tony Zargono, a once-famous puppeteer whose life unraveled when illness forced him into retirement. After marrying Nora for love, he discovered her true motives, only to die with a final, lingering kiss—only for his wife’s body to be found the next day, reassembled with strings from his marionettes, as if she were just another puppet in his final, twisted show.

In "Star Light, Star Bright!", the Vault-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of dread and deception, as Hartley Quimb inherits a terrifying role at a remote facility where the line between punishment and power blurs. After learning the gruesome truth behind the guards’ methods, Hartley’s fear turns to horror when he’s kidnapped by the very inmates he’s meant to control—only to wake in his bed, questioning whether the nightmare was real.

John Younger and Frank Weston thought they were in control of their latest scam—cleansing a wealthy client’s home while he was away—but the house had secrets of its own. What started as a routine heist quickly spiraled into a nightmare as they stumbled upon a hidden library, a labyrinth of horrors, and a parade of monsters that left them screaming and broken. When they finally burst through the front door, demented and disoriented, they didn’t see the man waiting for them—The Crypt-Keeper, who had been watching from the shadows all along.

In "Where There's a Will...", the Old Witch welcomes listeners to a tale of greed and irony, where Dr. James Crotty and lawyer Millard Walker scheme to manipulate the dying Harold Farber into donating his fortune—only to find themselves outwitted in a macabre twist of fate. As Farber, feigning death, listens from inside his coffin to the cruel remarks of his so-called relatives, the truth of their deception begins to unravel in a moment that blurs the line between performance and punishment.