Vault of Evil #14

In "The Ghost of Grismore Castle!" from Vault of Evil #14, a prankster’s cruel joke takes a chilling turn when his friend—unbeknownst to him—has been dead for years. The practical jokester flees the haunted house in terror, only to realize too late that the ghosts he thought were part of the ruse are very real. As the truth unfolds, the prankster makes a desperate vow to never deceive again, while the friend he wronged watches from beyond, quietly approving.

In "The Albatross!" from Vault of Evil #14, a sailor’s fateful act of killing a seabird brings sudden, unrelenting dread aboard a ship already stranded at sea. With the radio silent and the crew desperate, the man who committed the act is bound to the mast, the bird’s lifeless form tied around his neck as penance. The story unfolds with a slow, mounting tension, where every creak of the hull and silence from the sky feels like a weight pressing down.

In "Only an Insect!", a scientist's assistant whose cruel amusement with insects takes a terrifying turn finds himself shrunk to the size of one after accidentally knocking over a mysterious compound. Now trapped in a world where every object is a towering menace, he must survive the very environment he once toyed with—only to realize that being small isn't just a punishment, it's a nightmare.