Vault of Horror #23

In "Star Light, Star Bright!", the Vault-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of dread and psychological unraveling. As a new headmaster arrives at a remote facility, he soon learns that the only way to maintain order is through a grotesque ritual involving the inmates and a corpse—only to find himself the next target. After a terrifying night where he’s locked in a coffin and taken to a cemetery, he wakes to find the nightmare might not have been a dream at all.

In "While The Cat's Away...", two con artists take a risky shortcut to easy riches, targeting a reclusive man’s empty home—only to stumble into a nightmare of monstrous inhabitants hidden beneath the cellar. What starts as a simple burglary spirals into a terrifying gauntlet through a labyrinth of undead horrors, each more grotesque than the last. When they finally burst out, demented and delirious, they don’t realize their final victim has just walked through the front door: the Crypt-Keeper.

In "Smoke Wrings," the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale of betrayal and eerie retribution: a man named Hubert, eager to profit from a bold new billboard idea for the Llama Cigarette Company, entrusts his scheme to Miss Jackson—only to be abandoned when she claims credit and cuts him out of the payoff. When Hubert confronts her, he meets a swift end, but his fate is only the beginning. Soon after, the billboard itself seems to turn on another woman, Lorna, in a way that defies reason and leaves her trapped in a nightmare of smoke and shadow.

In "Where There's a Will...", the Old Witch recounts a chilling tale of greed and irony, where a dying man's relatives scheme to inherit his fortune—only to be outwitted by the very man they thought was helpless. With a macabre twist, the old man stages his own funeral to expose their true nature, leading to a shocking reversal of fortune that leaves everyone stunned.