Marvel Tales (1949 series) #95

On August 4, 1937, a group of Polish tourists and their guide climb a mountainside above the town of Zitlow, where a guide explains that ten days earlier the bustling community of five thousand souls was wiped out entirely—save one man. The story then rewinds to June 23rd: farmer Peter Markov spots a strange blazing object streaking through the night sky, and shepherd Frank Dydo witnesses it simultaneously from across the countryside. Panicked reports flood police headquarters, and authorities summon Doctor Dvorak of the Scientific Institute. Dvorak and his colleague Professor Lubov are dispatched with Chief Severski to examine the object the following morning—a massive, seamless, metal craft of clearly non-terrestrial manufacture. Dvorak is convinced living beings occupy it; Lubov dismisses it as a government rocket.

For days Dvorak attempts radio contact and electronic-torch cutting, both without result, while the authorities grow indifferent. Then on the night of June 25th, horror erupts: citizens throughout Zitlow disintegrate into dust at a touch, their organs and plasma drained by unseen creatures stalking the darkened streets. The death toll mounts into the thousands over three days. On July 3rd Dvorak approaches the guarded ship alone, finds the sentries already dead, and witnesses the craft's door open—shadowy alien figures pour out, preying on victims and leaving only hollow human shells that crumble to powder. He rushes to warn Lubov, only to find his colleague already consumed. Utterly alone in a city of corpses, Dvorak races to the railroad terminal and watches the spaceship launch and depart. The story snaps back to the present: Dvorak reveals to the listening tourists that he is the sole survivor, the one man on Earth who has faced the Living Death.

The Gypsy's Curse!

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

In October of 1806, servant Thomas arrives at grim Mac Arnish Castle in Scotland to find his employer, Philip, last of the Mac Arnish clan, tormented by a woman's voice drifting across the moors at night. Philip insists it belongs to Lorelei, a gypsy girl he once loved, married, and murdered—luring her into a bog to drown so he could claim the inheritance from his wealthy uncle, Stephen Mac Arnish. His plan collapsed when Stephen's attorney revealed that the will disinherited Philip if his wife was no longer with him at the time of Stephen's death, leaving Philip with nothing but guilt and an unending spectral song. Philip recounts in his sleep-talking how he fled Scotland by sea, wandered through China and Africa across decades, but could never escape Lorelei's voice haunting him wherever he went.

Now an old and broken man, Philip encountered a gypsy encampment on his travels and had his palm read by Romany Sari—the very queen who had cursed him years earlier—though she failed to recognize him. She told him only to go home and find rest. Believing the curse lifted, Philip returned to Mac Arnish Castle, but Lorelei's song resumed immediately. Maddened, Philip begs Thomas to unchain him so he can follow the voice out onto the moors. Thomas complies, and Philip staggers into the darkness calling for Lorelei. A terrible scream rises from the moors; Thomas walks to the gate to find Romany Sari's gypsy cart waiting. She confirms that it is done, and the cart rolls away into the night, leaving the silent castle behind.

Trapped in Time!

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Professor Emmet Colby narrates in first person: he has spent years using his time machine to pull creatures from the past into his laboratory, despite colleagues dismissing him as a lunatic. Having proven to himself that the past holds no mysteries, Colby resolves to take his greatest step—projecting himself forty years into the future. In his frenzied excitement as the machine activates, he is interrupted by a knock at the door and fires his gun blindly through it, killing an old man who staggers in and dies. Police and neighbors flood the laboratory and accuse Colby of murder, but Colby realizes with exultation that the old man is himself—his future self, materialized by the machine's successful operation. He leaps back into the machine to escape into time, only to understand in his final moment that he has locked himself into an endless temporal loop, doomed to be both murderer and victim for all eternity.