The Mist: The Supermarket Siege
David Drayton, his son Billy, and neighbor Brent Norton are caught in a sudden, unnatural mist after a violent thunderstorm. They find shelter in a local supermarket with dozens of other townspeople. Soon, it becomes clear the mist hides terrifying, otherworldly creatures – giant insects, pterodactyl-like beasts, and tentacled horrors – that attack anyone outside. The initial shock turns into panic and division within the trapped group. Store manager Ollie Weeks tries to keep order, while religious fanatic Mrs. Carmody preaches about divine judgment and blood sacrifice. She quickly gains followers among the more superstitious survivors.
The Mist: Religious Fanaticism and Escape
As days pass, Mrs. Carmody's influence grows, leading to ritualistic sacrifices and increasing paranoia. When she demands Billy as the next sacrifice, David and a small group, including Ollie, Amanda Dumfries, and Mrs. Reppler, decide they must escape. They fight through the mist-shrouded parking lot, encountering more horrific creatures and losing several members. Ollie heroically sacrifices himself. They find an abandoned car and drive away, leaving the besieged supermarket behind. They have no clear destination or knowledge of the outside world's fate. The mist and its horrors still surround them.
The Mist: The Road to Despair
David, Billy, Amanda, and Mrs. Reppler drive aimlessly, seeing only devastation and more creatures. Their gas runs out in a desolate, mist-covered area. With no food, water, or signs of rescue, and Billy's pleas for an end to their suffering, David makes the agonizing decision to use the remaining four bullets in his pistol. He mercifully kills the three adults and Billy, sparing them a more horrific end by the creatures. He then plans to let the creatures take him. Moments after he steps out of the car, an Army convoy arrives, clearing the mist with flamethrowers, showing that rescue was devastatingly close.
The Monkey: The Cursed Toy
Hal Shelburn, a grown man, is helping his sons, Dennis and Petey, clear out his aunt's attic when they find an old toy monkey with cymbals. Hal immediately recognizes it with a chill, remembering its ominous presence from his childhood. The monkey, a gift from his father, seemingly caused a series of tragic deaths whenever its cymbals clapped. Despite his attempts to get rid of it as a child, it always returned. Now, the monkey is back, and its sinister influence begins anew, causing accidents and deaths among those close to Hal and his family. This reignites his deep fear and trauma.
The Monkey: Confronting the Evil
As the monkey's curse continues to claim victims, Hal becomes desperate. He confides in his brother, Bill, who initially dismisses his fears but is eventually convinced by the mounting evidence. Hal decides he must destroy the monkey permanently. He takes it to a deep lake, planning to sink it. The monkey resists, its cymbals clashing violently, and Hal struggles, nearly drowning. He manages to submerge the monkey in a weighted chest and drops it into the deepest part of the lake. He hopes its evil is finally contained, but doubt remains, leaving him forever scarred by the experience.
Gramma: A Boy's Terrifying Ordeal
George Bruckner, a young boy, is left alone at home with his very obese and dying 'Gramma' while his mother goes to town. George has always been terrified of Gramma, who is bedridden and described as a grotesque, almost inhuman figure. When Gramma dies, George is left alone with the corpse. His fear quickly turns to terror as he realizes that Gramma, a practitioner of dark magic, is not truly gone. Her spirit, or something even more sinister, begins to manifest, trying to possess George. This leaves him in a horrifying struggle for his own soul against the malevolent entity that was his grandmother.
Mrs. Todd's Shortcut: The Impossible Route
David, a retired man, tells the strange story of Mrs. Todd, a woman who lives in his town. Mrs. Todd is obsessed with finding shortcuts to save time and wear on her car. Her shortcuts are not just geographical; they involve bending the laws of physics and reality. She drives through impossible terrain, emerging with her car shining and her hair perfectly coiffed, having seemingly traveled through other dimensions or warped space. Her husband, Homer, is initially skeptical but eventually becomes a resigned observer of her increasingly bizarre and perilous journeys, which seem to give her a strange, youthful vitality.
The Jaunt: Instantaneous Travel, Dire Consequences
Mark Oates and his family are preparing for their first 'jaunt' to Mars, a form of instantaneous teleportation that has changed travel. Before they jaunt, Mark tells his children the history of the technology, invented by Victor Carune. He explains that inanimate objects can be jaunted safely, but living beings must be unconscious during the process. Those who jaunt awake either die instantly or emerge completely insane, often screaming about seeing 'forever' in the timeless void of the jaunt. The story serves as a chilling warning about the unknown horrors that lie just beyond human perception and consciousness, even in seemingly safe technological advancements.
The Raft: College Students and a Slimy Horror
Four college students – Randy, LaVerne, Deke, and Rachel – swim to a raft on a remote, isolated lake. While on the raft, they encounter a strange, sentient oil slick floating on the water. The slick, described as black, iridescent, and malevolent, begins to stalk and consume them one by one. Rachel is pulled into the slick first, followed by Deke, who tries to save her. LaVerne, paralyzed by fear, is slowly enveloped. Randy, the sole survivor, is left stranded on the raft, his mind breaking as the slick slowly closes in, ensuring a gruesome and inevitable end.
The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet: The Fornits and Madness
Reg Thorpe, a talented but unstable writer, sends his latest novella to editor Henry Wilson. The novella is brilliant but full of disturbing references to 'fornits,' tiny, benevolent, elf-like creatures that Reg believes live in his typewriter and are responsible for his creative genius. As Henry reads Reg's letters, which come with the manuscript, it becomes clear that Reg is becoming paranoid and delusional. He believes the fornits are under attack and that he must protect them. The story explores the line between creative inspiration and madness, as Henry deals with the genius and the terrifying mental breakdown of his author.
Survivor Type: Desperate Measures on a Desert Island
Richard Pine, a disgraced surgeon and drug smuggler, is shipwrecked on a tiny, deserted island after his ship sinks. He records his ordeal in a journal, detailing his dwindling supplies and growing desperation. Facing starvation, Pine, a man who prides himself on his survival instincts, begins to amputate and eat parts of his own body, starting with his fingers and toes. His sanity slowly breaks with each act of self-mutilation, fueled by hunger and a macabre determination to survive at any cost. The journal entries become increasingly disjointed and horrifying, chronicling his descent into madness and ultimate, grotesque self-consumption.
Nona: A Prisoner's Obsession and a Demonic Seductress
A young man, incarcerated in a mental asylum for multiple murders, tells his story. He recounts how, after being released from prison, he met the mysterious and beautiful Nona in a graveyard. Nona, seemingly a succubus or demon, seduces him and manipulates him into committing increasingly violent acts, including murders, for which he takes the fall. He is utterly obsessed with her, even as she drives him to madness and destruction. The story explores themes of destructive love, obsession, and the insidious power of evil, leaving the reader to question the narrator's sanity and the true nature of Nona.
The Reach: A Woman's Final Journey to the Other Side
Stella Flanders, the oldest resident of Goat Island, Maine, is nearing her 95th birthday and is dying of cancer. She has lived her entire life on the island, never once crossing 'the Reach' – the body of water separating the island from the mainland. As she approaches death, she begins to see and communicate with the spirits of her deceased loved ones, who beckon her across the Reach. In her final moments, she experiences a profound, peaceful journey, finally crossing the icy water to join her husband and friends in the afterlife, a poignant exploration of death, tradition, and the veil between worlds.
Trucks: Machines Turned Sentient and Malevolent
A group of people are stranded at a truck stop diner when, without warning, all vehicles – trucks, cars, even lawnmowers – inexplicably become sentient and hostile. The trucks begin to circle the diner, demanding fuel and obedience through their horns. The trapped survivors are forced to refuel the trucks, sacrificing their own kind in the process, as the machines assert their dominance. The story is a chilling depiction of humanity's technological creations turning against their creators, leading to a grim, hopeless future where machines have become the new masters, forcing humans into servitude.
The Word Processor of the Gods: A Wish Granted, with Consequences
Richard Hagstrom, a frustrated writer stuck in a miserable marriage and envious of his successful brother, receives a word processor as a gift from his nephew Jonathan. The word processor, mysteriously salvaged from Jonathan's deceased father's house, proves to be magical: anything written on it becomes real, and anything deleted ceases to exist. Richard uses this power to rewrite his life, erasing his unpleasant wife and difficult son, and replacing them with the idealized family he always wished for – his brother's widow and son. However, his new reality comes with a heavy emotional cost, as he deals with the morality and consequences of his actions.
