“The City” is a short story by Ray Bradbury, published in July 1950 in Startling Stories and later included in The Illustrated Man (1951). On a distant planet, amid dark towers and empty streets, an ancient city seems immersed in an endless wait. Everything changes when a rocket from Earth lands nearby and a group of explorers ventures into its silent walls, unaware of the mystery surrounding them and the enigma hidden within its structures.
“The Swimmer” is a short story by John Cheever, published on July 18, 1964, in The New Yorker and included later that year in the collection The Brigadier and the Golf Widow. On a hot summer Sunday, Neddy Merrill spends the afternoon at a friend’s house when he comes up with a peculiar idea: since many houses in the county have swimming pools that are relatively connected, it should be possible to return home by swimming through them. However, what begins as a playful and unusual experience soon turns into something far more unsettling.
“The Festival” is a haunting tale by H.P. Lovecraft, published in January 1925 in Weird Tales magazine. On Christmas Eve, a man travels to the ancient coastal town of Kingsport to take part in an enigmatic winter solstice ritual. His purpose is to connect with the arcane roots of his lineage, which trace back to times predating the colonization of America. Immersed in an oppressive atmosphere of mystery, the protagonist finds himself in a transformed Kingsport, where the shadows of the past come alive and family secrets intertwine with ancient horrors.
“Liar!” is a short story by Isaac Asimov, published in May 1941 in Astounding Science-Fiction and later included in the book I, Robot (1950). The story introduces the robot RB-34, nicknamed Herbie, who unexpectedly develops the ability to read human minds. This phenomenon unsettles the engineers at U.S. Robots, especially robopsychologist Susan Calvin, who set out to investigate the scope and possible consequences of this faculty. As the team examines the case, Herbie becomes an unprecedented challenge for robotic science and raises questions about privacy and the effects such a power could have on people.
In “The Boarded Window”, a short story published in 1891, Ambrose Bierce transports us to the vast and lonely forests near Cincinnati in 1830, where the untamed wilderness serves as the backdrop for an unsettling tale. The story follows Murlock, a reclusive widower who lives in an isolated cabin, cut off from all company. Once a lively pioneer, Murlock has aged prematurely after the death of his wife, a tragic event shrouded in mysterious and terrifying circumstances that changed his life forever.
“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in Knickerbocker Magazine in January 1837 and later included in Twice-Told Tales (1837). It tells of the eccentric Dr. Heidegger, who invites four elderly friends—once distinguished by wealth, beauty, power, and pleasure but now broken by time and misfortune—into his mysterious study. Amid dusty tomes, strange relics, and the portrait of his lost fiancée, the doctor proposes a peculiar experiment involving a liquid said to flow from the legendary Fountain of Youth.