The Killers is a short story by Ernest Hemingway published in 1927 in Scribner’s Magazine. The story takes place in a small café in a village called Summit, where two mysterious men enter and begin to act threateningly. George, the café owner, and Nick Adams, a young customer, soon discover that the strangers have arrived to meet Ole Andreson, a former boxer who arrives every day at six o’clock for dinner.
A Careful Man Dies is a short story by Ray Bradbury published in November 1946 in New Detective Magazine. The story follows Robert Douglas, a meticulous writer with hemophilia, a disease that can cause death from any wound. He has organized his life with extreme care to avoid risks, but everything changes when he receives a mysterious package that hides a deadly trap. He soon realizes that someone wants to kill him in a subtle and undetectable way. His world becomes a dangerous survival game as he tries to discover who is behind the attacks.
The Masque of the Red Death, written by Edgar Allan Poe and published in 1842, is a story that combines horror and fantasy to explore the inevitability of death. In a kingdom devastated by a lethal plague, Prince Prospero takes refuge with a group of nobles in his fortified abbey. He organizes a luxurious masked ball to escape the horror outside. Amid the opulent festivities, a mysterious figure appears among the guests, sowing fear and uncertainty.
The Masque of the Red Death, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in 1842, immerses the reader in an allegory about the inevitability of death. Set in an indeterminate time plagued by a devastating plague known as the Red Death, the kingdom’s prince decides to isolate himself in his fortified abbey along with other nobles, seeking to escape the disease. He organizes a luxurious masked ball in his refuge, ignoring the suffering ravaging the outside world. However, some guests do show up, even if they are not called.
In “The Nameless City,” a story by H. P. Lovecraft published in 1921, the protagonist recounts his terrifying exploration of an ancient and forgotten city lost in the Arabian desert. Despite local warnings and fears about this cursed place, whose history is lost in antiquity, the man ventures into its ruins. He discovers vestiges of an unknown and deeply disturbing civilization that practiced strange rites and venerated reptilian beings there. As he explores underground temples and descending passages, he is confronted with evidence of a chilling reality that defies human comprehension.
Synopsis: “The Hound” is a horror story by H. P. Lovecraft, published in February 1924 in the magazine Weird Tales. The story follows two macabre enthusiasts who seek extreme thrills to alleviate their boredom. Both are collectors of esoteric artifacts and practice grave robbing to obtain rare and mystical objects. During one of their expeditions to a Dutch cemetery, they unearth an ancient amulet shaped like a winged hound linked to dark and nefarious rituals described in the Necronomicon. From the moment they possess it, a wave of supernatural events begins to unfold around them.