People, places and things.

The stories were written by King under the influence of films and books. ^[2]

The collection was not officially published; it was printed by 13-year-old Stephen King and his friend Chris Chelsea with the help of a small hectograph owned by Stephen's brother. The collection hardly consisted of 18 manually bound pages, and as King suggests, they printed only 10 copies. Printed copies were sold to school friends for $ 0.10– $ 0.25 each. According to King's recollections, one copy of the seal was preserved in his collection. ^[3]

In 1963, King and Chelsea printed the second edition.

Hotel at the end of the road

The plot resembles the film Psycho (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock. ^[2]

Kelso Black and Tommy Riviera at great speed escaped from the police. The cops followed on their heels. As criminals turned onto a side road, a hotel suddenly appeared in front of them. It all matters! After all, the police will never think of looking for them here ... ^[5]

Riviera impatiently rang the bell; an old man left the hotel. Threatening the old man with a gun, Tommy Riviera demanded a room - Room 5. At the end of the corridor, the old man answered.

When the Riviera woke up the next morning, he was unable to get out of bed. He could not move a muscle. He was paralyzed. At the same time, an old man appeared. He had a needle that he stuck in Black's hand.

“Woke up, then,” he said. “Well then, you two — the first addition to my museum in 25 years.” But I can preserve you well. And you will not die. You will join the rest of the exhibits of my living museum. Excellent specimens ... ^[6]

I have to get out of here.

The narrator wakes up, having no idea who he is. Being in a state of shock, he realizes that he is working on the conveyor and he must get out of there. He tries to escape, but is immediately captured by the guards who want to reprogram him. The narrator turns out to be a defective robot who believes that he is a human being. According to the plot, the robot feels like a person many times and forgets only after reprogramming.

The creature at the bottom of the well

Luring a boy into a well is similar to Howard Phillips Lovecraft's novel Color from Other Worlds . ^[2]

The little boy likes to torture animals: he tears wings off flies, kills worms and injures dogs with needles. Once a strange voice lures him into a well. When the boy’s body is found, his hands are torn off, and needles stick out of his eyes.

Stranger

The thief and the killer are guarded by the Grim Reaper .

Cursed Expedition

Two astronauts land on Venus, where they meet the Earth's atmosphere: ideal temperature, delicious fruits grow. Astronauts believe that they opened the Garden of Eden. But when one of them is found dead, the second belatedly realizes that the planet itself is alive and hungry. The surviving astronaut and his rocket are devoured by the planet.

Back of the Fog

A mysterious fog serves as a door between dimensions. Pete Jacobs is involuntarily transported to the future (in 2007), but ultimately ends up in a world inhabited by dinosaurs. Helpless, he travels from one dimension to another, trying to find people.

Never look back

This short story, written together with a friend, tells about a mysterious woman and her special way of killing.