Trying to identify a couple of short stories

[gonks]

These were published in anthologies for kids that I read in the 80s.

1. The protagonist burgles a house belonging to a wealthy man. He sees a lot of occult artefacts in the guy's house, then is confronted by the householder and kills him. Subsequently he is haunted by his own shadow (I think!).

2. An only child is angry when his parents tell him his mother is expecting a baby. Somehow he wills the death of the  baby either in the womb or in childbirth. Story ends with the father coming home in tears from the hospital.

Thank you!

PS

Another one that's a real longshot as I remember very little. This one was more of a sci-fi story I think. Involved the protagonist visiting the house of a scientist or similar and discovering that the scientist has a huge alien/monster living beneath the house (or maybe the house itself is the creature?). Might have been in one of the Peter Davision endorsed anthologies fromt the early 80s.

[gonks]

Well I managed to identify the long-shot from trawling through these forums! 'Night of the Sand Wolf' and it was the Jon Pertwee Book of Monsters, so I was not too far off with Peter Davison.

Any ideas on the other two very welcome. 

[enoch]

#1 sounds a lot like "Close Behind Him" by John Wyndham.  Two guys burglarize an occultist's house, are surprised by him in the act and accidentally kill him, then the murderer begins to be followed everywhere by the bloody naked footprints of a man.  The story has been pretty heavily anthologized, but I first encountered it in an anthology for young people called "Haunts, Haunts, Haunts" edited by Helen Hoke.  [Supposedly for young people; in fact the stories are all on an adult level and some are pretty frightening at that.]

[helrunar]

Enoch, thanks so much for posting that. I read "Close behind him" in some anthology or other a year or two ago but couldn't recall either the title or the author. I agree it sounds like the story this person described. It was a very effective little chiller.

cheers, Hel.

[gonks]

Enoch, thanks very much. That's definitely it. And checking out Haunts, Haunts, Haunts reveals it must be where I also read Close Behind Him as it also contains a story called Me and My Shadow by Eric Frank Russell, the synopsis of which makes me realise I have been conflating these two stories in my head all these years! 

[enoch]

Glad I could help.  "Close Behind Him" really made an impression on me when I read it, and I still think it's a fantastic story.  This particular Helen Hoke book is an excellent collection that contains a number of such stories:  Guy Preston's "The Inn," Frederic Brown's "Don't Look Behind You," A.M. Burrage's "Waxworks" and others.  All of the Hoke horror anthologies were great; it's a shame that adults probably bypass them thinking they are only for kids.