Warning
The stories in this book are fiction, but Magic, Black or White, is real and is best left to experienced Magicians. Under no circumstances should the Reader attempt to carry out the rituals or invocations described in these pages. The Editor and Publishers will not be held responsible for the consequences in cases where this warning has been ignored. Ramsey Campbell - Potential: Campbell's original contributions to the series would later form the core of his steamy
Scared Stiff collection, and they're not for the prudish.
Potential is reprinted from
Demons By Daylight and details the horrific fate of Charles when he falls in with a bunch of groovy devil-worshippers who realise he's just the guy they're looking for. Plenty of counter culture references (which doubtless added to its appeal for Mr. Parry). The setting is 'BRICHESTERS FIRST BE-IN: FREE FLOWERS AND BELLS' and the story is littered with references to 'Make Love Not War' badges, Lovecraft, two prog-rock bands (The Titus Groans and Faveolate Collosi;
"Oswald, Kennedy, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe - Kill, Kill!" LSD and black magic.
Aleister Crowley - The Vixen: Patricia finally seduces Lord Eyre by means of a pendant soaked in the blood of Margaret, who she's lashed to a great scarlet cross in the Priest's hole and severely whips whenever the mood takes her. But the magic moment does not go to plan and Patricia receives her long overdue comeuppance. Parry writes of this one: "A story that the Marquis de Sade would surely have relished ... representative of a semi-serious desire on Crowley's part to shock and outrage less questing souls."
Charles Beaumont -The New People: Hank Prentice would prefer not to believe Matt Dystall's drunken ramblings of the 'group activities' indulged in by his well-to-do neighbours - especially as, in the past, these have included wife-swapping and black magic, leading to the suicide of the previous occupant of his new house.
Seabury Quinn - The Hand Of Glory:
"You are a scoundrel and a villain and a most unpleasant species of malodorous camel ... As far as I am concerned. Monsieur, you may go to the devil, nor need you delay your departure in anywise out of consideration for my feelings."Flaming fingers, black sorcery, distressed pyjamas, a cat on a spying mission, falling masonry, demon-raising, moaning about Prohibition ... another routine investigation for the phantom fighter and Dr. Trowbridge.
This time, our heroes intervene on behalf of young Diane Wickwire, whose occult-crazy father is prepared to sacrifice her to the Magna Mater to learn the secret of the sacred meteorite. To further complicate matters, a rival Satanic outfit (German-fronted) have designs on the same girl, and, come Walpurgisnacht, it seems it's they will triumph as they lure Diane to a ruined Irish Chapel for an impressive Black Mass celebration.
Can the dapper little Frenchman save her, or will he still be too busy testing out withering barbs on the hapless Mr. Wickwire?
Richard Matheson - Witch War: Seven sweet adolescent girls versus the might of the military. There can only be one outcome in such a cruelly one-sided conflict.
H. R. Wakefield - 'He Cometh And He Passeth By': A clever reworking of M. R. James' Casting The Runes. London, in and around Shaftsbury Avenue and Museum Street. Oscar Clinton (a thinly veiled Aleister Crowley) is a master Satanist, incorrigible sponger, ruiner of women and patron of the Chorazin Club. Philip, fearful that Clinton will abuse his friends' good nature as he has his own, veto's his application to join 'Ye Ancient Mysteries' - "it meets once a month and discusses famous mysteries of the past - the Marie Celeste, the 'MacLachlan case', and so on with a flippant but scholarly zeal" - and, when the black magician learns of this, he sics a demon on him via a curious paper doll he sends him in the post. Philip's friend, Edward Bellamy is unable to save him from the huge, shadowy form so instead vows to destroy Clinton.
Frederic Brown - Nasty: The swimming trunks horror genre is surely a very small one ....
Anthony Boucher - They Bite: A family in a Californian desert town operate in a manner comparable to the Sawney Beane Clan. Twice the army have been sent in to wipe out the Carka clan, twice the troops have returned, biting. Enter the desperate Hugh Tallant who sees the seemingly deserted Carka place as the ideal setting for the murder of the man who is threatening to blackmail him.
