House of Mystery #255 is an issue of the series House of Mystery (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1977.
Synopsis for "Small Wonder"
The greedy manager of an orphanage finds a new charge placed into his care with magical powers. The boy can make anything he wishes, so the man pretends to like him in order to get the kid to create money for him. The man murders the only other person to observe the boy using his power in a way to make it appear an accident, so as to keep the secret all to himself. When another adult observes the boy, he makes to murder her too, but she has already notified the authorities and they attempt to apprehend him. He flees to the boy and asks for his help. The boy changes him into a jack-in-the-box and tells him he'll change him back tomorrow after the police have left. During the night another child takes the jack-in-the-box and some wooden soldiers and tosses them into the fire for warmth.
Appearing in "Small Wonder"
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- Cain (Host)
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Synopsis for "The Evil Half"
A demon manifests itself to a bookkeeper who works at the bank who is contemplating suicide. She offers him the best of everything if he accepts her bargain. He agrees and she splits him into two beings, the impoverished loser bank bookkeeper and the ruthless bank president. The president makes mob connections at the demon's suggestion, and when his bookkeeper self notifies him of his embezzlement, the president asks his mobster friend to rub him out. When the assassins gun down the bookkeeper the president dies simultaneously.
Appearing in "The Evil Half"
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- Cain (Host)
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Synopsis for "Sometimes, Leopards Can"
A cruel circus lion-tamer returns from Africa with a female were-leopard for his act but when he becomes jealous of the attention she receives he makes the mistake of removing her silver collar which keep the transformations in check. She bites him and the curse is transferred. While the members of the circus tranquilize him in his leopard form the girl escapes from the tent in the confusion and is able to recover her silver collar and transform back to human. She tells the circus owner that she will conduct the following day's performance. When the sun comes up during practice the man transforms back to human and the girl allows the big cats to take their revenge for his cruel treatment. The girl takes his place as the circus lion-tamer.
Appearing in "Sometimes, Leopards Can"
Narrator:
- Cain (Host)
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Synopsis for "When You Wish Upon A Star"
A lonely witch casts a spell to attract a man and is repulsed when the spell appears to summon an aquatic monster. The witch violently reacts and the creature retreats to his spacecraft where it is revealed the ship's computer was set to the wrong planet and had altered his handsome human form into the aquatic features he would've needed to survive on that world.
Appearing in "When You Wish Upon A Star"
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- Cain (Host)
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Synopsis for "Bed of Roses"
A homely wealthy woman is targeted by a swindler but when he mocks her after receiving fifty thousand dollars to pay off a bogus gambling debt, she murders him and his girlfriend waiting in the car below. She drives the car to a bog on her estate and disposes of it so the servants believe that the swindlers have departed. Decades pass and she orders roses on a daily basis which the florist assumes is a reminder of the honeymoon she never got to experience. When she fails to answer the door, long ago having dismissed her staff, the florist enters the house with the roses and the dying old murderess confesses to him that she placed the dead man's body in her bed and the roses were to disguise the smell as the corpse rotted away to a skeleton.
Appearing in "Bed of Roses"
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- Cain (Host)
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Synopsis for "The Killing"
A stage magician who flees into the jungle after killing his manager joins a native tribe out of greed when he sees them gambling with gold. What he doesn't realize when he cheats them to win is that the tribesmen feel so honored to be chosen as a sacrifice to their god that they gamble regularly in order to determine who will be selected for the privilege.
Appearing in "The Killing"
Narrator:
- Cain (Host)
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Synopsis for the 7th Story
Appearing in the 7th Story
Narrator:
- Cain (Host)
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See Also