Wild Rose, Spartacus, Mr. Square, and Attila are out on the beach when suddenly a man rushes out of the water and drops dead. However, when they go to get help, on their way back the dead man is gone.
The Devil's Playground!
The Phantom Stranger teases the tale about to unfold. Four teenagers... Attila, Mister Square, Spartacus, and Wild Rose... are on a fog shrouded beach, when a man rises up out of the surf. The man immediately collapses, seemingly dead. The group goes for help, but upon their return, the man has vanished. In the city, Doctor Terrence Thirteen, and his wife, Maria, bear witness to a lightning storm. Unseen by Thirteen, the lightning strikes herald the arrival of the Phantom Stranger. Soon after, Tala appears in the world again. Thirteen, Maria, and the four teenagers, attend a party thrown by Earl Winthrop.
Unbeknownst to all, Tala is also there. At the party, Winthrop callously breaks up with a girl, Vera. In a state of extreme emotional distress, Vera departs. Vera loses control of her car, crashing through a bridge guardrail, then plummeting into the sea. The Phantom Stranger dives in after Vera, but by the time she has been brought back to the surface, she has drowned. Strangely, tears seem to linger on her face. Winthrop moves in on Wild Rose. The teenagers recognize Winthrop, as the man they pulled from the sea. Tala sets the dance floor afire.
Suddenly, the Phantom Stranger appears, smothering the flames with his cloak. Tala embraces the Phantom Stranger, kissing him passionately, in an attempt to entice him into darkness. The Phantom Stranger spurns her advances. As usual for all their encounters, Thirteen angrily confronts the Phantom Stranger, denouncing him as a fraud. Winthrop invites everyone back to his beach house. Upon arrival, they discover that Winthrop died in a place crash, at sea. The teenagers speculate that their encounter with Winthrop, on the beach, was some kind of omen foretelling his death.
Astonishingly, Winthrop arrives at the party, very much alive. A hurricane alert scatters the majority of the party guests back to their homes. Thirteen, Maria, and the teenagers linger. Winthrop takes Wild Rose for a long walk, along the shoreline. Suddenly, Winthrop confesses that his reported fate is true. Winthrop did die in the airplane crash. Winthrop is cursed to float, lost at sea, forever. He is given one chance for redemption. For one night, he is brought back to life. If he can find one person who will weep tears of pity for him, then his soul can be saved.
Winthrop desperately tried to find one woman, at the party, who would weep for him. All found his tale of resurrection and redemption ludicrous, and laughed in his face. Wild Rose does cry tears of pity for Winthrop, earning him his salvation. As Winthrop returns to the sea. Tala appears, to force Wild Rose to join him. The Phantom Stranger intervenes, saving Wild Rose. Tala, in one last ditch effort to create chaos, conjures up an enormous tidal wave. The Phantom Stranger bars the wave's path, saving Thirteen, Maria, and the teenagers. Thirteen rails against the Phantom Stranger, stating that it was the power of the hurricane that dispersed the wave, and not any supposed mystic powers. The Phantom Stranger, merely disappears into the mist.
The Devil's Footprints!
In the 19th century, English townsfolk reportedly saw Satan dancing on the rooftop of their home. In the morning, a hunting party was assembled, who tracked the apparition by the cloven hoof prints left behind in the snow. The hoof prints, however, seemed to go off in multiple directions. After three days, the hunting party lost their nerve, and gave up the hunt. The tracks in the snow were lost with the Spring thaw, leaving the question of what made them forever unanswered.
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