Nightmare

Originally Aired: March 13, 1948

In Suspense #288, "Nightmare," Vince awakens from a terrifying dream, but the nightmare refuses to release him to the morning. He vividly recalls a white-masked woman's face turning evil, a struggle with a shadowy figure, and killing a man whose body he locked in a closet with a clover-shaped key. As he dismisses it as nothing more than a bad dream - perhaps caused by that late-night salami - he discovers disturbing physical evidence that shatters his sense of reality. Fresh bruises circle his throat, a deep scratch mars his wrist, and most chilling of all, he finds a strange button in his pocket and an unfamiliar clover-shaped key that matches nothing he owns.

Desperate for answers and increasingly terrified, Vince reaches out to his sister Lil, hoping to speak with her husband Cliff, who works as a detective. As the boundary between dream and waking life dissolves, Vince must confront an impossible question: Did he actually commit murder while asleep, or is he losing his grip on sanity itself?