Occult Files Of Dr. Spektor #4 Seances at Spektor Manor / Death Between the Floors
Cover Date: October, 1973
Seance at Spektor Manor (16 pages) A young woman named Linda Gray arrives at Spektor Manor with a medium named Elliott Kane and tells Dr. Adam Spektor and his secretary Lakota Rainflower a tale of how the Gray family is under a curse that claims the life ...
Issue Description
Seance at Spektor Manor (16 pages)
A young woman named Linda Gray arrives at Spektor Manor with a medium named Elliott Kane and tells Dr. Adam Spektor and his secretary Lakota Rainflower a tale of how the Gray family is under a curse that claims the life of the first-born of every generation on his or her 21st birthday. Linda reveals that she is the first-born of her generation and that it is her 21st birthday. The quartet sit down at a table and begin a seance to contact the spirit of ancestor Nathaniel Gray, who was the first to fall to the curse in 1644. A shrieking spiritual presence manfests, and terrifies Linda with threats of horrible death, as well as leaving Kane exhausted and drained.
Afterwards, Spektor tries to understand why Nathaniel Gray should want to hurt his descendants, when a huge bookshelf falls over and nearly crushes Linda except for Lakota's fast action. Then a lightning strike knocks out the power in the house. The spectral presence reappears and identifies itself not as Nathaniel Gray, but he whom Nathaniel Gray most feared. Leaving Lakota to look after Linda, Spektor and Kane go to the library to seek information from Spektor's arcane texts. From a book called Witchcraft in America before 1800, they learn that Nathaniel Gray had been cursed from the scaffold by Mordacai Taff, a warlock he had sentenced to death.
Spektor uses a spell of exorcism to drive Taff's spirit from his home, and the two men sit at the seance table once more trying to contact Nathaniel Gray. Taff, however, works his evil magic from outside the house, causing Linda to subdue Lakota and then go outside the protection of Spektor Manor. Lakota apprises Spektor and Kane of the situation, but they dare not leave the house, instead focusing their efforts on the seance. Finally, they are successful, and the ghost of Nathaniel Gray returns along with the ghosts of all the other murdered Gray descendants, attacking and destroying Taff's spirit before returning to the spirit world.
Spektor explains to Linda what happened, and she expresses her relief at finally being free of Taff's curse, while Spektor secretly hopes that she truly is free.
Death Between Floors (9 pages)
Dr. Spektor narrates the tale of three men who get trapped when the elevator they share stalls between floors. Each man has a story. Bradley Richmond is in the building to sell a to a collector a silver blade that had once been used by the warrior Duroc to slay an evil sorcerer. Larry Burrod is a hired killer who always remains one step ahead of the police. Henry Summers has sold his soul to the devil for wealth, and been cursed with lycanthropy. As the full moon rises, Summers takes on his werewolf form and savagely kills Richmond. Burrod saves himself by using Duroc's silver blade to kill Summers, who then returns to human form. The elevator doors finally open, and Burrod, holding the bloody blade with two brutally murdered corpses behind him, finds the police waiting. At last they have the evidence they need to put Burrod away.
First appearance: Elliott Kane (medium)
Notes: Spektor scribe Don Glut says that Linda Gray in the lead story is based on a real person, his girlfriend at the time. Artist Jesse Santos used photo reference to put her into the story.
Duroc, later known as Durak, appears in the second story when Bradley Richmond tells the story of his enchanted dagger.
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