- The Golgotha Dancers by Manly Wade Wellman
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32580/32580-h/32580-h.htm
‘The Golgotha Dancers’ is about a painting. This was not your ordinary painting but a cursed painting. One day, a man went to the museum, and a painting caught his eye. This was called the Golgotha painting. Beneath it was a script “I sold my soul that I might paint a living picture.” No signature or other to the artist’s identity. The guard told him someone had left this painting and hung it up themself. He found the painting captivating and nothing more of it. The guard was going to get rid of the painting, but the man decided to take it home. During the night, the man had nightmares about the painting. The painting came alive. He was frightened as he woke up “something held me tight by the wrist.” Later in the story, he finds that the painting is a curse. A lady neighbor came over, sliced the cursed painting, and placed it into the fireplace. At the end of the story, the last sentence, “All at once, I knew that I loved her.”
- The Dangerous Scarecrow by Carl Jacobi
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/66394/66394-h/66394-h.htm
‘The Dangerous Scarecrow’ is about the Tapping family. They had two kids, Jimmy and Stella. They live on a farm, and on that farm, initially, before they moved, there were two farmers—Mr. Maudsley and Mr. Trask. Both neighbors were competitive when it came to corn. One day both of them disappeared, but their scarecrows remained. Mr.Maudlsey moved to New Orleans, and Mr.Trask made himself invisible (Mr. Trask was into voodoo spells). But their scarecrows remained, and Jimmy and Stella named their scarecrows after the old farmers—Mr. Maudsley and Mr. Trask. One day Jimmy found an old rusty knife (a voodoo knife). He was planning on giving it to Mr. Maudsley because the knife was found in his barn. But Stella told Jimmy not to give it to Mr. Maudsley and give it to Mr. Trask instead. Later the night, Jimmy and Stella saw the two shadows locked in an incredible embrace. Mr. Trask chopped Mr. Maudsley’s head off. The following day, news came, and it was about a fellow in New Orleans with his head cut off right in the middle of a city street. It was Mr. Maudsley.