4. Gray Matter (1973)
"He said he could still see his dad," Henry answered, "But he said it was like he was buried in gray jelly...and it was all kinda mashed together. He said his clothes were all stickin' in and out of his skin, like they was melted to his body." The plot for this is fairly simple and straight-forward; guy drinks bad beer, guy slowly turns into grey ooze monster. To take Kings Tales of the Tarot its a simple Thing story. But its written so vividly; the disgust rises in your throat when Richie shows his slimy grey arm to his child and you know that under the blanket its far, far worse. The pity it invokes in you for his kid, stuck with his foul-smelling monster of a father in their tiny apartment watching the neighborhood cats disappear. And the ambiguous ending; is it gone, or is it multiplying?