Book excerpt: Very few things are more frightening than unearthly creatures conceived by the masterminds of supernatural fiction. This collection of the macabre renders a large scope of such creatures, from the mythical beast in F. Murray Gilchrist's "The Basilisk," to the horrifying Shape in the Japanese legend Lafacadio Hearn translates as "jikininki," as well as the preternatural horse in Edgar Allan Poe's "Metzengerstein," and the ominous entries in E.F. Benson's "Caterpillars." This volume will take you from the invisible visitors in Hugh B. Cave's "Take Me, for Instance," to a child 's imagination taking on a life of it's own in Robert Weinberg's "Night Shapes."