- Montresor Herringbone: Haven't I convinced you of my sincerity yet? I'm genuinely dedicated to your destruction.
- [first title card]
- Title Card: The winds of the firmament breathed but one sound within my ears and the ripples upon the sea murmured evermore - Morella /Edgar Allan Poe.
- Narrator: And what is it that happens just before death which leads inexorably to that death? Our second tale provides one roguish answer to that question in the story of a man who hated a cat. The Black Cat.
- [opening narration]
- Narrator: This is the beat of a human heart. Sit very still and listen. Is your heart beating in this same rhythm? You are experiencing the heartbeat of a dying man. And it is with death and dying that we concern ourselves. What happens at the point of death? What happens afterwards? What happens after death to someone who does not choose to stay dead, someone like Morella?
- [last title card]
- Title Card: And there was an oozing liquid putrescence - -all that remained of Mr. Valdemar./... Edgar Allan Poe
- Montresor Herringbone: Give me my money!
- Annabel Herringbone: There is no money, Montresor. You haven't worked in seventeen years.
- Title Card: I had walled the black monster up within the tomb!/... Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrator: What exactly is it that occurs within the moment of death, especially to a man within that moment who is not permitted to die, as in the case of Mr. Valdemar?
- Montresor Herringbone: What about your sewing money?
- Annabel Herringbone: We need that for food.
- Montresor Herringbone: Food? That's exactly what I want it for: I drink my food!