warned to stay indoors until the madman is captured. But an attractive young housewife (CRISTINA RAINES) has a compulsion which overcomes any fleeting fears.

She is a chain smoker. . .and she is out of cigarettes.

What would otherwise be a simple errand becomes a drive into a shadow-world of imagined perils. The clerk behind the counter of a convenience store, an insomniac customer, the attendant at a 24-hour service station. . . each is probably just what he seems.

But one is not. And when she makes that discovery, she may be persuaded to give up cigarettes.. .permanently.

The second story takes a macabre look at another compulsion

-- video games. J.J. Cooney (EMILIO ESTEVEZ) is a 16-year-old computer whiz who spends his spare time at video arcades, challenging all corners for pocket money, like an electronic pool hustler.

But there is one game he has yet to master. Dubbed "The Bishop of Battle," it has thirteen levels of three-dimensional achievement, reached through simulated space combat. No one (at least in J.J.'s circle of friends) has attained the thirteenth level and his pal, Zock (BILLY JACOBY), insists it is simply a ruse...to swallow the quarters of unsuspecting kids.

But in the wee hours of the morning, J.J. breaks into an arcade at a nearby shopping mall where the metal voice and spider-web smile of "The Bishop" is waiting. . .