'Salem's Lot

Mark Petrie is conducting his own investigation of the Marsten House when he sees Susan creeping through the woods. She obviously knows something about what is lurking in the Marsten House, but the stake in her hand is too flimsy to be any use. When Straker drives away, Mark touches her shoulder. When she recovers from the surprise, they establish that they are both hunting vampires. Susan tries to tell Mark he is too old to believe in vampires, but he calmly tells her that he believes in what he has seen. Mark’s pure certainty is more persuasive to her than all Ben or Matt’s logic. She tells him there are men in the town who share his belief, and Mark guesses that one of them is probably the writer. Mark is so self-assured and knowledgeable (knowledge gleaned largely from comic books and television) that Susan surrenders leadership of their campaign to him.

Mark’s plan is simple and straightforward: Break into the house, find Barlow, and pound a stake through his heart. They creep up to the house and look through the windows. The house is dusty, deserted, and full of cobwebs. Climbing in through the window, Susan finds herself experiencing a fear she has never imagined. This is Susan’s first encounter with primal fear.

Exploring the house, Susan and Mark find a book bound in human skin, open to a drawing depicting a naked man holding up a child’s eviscerated corpse as an offering to something outside the page. They cannot know that the picture shows the ritual Straker performed, sacrificing Ralphie to propitiate whatever monster lurks beneath the town.

They find the cellar door ajar, and they are about to go down when they are surprised by Straker, who has seen Susan’s car on the road and come back. He knocks them both unconscious. Mark wakes up being carried up the stairs by Straker, who dumps him on the floor and tells him to stop playing opossum. Mark asks what he has done with Susan. Straker replies he has taken her to the cellar where, when the sun goes down, she will get her wish and meet Barlow. Straker begins trussing Mark up like a hog for slaughter.

Mark finds himself thinking very fast and very clearly, running through possible escape scenarios. The only strategy he can see working is something he read in a book about Harry Houdini. He tightens all his muscles, knowing that will give him just the slightest bit of slack in the ropes when he relaxes them.

As soon as he is alone, Mark slowly begins to work himself loose. It is almost sundown before he gets free. No sooner has he dropped the last loop of rope than he hears footsteps. There is no escape from the room, but there is a metal cot, and he can loosen one of the legs.

Straker enters the room, sees the ropes, and freezes in shock. Mark, hiding behind the door, hits him with the metal bar in his hands. Knocking Straker unconscious, he must choose between fleeing or trying to save Susan. Going after Susan this close to sundown will mean sure capture by Barlow. He goes to the cellar door anyway, but it is too late. He hears a hollow chuckle, and Susan screams. Barlow’s fatherly voice invites Mark to come down. Mark resists the hypnotic attraction and flees.

That night, Susan comes to his window and calls for him to let her in. She promises that being a vampire is not so bad; it’s really quite lovely. He refuses and drives away with his little plastic cross, but before she turns to smoke and disappears, he sees her face and her expression of deep misery.

Earlier, Father Callahan answered a summons to Matt Burke’s hospital bedside. He finds Matt’s room littered with books about vampires. He reflects that in his experience, people who have just had a brush with death sometimes develop morbid interests. Callahan and Matt chat about fictional vampires and real-life human monsters before getting down to business. Matt has been unable to get hold of either Ben or Susan, and Susan’s parents are worried about her. He asks whether Father Callahan has noticed anything unusual going on in town lately.

Based on the books, Father Callahan deduces that Matt is talking about vampires. In his opinion, a good psychosis is sometimes the best antidote to the shock and depression of a serious illness. Matt assures him that the story he is about to tell can be easily confirmed. He asks again whether Callahan has noticed anything at all out of the ordinary. Thinking it over, Callahan replies that he notices the dump is closed and Dud Rogers, the caretaker, is missing. Some of his parishioners have not been to Mass. He lists the unusual number of people who have died lately.

Matt finally tells him what has been going on. When he finishes, he asks Callahan if he thinks Matt is crazy. Callahan replies that he does not disbelieve the story. After all, the supernatural is his job. Furthermore, most people are more likely to believe in the supernatural than fiction writers like to think. In fact, the people who write about monsters and bogymen are less likely to believe in such things than the average person.

Matt asks if Callahan would do some investigation for him and take some holy water with him. Callahan hesitates. Investigating as an agent of the holy church is a serious thing to him. He has become cynical about his faith and his role in the church. The church as a whole no longer sees evil as the devil but rather as human weakness. Father Callahan, on the other hand, sees the church as a force that should not be set in motion lightly. Matt argues that this is Callahan’s opportunity to put the force of the church to the test.

Returning to the church, Father Callahan feels exhilarated. Maybe evil isn’t just human weakness and corruption. Maybe there are forces of ultimate good and evil out there somewhere. Callahan is startled out of his thoughts by a flapping overhead. Terror for his immortal soul strikes him.