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Salems Lot: My idea for a sequel after enjoying it and thinking about it for years
Salem's Lot is my favorite book and I am always hoping for a sequel that deals with what happened to Ben and Mark and explains how things got to the point they are portrayed in "one for the road".
I feel funny writing this because I know King would do a much better job than I ever could but I just enjoyed the book so much it led me to do a great deal of thinking about it and how so many things could have happened later.
I would have it revolve around a young person who is turning 21. As a child his parents traveled to Maine for a camping getaway in the area of Salem's Lot and were never heard from again. His parents were extremely wealthy and left him a great deal of money to be held in trust until his 21st birthday. He is the type to have left a number of schools on his own as he can't get beyond what happened to his parents. He was raised by relatives more concerned with being paid to take care of him than his actual well being. As a result he had little access to the internet until he went to school at 18. When he finally gets access to this he begins to try and obtain as much information about his parents death as possible. He discovers the strange history of the lot from the Marsden murders to the fire but can do nothing more until he has access to his trust. Upon getting the money he travels to the area of the Lot and trys to speak with locals about its history and his parents. Those who have lived there along time refuse to talk about it with many telling him he is better off not knowing. Newer residents are more friendly and can only offer that a regulation has been passed which makes it a crime for anyone to enter the area that was the lot after dark. A successful writer had long ago began buying as much land as he could in the area and did all he could to ensure it was not inviting for visitors.
Eventually one older resident tells him to speak with a relative of the "narrator" of "One for the Road". This relative tells him the story that was conveyed to him with the attitude he thought it was just a way to scare him. He never believed it but after hearing it he always made sure he avoided the lot because he did believe that something wasnt right. He tells him the former constable, Gillespie who is now in his ninties lives in a retirement home many miles away and may be able to tell him more. He visits him and Gillespie gives him the names Ben Mears and Mark Petrie.
Mark is now a priest in Mexico and upon being visited does not wish to speak of the Lot. He pleads with him to leave and says he will learn nothing of the lot that will make his life any better. The main character presses and he finally gives him a journal written by Ben Mears, who had long died of lung cancer and whose work was highly regarded after his death with him being known for writings, especially his later writings which were extremely dark. The journal was never published and tells the story of Ben and Mark, including their return to the Lot and how this impacted their lives. Mark tells him to read and to think hard if he then wants to ask questions. He does and Mark tells him everything. He provides him with crosses and holy water and a journal containing all he has learned about vampires and their weaknesses. He tells him not to go to the Lot but he knows how he feels and dealt with the same thing. He then asks him to say so he may be taught as much as possible before returning there. Eventually young priest decides to accompany him back to the Lot for purposes of attempting to destroy the evil that has long dominated the area and ruined the lives of the people who did.
When they return to the Lot and begin their mission they find the belongings of many travelers who fell victim to the vampires, more than they had thought. Many of the people who live in the area know why they are there and offer aid in the form of a safe place to stay, providing them with stakes and water to bless and make holy water and old maps and blue prints of buildings and other information they may find useful. They kill many by just dragging them into the daylight for them to burn. This shows how the people eventually stand up to the evil that has long dominated their lives because they have had enough.
They discover most vampires are weak and not able to put up much of a fight as they can only feed enough to stay alive. A small group of vampires from the original are dominant and provide a greater challenge. They feed before the others to stay strong as they are viewed as the "masters" as they essentially all became vampires at the same time. There would be no facing off against his parents as very few of those who have been victims were allowed to become vampires as a result of the fear they would be discovered and because food in the form of blood would then become scarcer. The ending would be anti climactic in the sense that all the vampires would eventually be destroyed. Our main character and Mark Petrie finally have peace and there would then be a description of how with the evil finally being destroyed the Lot and surrounding area will be reborn and developed with a new town being born whose residents know nothing of the evil that once resided there. As generations die off there are fewer and fewer people who know about it and it finally becomes what it appears to be when just looking at it from the outside.
Again I am not a writer and do not believe that I could be one nor do I want to be. Salem's Lot was just my favorite book, I have read it many times and have long just thought about what might have happened later on after the events of the book. This was just something I felt would be interesting and a way to tie everything together while answering many of the questions we all had.
I think this shows just how brilliant King's original work was as it inspires its readers to continually think about it and inspires their own creativity.
Originally Posted by Dan Olwell
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