How It All Goes Down
- Susan and Ben go to Matt's room, where they all talk about vampires and such.
- Susan's still skeptical, which, as Shmoop has mentioned, is going to get her in trouble. Still, they decide to proceed as if vampires are real.
- Ben appoints Matt as researcher. Matt promises to get Loretta Starcher, the librarian, to bring him tons of books on vampires. They also decide to bring Jimmy Cody into their group of courageous vampire hunters.
- Ben and Matt have thought better of just going to the Marsten House and confronting Straker, who they figure is not a vampire (since he's around in the day) but is still a big meanie.
- Matt tells Ben and Susan to go to Father Callahan, and then Jimmy comes in and kicks Susan and Ben out.
- Jimmy comes down and tells Ben that he's free to go. He also mentions that somebody stole the Tibbets and McDougall corpses, which freaks Ben and Sue out more than Jimmy thought it would.
- Ben and Susan tell him their suspicions and ask him to exhume Danny Glick.
- Jimmy talks about the limits of science and medicine and says he'll exhume Danny.
- Ben and Jimmy go to the Glicks' house to ask for permission, but no one's home.
- Ben and Jimmy cross the road, and Pauline Dickens, the waitress, comes out and tells them that Mrs. Glick died and Tony Glick is at the hospital in shock.
- Pauline seems to think mysterious things are happening. She's wearing a St. Christopher's Medal.
- Ben and Jimmy decide to go out to the funeral home, where Mrs. Glick has been taken. Jimmy knows the owner, Maury Green.
- At home, Susan decides to take action. She goes into a field and gets a fence post for a stake.
- She's off to the Marsten House, sneaking through the woods.
- This is not going to end well.
- Susan sees a car leave and figures it's Straker going into town.
- Someone puts a hand on her shoulder! Who is it? King isn't going to say yet, because he is a big old master of suspense.
- Instead, it's over to the funeral home, where Jimmy has convinced Maury Green to let them sit up with the body of Mrs. Glick to see if she rises (though they didn't tell Maury that that was why they were doing it).
- They wait, and just before sundown Jimmy binds two tongue depressors together to form a cross and gets Ben to bless them.
- Mrs. Glick gets up right on schedule at nightfall, calling for her son Danny.
- Ben holds her at bay with the cross; Jimmy doubles around behind her and tries to grab her, which seems extremely dumb. And why didn't they make two crosses, anyway? Some fearless vampire hunters they are.
- Mrs. Glick turns and grabs Jimmy and bites him.
- Ben forces her away with the cross and shoves it into her face, where it burns her.
- Mrs. Glick backs up, cackles that their circle is less by one, and then disappears.
- Jimmy is screaming because he got bitten by a vampire. He says he can feel the unclean ickiness working on him. Okay, he doesn't say "ickiness."
- Jimmy dumps antiseptic on the wound and has Ben give him a tetanus shot.
- Then Jimmy thinks he's better, and hits Ben on the jaw as part of a cover story. Jimmy says they'll pretend that a guy came in and beat them both up and took the body.
- Hubert McCaslin, the county sheriff, is not particularly impressed with the story, but he doesn't have anything to hold them for, so he lets them go.
- Back at his room in the boarding house, Ben goes to sleep with the light on and the tongue depressor cross by his side, hoping Susan is safe. She isn't, buddy.