Jerusalem's Lot

This article is about the short story. For the novel, see 'Salem's Lot. For the fictional town the short story and the novel take place in, see Jerusalem's Lot (Stephen King).

"Jerusalem's Lot"
Short story by Stephen King
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror short story
Publication
Published in	Night Shift
Publisher	Doubleday
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Publication date	1978
Chronology
—   'Salem's Lot

"Jerusalem's Lot" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in 1978 in the compilation Night Shift.

Setting and style

Jerusalem's Lot is an epistolary short story set in the fictional town of Preacher's Corners, Maine, in 1850. It is told through a series of letters and diary entries, mainly those of its main character, the aristocrat Charles Boone, though his manservant, Calvin McCann, also occasionally assumes the role of narrator. The plot, like many of King's works, draws heavily from the Cthulhu mythos, in particular the H.P. Lovecraft short story The Rats in the Walls.

Plot summary

Charles Boone and his manservant, Calvin McCann, have moved to Chapelwaite, the neglected ancestral home of Charles's estranged late cousin, Stephen. Stephen left the estate to Charles in an apparent gesture of good will, trying to repair an old rift between the two sides of the family. While running errands, Calvin finds that many in the town think them mad for being willing to live in the mansion. The house is said to be "a bad house," with a history of sad events, disappearances, and mysterious noises which Charles attributes to "rats in the walls".

In a hidden compartment in the library, Calvin discovers an old map of a nearby deserted town called Jerusalem's Lot, a mysterious area the townsfolk avoid. Marked on the map is a church, with the label "The worm that doth corrupt." Their curiosity piqued, Charles and Calvin set out to explore the remains of the town.

They find the quaint Puritan village heavily weathered and decayed, but it is clear that no one has set foot in the town since its abandonment; not looters, collectors, children, nor animals, such as birds or spiders. The town, as described by Charles, is "sour" (a concept repeated in King's later novel, Pet Sematary).

As Charles and Calvin explore a church, they discover an unspeakably obscene and sacrilegious Madonna and Child (Charles' 19th-century sensibilities prohibit further description) and an inverted cross. At the pulpit they find a book filled with Latin and Druidic runes, entitled De Vermis Mysteriis ("The Mysteries of the Worm"), a book that also features in the works of many authors in the Cthulhu Mythos. When Charles touches the book, the church shakes and the two men sense something giant moving in the ground beneath them. The evil of the place overcomes both men, and they quickly leave the town.

Later, in the town, Charles finds that he (like his relatives before him) is greatly feared and cursed by all, to the point of being chased away from one house with rocks and guns. Finally, Charles turns to the former cleaning lady of Chapelwaite for information about the connection of his home and Jerusalem's Lot. She cites numerous evil omens which have occurred since Charles' residence at Chapelwaite, such as gathering flocks of whip-poor-wills (a reference by King to a famous scene from Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror") and a baby born without eyes. She begs him to leave at once.

The cleaning lady reveals that the family rift was caused when Robert Boone, Charles' grandfather, attempted to steal De Vermis Mysteriis from his brother Philip, presumably to destroy it. She explains that Philip was a minister who became heavily involved in the occult, so much so that "the mark of the beast was on him." On October 31, 1789, Philip Boone vanished along with the entire population of Jerusalem's Lot. Charles attempts to dismiss it all as superstition, but he is unable to forget what he saw in the church in the abandoned town.

One morning, while Charles is asleep, Calvin discovers a diary in the library. He forces the lock but finds that the writing is encrypted with a cipher. Before he can examine it further, Charles enters. Tired of the noises behind the walls, Charles asks Calvin to venture with him into the cellar to check for rats.

Two days pass before Charles has recovered enough to describe what they found hidden behind the walls: the ancient, undead corpses of two of his relatives, Marcella and Randolph Boone. He instantly recognizes them as "nosferatu." (Despite the word he uses, there is no indication of vampirism, simply a sort of cursed life after death.) The two men fled and Calvin immediately barred the door leading up from the cellar.

Meanwhile, as Charles recovers, Calvin continues his search for clues. He eventually finds the key to the cipher. With it, he is able to interpret the diary and presents his findings to Charles. The diary contains a history of Jerusalems's Lot and a record of the events in 1789 leading up to its abandonment.

Charles finds that the town was founded by one of his distant ancestors, James Boon, who was the leader of a cult of witchcraft and inbreeding that had split from the Puritans. The journal goes on to explain how, many years later, Philip and Robert Boone later returned to the area (when Chapelwaite was new), how Philip was taken in by the cult at Jerusalem's Lot, and how he acquired De Vermis Mysteriis at the behest of the ancient James Boon. Philip descended into madness, and plagues fell upon the town of Preacher's Corners. Philip and Boon are said to have used the book to call forth some kind of supernatural force. In his final entry, Robert curses the flocks of birds that have descended upon the estate. The diary ends there.

Charles is compelled to return to Jerusalem's Lot, and while Calvin does his best to prevent it, he gives in and accompanies his master to the village. Returning to the church, they discover a horribly butchered lamb on the altar, lying on top of De Vermis Mysteriis. Charles moves the lamb and takes the book, intending to destroy it, but a congregation of evil undead entities begins to emerge, including those of James Boon and Charles' great-uncle Philip.

Charles is possessed and begins to chant, summoning forth The Worm with an ancient spell. Calvin knocks him down, clearing his head, and Charles manages to set fire to the book. The giant worm, heavily hinted to be a form or incarnation of the Lovecraftian deity Yog-Sothoth, lashes out from below, killing Calvin, and then is gone. Before Charles can recover Calvin's body, James Boon's zombie body emerges from the worm's hole and Charles flees the town.

In his final missive, Charles announces his intention to commit suicide, thereby ending the Boone family line and its connection to the evil of Jerusalem's Lot.

The book concludes with an "editor's note" that attributes Charles' letters (as well as the death of Calvin McCann) to insanity, dismissing his claims of supernatural occurrences in Jerusalem's Lot. Finally, the editor notes that Charles was not, in fact, the last of his line; that a bastard relative still exists -- the editor himself. He has moved to Chapelwaite, hoping to clear the family name, and notes that Charles was right about one thing: "This place badly needs the services of an exterminator. There are some huge rats in the walls, by the sound."

The note is dated October 2nd, the same date as Charles's first letter. The editor's name is "James Robert Boone" which indicates, that his father, Robet Boone, named him after the founder of Jerusalem's Lot.

Connection To King's Other Works

This story acts as a prequel to ’Salem’s Lot, and is also connected to the story of "One for the Road" which is a sequel to both, and also appears in Night Shift. Both stories were later collected in the 2005 'Salem's Lot Illustrated Edition. Children of the Corn recapitualtes the image of the ghost town, the corrupted church, and the worship of an evil being.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

"Jerusalem's Lot" has been adapted by artist Glenn Chadbourne for the book The Secretary of Dreams, a collection of comics based on King's short fiction released by Cemetery Dance in December 2006.