The Dark Half

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

Thad Beaumont would like to say he is innocent.

 

He'd like to say he has nothing to do with the series of monstrous murders that keep coming closer to his home.

 

He'd like to say he has nothing to do with the twisted imagination that produced his bestselling novels.

 

He'd like to say he has nothing to do with the voice on the phone uttering its obscene threats and demanding total surrender.

 

But how can Thad disown the ultimate embodiment of evil that goes by the name he gave it—and signs its crimes with Thad's bloody fingerprints?

THE BACHMAN BOOKS
“Fascinating.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer

CARRIE
“Horrifying.”
—Chicago Tribune

CHRISTINE
“Riveting.”
—Playboy

CUJO
“Gut-wrenching.”
—Newport News Daily Press

THE DARK HALF
“Scary.”
—Kirkus Reviews

THE DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER
“Brilliant.”
—Booklist

THE DARK TOWER II: THE DRAWING OF THE THREE
“Superb.”
—Chicago Herald-Wheaton

THE DARK TOWER III: THE WASTE LANDS
“Gripping.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

THE DEAD ZONE
“Frightening.”
—Cosmopolitan

DIFFERENT SEASONS
“Hypnotic.”
—New York Times Book Review

DOLORES CLAIBORNE
“Unforgettable.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

THE EYES OF THE DRAGON
“Masterful.”
—Cincinnati Post

FIRESTARTER
“Terrifying.”
—Miami Herald

FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT
“Chilling.”
—Milwaukee Journal

GERALD'S GAME
“Terrific.”
—USA Today

IT
“Mesmerizing.”
—Washington Post Book World

MISERY
“Wonderful.”
—Houston Chronicle

NEEDFUL THINGS
“Demonic.”
—Kirkus Reviews

NIGHT SHIFT
“Macabre,”
—Dallas Times-Herald

PET SEMATARY
“Unrelenting.”
—Pittsburgh Press

'SALEM'S LOT
“Tremendous.”
—Kirkus Reviews

THE SHINING
“Spellbinding.”
—Pittsburgh Press

SKELETON CREW
“Diabolical.”
—Associated Press

THE STAND
“Great.”
—New York Times Book Review

THINNER
“Extraordinary.”
—Booklist

THE TOMMYKNOCKERS
“Marvelous.”
—Boston Globe

NOVELS

Carrie
'Salem's Lot
The Shining
The Stand
The Dead Zone
Firestarter
Cujo

THE DARK TOWER I:
The Gunslinger
Christine
Pet Sematary
Cycle of the Werewolf
The Talisman
(with Peter Straub)
It
The Eyes of the Dragon
Misery
The Tommyknockers

THE DARK TOWER II:
The Drawing
of the Three

THE DARK TOWER III:
The Waste Lands
The Dark Half
Needful Things
Gerald's Game
Dolores Claiborne
Insomnia
Rose Madder
Desperation
The Green Mile

THE DARK TOWER IV:
Wizard and Glass
Bag of Bones
The Girl Who Loved Tom
Gordon
Dreamcatcher
Black House
(with Peter Straub)
From a Buick 8

THE DARK TOWER V:
Wolves of the Calla

THE DARK TOWER VI:
Song of Susannah

THE DARK TOWER VII:
The Dark Tower

 

AS RICHARD BACHMAN
Rage
The Long Walk
Roadwork
The Running Man
Thinner
The Regulators

 

COLLECTIONS
Night Shift
Different Seasons
Skeleton Crew
Four Past Midnight
Nightmares and
Dreamscapes
Hearts in Atlantis
Everything's Eventual

 

NONFICTION
Danse Macabre
On Writing

SCREENPLAYS
Creepshow
Cat's Eye
Silver Bullet
Maximum Overdrive
Pet Sematary
Golden Years
Sleepwalkers
The Stand
The Shining
Rose Red
Storm of the Century

SIGNET
Published by New American Library, a division of
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Published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Previously published in a Viking edition.

First Signet Printing, October 1990

Copyright © Stephen King, 1989

Illustrations copyright © Viking, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 1989 All rights reserved

 

The excerpt from
Gerald's Game
by Stephen King appears in a Viking edition, copyright © Stephen King, 1992. Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint an excerpt from “John Wesley Harding” by Bob Dylan. Copyright © Dwarf Music, 1968. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

 

 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

 

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

 

 

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eISBN : 978-1-101-13802-1

This book is for Shirley Sonderegger.
who helps me mind my business,
and for her husband. Peter.

I'm indebted to the late Richard Bachman for his help and inspiration. This novel could not have been written without him.

 

S.K.

“Cut him,” Machine said. “Cut him while I stand here and watch. I want to see the blood flow. Don't make me tell you twice. ”

—
Machine's Way
by George Stark

People's lives—their real lives, as opposed to their simple physical existences—begin at different times. The real life of Thad Beaumont, a young boy who was born and raised in the Ridgeway section of Bergenfield, New Jersey, began in 1960. Two things happened to him that year. The first shaped his life; the second almost ended it. That was the year Thad Beaumont was eleven.

In January he submitted a short story to a writing contest sponsored by
American Teen
magazine. In June, he received a letter from the magazine's editors telling him that he had been awarded an Honorable Mention in the contest's Fiction category. The letter went on to say that the judges would have awarded him Second Prize had his application not revealed that he was still two years away from becoming a bona fide “American Teen.” Still, the editors said, his story, “Outside Marty's House,” was an extraordinarily mature work, and he was to be congratulated.

Two weeks later, a Certificate of Merit arrived from
American Teen.
It came registered mail, insured. The certificate had his name on it in letters so convolutedly Old English that he could barely read them, and a gold seal at the bottom, embossed with the
American Teen
logo—the silhouettes of a crewcut boy and a pony-tailed girl jitterbugging.