'Salem's Lot
Salem's Lot is a 1975 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It was his second published novel. The story involves a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town of Jerusalem's Lot (or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, where he had lived from the age of five through nine, only to discover that the residents are becoming vampires. The town is revisited in the short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road", both from King's story collection "Night Shift" (1978). The novel was nominated for the World Fantasy Award in 1976, and the Locus Award for the All-Time Best Fantasy Novel in 1987.
One for the Road (short story)
This tale is narrated in the first person by Booth, an elderly resident of Falmouth, Maine, a small town which neighbors Jerusalem's Lot. Although things got quiet after Jerusalem's Lot was consumed by a brush fire (set by the protagonists in "Salem's Lot", although they're never mentioned), some of the town's vampires have survived and begun spreading their influence again. No one from the surrounding communities ever ventures into Jerusalem's Lot, save for a loudmouth trucker who laughed off their superstituousness, only to never be seen again. Booth admits that people in Falmouth, including himself (a non-Catholic), carry crucifixes, rosaries, or devotional medals for protection. Though no one verbally speaks of Jerusalem's Lot being filled with vampires, they silently admit they believe it.