8 Alternative Endings To Stephen King Novels That Were Originally Planned
6. Salem's Lot - Father Callahan's Suicide
Salem's Lot follows writer Ben Mears returning to his eponymous hometown only to find it infested with vampires. The finished novel sees Mears' fellow vampire-hunter Father Callahan attempt to confront the centuries-old lead vampire Kurt Barlow, only for Barlow to reveal the cross has no power over him because of Barlow's lack of faith, and forcing him to drink his vampiric blood, making him "unclean".
The last we see of the good Father is him fleeing from 'Salem's Lot, infected with Barlow's vampirism, at least until the character reappears in the Dark Tower series.
That is, in the published version. In a deleted scene from King's original draft, depicted a different fate for the priest. Rather than forced to drink Barlow's blood and leaving town damned, he marks the vampire with a knife before killing himself. Furious, the vampire desecrates the priest's body, decapitating it and hanging it upside down.
King cut the gruesome original scene before the book went to print, but was included in a section of deleted scenes featured in the deluxe limited edition released by Centipede Press in 2005 and the subsequent trade edition.