Heart-Shaped Box

Later, Jude is woken by Arlene, who informs him that the power is out and that images of her, his, and Marybeth’s deaths have been playing on the television. She also reveals that there’s a truck idling in the driveway and that she’s going to leave. After she leaves, Craddock’s ghost emerges from one of the heart-shaped candy boxes and greets Jude.

Craddock tries to convince Jude to murder Marybeth, but Jude focuses on internal music. Undeterred, the ghost possesses Martin and grabs a nearby shaving razor, slicing Jude’s chest and arms. Jude pushes his father into the living room, and he’s eventually joined by Marybeth. She repeatedly stabs Martin with kitchen knives, but then he slices her throat. She begs Jude to “[m]ake [] a door” so that she and Anna might have a chance at stopping Craddock (324). While Jude draws a door on the floor using Marybeth’s blood, Craddock emerges from Martin. Marybeth, possessed by Anna, erupts from the blood door and drags Craddock through it.

Jude crawls toward the opened door and falls through.

In the realm of the dead beyond the door (the “nightroad”), Jude sits in a car beside a woman who is simultaneously Marybeth and Anna. Marybeth/Anna tells him not to look at the outside scenery for too long because he’s not yet ready for this world. She has to let him out of the car and can’t come with him. Before Jude gets out, Marybeth and Anna separate, and Jude grabs hold of Marybeth’s hand. He feels Anna place her hand over theirs as he regains consciousness.

Jude wakes to find that Arlene has returned with an ambulance. He watches Marybeth be taken out in a stretcher and notices that her hands were healed by Anna’s possession. Arlene says that another ambulance will come for him.

A hospitalized Jude flutters in and out of consciousness. Sometimes he sees living people, like his lawyer, Nan Shreve, and sometimes he sees deceased people, like his bandmate who died of AIDS. He tells his doctor that he should be the one to call Bammy to tell her that Marybeth is dead, and the doctor reveals that she is alive and at the same hospital.

Despite his doctor’s protests, Jude visits Marybeth in the intensive care unit. She tells him that, on the nightroad, she chose to get out of the car with him at the last minute.

Later, Jude’s lawyer, Nan, warns him that a detective is coming to question him about Martin’s death. Jude is surprised that he’s not also being questioned about Anna. Nan insists that he tell the detective that Martin tried to kill him and Marybeth and that she killed him in self-defense. Jude tells this story and adds that he and Marybeth were in a hit-and-run that took off his finger.

Before leaving the room, Nan tells Jude that his girlfriend is beautiful. When Nan asks for her name, Jude says it’s Marybeth.

Two weeks later, Jude and Marybeth attend Danny’s funeral, which is full of his friends and family.

In the spring, Jude makes a new album but has to hire others to play guitar since his hands are too mangled. Marybeth starts teaching a dance class.

Marybeth finds a car that Jude spends the summer repairing.

At the end of the summer, Jude receives a call from Nan, whom he asked to look into Marybeth’s assailant, George Ruger, and Jessica Price. She says there’s no information about George, which doesn’t surprise Jude since a police report would risk exposure of Marybeth’s assault. Nan then reveals that Jessica is in jail because police found her pornographic photographs of Reese. She notices that all of these events happened the day Martin died, but Jude doesn’t comment.

In November, Jude and Marybeth marry.

Five years later, a young woman who resembles Anna appears at Jude’s home. He realizes that it’s Reese and invites her in. She tells him and Marybeth that she’s travelling to Buffalo to see a concert and move in with friends. Jude informs her that Buffalo is 300 miles away, and she admits that she’s out of money. He drives Reese to a bus station, and she apologizes for shooting him. She sees Anna in her dreams, and Anna clarified that Jude came to her house years ago to help. He gives Reese money and puts her on the bus. When he returns home, he tells Marybeth that he hopes “she makes it” (374).