Nona (short story)

"Nona"
Author	Stephen King
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror short story
Published in	Shadows (1st release), Skeleton Crew
Publication type	Anthology
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Publication date	1978

Nona is a short horror story by Stephen King, first published in the 1978 anthology Shadows, and later collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew.

Plot summary

The story is the account of an unnamed man being held in prison, recounting his life as a college dropout who had met and fallen in love with a beautiful girl named Nona while aimlessly hitchhiking on a snowy winter's night in Maine. That night, he was pretty swiftly seduced into murdering several people who had the misfortune of crossing the duo's path as they speed towards an unknown goal. Somewhere near King's fictional town of Castle Rock, Nona takes him to a graveyard, where he encounters a possibly supernatural force, and is later found alone by the authorities, taken into custody, tried, and sentenced to prison, where he now writes his tale, preparing to commit suicide as he contemplates hearing strange sounds in the walls (not unlike H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Rats in the Walls", or King's own earlier work, "Jerusalem's Lot").

Connection to King's other works

In Hearts In Atlantis there is a character called Ronnie Malenfant, the same surname as the character Betsy Malenfant which appears in the story. In Hearts In Atlantis, Ronnie refers to having a sister.

Ace Merrill and Vern Tessio, who first appeared in The Body, appear in flashback in this story. Ace later played a major role in Needful Things.