Needful Things
by
Stephen King

Illustration for trading card by David Loew

The story is set in the small fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, where a new shop named "Needful Things" opens, to the curiosity of the townspeople. One by one, they start to come into the shop, drawn there by something they want more than anything else. In young Brian Rusk's case, it's a Sandy Koufax baseball card with Brian's name signed by the ball player. In Danforth "Buster" Keeton's case, it's a machine that simulates a horse race, and will, if each tin horse is named for the participants in actual, future races, correctly predict the winner. They are all greeted by the seemingly kind old man, Leland Gaunt, and they all ignore the sign Leland has in his store, "Caveat emptor". When they realize that they can't buy the object of their desire, Leland offers them a trade — perform a small "favor" for him, in the form of a prank on someone else in the town, and the object is theirs. These betrayals and pranks (some of which deceptively seem to be harmless) gradually increase in frequency and intensity until the entire town is in complete chaos.
The only person not caught up in what Leland has to offer is Castle Rock Sheriff Alan Pangborn. At the beginning of the story, he's simply interested in figuring out who did certain acts of vandalism. As the story progresses, however, he suspects that they all have something to do with Leland. Things begin to come to a head when Leland manages to seduce Alan's girlfriend Polly with a necklace, or azka, that somehow relieves her of the pain in her arthritic hands. It is explained that Leland has, for centuries, been wandering through different countries and selling people useless junk. These objects appear to the buyer to be whatever they want most. It is also implied several times that Leland is Satan, but never outright stated. Vague references to this include the fact that he enters people's dreams when they don't fulfil their "deals", and his liking of devil's food cake. Alan eventually manages to face Leland down, forcing Leland to leave town — but not without having provoked the destruction of most of the town and the deaths of many of the townspeople, including the aforementioned Brian Rusk and Danforth Keeton.