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Christine is a first-person narrative and a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1983. It tells the story of a vintage automobile apparently possessed by supernatural forces. In 1983, the movie version of Christine directed by John Carpenter, and starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, and Harry Dean Stanton was released to theaters. Christine made a cameo in Stephen King's 1986 novel IT, sent by the monster Pennywise to help Henry Bowers murder Eddie Kaspbrak. The car was also seen in The Stand and Cat's Eye. A Quantum Leap episode has Sam Beckett driving Christine, along with his friend, a young Stephen King. While driving home from work, Dennis and Arnie drive past Christine, a dilapidated 1958 red and white Plymouth Fury. Arnie makes Dennis stop his car, and examines the car. The car's owner, Roland D. LeBay, an elderly gentleman in a back supporter, comes out onto the lawn, and offers the car to Arnie for $250. Unable to pay the full amount, he settles on a $25 deposit and agrees to return the next day with the balance. Arnie and Dennis return the following day, and LeBay invites Arnie into his house to sign the paperwork. While waiting for Arnie, Dennis decides to sit inside Christine, and as he does, he has a vision of the car and the surroundings as they were in 1957 when the car was new. Frightened, Dennis gets out of Christine, and decides that he does not like Arnie's new car. Arnie brings Christine to Darnell's, a local do-it-yourself auto repair facility. As Arnie restores the automobile, he becomes withdrawn, yet more confident and self-assured. He becomes humorless and cynical. Dennis is scared of these changes, and of Christine's changes. When Arnie is almost finished restoring Christine, Leigh Cabot transfers to his school. Leigh is instantly popular and regarded as the most beautiful girl in school. It is a surprise to everyone when she decides to go out with Arnie. Buddy Repperton, a vicious bully who Arnie and Dennis got expelled earlier in the story, visits Christine with his gang of thugs and severely vandalizes the car. Seeing Christine destroyed completely infuriates Arnie, resulting in the severance of his relationship with Leigh. Mysterious murders occur in Libertyville. One by one, members of Buddy's gang are killed by Christine. Others who were hostile to Arnie or Christine also die. The police investigate the murders and become suspicious of Arnie. However, Arnie has an airtight alibi for each of the murders, since the car apparently acts on its own. Although the police find paint chips at the crime scenes that match Christine's color, they find no damage, bloodstains, or other evidence on the car, since Christine supernaturally repairs herself after each attack. Dennis and Leigh become suspicious not of Arnie, but of Christine. They try to find out as much as they can about the car and its previous owner. As their suspicions grow, they try to destroy the supernatural forces that appear to be in control of Christine and Arnie.

The novel ends on an ambiguous note. Arnie's father is found dead in Christine, apparently from exhaust fumes. Arnie and his mother die in an auto accident: witnesses to the accident saw three people in the car before the crash, but only two bodies were found. In the meantime, Dennis and Leigh manage to destroy Christine in Darnell's using a huge, pink-coloured septic tanker truck, named Petunia, and Dennis is informed by a police detective that the remains were fed into the crusher in the back of the garage by two police officers, adding that one received a bad cut that needed stitches, and said "it bit him". Dennis ends the story proper with a salutation to his friend:"Rest in peace, Arnie. I love you, man."

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