Several months later, two-year-old Gage is killed by a speeding truck.

Overcome with despair,

Louis considers bringing his son back to life with the help of the burial ground. Jud, guessing
what Louis is planning, attempts to dissuade him by telling him the story of Timmy Baterman,
the last person who was resurrected by the burial ground. Timmy Baterman was killed in action
during World War II. Timmy's body was shipped back to the United States, and his father Bill
buried Timmy in the burial ground. Timmy returned malevolent, terrorizing the people of the
town with secrets that Jud asserts he had no earthly way of knowing. Timmy was stopped by his
father, Bill, who killed Timmy and set their house on fire before shooting himself. Jud states that
he believes that whatever came back was not Timmy, but a "demon" that had possessed his
corpse. He concludes that "sometimes, dead is better" and states that "the place has a power... its
own evil purpose", and that it may have caused Gage's death because Jud introduced Louis to it.

Despite Jud's warning and his own reservations about the idea, Louis's grief and guilt spur him to
carry out his plan. Louis exhumes Gage's body from his grave and inters him in the burial
ground. Gage is resurrected, entirely different from when he was alive. Now malicious in both
his words and actions, he finds one of Louis's scalpels and kills both Jud and Rachel. Louis kills
both Church and Gage with lethal injections of morphine from his medical supply stock.

After burning the Crandall house down, Louis returns to the burial ground with his wife's corpse,
thinking that if he buries the body faster than he did Gage's, there will be a different result.
Following all of these tragic events, Louis has also aged in physical appearance, with white hair
and wrinkles. One of his colleagues, Steve Masterton, notices him walking into the woods with
Rachel's body. Steve, while fearful and concerned, is influenced by the power of the burial
ground too, and even considers helping Louis bury Rachel, but he flees in terror and eventually
moves away to St. Louis. Later, Louis sits indoors alone, playing solitaire, and Rachel's
reanimated corpse walks up behind him and drops a cold hand on his shoulder, while her voice
rasps, "Darling."