Neverwhere

Richard wakes to find himself in the Black Friars’ abbey. The Abbot takes him to Door, and another friar wheels the Marquis over in a wheelchair. The Abbot says they need to talk, wanting to know what happened to Islington. Door reveals that she sent the angel “halfway across both space and time” (347), which the Abbot is thankful for. Richard asks if, now that their journey is over, he can be sent home, but Door and the Marquis tell him once more that it isn’t possible.

The Abbot asks for the key, and Door reveals that she slipped it into Richard’s pocket―it was the mysterious object he felt when he tried to use his apartment key as a decoy. The Abbot tells them that Richard is now the key’s master and that he can use it to return to his life in London Above because the key isn’t the key to Heaven―it’s the key to the entirety of reality. 

One of the friars leads Richard up a long ladder to the Nightingale Lane tube station and tells him to wait for someone to arrive. 

Richard waits on the platform, thinking about how the Marquis didn’t say goodbye, which Door attributed to his lack of skill in comforting others. After 20 minutes pass, Old Bailey shows up. He gives Richard a feather, shakes his hand, and leaves as the Earl’s Court train approaches. Richard steps aboard and the Earl knights him using Hunter’s blade; he announces that Richard is granted free rein to come and go from London Below as he pleases.

Richard gets off the train and finds a man sitting on a bench ahead; it’s Lord Rat-speaker. He tells Richard that neither the rats nor the rat-speakers blame him for Anaesthesia’s death and that he can come to them if he ever needs them. He gives Richard back his possessions, including his wallet, and Richard leaves the station. On his way out, he encounters Lamia and the Velvets. Lamia blows him a kiss, and then she and the other women disappear.

Richard finds himself in what he determines is London thousands of years before it was settled, and Door appears. She says that she plans on trying to unite London Below, as her father wanted, as well as locate her sister. Pointing out that Richard saved her life multiple times and has become a good friend, she asks him not to go. He tells her that, though he grew fond of her too, he doesn’t belong in London Below. They hug, and Richard hands her the key, which she uses to open a nonexistent door and return him to London Above.

Richard emerges from an underpass in the Upside. He tries to interact with some people on the street, but they don’t fully acknowledge him, so he wonders if he still doesn’t exist. When he talks to a child, who flees from him, and is subsequently scolded by the child’s mother, Richard knows he is really back. His joy is maintained when he can successfully use his ATM card and hail a cab. He asks to be driven to his office building, where the security guard recognizes him. Delighted, he goes to find his desk.

It’s not there, and Richard contemplates fleeing the office until Garry shows up. He welcomes Richard back from vacation and shows him where his desk was moved: into an office. The door reads “R.O. Mayhew, Junior Partner”; Richard’s been promoted. He finds out that he’s not meant to come back to work until the next day, so he leaves and goes to his old flat. Mrs. Buchanan, the woman who toured the place with her husband the day Richard stopped existing, answers the door. He tells her he’s the previous tenant and asks where his things are. She doesn’t know, so Richard confronts the landlord. Using his new, hard-earned confidence, Richard sticks up for his rights and manages to get an even better apartment and new furniture to replace what he lost. After he moves in, the landlord discovers Richard’s possessions in storage and moves them into his new penthouse in the same building as his old apartment. However, Richard never fully unpacks.

At work the next day, Jessica visits Richard. She tells him she remembers breaking up with him, but not why. She tries to give him back her engagement ring, hoping they can start over so that he might give it back to her one day. Richard gently tells her she can keep the ring because he’s changed. 

One night, Richard comes across a rat. It’s skittish at first, but he greets it. He asks after Lady Door, but the rat scurries away when the Buchanans show up. They promise to complain to the council about the rat.

On a Friday night, Richard accepts an invitation from Sylvia to go out with some work colleagues to see a movie, go to a restaurant, and then go to a pub. He doesn’t have a good time. Sitting next to a girl that Sylvia is clearly trying to set him up with, Richard envisions the rest of his life. He sees himself going home with the girl, eventually marrying her, getting another promotion, and moving to the suburbs after having children. He knows it’s not a bad life, but he leaves the group to get some fresh air. Garry follows, asking if he’s all right. They walk and Richard confides in Garry about where he really was, sharing the entire story from the moment Door appeared in front of him. Garry doesn’t believe him, surmising that Richard must have hit his head or gone into shock when Jessica dumped him. 

Richard finds the feather Old Bailey gave him in his pocket; when Garry asks what it is, he throws it away. Garry hails a cab and Richard says he’ll take the next one. However, he retraces his steps in search of the feather. Unable to find it, Richard brandishes the knife Hunter gave him, scaring an older woman living on the street, and scratches the shape of a door into the wall. He bangs on the drawn door, calling out for Door or anyone from London Below, but nothing happens, so he sits down. When he looks back, he sees there’s a door-shaped hole in the wall where he scratched into it. A man stands in the doorway—the Marquis de Carabas. 

The Marquis asks if he’s coming, and Richard stands up and walks through the door with him.