Wendy ran through the hotel, calling Danny's name, praying in her mind that Jack hadn't already killed him. She almost tripped over something on the floor. She caught her balance and saw that Jack had shoved a whole bunch of kitchenware onto the floor, back before he had discovered the masquerade ball in The Gold Ballroom. She turned the corner and went towards the lobby. As she stood facing the lobby, she saw something bulgy and lumpy lying on the floor. A pool of blood surrounded it, and top of the thing, a bit of intestines. It was Dick Hallorann, dead as a doornail. His body lay there on the cold floor, turning blue as the cold wind gusted in from the open lobby door. She started weeping. She walked past the body, wincing. That was when she heard murmuring from behind her. Praying it was Danny, she turned around. If it was Jack, she would have no choice but to stab him and kill him. In a way, that thought gave her an odd comfortable feeling. If Jack was dead, she could find Danny more relaxed and get the hell out of here, without worrying about the murderous creature hiding in the hotel. It wasn't Jack. And it wasn't Danny either. The man stood there, holding a glass of bourbon, smiling. He had an axe cut on his bald scalp and it was leaking blood, even though most of the blood on his head was dry. He had confetti on his shoulders and he wore a formal black suit that just had to be 1920s style. Wendy knew that the man staring at her was dead, had been dead for a long time and she screamed a loud scream. She stood there, holding the knife, her hand shaking like jelly. The ghost held up his glass of bourbon.
"Great party, isn't it?" he grinned. Wendy ran through the lobby, screaming and looking behind her back, praying that the ghost wouldn't follow her. Instead, he stood there and as she was running next to the registration desk, he laughed a chilling laugh and when Wendy was at the end of the lobby, he was gone. She didn't dare stop to see if he would return. She ran as fast as she could towards The Gold Ballroom, not stopping for anything.
Jack ran through the maze, chasing his son. He shouted his son's name. The cold wind outside was making his blood run cold, but he carried on. His son was a naughty little shit who had to be punished.
"YOU CAN'T GET AWAY, DANNY!" he roared. "I'M RIGHT BEHIND YA!"
Wendy ran through The Gold Ballroom hall. The hall was dark. Someone or something had switched off all the lights. Not that she noticed though. She was too terrified to even notice. She turned the corner and faced the lobby. What she saw made her scream again. Dick's body was gone. In fact, the lobby was completely unrecognizable. Cobwebs and dust surrounded the whole lobby and sitting on the empty sofas and lounges were the skeletons of all the Indians that had died in the early 1900s. They all sat there, dead and silent. Wendy looked at every one of them. She remembered what Ullman had said on Closing Day that the site was built on an Indian burial ground. On the coffee tables were glasses of bourbon and wine, all full but long rotten. Wendy ran away from the horrid lobby, not looking back. She ran past The Gold Ballroom and saw the ghosts all looking at her. She screamed again. By now, she felt her throat would just dry away. The ghosts laughed and the clock struck midnight. She ran away from the wretched ballroom and the ghosts all chanted yet again.
Danny was exhausted. He had heartburn and a stitch in his left rib. He could hear the raving, grunting brute that was his father behind him somewhere but he was slowing down. He had an idea that might just work, but he had to act fast. Any mucking about and he would be dead. Remembering something he had seen on a cartoon, he couldn't remember which one while he was this scared, but he would probably remember later if he survived this ordeal. He stood perfectly where he was, and took a large leap to the other side of the hedge, where a dead end was around the corner. Quick as a whip, he covered his tracks and waited for his dreaded father to come.
Wendy, feeling extremely exhausted and close to weeping herself, ran through the hotel. She was in the staff only area on the first floor, where most of the staff kept their belongings. Empty lockers frowned down on her, with names of several employees on the lockers. She turned a corner and saw an elevator, which took the staff only to the staff quarters. Wendy had rarely used this elevator. The whole staff area had made her feel awkward and by the time the snow came, she couldn't go there, listening to the ghostly whooping of the wind while she walked through. Turning the corner, she faced a hall which led to the elevator. There were four sofa chairs sitting in the middle of the hall by the wall, a table between each one. She looked at the elevator. It's doors were half open and she expected some ghastly figure to come through. And pouring out of the elevator, the thing that was truly the icing on the cake, was a river of blood. Bright red, it flowed out like a tidal wave, washing up the sofa chairs and table and splattering the walls and the pictures which hung on it. Wendy opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Instead, her mouth opened and close like a fish out of water, a croaking noise coming out. A thought came to her head. This was what made Danny pass out back in their apartment, when the nurse had to come. Danny had known about this hotel's evil all along. She felt terrible, knowing that her son had known that he was spending all this time in such a horrid place. That was when Tony sent a thought to her.
((danny's outside he's in the hedge maze with his father))
Terror as black as midnight struck her. She had to get out of the hotel and rescue him!
Danny hid in the maze, terrified to move, his heart beating fast. Jack was next to him. Jack looked down at the snow and saw Danny's tracks end. Confusion went through Jack's mind. He grinned a sickening grin and went down to his right. His son was so transparent. He was obviously up to something. Playing a prank on him. Danny waited ten seconds, hoping his father was gone and then he looked around the corner. He saw Jack's struggling figure fade into the distance. He got up and ran as fast as he could out of the maze. He knew his mother had just escaped from the hotel. If he could get out without being seen, he would be safe! He ran and prayed for the freedom that would break him out of The Overlook Hotel forever!
Wendy ran outside. She stood at the hedge maze. She heard something running in there. Terrified to move, she stood there and realized that if Jack had killed Danny, there was no point in running. She stood there and accepted her fate. And that was when Danny ran out of the maze.
"DANNY!" she screamed.
"MOMMY!" squealed Danny. The two ran to each other and embraced, terrified. Jack heard this and howled. The cold was finally starting to freeze him. He howled Wendy's name. Wendy and Danny were running to Dick's snowcat. Wendy opened the door and shoved Danny in. Wendy then bounced in. Praying it would start, Wendy turned on the engine. It started and was running smooth as anything. Danny and Wendy heard Jack's chilling screams from inside the hedge maze.
"How's about some music?" asked Wendy. "And how's about we get out of here?"
"I've been waiting for that for a long time," smiled Danny, and the tears flowed out of his face. The music and running engine drowned Jack's screams and they drove off. Danny looked behind his shoulder, timidly, afraid his father would be chasing him.
"Don't look back," soothed Wendy. "Don't look back, doc. Look forward for the next ten minutes." Danny did as he was told, but as they drove through the entrance gates, past the sign which read:
THANK YOU FOR STAYING AT THE OVERLOOK HOTEL
WE'LL SEE YOU ON YOUR NEXT VISIT
he looked at the hotel and saw in a window a face glaring out at him. He knew which room it was. The Presidential Suite. The one which had the biggest windows of the suites and the nicest view. He didn't know whose face it was. It glared at him and then, as soon as they drove through the gates, the face faded away and the hotel stayed behind further and further, the large building dark and silent with its few lights on, until it was just a dot. And then Danny and Wendy were gone from it. And an hour later, they arrived in Sidewinder. They visited the hospital and were attended to immediately. After a few days, they were booked into a group home for sickly patients until the snow melted. They stayed there for 6 months, in a nice room that was like a motel, happy and content, not discussing the horrors they discussed. Before they left, Ullman visited Wendy and told Wendy that the police hadn't been able to find Jack or Dick and offered his condolences for what happened. He then paid Wendy the full sum of the caretaking salary, along with a whopping $5000 to not go to the media or report anything about what happened. Wendy had agreed. This allowed them to buy a nice apartment in Los Angeles. Wendy got a job as a receptionist at a medical centre, which paid the bills and Danny attended the local school. And the long nightmare was over.
YOU ARE READING
The Shining (Kubrick Version)
TerrorA written version of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie, based on Stephen King's 1977 novel. Please note that this is written in my words and that the story is originally written by Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick, along with the team who helped to write...
