Inhuman Places Breed Human Monsters

Prologue

Edmund Campbell was not the best man in the world, but by any stretch of the imagination, but nobody could claim they were wholly good. There wasn't a single soul, living or dead, that could be nothing but good, for even the best, the pious, the selfless, the glorified martyr that had not even a moment's weakness where the fabled evil could creep into their life and stain the pure slate of their soul.
Edmund was not a good man, but he was not a bad man. He was but a mere man. A man who, despite the tragic folly of being born a human, was trying his darnedest.

It seemed that things were at last looking up for him. Having gotten dreadfully overwhelmed by any and everything, he had managed to make a series of rash decisions one after another, with none of the calculations that he would have ordinarily approached even the most insignificant decisions.
And now he deferred from his university course even though he was in his final few years, proposed to the woman that had held his heart in her hand to for so very long, and took up a job in the middle of goddamn nowhere for the whole of the winter months.

The weight of his university requirements had been crushing him from right off the bat, so perhaps it was merely inevitable that he would need to leave if he wanted to keep his mind. He adored Mina Hobble with all his heart and soul, but had never found the right moment to ask for her hand, so it worked in his favour that it had simply happened one day, no grand show of theatrics. But his new job as the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, well, he felt as though he was well over his head with this.

At least he wouldn't be going there alone. Mina, with a laugh when he told her what he'd gotten himself into, had insisted she accompany him to stop him becoming some strange hermit way up there in the mountains all by his lonesome. Although he had tried to talk her out if it, insisting he'd be fine, he couldn't help but be relieved by her stubbornness meaning she outright refused to let him go alone.
Together, he was sure, the months would simply fly by and it would be a tale to tell when they came home. 

As the day of their moving to their new home neared, the days before grew busier and busier. Last minute preparations, packing the warmest things they owned, and then shopping for more when they realised they didn't have nearly enough to accomodate six whole months, and of course the social aspect of trying to spend time with everyone they felt they would be obligated to see before they were off, and the reassuring of these people that there is a phone at the hotel so they wouldn't be completely isolated up there.

Through all of this, there was a sense of excitement towards the unknown adventure that the two of them would be embarking on so very soon. Even the sense of apprehension that Edmund had been stuck on when he first came off his wee manic period and got the news of his new employment had been almost completely chased away. It was Mina's enthusiasm towards it that had done it, he was sure, and he was also sure that he was grateful for this.

It was with a light heart that they stuffed the car to almost overflowing when the day of their departure finally came. It seemed a mammoth journey from the tiny little flat that the two of them shared, but the decision to leave earlier and use the added time to do a touch of sightseeing at the lookouts on the way. The view, he'd been told, was said to be breathtaking, so they were quite eager to see the sights that were supposed to make a grand hotel all lonely in the mountains a supposedly world renowned tourist attraction.
Edmund admittedly hadn't given it a proper gander on the day of his interview, his trip down spent fussing over everything that could happen, and in turn spent his trip back fretting about everything that did happen, as was his wont.

With little more than a glance back, Edmund and Mina were off into the unknown that lurked behind the shut doors of the Overlook.