Below is a weirdo story I wrote over the course of the month of November 2020. Each day was written as a Facebook post to my friends so it’s uber casual English. It is unedited and crazy really, lol! But I was also working 8-5 and participating in a writing contest which required 1666.66 words/day or something. So most of this story was written around midnight, in a daze and half delusional…
Just the way I like my stories:)
I miss my days of industriousness. Maybe one day it will come back to me. But enough of my whining~
Anyway, don’t expect much brilliance. Just my fan-fiction take on my experience as a writer traveling to a strange hotel in the mountains during their off-season to write peacefully by myself….that is….
…until this strange family arrived…
Day One
The hotel I’m staying in is totally empty. Do you find that odd? And the labyrinth out front is a bit intimidating. But the Overlook is a SHINING example of posh. Though a bit creepy…
Day Two
The hotel’s security cam caught me out frolicking through the snow last night. So silly, I know. Yes, I’m running with a knife but I thought, if that labyrinth wakes up and swallows me, this handy-dandy knife will get me out of trouble! Now I’m just soaking wet and freezing inside this place – not a soul anywhere down these halls. I think I’ll explore more rooms tomorrow. Too tired now, must sleep…
Day Three
I woke up last night still freezing after falling asleep in front of a cold, dead fireplace. What should have been warming my bones had no fire burning within. I think I might have frozen to death right there, the dead hearth laughing at me, but as luck would have it, I found an axe. Split some wood and voila – nothing like bringing the fire of life back to where it belongs. Thought I’d video myself typing away down there – I’m pretty proud of my fire I built. Going to keep typing, I’ll take some pics later, you know, like I said I would…
Day Four
This place is creepsville! And what hotel paints entire rooms using only one color? There’s nothing inviting about it, no comfort to be found. How ironic. The only warmth I have is that fireplace downstairs – thank God for it. Makes me feel less lonely stuck on this frozen mountain. But…I have something to tell you… I may not be alone for long. I got an email that a family will be coming to stay here at the hotel soon but the snow had delayed their progress. Hope they make it. The storm is getting worse~
Day Five
So our little family showed up today! Jack and Wendy along with their son Danny. I wasn’t sure what to expect but they seem normal enough – maybe just a bit too pleasant, like they’re hiding something. But it’s probably just me being paranoid. All day Jack was completely preoccupied with the model of the maze in the grand hall. And Wendy was just sorta walking, smoking and looking spooked. So I spent some time hanging out with Danny and his toy cars.
Day Six
Wendy and I rummaged through the hotel’s kitchen and prepared dinner tonight. We gathered around the hearth after the meal and I noticed Jack peering into the fireplace with a slightly concerned expression,
“Does the fire bother you Jack?” I said, invading his thoughts.
“Don’t much care for it”, he said.
He swiveled his toothpick around with his tongue,
“Hey Wendy, did you know our hostess here is a writer?” An off-putting grin followed.
“How interesting”, she said, “Jack is a writer too. Why that’s the reason we’re here.”
“So random that we all ended up here”, I said “I’m writing fifty-thousand words in one month.”
Wendy’s head tilted to one side and she leaned back in her chair,
“Wow, well I’d say the ashes on my cigarette would sooner fall to the carpet than you finishing your little book in one month honey. Jack is a professional and it takes him years.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, I wanted to lean in real close and blow her carefully balanced ashes in her face, but thought, [Don’t do it, just write. Keep writing, that’s all]. I was hoping these two were a lovely couple – now I’m thinking they’re just a lovely couple of creeps and now we’re all stuck in creepsville! I excused myself, the fireplace warming me as I passed by, and retired to my room~
Day Eight
This morning I head downstairs to get some breakfast and find Jack in hopes to strike up a conversation. On my way I noticed Wendy tinkering with the phone switchboard.
“Good morning, playing operator?”
She dropped the headset, “You startled me”, she said, “I’m just trying to get this machine to work. They say another storm is headed our way and I need to call a doctor to come up.”
“A doctor…is someone sick?”
“Oh it’s nothing”, she stopped fidgeting with the wires and looked up, her voice lowered, “Danny said he saw something down one of the hallways yesterday. It scared him so badly he ran into the wall on his tricycle and hit his head. I just want to make sure it’s nothing serious.”
I suddenly felt uneasy.
“Here, maybe I can help with the radio.”
We dialed in some of the channels and got it working. The doctor didn’t answer. I stood up and touched Wendy’s shoulder, “We’ll try again later. Are you sure you’re okay?” I tried not to act too concerned. It didn’t work.
“I’m fine, please. Everything is fine. I appreciate your help but I have to go now.”
Great, I thought, and now I get to go chat-up happy Jack.
I’ll at least have breakfast first.
I turn and head for the kitchen..
Day Nine
(real world Word Count: 17,140)
I was pretty sure whatever Danny saw while playing in the hallways yesterday wasn’t going to be good. What I wasn’t sure of is whether or not his mother was telling the whole truth. But I knew how to find out – the GoPro. It would’ve captured what he saw and recorded it. I’d have to steel myself and search back through the footage.
As I passed through the Main Hall to the kitchen, I noticed the fire I had burning bright didn’t have a spark of life left and had gone dark. The kitchen which was a huge commercial affair, was stocked to feed hundreds staying in the hotel during the summer season. I opened one of the large counter cabinets and found several rows of containers with the words Not Your Average Schmaltz written across the front.
A pan clanged, it was Wendy, “Sorry, I cook when I get nervous.”
Smiling, halfway, I put on the coffee…it just occurred to me, I hadn’t seen Jack at his typewriter.
I hadn’t seen him anywhere.
Day 10
I AM
T O A S T… !!
I mean, I had toast fried in schmaltz with cinnamon and sugar….with my coffee and… Wendy, well I have no idea where she is – slumped over in the sink snoring I think. And Jack — I could care less about Jack right now. He’s probably in that lighted bar drinking with ghosts.
Or passed out.
He’ll be fine…
For now, I’m going to sleeeeeeeeeeep. Except SOMEONE let my beautiful glowing fire die so let me take a minute and stoke the fire and wrap up in a blanket and fall asleep here next to the heat–
THE END
Day Twelve
I woke up warm, the shadows dancing on the brick inlay of the fireplace as the fire rippled across, and then back over the embers in a beautiful dance. Fire is alive. It breathes and consumes. If not cared for, fed and tended to, you lose it. It loses that spark that creates life and you lose the heat. My thoughts strayed to Danny and his vision.
I got up from my nap with the fire, and made my way down the eerie halls of the Overlook. Jack was back here somewhere and when I found him it was just as I had said it would be, he was drinking and talking with ghosts. He was unaware of himself – you know, they get that way – talking to nobody, mad at nobody, in love with nobody. I wasn’t about to talk to him for any reason.
I headed back upstairs to peer into Danny’s world and see what I could find on the GoPro that would confirm Wendy’s story. It didn’t take long at all before I saw it – that dreadful thing that terrified and stopped Danny in his tracks. I knew exactly what it was. I went out of my room, GoPro in hand, to find him…
Day 13 and 14
Real world Word Count (I fell asleep, lol): 24,634
I found Danny sitting in one of the lounge chairs pushed up against the window. He was gazing out over the snow covered labyrinth in the front court. It’s hard being a kid – stuck inside.
“Hey Danny”, I walked over and sat down on the ottoman in front of him.
“So, I hear you crashed yesterday on your tricycle. Is that right?”
He shook his head confirming.
“I know what you saw”, I said, holding up the GoPro.
He shifted in his seat toward me, “You saw them? On there?”
“Yes. You saw the frightening physical embodiment of the occurrence known as WRITER’S BLOCK.”
A concerned look fled over his face, “Are writer’s blocks bad things that will hurt me?”
“They don’t have to be if you don’t let them. Many adults swerve and bang their heads on walls too when they encounter it, just like you did. So you’re not alone Danny and I know what to do next time you see them.”
“What should I do?” he said.
“Just gear-up and drive your Big Wheels right in-between them! Don’t let ‘em bully you around.”
“You mean I can break through the bad Writer’s Block?”
“Yes buddy, no fear! Don’t let fear stop you from leading your life. Whether it’s riding your tricycle now or creating great and beautiful things in the future when you grow up.”
He stood up with a start, “Alright!” And gave me a big high-five, jumped down on his tricycle and peddled off with purpose.
Wow, if only he knew what he saw was a real thing happening to me in this creepy hotel. The boy was Shining…perhaps he’ll understand that one day.
Day 17
Word Count: 28,758
Days have past – I’ve lost track. It was Jack I was looking for, or was it Jack I was avoiding? I wandered the halls of the hotel uneasily. In the end, I didn’t find Jack at the typewriter. Instead of diligently working, he was studying the maze model again. Not only that, he was rearranging the hedge rows.
“Why the fascination?” I asked.
“I’m just studying this here maze and decided there’s a better way out, so I’m fixin’ it.”
I reached out and touched one of the hedge pieces – it wasn’t plastic like I was expecting. It was an actual plant, a miniature shrub in the pattern of the labyrinth outside. I thought that was a nice touch, a living mini labyrinth.
Every time Jack would rearrange the hedge rows, he was pulling the plants up by their roots.
I turned and left him to his tinkering, but noticed something strange outside through the panoramic lounge windows. As I got closer to the windows I saw huge puffs of snow billowing into the air. The labyrinth was moving violently, like an animal scratching and scraping from inside the hedge rows.
But it wasn’t an animal at all. I looked back across the lounge at Jack. “What in the world—“
When he moved a hedge on the miniature model, the larger outdoor labyrinth was rearranged.
“It’s a recursive maquette…” , I couldn’t believe it.
Jack had no idea what was happening.
I glanced to my right and left to be sure no one else was seeing what I was seeing. It was too late. Danny had seen everything…and much more no doubt.
Day 18
Word Count: 30,509
I watched Danny run off into the recesses of the hotel and disappear into the darkness. I turned my attention back to Jack because Danny wasn’t the only one who saw something through the window tonight. I pressed him,
“The fire went out again in the fireplace”, I said “it was freezing upstairs last night.”
His eyebrows raised up in this unsettling expression, “And just what did you want me to do about it?”
“It’s just that I had plenty of wood on it to keep it burning. I was just curious if you knew why it went out. That’s all.”
“Let’s you and me get something straight”, he pulled himself away from the maze and set his gaze directly on me, “for as long as I’m in this place, there will be no fire burning — ever.”
I slowly began backing up, past the dead, cold fireplace. Jack was moving toward me with a madness in his eyes. At that moment, the whole fireplace lit up in a blaze of fire. He turned around completely spooked.
“What’d you do! How did you manage that?”
“I’m going to tell you again Jack, don’t put my fire out — ever. I was here before you came and I’ll be here when you leave. But I’m sure you understand that time waits for no one.”
I felt a certain pity for him, in a way, but at the same time I know what he did and I know why he’s here. He doesn’t, yet. But I think it’s time he learned. When you play with ghosts, you’re liable to get burned.
Day 24
Word Count: 37,105
“Jack!”
Wendy’s cry broke Jack’s concentration, turning his attention from me to his wife. She was sobbing, looking at a large stack of pages neatly situated beside the typewriter.
“Put that down Wendy”, his tone was icy, “what have I told you about always snooping around my things?”
While the two of them were engaged, I made haste to strengthen my fire. I began moving everything to the hearth that could be consumed and then threw it into the flames. Chairs, end tables, decor – anything that could be burned got tossed in. It was glorious! The flames lapping out around the edges of the brick facade…
A smile spread across my face.
Suddenly I heard Wendy scream. I turned to see her swinging a bat at Jack (the woman had no clue about grip). I could hardly believe it when one of her swings actually cracked over his head and knocked him out – his body falling limp to the floor.
My God, I thought, she actually landed a blow.
Wendy grabbed his ankles and drug him into the kitchen. I went over to the typewriter to see what all the fuss was about. On the table was Jack’s manuscript – if you want to call it that – over a thousand pages that were all identical. In the typewriter a single page half completed that read the same as all the others,
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
Madness.
My fire had reached the wooden mantel and it was starting to burn. Wonderful, I thought.
It was time to have a chit-chat with Wendy. She was just as guilty as Jack. Danny knew it and I knew it. It was time to give her what she came all this way out to the Overlook to find…
Her dark forgotten memories…
Day 27
“You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you.” ~Aslan
I’m not sure how long it took me, but I found her, completely distraught…
“Who are you calling Wendy?” I said. She jumped at the sound of my voice.
“Stop sneaking up on me! And go away, I don’t need your help.”
“Tell me who you’re calling…is it the Doctor again?”
“Yes, it’s the Doctor. I need the Doctor, Danny has—”
“Put the phone down Wendy and look at me.”
“I can’t! There’s no time—“
“Look at me…”
She slumped over, grabbing the headset and pulling it slowly off her ear,
“But…maybe this time. I thought surely if I called sooner…”
“We both know the Doctor isn’t going to answer,” I said.
Wendy finally looked up and said, “I know no one is going to answer. Because you’re the doctor.”
Tears were flowing down her cheeks.
“I know what you came here for,” I said, “I felt you calling me long before you got here, but it isn’t going to change the past.”
“Jack and I came here to be with Danny. We miss him so much. We didn’t mean for this to happen,” she said, sobbing.
“I know, shhhh, it’s okay…”, I reached out and began to stroke the top of her head with my cold, ghostly hand. It’s not easy to manifest, and near impossible to console the living.
Wendy felt the chill of my touch and started shivering.
This wasn’t going to be easy…but it was time now…
Danny stepped out from the shadows,
“Hi Mommy.”
“Danny!” Wendy reached for him.
“He’s not real Wendy,” I said.
“But he is and he’s here and we’re taking him back with us, Jack and I, that’s what we came here for, to get Danny and take him home.”
I leaned closer to her ear and whispered, “What you came here to do was let him go.” There was an anxious quietness that settled over her.
“You brought the memory of him here, that’s why he showed up when you and Jack came to the hotel. But you never interacted with him or talked to him at all. Your presence here stirred my memories and that’s when I remembered the events of that night. Now I know why I’m here. You called me here.”
“I don’t understand anything anymore,” she said, “I’m just so tired of the guilt.”
“All those years ago you placed that emergency call, to me. When I arrived here during the snow storm, you told me Danny saw a terrifying vision down the hallway and bumped his head, but you lied. He did see the vision, but he never ran into the wall and he never bumped his head.
“In actuality, Danny was already terrified from the vision of the twins and when he read the word ‘reDrUm’ on the mirror before bedtime, he was so scared he ran out of the hotel and into the freezing night heading straight for the labyrinth. But he lost his way and when Jack tried to find him, he also got lost in the dark.”
Wendy looked at Danny standing in front of her, “I’m so sorry baby, mommy is so sorry.”
“Danny froze somewhere in the dark corridors of the labyrinth. Your husband was chopping down hedge rows with an axe, searching everywhere for him. But he was too late. And you had already called me. When I arrived, I knew something terrible had happened. Then you and Jack panicked.
“Jack didn’t mean to…we wouldn’t have hurt you!”
“But you just couldn’t see how to get out of it, and I knew about it and there was no way to prove to anyone what really happened. So you killed me and had Jack remove any trace by throwing my body into the fireplace.
Wendy was shivering, unable to hold back her tears, “I don’t know what else to do, I’m just lost. I want the pain to go away but I fear I’ll never be at peace.”
Danny manifested and reached out for his mother’s hand, “Let’s take a walk in the maze. It’s okay Mommy, I promise we’ll find our way out.”
I gestured to Danny and without opening my mouth or saying an audible word I told him, “You’re father rearranged the Labyrinth. All the passageways are different.”
He unzipped his backpack and pulled out my GoPro, “I know, I took a picture of it with this, so I won’t be getting lost again.”
High-five.
“Smart boy. Take good care of your mom. Remember, look for the hanging triangle at the end of the twelfth hedge row. I’ll get the timing right, don’t worry. We can do this.”
He gave me a smile and led his mother out of the room.
“Time waits for no one,” I thought, “I better get moving”…
Day 28
Word Count: 44,988
Had I reached Jack sixty seconds later it would have been over.
Timing is everything.
The very best of things can be the worst if the timing is off. And the very terriblest of things can seem perfect….when the timing is off.
That’s what this whole thing is about really, timing. You see, Wendy and Jack here are just plain outta sorts because they’ve been living in the past for too long.
So they come out here to this hotel, unwittingly call me (talk about ghosts from the past) and now I’m here – just trying to get some writing done – and in order to find some peace, I’ve got to sort out their misery. Because I’m not a miserable ghost.
I’m a happy ghost. And a utilitarian one at that, when I need to be.
I find Jack, however, in a not so happy place because let’s face it, Wendy is over it. When a woman gets mad, it doesn’t matter how she holds that bat, you gonna get hurt.
I looked all over the kitchen for Jack. He was nowhere. Except I hadn’t checked the large commercial freezer in the back. Yes indeed, Wendy put that man in the freezer. Karma – you keep putting out my fire, somebody is going to freeze your ass….
Anyway, I drug him out before the icy cold air sunk down under his skin and zapped his blood vessels. That would have been the end. But I needed to…well, warm him up a bit.
I scooted him over (yes scooted, he was like a block of ice) and situated him in front of the large cabinet, you know the one. I opened it to reveal all those jars, row after row of ‘Not Your Average Schmaltz” that had been shipped from Germany.
I don’t know how many cans later – thank God there was an automatic commercial grade can opener attached to the end of the counter – he was ready to be rolled.
Are you tracking with me?
So another glide (yes, glide this time, not scoot, because rendered goose fat is greasy – but great for frying French toast) and we were at the hearth, in front of that glorious raging fire. There was a large mound on one side of the fireplace which consisted of ash and charcoal, the half burnt remains of tables and chairs, and it had cooled to the touch.
Perfect for a second layer, I thought, will stick nicely to the Schmaltz.
I rolled Jack into this heap of charcoal until he looked as gray and ghostly as the snow filled night sky.
Pulling one of the embers glowing brightly out of the fire, I touched him with it. The calm orange flame tracked swiftly across his insulated body, across the coals stuck to the Schmaltz underneath, and glowed peacefully – I’ve never seen anything like it.
It was mesmerizing to watch-
Like when you see someone who is chilled from the inside of their soul all the way to their fingers and toes and then something touches them, causes them to regain hope, maybe smile, maybe catch a glimpse that yes, there will be a better day soon – the timing is in God’s hands.
Kinda beautiful like that.
Then Mr. Cantankerous started to wake up.
“What’s…th,th,this? What’s happening to me?”
“Just warming you up Jack. Consider it the same as a Shoney’s 3am sober-up call with an endless coffee pot served on the table. It’s time you wake up and face reality.”
“I’ve come here for my son,” he said.
“You’ve come here to be free of your guilt concerning your son and to help your wife let go. You still have a chance Jack, don’t waste it.”
If it’s possible to describe a man’s sense of being at the moment the icy exterior breaks, the shards impairing his vision fall away and he can breathe freely again, I would do it. But instead, know that he and I looked on at the marvelous spectacle of pyro-engineering that was his charcoal covered body with a layer of red-hot fire quietly rippling across it.
Perhaps though, more importantly was his own sober, warmed up heart finally catching fire and the cold emptiness that once was his place of loss, melting away. I only could hope that he would know and understand how to fill it from this point forward….because the clock was still ticking and Danny was almost entering the twelfth row of the labyrinth with his mother…
“I need to find Wendy..” Jack muffled. It was hard I’m sure trying to speak through a layer of goose fat and a layer of charcoal across your face.
“Indeed you do Jack. Indeed you do”…..
Day 29
“Yet God does devise means, that His banished will not be expelled from Him.” ~ 2 Samuel 14:14
Jack left me to admire my fire, which was growing more powerful by the minute and with good cause. He headed through the snow to the maze and hopefully to find Wendy.
After stealing a moment with my flame, I walked over to the maze model in the corner of the room. I peered down into the hedge rows of living plants and spotted both Wendy and Danny walking together through the snow-covered pathways. They were getting close to the final hedge which was a dead end, except for a small hidden door the size of a child that was cut into the hedge where the path ended. It was hidden because it was covered in snow. I was going to take care of that minor detail for Danny.
I walked to the other side of the Living Labyrinth and started pushing it, ever closer to the fire. I had to make sure I got it just right-
–timing is everything.
Meanwhile, the moment Jack had stepped into the snow, steam from the burning coals on his body started to waft upward and it didn’t take long, with nearly three feet of snow, for the burning embers to be quenched as the goose fat melted away. He pretty much got washed in a steam bath and shed his skin, as a manner of speaking.
He reached Wendy and Danny at just the right time.
“Dad!”
“Hey son! Come give me a hug, I’ve missed you.”
Danny ran over and wrapped his arms around his dad’s neck. It felt good for a father and son to reconnect. Jack held on for a good long while.
“Are you ready my boy?”
“I’m ready Dad.”
Jack looked up at Wendy, who had been enjoying the time spent with Danny walking through the maze and her expression turned down.
“Wendy,” Jack said softly under his voice, “We’ve got to do what’s right for Danny. It’s time, and we can’t afford to waste anymore. I’m right here, I’m not going to leave you.”
She wiped a few tears away and bent down to Danny’s eye-level.
“Where will you go?” she asked him.
“Well I’m going up there I guess,” he said, pointing up, “You’re okay with that right mommy? When it’s time you can come to, I’ll build you a house there while you’re away!”
Wendy wiped a few more tears from her cheeks and smiled.
“Okay baby, you do that.”
She gave him a hug with her whole self…
Then Danny said, “So you have to go over to the red triangle and pull it.”
“This one on the end, here?” Wendy walked over and looked at it, then gave it a tug. “It’s frozen.”
“Here let me try,” but Jack couldn’t get it to budge either, “Now what?”
~~~~
Back in the Great Hall, I pushed the maze across the lounge floor and positioned it as close to the flames as I could without actually catching it on fire. And that was just the delicate nature of it; I had to be careful that no embers accidentally caught it on fire.
As soon as the heat from the fireplace blew over the Living Labyrinth, the cold icy snow where Jack, Wendy and Danny were waiting began to melt. The red triangle also thawed out and Wendy was prepared now to pull it.
She thought for a moment of all the memories, the good times, the growing pains and all-in-all there wan’t anything she had regretted not doing. She felt full, it wasn’t superficial, it was knowing that we’re all imperfect and that forgiving herself was the key to keep on living now, while she was apart from Danny. Because life isn’t only about suffering the loss, it’s about making good with who and what is left when everything else is gone. Life is about living, and she was ready to let go of the hurt.
Jack had walked over to where she was standing and rested his hand around the back of her neck, “You got this darlin’, if you can swing a bat and plum knock me out, you’ve got the strength to do this.”
The snow had melted enough to reveal the door, once hidden, at the end of the hedge row. “Look!” Danny said pointing to it.
Wendy pulled back on the red triangle and with a satisfying clank, the mechanism began to open the door.
There was a warm glow that at first dawned around the edges as the door slowly opened, revealing a much brighter ‘other side’ that seemed to sparkle against the blue frosty night inside that Living Labyrinth. All three of their shadows cast long down the corridors by the glowing influx of light.
“Bye Dad! Bye Mom! I’ll see you when you get here!”
They waved good-bye as their son bountifully crossed the threshold of the once hidden door, from the coldness of the night and into a warmer brighter place, at the not-so dead end twelfth hedge row. Wendy and Jack looked at each other when it was all done and felt a little warmer and a little brighter too. Somehow, for once, they both understood that everything was going to be alright.
Day 30
Total Word Count: 50,807 
I advanced the typewriter forward twice and typed the words ‘THE END’ at the bottom of the text. I gathered all the pages of the story I’d been writing for the past 30 days and tucked them into my briefcase.
After putting out the remaining embers in the fireplace, I gathered my things and went out to the front entrance of the hotel to wait. The driver would be here soon. Today, I’m going home. What a great place to find some peace and write while the seasonal crowds were away. I will have to write the hotel management and pass along my thanks for the opportunity.
~THE END~
