He was pale, his lips trembling, his eyes lost in the void. As if a part of him had stayed trapped in that room.

—Jack —Wendy said, her heart hammering. —We need to leave.

Jack looked at her from across the room.

His smile was slow, strange.

—Leave? Why?

—Danny… Something hurt him, Jack. Don’t tell me it was his imagination, because it wasn’t.

Jack laughed. A dry, sharp sound.

—You want to take him to a doctor? Through the snow? You want us to go out and freeze to death because the kid had a nightmare?

—It wasn’t a nightmare, Jack.

—Wasn’t it? —Jack took a step toward her. His shadow stretched across the wall. —Then what was it, Wendy?

And for the first time, she was afraid of him.

The Overlook trembled with satisfaction.

Fourth Part: The Spiral into Hell

Jack was no longer Jack.

It didn’t happen all at once. It was a slow process, like a fruit rotting from the inside.