You took your five-year-old son Danny out of his small car seat, and together you looked up at the grand Overlook Hotel. It was a long drive through the mountains, and now you see the Overlook standing tall over its hedge mazes and topiaries, in contrast with the blue skies above. It's the kind of place that brings a nostalgic feeling, even when you are certain you have never been there.

"Lovely place, isn't it? It was warmer when I was here for the interview, but I suppose it's not so cold now," your husband Jack told you, taking the lead towards the front entrance. "It won't be so bad spending the winter here. Plenty of areas to roam, so we won't get cabin fever."

You were happy to see Jack hopeful for once, after the last two difficult years you had endured as a family. Two years ago you had considered leaving him. He had always had a drinking problem, and it hadn't been the first time he had snapped, but seeing him snap at Danny had almost been too much to forgive him. He had come home from the bar late one night and found Danny throwing his papers all around his office, and Danny had a broken arm for weeks. Danny had been quieter ever since, hiding away in his room and speaking to his new imaginary friend, Tony.

Jack had had two more incidents since then. He had gotten fired from his job as a teacher after assaulting a student who he had caught vandalizing his car, and another time he had been drunk driving with a friend when they hit a child's bicycle. The bicycle was not being used, but Jack imagining a child on the bike was enough to bring him to sobriety. Seeing the incidents all described make it sound bad, but you lived with him every day and saw every side of him, and when he was gentle and loving it was easy to forget. And now the Overlook Hotel is supposed to be a new start for the three of you to forget the past.

"It's nice to meet you, Hallorann," Jack said to the head cook once the three of you were inside and touring the hotel. He shook the man's hand with his usual charming grin. "Happy to be here."

"I'm glad," Hallohann replied, returning the smile. "We have had bad luck with the past caretakers here, so we are pleased to have a new family stationed. The last caretaker... well it was unfortunate," Hallohann told the both of you as Danny wandered the kitchen. "Killed his wife and twin daughters, right in these walls. I met him before the winter, don't know what happened. He seemed nothing short of normal. We don't want anything like that happening again here. We need a real bonded family unit that can handle six months alone together."