The Shining

Grady Girls

Winter of 1970

The winter of 1970 added to the ongoing list of tragedies that the Overlook was involved in.

Charles Grady was hired in September of that year to be the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel. He was hired to stay at the hotel with his family until May 1, 1971. The snow settled in, and the phones stopped working from the winter storm which isolated the family entirely from the outside world.

Grady was a recovering alcoholic. He dropped out of high school in the tenth grade, a fact that would later be blamed for his psychotic breakdown. He was stuck at the hotel with his beautiful wife, Alessandra, and his two daughters, Alexie and Alexa. One night he got inebriated and was driven mad by the voices of the hotel, later blamed to be an intense version of cabin fever.

Sometime during the winter, Grady suffered a psychotic break. Heavily influenced and possessed by the numerous spirits that haunted the hotel, he was driven mad and found a fire axe in the shed and he had only one thing on his mind.

Kill them all.

"Alexie! Alexa!" Charles Grady shouted throughout the empty halls of the Overlook Hotel. He had a strong grip on his axe, and he was running around the hotel in a chaotic frenzy.

Alessandra was crouched down beside her daughters, who were dressed in blue nightgowns with pink ribbons around their waists because they were getting ready for bed. She pressed her shaking finger up against her lips, trying to remain calm for frightened Alexie and Alexa.

They were hiding in the caretakers room, and the girls were under the bed, hidden by blankets and the covers that draped over the edge. Alessandra wasn't small enough to fit in there with them, but she was going to do everything in her power to save her daughters lives. They were all now well-aware of the insanity that plagued Charles, and there was no possible way to connect with the outside world. The phone lines were still down, the radio hadn't worked in days, and the snow was packed heavily against the doors and windows, making it impossible to escape the structure.

There was a sudden loud thud against the door, and the girls had to cover their mouthes with their hands so they didn't make a sound. Grady was on the other side, using his foot to kick the frail lock.

He grunted and kicked again, the flimsy door chain was coming loose with every kick he made. Alessandra took the brief opportunity to thrash the sheets of their bed around to make it messy in an attempt to hide her daughters.

As Grady kicked the door again, Alessandra squatted down to her daughters and said in a firm but low voice, "don't come out. Whatever you hear, don't come out. You'll be safe here."

Of course, she had no idea if they would be safe there. If she lost this fight, it'll be her feeble ten and eight year old daughters against their burly father wielding an axe. He was angry that they tried to burn down the hotel, and had internally labeled them as incompetent. He was trying to punish them to the most severe degree. Even if he took his time and looked in every single room, he would eventually find them and they would get murdered in the most horrific way imaginable.

"Mum—" Alexa said in a low, shaky voice. The girls were both terrified about what might happen to them. They were old enough to know that death was likely in their near future.

"Shh, it'll be okay, darling. I love you both so—so much." She grabbed their hands and kissed them. She closed her eyes and a tear rolled down her pale cheek. She didn't want to scare her daughters by saying goodbye, but this was goodbye.

Grady finally kicked the door open, and it slammed into the wall. He stood in the middle of the doorway, clutching the axe in his brawny hands. He scanned the room, looking for his family with murder in his wide and intense eyes. He was possessed by the hotel, and the hotel was everywhere. It knew exactly where they were.