Who: Dan and Jack Where: Their apartment What: Dan always knows when people leave When: Early morning Open: Only to Abra
He was dreaming. It was an old standard, being five years old and being chased through the corridors of the Overlook by the thing that had stolen his daddy, its face shifting all the time to look like all the different ghosts that wanted his Shine. The purple one with snakes for hair was confusing, but he didn't stick around to try and work out why. Danny yelled "False faces! Not real!" at the thing, unaware that he was muttering it in real life as he tossed and turned on the couch in their apartment, and then turned and continued to run from the roque mallet that crashed into all the walls behind him.
He'd woken up with a start as the mallet swung far too close to his head for comfort, the blanket he'd rescued from the hotel pooling around his waist as he sat up, and he knew he had to get up and walk the dream off. His clothes lay at the bottom of the couch, so he pulled them on and then grabbed a pair of boots and his coat because of the stupid snow. Once he was ready, he left the apartment and started walking. He needed coffee pretty badly - his hands had been shaking bad enough that he hadn't bothered tying the laces on his boots, he'd just stuffed his feet inside them and left it at that - so he headed for the food court instead of rattling around in the kitchen and waking Abra and his dad up. He got there soon enough and headed towards Isabel's diner since there was always coffee there. Isabel was sitting at one of the tables as he opened the door, and he smiled over at her.
The smile didn't last long, as she faded away to nothing as he stood there. Then he became aware of a queue of people behind him, and he looked round to see who else was there. Bobby and his mom, Hem and his son, TJ, Henry and others that he didn't know as well. All of them were fading away like Isabel had and within seconds, Dan was the only one remaining in the diner. "No," he whispered, "No... Oh, fuck, no!" and he turned to run back to his apartment to check on his family but he fell and
and landed on the floor beside the couch with a THUD, his blanket tangled round his feet and his wrist aching from landing on it again.