Redrum

[Intro — nearly silent] [Old phonograph crackle] [Very faint room tone] [One distant music-box note] [Long silence] [TRICYCLE WHEEL: one slow squeak] [Long silence] [TRICYCLE WHEEL: squeak… squeak… squeak…] [Two young girls whispering from far down the hallway] Come play with us… Come play… [Verse 1 — close, weathered male vocal, almost conversational] Snow was coming sideways When the Torrance family drove Up that mountain road To a place nobody knows The Overlook stood empty Five floors above the snow Jack had come to watch the place While the winter came and froze [Behind vocal: faint vinyl hiss and distant phonograph crackle] [Soft ringing acoustic guitar enters] [One low cello note held underneath] Danny had his tricycle Rolling down the hall Squeak… squeak… squeak… Past every empty wall [TRICYCLE WHEEL becomes rhythmic] [Squeak — squeak — squeak — squeak] [Verse 2 — tension slowly rising] He saw two little sisters Standing where they shouldn’t be Dressed alike beneath the lights Staring back at me [Two distant child voices, perfectly synchronized] Come play with us… Forever… [Long silence] [Crooked banjo tremolo enters quietly] [Upright bass begins a slow pulse] [Low cello bends beneath the bass] Danny saw the ballroom He saw the blood-red past He saw a room with twenty-three And knew he shouldn’t ask [Female whisper, distant] Room two thirty-seven… [Sudden dropout] [Verse 3 — male vocal strained, drums beginning] Jack started writing Day after day Page after page But nothing much to say Wendy found the manuscript And looked into his eyes Same damn sentence Every page A thousand times [Dragging 6/8 drums enter] [Banjo tremolo grows crooked and nervous] [Low organ begins rising underneath] All work and no play All work and no play [Children whispering underneath] No play… No play… [Pre-Chorus — vocal tightening] The walls got colder The hallway got long The hotel kept whispering Something was wrong [Female whispers spread left and right] Red… Rum… [Children whisper] REDRUM [Long silence] [Chorus — restrained but swelling] The snow kept falling The hotel stayed still Something in the hallway Was waiting for the kill The doors kept breathing The old floorboards groaned And Jack kept smiling Like he wasn’t alone [Dark slow brass rises underneath] [Warped phonograph pitch bends downward] [Verse 4 — more frantic] Wendy found the pages And finally understood The man she came there with Wasn’t who she thought he was He chased her through the hotel She ran from room to room While Danny rode his tricycle Straight toward the gloom [TRICYCLE WHEELS suddenly accelerate] [Squeak-squeak-squeak-squeak-squeak] [Children running footsteps in the distance] [Footsteps get closer] [Sudden stop] [Silence] [Verse 5 — low, threatening vocal] Jack found the bathroom With a frozen little grin The door came open slowly And something let him in [Very faint female whisper] Here’s Johnny… [One beat of silence] [Male vocal, suddenly louder] Here’s Johnny. [AXE CHOP — abrupt musical/percussive hit] [All instruments drop out] [Long silence] [Low cello returns] [Distorted acoustic guitar scraping against the beat] [Verse 6 — building toward climax] He took that axe to the door Wendy screamed his name He laughed like a madman And the hotel fed the flame Redrum in the mirror Redrum in the snow Danny ran the maze Where Jack could never go [Children whispering faster] Redrum… Redrum… Redrum… [Dragging 6/8 drums intensify] [Upright bass doubles] [Banjo tremolo becomes frantic] [Low-tuned guitar enters] [Blown-out organ swells] [Bridge — chaotic, layered voices] [Male vocal strained almost to breaking] The maze… The snow… The footprints… The cold… [Children running around the stereo field] [Tricycle squeaks return underneath] [Squeaks become rhythmic percussion] [Female voices layered] Go… Go… Go… [Male vocal] Danny found the way out. [Everything suddenly stops] [One distant child whisper] REDRUM. [Final Verse — nearly whispered] Jack lost himself In the frozen white A father in the maze Disappearing through the night The Overlook kept standing Like nothing had gone wrong While somewhere in the ballroom An old record played a song [1930s phonograph slowly fades in] [Dark slow brass from distant room] [Vinyl crackle] [Female whisper] Come play with us… [Final Chorus — full haunted swell] The snow kept falling The hotel stayed still Jack was in the maze And Danny made the hill The axe lay in the hallway The blood was in the walls And somewhere in the Overlook The children still call [Children, distant and layered] Come play with us… Come play with us… [Music collapses into warped tape] [TRICYCLE WHEEL: squeak] [Long silence] [TRICYCLE WHEEL: squeak] [Longer silence] [One tiny music-box note] [Phonograph needle scratches] [Hard stop]