Misery door Stephen King

'Memory was slow to return. At first there was only pain.The pain was total, everywhere, so that there was no room for memory.
And then he remembered.'

Paul Sheldon awoke and slowly began to remember who he was; a famous writer. With his great writing talents he had created Misery Chastain, the main character in all his eight volumes. Paul felt trapped by Misery, that's why he wrote her death in the final pages of his last volume. It made him feel free. Paul wanted to write another story, without Misery Chastain, a serious novel, about the life of a young car-thief in New York. It was all working out fine, he had just finished his new book 'fast cars', but then it happend. The car accident. He was driving his car through the mountains, when a storm struck. The car’s wipers were unable to keep the windows clear and the road was so slippery that the tyres couldn’t grip the surface anymore. He lost control and the car crashed.
He remembered all of this before he opened his eyes, and when he did open them he noticed that he wasn't in a hospital. His legs were broken, but instead of being in the hospital he was in a house. The house of Annie Wilkes, who claimed to be biggest fan. She claimed to love Misery.

'There was a question Paul wanted to ask. The question was, "Why am I not in a hospital?" But by the time his mind was clear enough to form the question, he already knew better than to ask it.'

Paul was aware that something was wrong with Annie, but because Annie was giving him regular doses of a pain-killing drug called Novril, he couldn't find out what it exactly was. During a seemingly ordinay conversation he found out that Annie is a phychotic. Paul, already extreemly addicted to Novril, realizes that Annie could be really dangerous. He was caught like a spider in a web, and weeks past. Through out those weeks - or as long as Paul could remember, the drug made him black out a lot- Annie cared for him.
But then his last novel came out. 'Misery's Child', the last volume, and the last book about Misery. Annie immediately bought the book, read it, and lost her mind.

'She looked at him and brushed her hair off her face. Two red marks had appeared on her cheeks. "you dirty bird", she said. "Oh, you dirty bird, how could you do that? You killed her."
"No, Annie, I didn't it was just a book."
She punshed her fist down into the pillows next to his head. The whole bed shook and Paul cried out in pain.
He knew that he was close to death.'

She forced him to burn his typescript of 'Fast Cars' and to write a new novel. A new novel where Misery is back to life again, she wants 'Misery's Return'. Paul knew not to argue with her, and started to work on 'Misery's Return'.
He thought about escaping many times, and now that she got him a wheelchair, he could check the house out a bit. But when Annie left, and she left him behind for hours, sometimes even days, he found out that there wasn't a working phone and he already knew that the neighbours were too far away. Everybody stayed far away from Annie, nobody visited her, and nobody knew he was there. The doors were locked and he was trapped. There was no escape. However, he did manage to find some novril for emergencies.
Hours turned into days and days turned into weeks. Paul knew he had to play along with crazy Annie, he knew he had to continue writing. And he couldn't deny that he liked reviving Misery again. And now that Annie had choped his thumb and foot off - all in a fit of rage that both Paul and Annie could remember very little off, Annie spaced out while attacking him, and Paul's senses were all messed up because of the novril- all he could do was continue writing. Time seemed to past faster when he was writing. And he liked that. He liked to retreat in his fantasy and forget about crazy Annie.
Once again Annie leaves to go to her Laughing Place, a place in the hills were she allows her self to scream and laugh and be insane. And Paul takes advantage of her absence. He examines the house once again and he finds a scrapbook in her living room. The scrapbook is filled with stories cut from newspapers. Stories about all the people she killed. Her father, brother, and several old men and even babies, as she used to work in the hospital. When he leafs trough the scrapbook he finds an article concerning his loss. He realizes that Annie would kill him as soon as he finished the book.
Policemen are starting to investigate the area, searching for witnesses; his car from the accident was found. In the meanwhile Annie had returned and Paul continued to write his book, Annie found out about the scrapbook, and attacked Paul once again.

'He tried to turn over, as if he could get away from her, but his broken legs and drugged body refused to obey. Annie poured some of the liquid on his left ankle and some more onto the blad of the axe.
"There won't be much pain, Paul. It won't be bad."'

He lost both of his legs.
Days past and after a while a police officer comes to Annie's Place, Paul tried to draw his attention by trowing a vase out of the window. The policeman spots Paul and recognised him, but Annie is fast and kills the cop before he could attack the crazy woman. She decided to hide to dead body in the storeroom, and she locked Paul up in the cellar, the cellar habited by rats. Horrifying for the famous writer.
A couple of days later two policemen came to ask Annie some questions about Paul and the missing cop. But Annie had a plan and got rid of them.
But also Paul had a plan, a plan of his own.
The end of 'Misery's return' and thus of Paul's own life was nearing. Annie is really excited and can't wait to read the last chapters of his novel. She is so happy when Paul finished his book and she feels like celebrating it, with a bottle of champagne and a cigarette for her favourite writer.
And then the moment arrives, the moment of his sweet revenge, and just before her eyes, he burned the typescript with the cigarette she had gave him.
Annie lost her mind as she sees the book burn, outraged she tried to attack Paul. But Paul is faster, and throws her on the burning book, her clothes catch fire and Paul seizes the opportunity to shove a gag in her throat. After a long struggle, Annie collapses, with blisters all over her body and choking on the ball of paper. Paul struggled to reach the hallway and weary from the battle, he blacked out for a few seconds. He is startled by some kind of noise. He dreads that it is Annie, awoken from the dead, but his fear is unfounded, as it are the two policemen that came to the house earlier.
Paul sighed a sigh of relief, he still had his story, he had set fire to some empty pages, with a tittle-page on top, to make Annie believe that it was the real novel he was burning. However, his real novel was safely underneath his matress. Annie was dead, it was over.

'Paul's legs slowly recovered in hospital and the doctors made him an excellent left foot. Miser's return sold millions of copies.. but Paul still sees Annie Wilkes waiting for hem in corners, in shadows on the streets, in every woman who ever tells him
that he is her favourite author.'