Misery door Stephen King

Paul Sheldon is known all over the world for his famous novels about Misery Chastain, a beautiful woman from England. There are sold many millions of copies. He felt trapped by Misery, so he let her die in the last book, Misery’s Child. He immediately wrote a serious novel Fast Cars. He always finishes his books in the same hotel and the same room in the mountains of Colorado. When he was on his way to the airport for the publication of Misery’s Child and to deliver the typescript of Fast Cars, something happens. He is driving through the mountains when suddenly a storm comes to him. It is raining so hard, that he can’t see anything. The car drives into a streambed. Paul is lucky, he is found by a woman, Annie Wilkes. She takes him with her in her house. She tells him that she is his biggest fan and that she named her pig after Misery. His both legs are broken, but she didn’t take him to a hospital. He see that she is strange, but he don’t know exactly what is wrong with her. After an ordinary conversation he discovers that she is psychotic. He tries to find an outlet, but Annie is smart and gives him Novril, a drug. After a while, Paul gets addicted to the painkillers.

When Paul’s last Misery book comes out, Annie immediately buys it and finish it really fast. She don’t like that Misery isn’t alive anymore and want Paul to burn his typescript of Fast Cars. Of course he really don’t like that idea. He also must write a new novel called Misery’s Return. She punish him in many ways. He has to drink dirty water, she leaves him alone for hours without something to eat, without Novril and with a little bit water to drink, sometimes for a few days. At a certain point, she drives crazy because he don’t want the things that she want. She chops off his thumb and his foot with an axe. There is no alternative left to Paul, so he really has to start writing. Annie has bought him a wheelchair and a typewriter. After a while Paul is trying more things, like riding in his wheelchair and steal some things like some doses of Novril and a knife from the kitchen. He hides this things under his mattress. Annie doesn’t know that he has stolen some things. One time, when he is in her living room, he finds a book full of pictures. Annie has glued some press cuttings in it. Now Paul can read what she did and he see the dark side of her. He read that she has murdered her father, her brother and also some babies when she worked in the hospital as a nurse. The police calls her the Dragon Lady. When he leafs through the book, he finds an article about him. In the article they talk about that he is lost. Suddenly he know the shocking truth that he will end as a press cutting. Like Annie’s father, brother and all the babies. Annie will kill him as soon as he finished his new book.

When the snow finally melts away, the police find Paul’s car and they start to investigate the area around Annie’s house, searching for things that can lead to Paul. One day, al police officer comes to Annie’s place and Paul tries to draw his attention. The policeman spots Paul and recognizes him, Paul is happy with that. Suddenly Annie sees the police officer and kills him by riding over him with a lawn mower before he can do anything. She hides the corpse in the storeroom and locks Paul up in the cellar with only some water, bread and Novril. A couple of days later two policemen come to ask Annie some questions about Paul and the missing police officer, but Annie is able to stay free. In the meantime, Paul has finished the new story about Misery, what Annie forced him to write. She wants to celebrate it, so Paul asks her for a cigarette. She sees no harm in it so she is giving him a cigarette. He puts the typescript on fire to shock her like she did with his book Fast Cars. Annie is trying to kill him but Paul is faster and throws her on the burning book. Her clothes catch fire and Paul grabs the opportunity to put a gag in her throat. After a long struggle between Paul and Annie, Annie collapse with blisters all over her body and choking on the ball of paper.

Tired from the battle, he falls asleep in the hallway. He wakes up by a certain sound. He thinks that it is Annie, but it are the two policemen that were by the house one time before. They bring him to the hospital.

Apparently Paul had hidden the real typescript of Misery’s Return under his mattress in his room, because he thought it was the best work he ever made. So he had set some empty pages on fire with only a title page on top, to make Annie believe it was the real typescript.

The book gets published and becomes a bestseller. Paul recovers slowly, but he still sees Annie waiting for him in corners, shadows, on the streets and in every woman who ever tells him that he is her favourite author.