Deadlights and Shine: Connecting Later to the Stephen King Multiverse

His latest novel, Later, is no exception. Classic King with a twist, Jamie Conklin shares the story of his unique ability — a shine, if you will — to see and communicate with the recently deceased … and how that ability was exploited by the adults in his life to terrifying consequences. When serial bomber Thumper commits suicide in a public park, leaving a note behind stating there was one bomb left, the NYPD rushes to find and diffuse it. Jamie’s mother’s friend and crooked cop kidnaps him after school and takes him to talk to Thumper, but there’s something wrong with him. He doesn’t act like the other ghosts Jamie’s encountered; he’s evil and begins haunting him — it’s like he’s been taken over by the Deadlights and Jamie learns that he must complete the Himalayan Ritual of Chüd, perhaps more easily understood as a battle of the wits, to get rid of him. Does that last part sound familiar? It should.

It
The most obvious connection here is to the epic war the Losers’ Club wages against Pennywise in Stephen King’s famously frightening novel It. Derry, Maine is plagued by an ancient shapeshifting evil that most notably shows itself as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Every 27 years, it descends on the town, feeding on the terror of Derry’s children. That is until it encounters a group of seven misfits otherwise known as the Losers’ Club. They try and fail to defeat it as children, but years later they take a stand and ultimately win, both times harnessing the power of the Ritual of Chüd. Together, the Losers engage in the ritual, looking past Pennywise’s many masks and into its true form: the Deadlights.

The Shining
While the kids in It don’t exactly have a shine, there is a small connection between It and The Shining. Long before Dick Hallorann was a cook at the Overlook Hotel, he was an army mess cook stationed in Derry. It’s Mike Hanlon is trying to understand the mystery that is Pennywise so the Losers can defeat it and after years of trying, he finally gets his father to open up about the Black Spot. Back in the 1930s, about 27 years before we meet young Mike, Derry was unofficially segregated, so black soldiers had to build their own hangout to let off steam — thus the Black Spot, a bar on the outskirts of town where anyone could gather regardless of race, was born. One fateful night, the packed bar was set on fire in a racially motivated attack undoubtedly influenced by Pennywise’s malevolence. Without Dick Hallorann’s quick thinking and, let’s face it, his shine, Mike’s father, and many other lives would have been lost. By the time we meet Dick in The Shining, his army days are behind him, but his shine, well, shines bright, and he becomes a beacon of hope for young Danny Torrance while his father slowly loses his grip on reality in the Overlook Hotel.

Doctor Sleep
Speaking of Danny Torrance and Dick Hallorann, we know from The Shining that young Danny shares Jamie’s unique ability to see and communicate with the dead, plus a little extra in the way of psychic gifts like telepathy and telekinesis. After the traumatic events at the Overlook Hotel, Dick becomes a guide and father-figure for Danny, teaching him how to control his shine, and even after Dick’s passing, Danny sometimes reaches out to him for help through his years of substance abuse and addiction. Once he gets clean, he meets a kid named Abra Stone with a shine even more powerful than his and she’s in deep trouble. A cult of supernatural wanderers called the True Knot who feed on the terror and psychic abilities of children in a similar fashion to our old friend Pennywise is after her. Abra’s parents are aware of her powers but fear that if the authorities knew, she’d be taken away for government experimentation, so it’s up to Danny to save Abra — and the lives of other children like her.

The Institute
As it turns out, Abra’s parents’ fears are completely justified because that’s exactly what happens in The Institute. Luke Ellis is gifted — he excels academically and like so many other kids in the Stephen King multiverse, he shines. He wakes up one morning in a room that looks exactly like his own, except it’s missing the window. He soon learns that his family was murdered in the middle of the night and he has been kidnapped and taken to The Institute, a secret government facility in the backwoods of Maine dedicated to experimenting on TPs (telepaths) and TKs (telekinetics) to extract their powers. The children who live in the Front Half endure excruciating testing, but overall, they get to live like kids if they’re well behaved — and they want to behave because they could end up in the Back Half “like the Roach Motel — kids check in, but they don’t check out.” They don’t find out what life is like in the Back Half until much later but suffice it to say those kids are not eating cupcakes and playing games.

Carrie
And finally, we can’t talk about the devastating effects of societal and familial expectations on the behavior of children (with powers) without mentioning Carrie White. Stephen King’s first novel is the genesis of this theme throughout his body of work. Much more terrifying and impactful than any movie adaptation, Carrie stands the test of time. Raised by her religious zealot mother who often turns to abusive and manipulative tactics to keep her daughter in line, poor Carrie doesn’t get a reprieve from the constant humiliation at school; the popular girls have targeted her, and they strive to make her school days as lonely and painful as her mother makes her nights and weekends. We all know that their brutality ultimately leads to the infamous pig blood scene at prom, but what comes next is shocking in its extreme. Carrie’s powers had been bottled up, largely unknown to her before that fateful prom night. In that final act of cruelty against her, all her fury is unleashed, exploding on her classmates and her town — literally.