Daniella (part 7): Daniella Chapter One

my 2019 novel Daniella

Daniella as narrator

I was in my grandparents’ cabin deep in the forests of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I was 6 years old. I was alone in a room on the top bunk. I woke up from a dream in the middle of the night, tangled in my sheets.

I grabbed the edges of my blanket to straighten it out. I handed a corner to something sitting next to me in the dark. “Take this,” I said. It held my blanket in its hand.

I went back to unwinding the rest of the blanket from my legs.

Suddenly confused, I turned back toward the thing. It was standing up, but its face was perfectly aligned with mine, looking at me sitting there beside it. There were pointy ears stretching out from its head.

I screamed and jumped off the bunk to the ground. I sprinted to my grandparents room. I woke them up and told them a little person was in my room, but they told me to just sleep in their room. My grandpa left to get me a sleeping bag and a pillow. “There’s nothing in your room,” he told me.