He tells himself he's fine. He's not.
Fifteen-year-old Daniel walks away from the street with scraped palms and dust on his face. He knows what happened. He knows why he can't sleep, why he flinches at locker slams, why he maps every exit in every room, why his heart races in the dark at the sound of a passing car.
What he doesn't know is how to say any of it out loud.
His mom is worried enough already. His friends have their own struggles. And there aren't really words yet for what's happening inside him, so Daniel does what feels easiest: he keeps it to himself, and hopes it gets quieter on its own.
It doesn't. And the longer he waits, the louder it gets.
Then the dreams start. Six animals, showing up night after night, each one carrying a piece of what he can't say out loud.
For readers of
- Long Way Down
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower
