Seventh Dimension - The Door, Book 1, A Young Adult Fantasy

I closed my diary, locked it, and set it aside. I hid the key under my pillow. Sleepy dreams visited me, but the diary called my name. I flipped the light switch back on, grabbed the diary from my nightstand, and stashed it in a dark corner of the bookshelf.

  Another book, The Donkey and the King, caught my attention. I’d not looked at it for a long time. I pulled it off the bookshelf and flipped through its worn, crinkled pages.

  Even when I was younger, I felt sorry for the donkey. Baruch ran away from the stable and got lost. A sheep found him and took him to meet a powerful king. Much-Afraid, the dog in the story, looked like that stray dog I saw when I came home from school. The resemblance surprised me.

  I set the book back on the bookshelf. Along the baseboard, a straight pin clung to the wood. Mother must have dropped it when she fixed my backpack. I scooted over and picked it up. The pin was three or four inches long. I rubbed my finger along the sharp magnetic tip and stuffed it into my sweater pocket.

  Then I climbed back into bed and let my eyes adjust to the blackness. Dark creatures danced on the walls in the moonlight. They often visited me at night before I drifted off to sleep, like cartoon characters that never slept.