Both Michael and Nina loved listening to stories. Nina would be engrossed in the plot and characters. Michael would listen and be still, but it was clear he was just as interested in the narrative. Sometimes, when either Taylor or Jake were a bit too exhausted that day to read to the kiddos, they turned to Nina to tell a bedtime story to Michael and for some miraculous reason, it worked. Nina fell asleep shortly after with her animated antics trying to make each story engaging and exciting for her brother.
However, there were some nights Michael would rise screaming and wake the entire household up. When asked what happened, it took a while before Nina finally fessed up to having told Michael a scary story right before bed. Michael didn't know how to properly say no to those stories when Nina was such a forceful and engaging storyteller. She'd make it thrilling and suspenseful, complete with her own voice acting. It was real to Michael and it impacted his dreams to an extent. Nina loved having an audience and Michael was captivated. Why shouldn't she tell him all her dark and scary ideas garnered from the novels and stories Jake and Taylor told them nearly every night?
Sidenote: I grew up on the book series: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Complete with horrific black and white illustrated pictures, it scarred my childhood and probably inspired a lot of the dark stuff I write today. In fact, it was because of this visual influence, when I spotted the work of Kamm (my interior book series illustrator), I was reminded of this book series and immediately knew that was the sort of dark, grim style I wanted for my books. You can thank those children's horror books for that!
