I found it ridiculous to have to sleep with my sister. But as Daniela's mother, she was completely convinced that, with everything happening to me, the best solution was a good dose of maternal comfort and security.

"Ma... no... I want to sleep in my room. Alone."

"Baby, you're a bundle of nerves; don't argue. And don't call me 'Ma.' Say it like always—Mami."

"Ma..." I said in an exaggeratedly annoying voice.

"Baby..." she mimicked me. "Lie here with me until your dad gets home, and then he'll take you to your room, okay?"

"Ugh..."

"Go to sleep, Daniela."

I lay down on my brother-in-law's side of the bed and, turning my back to my sister, stared at the wall in front of me, the one facing the garden window. My mother—my sister—began stroking my hair, and before I could even get comfortable, with these small, growing breasts, I faded into another dream.

A couple of hours later, I felt my brother-in-law kiss me lovingly on the forehead and lift me into his arms, carrying me to my room. Pretending to be half-asleep, I squeezed my eyes shut and thought about how lucky I was—how lucky Daniela had been—to have such a beautiful life. I remembered my mother, how, when I was little, I'd pretend to be asleep when she got home, without knowing why, and she would come into my room and kiss me. A few tears rolled down my childish cheeks.

"I have to help her." The thought filled me with a deep, unwavering commitment to my little niece. "I have to do whatever it takes to bring her back. But how?"

René, my brother-in-law, laid me in my bed and tucked me in, whispering softly in my ear that he loved me.

As soon as he left my room, I wiped my eyes and, peering out the window that also faced the garden, started piecing my thoughts together.

If all of this had happened in a way that left me trapped in my niece's body, there had to be a way to reverse it.

I returned to bed, a latent fear creeping into me. There was nothing in particular causing it—just the unsettling sensation of my bare feet touching the cold floor. That was all, nothing more. And yet, somehow, ridiculous as it might seem, I felt vulnerable. I needed the security of having my feet wrapped under the covers before I could even attempt to sleep again. Tomorrow, I would figure out how to bring Daniela's spirit back and try to reclaim my body.

But... what if I couldn't?

Anguished but determined to recover my niece, I fell asleep on my back, muttering to myself, forming ideas, grounding concepts, trying to remember things.

Sleep overtook me, and little by little, the void swallowed my thoughts.

Sometime in the middle of the night, a new, unfamiliar fear crept in as I began to hear the faint creaking of the wooden floorboards in the dressing room. Footsteps. Moving from the window that faced the street, crossing through the dressing area, toward its slightly ajar door—the one that opened into the bedroom. I wanted to move, to see what was making those sounds, who was stepping on the wooden floor, because I knew, deep down, that it was someone walking across the dressing room. But I couldn't move. Not even to turn my head slightly. The overwhelming heaviness kept my eyelids shut, stopping me from even taking a fleeting glance toward the source of the noise that was now steadily alarming me more and more.

As if sensing my lack of reaction, the footsteps shifted, now continuing onto the cold marble floor of the bedroom. Instead of the creaking of the wooden boards, what I now perceived was the unmistakable sound of bare feet lifting off the ground, then planting themselves again in slow, deliberate steps across the marble.

Suip...

Suip...

Suip...

Paralyzed, my anxiety swelled, consuming me as all my fears converged in this helpless moment—knowing I was not alone and yet being completely unable to defend myself or escape.

Suip... suip... suip...

My breathing grew ragged, shallow gasps escaping my throat in muffled, stifled whimpers. More than sound, it was a strained, involuntary purring—a desperate effort to communicate, but no one in the next room could hear it.

There was a strong chance that even if someone had been lying beside me, they wouldn't have heard it.

The bare footsteps stopped at the foot of my bed, and I could feel how the mattress yielded beneath the weight of something pressing against it—around me. With my eyes barely open, I could make out part of the room, the dim shapes in the darkness, and yet... nothing was there above me. My eyes refused to open fully, but I had managed to crack them just enough to see that nothing, absolutely nothing, occupied the space where something—or someone—clearly should have been.

And yet, the mattress was sinking, as if there truly was something straddling me, weighing me down. Slowly, I felt the movement of my visitor—this presence that mounted me without touching me. I could feel my spirit, my consciousness, detaching from my body, floating weightlessly above me. I watched myself from above, looking down at Daniela's tiny body, her face twisted in distress, her eyes squeezed shut, her small fists clenched in absolute discomfort. My mind, my being, collapsed, falling beside that vacant body. And then, I saw it—a looming shadow lunging toward Daniela, trying to take possession of her.

Like a crustacean abandoning its shell for a larger one, it tried to move into her body, but it couldn't seem to settle inside. And the moment this entity realized that my consciousness was watching, it turned on me, hurling itself in my direction. But as it did, I was yanked back—pulled by an invisible thread that snapped me back like a slingshot—straight into that small body. And while the specter remained outside, thwarted by an invisible force, I reclaimed the corporeal vessel of my niece.

The instant my mind and Daniela's body fused again, a jolt of awareness surged through me, from my feet to my head. And that's when, at last, I let out a bloodcurdling scream that echoed like a wailing siren throughout the entire house.

Her parents—my parents now, I suppose—rushed in, only to find me sitting upright, my hair standing on end, my face frozen in genuine terror.

Every drawer in the room, the closet, and the bathroom stood wide open without explanation. The lights flickered wildly, and the electric hum of the wiring pulsed through the walls.

"A... A... Are you okay?"

I collapsed off the bed, my small head hitting the floor at the foot of the mattress.

My brother-in-law and my sister—Daniela's parents—held me tightly, the three of us kneeling together in the middle of Daniela's room.

"Dani, are you okay?"

"No," I said, shaking my head, utterly paralyzed with fear.