Danny (AYAOTD)
.png)
Background
Danielle "Danny" Selman is the daughter of Doug and Sally.
During the events of Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Season 1 Episode 7 The Tale of the Captured Souls played by Maria King
Danny, Doug and Sally take a vacation to a hotel by a lake. Danny thinks the hotel looks boring and Doug gives her a hard time about her negative attitude. Danny goes to open the door, but it is locked. When Danny goes to look for the key above the door, she shocks herself when she touches a small mirror over the door. Peter opens the door and introduces himself. Sally asks Peter if his parents are the innkeepers, but he ignores her and goes to shake Danny's hand. He takes them inside and tells them that they are the only guests he has. He brings them to their room and Danny notices all the mirrors in the room. Peter tells her that his family has a tradition of collecting mirrors and when Danny touches one, she shocks herself. Peter says the wiring is old and then takes Danny to her room. Sally again asks where Peter's parents are, and he tells her that his parents are on a cruise. Danny and Doug are playing catch when Doug invites Peter to join them. Peter at first declines the offer, but then joins them, but is terrible at catching the ball. Peter tries to throw the ball, but it just rolls to Danny and Doug. Sally comes out with a Polaroid camera and Peter quickly covers his face. He then offers to take a photo of Danny, Doug and Sally and laughs as the photo develops.
Danny hears something falling downstairs on the other side of a door and when she opens the door, she sees a staircase leading upstairs. She climbs the stairs and comes to a bedroom filled with black and white photos. Peter opens a door and asks her what she thinks of his room. He tells her that sometimes he is alone for the entire summer or longer and he does what he wants when he wants. Danny starts to do pullups and Peter tells her that he admires a girl with great physical strength. Danny finds a photo from 1920 with a person that looks like Peter, and he tells her that the person is his grandfather. Danny sees a machine with wires connecting a rose bush to geraniums on the table and Peter tells her it is a transference experiment his grandfather designed. Danny goes to touch the machine and Peter stops her and points out she is breaking out with acne. Danny runs to her room and when she touches the large mirror, it shocks her. Peter touches a hidden button, and the walls open up revealing hidden machines. He pushes another button, and three tubes appear with a red substance inside of them. A screen also appears which shows Danny, Doug and Sally in the rooms they are at. He presses more buttons and goes into a cylinder and closes the door. As Doug is looking at himself in the mirror, he notices his watch is rapidly spinning and some of his hair turns grey.
Danny, Doug and Peter play baseball and Doug is noticeably worse at it then earlier, while Peter is somehow much better. Doug tells Danny that he needs to rest and when Danny goes to get the ball, Peter insists he gets it. Danny goes inside and invites Sally to go swimming, but Sally says she is too tired and notices Danny is really breaking out. Danny looks at herself in the mirror and when she touches it, she gets shocked again. She slams the mirror, and it shatters revealing a camera behind it. Danny calls Doug over to look at it, but Doug thinks it is just old wiring and then says he is going to take a nap. Danny throws water on the camera and Peter stumbles out of the cylinder, which is filled with smoke. As Danny is looking around the property, she comes across a cemetery which has a tombstone for a Peter Kirlan III born in 1907 but with no year of death. She also finds wooden silhouettes with chalk tic marks. Danny starts pulling down all the mirrors and tells Sally, who is now noticeably older, not to look in the mirrors. Doug walks into the room and he is also much older looking and he and Sally lay down on the bed. Danny goes back to Peter's bedroom and finds the hidden button and presses it. She sees the strange equipment and finds the television screen with images from the different rooms. As she looks at it, she sees an Old Man giving tea to Doug and Sally.
Danny presses the button again and then runs downstairs, but instead of an Old Man, it is just Peter. Danny runs back to the cemetery and counts the tic marks on the wooden silhouettes and is caught by Peter. She asks him what he is doing to her and her parents and he tells her that he is using the mirrors to drain her family and after that night, she will be all alone. He offers to let her stay at the house with him and threatens to drain her youth if she doesn't join him. Danny pulls out the Polaroid camera and takes Peter's photo and then runs away. She runs back into the hotel and tells Doug and Sally that the mirrors are making them old, but they are too tired to get up. She grabs a mirror and runs back to Peter's bedroom and starts messing with dials and uses the mirror to force him into the cylinder. She locks him inside and reverses the transference machine and the equipment starts to explode. She goes back to the room her parents are in and they have regained their youth. Danny, Doug and Sally pack their things and as they are about to leave a now old Peter calls out to Danny. He tells her that he is going to the cemetery to join his family and tells her to enjoy her youth. Sally shows Danny a photo she found, and it's Peter as an Old Man and Danny leaves it at the steps of the hotel.
Later, Danny never tells her parents the truth about Peter and convinces her parents to take her to the ocean.