Dana (Beast Under The Bed)

**Parents**

* Tom (father)
* Maria (mother) †

**Siblings**

* Lucy (older sister)

**Dana** is the deuteragonist of the 2020 short film *Beast Under The Bed.* She is the daughter of Maria and Tom, and the younger sister of Lucy. One night, Dana's home was attacked by The Nix after it came out that her mother was having an affair, and she watched the monster kill her mother. Six months later, Dana and her family confronted the beast again, this time coming out victorious as they worked together to stop it.

She is portrayed by Ellah Rae Linaman-Smith.

## Physical Appearance

Dana is a mixed-race preteen girl with brown skin, dark-brown eyes, and curly black hair.

## Characteristics

Dana is a trusting young girl, wanting to give her father the benefit of the doubt when The Nix attacked their house. She treats her sister similarly, and tries to convince her that their father is only trying to protect them.

## Background

Dana was born to Tom and Maria some years ago. Some time before the beginning of the short film, Dana's mother Maria began having an affair with an unnamed man.

## Crypt Monster Universe

### Beast Under The Bed

One night, Dana's father Tom found out about Maria's affair, and kicked her out of the house. They fought as Maria tried to get a ride somewhere else, but unknown to them, Lucy and Dana were awake upstairs and heard everything. Lucy, unable to listen to her family coming apart, put her pillow over her head and tried to go to sleep. However, she and her sister were woken up by The Nix trying to get into the house, and Maria ran upstairs to get them and leave. She picks up Dana and runs downstairs, but is intercepted by The Nix breaking down the front doors. Dana runs into the other room and watches as The Nix attacks and kills her mother. Her father comes up behind the monster and manages to fend it off before ushering Dana and her sister out of the house.

Six months later, Dana and her family have been living life on the lam, trying to elude the monster. Dana appears to have become interested in baseball over this time period, and her father is coaching her into using her skills to fight The Nix should it attack them again. She goes with Lucy while the latter is out getting firewood, and Lucy tells Dana that she's afraid of what their father is becoming and asks if Dana would come with her if she tried to run away. Dana doesn't answer, and Lucy tells her to not tell their father what she heard. At the dinner table that night, Dana tells her father what she heard and he freaks out. Lucy doesn't listen to him when he tells them to get ready to leave, and she eventually yells at him that there was no monster, and that he killed their mother.

However, Lucy's claims are proven wrong when The Nix attacks the trailer, having caught up with them. She and Lucy flee into the forest, but Lucy convinces her to go back and fight. Back at the campsite, Dana begins to hit things with her baseball bat to divert The Nix's attention away from her father, distracting it long enough for Lucy to sneak-attack it with the axe. The family forms a circle around The Nix, attacking it in quick succession so it is unable to defend itself before it runs back into the forest. Dana reconciles with her family, and as The Nix's roar echoes through the woods, Lucy says that the next time it comes for them, they'll be ready.

## Powers and Abilities

### Skillset

* **Baseball Prowess:** Dana is quite proficient with a baseball bat and can use it to attack monsters with presumably little effort.

## Relationships

### Lucy

Dana is Lucy's younger sister. Lucy cared for Dana very much, but repeatedly disregarded her claims of seeing The Nix because she believed that Tom was trying to manipulate them. She tried to keep Dana from aggravating their father by telling her to keep quiet about the things she heard, as she feared for their father's declining mental state. After finding out that The Nix was, in fact, real, Lucy reconciled with her sister and apologized for not believing her in the first place. She then banded together with her sister and her father to fight The Nix.

### Tom

Tom is Lucy's father. Dana was the only one who believed Tom when he said that The Nix killed Maria, as she was there when it came into the house. Dana seems to be more trusting of her father than Lucy initially was and thinks that they should listen to him.

### Maria

Maria was Dana's mother. They seem to have had a positive relationship before her death. Dana's opinion of Maria doesn't seem to have changed with the knowledge of her affair, though it is possible that Dana is simply too young to understand the complexity of the situation. Regardless, she still cared for her mother, and Maria likewise cared for her, as her final moments were spent diverting The Nix's attention away from Dana so the latter could escape unharmed.

## Trivia

* In Hebrew, the name Dana means "arbiter" or "God is my judge". In Sanskrit and Pali, the word means "generosity".

## References

1. ↑  *Beast Under The Bed* (dir. Keola Racela; January 31st, 2020)