Michele Amitrano is a 9 year old boy who is adventurous and has a conscience which is not very familiar for a boy his age. He has also embarked across a boy in a hole named Filippo, in his efforts of freeing Filippo he comes across imagining a lot of fear with monsters like ogres, witches and bogeymen. Michele shows he is very naïve when he attempts to free Filippo after he had swore on his fathers head he wouldn't go back to see Filippo again.
Michele's fears slowly turn realistic when he is trying to set himself straight and to set Filippo free from the rest of the villagers who have kidnapped him. The witches and ogres slowly come back to haunt him, which he then turns to a comic book character Tiger Jack to help him through his fear and motivate him to free Filippo even thou the likes of his father have told him not to go near Filippo again. Michele shows he is not very loyal and naïve to his family
Pino and Michele had a trust which was broken through the fear that the villagers would kill Filippo motivated Michele to find Filippo and set him free. Pino, Felice and the rest of the villagers have the fear that if they did not complete this ransom they would always be poor and live in the south of Italy in Aqua Traverse, Pino had told Michele the only reason he had done this was to head north away from the poverty and hardship of Aqua Traverse. Pino's efforts of buying Michele a bike shows betrayal as he fears that Michele will go back and see Filippo.
Felice shows his fear slowly after at the start of the book he