By the time I’d finished middle school my parents trusted me to be alone in the house by myself for long periods of time, we’re talking days at a time. They did this so someone could care for our elderly dog who needed attention and supervision 24/7. With this, my parents would sometimes go out of state on a small vacation for the weekend, leaving me in the house by myself.
Back to the present, it was a chilly fall evening. My parents had left early friday morning and would’nt be back until sunday night. Everything had gone smoothly and I was having a good time finally getting the house to myself. Until Saturday. When my parents left I brought my gaming console out into the living room along with some pillows and a blanket, figuring my dog slept in the living room I’d sleep out there with her incase she needed me in the middle of the night. It was getting to be around dinner time. After I fed my dog, I texted my mom, asking for a bit of money to order a pizza because I didn’t feel like cooking that night.
I ordered the pizza and sat on the couch playing a shooting game until the time had passed and I heard the doorbell ring. I got up and quickly threw on my jacket and went to look through the peep hole. There stood the pizza guy, a medium height middle aged looking guy. He had dirty blonde hair and eye bags seeming like he hadn’t slept in a year. I could smell the dirty stench of cigarettes through my door. He had his eyes fixed on the camera doorbell, with a worried look on his face.
I unlocked the door and opened it the equivalent to my body width and greeted him with a smile. His eyes darted over to me. A small, creepy grin grew on his face. “Oh, I wasn’t expecting a young girl like you.” He said. Gross, I thought. Confused on how to answer, I replied in a quiet giggle. I held out my hands to take my food. “So, how old are you?” The man asked, still grinning. “Sorry man, I don’t answer questions like that.” I said, even more creeped out than before. He huffed, seeming to get frusterated. I placed the pizza boxes down on the couch next to me and reached into my pocket to hand him the tip I had planned to give him. “Are your parents home?” He asked. Lying, I replied “Yeah, they’re in the other room.” I hoped he would believe me and just go, seeing as my parents took my moms car on vacation, leaving my dads car in the driveway. He scoffed and said “You know, I like that game too. Do you like shooters?” Refering to my paused game screen on the TV behind me. I became increasingly annoyed but I didn’t want to be rude and just slam the door in his face. “Yeah, sure, look I’m sorry but I have to go now”, I said, trying everything I could to get this man to leave me the hell alone. The man scowled. He took the tip and crumpled it in his hand and started muttering profanities under his breath, but I only could make out one phrase before I shut the door. “You’re gonna regret this.” I locked the door and anxiously watched carefully from the window to make sure he got back in his car. I didn’t stop watching until he sped off around the corner. I let out a sigh of relief, and did a quick sweep around the house and made sure all the windows and doors were locked.
A couple of hours had passed until I decided I was gonna lay down and watch TV for the night until I fell asleep. I made sure my dog was tended to and layed down. Before I noticed I had drifted off, completely forgetting the interaction I had earlier in the day. When I woke up, it was still dark outside. 2 in the morning-ish. My dog was barking like crazy. And not a “I wanna go outside” bark. An alarmed, “I see a stranger” kind of bark. If you have a dog you understand this and you know what they’re indicating to you. I propped myself up on my elbows and stretched for a second. Looked around for a bit and didn’t see anything.
I was about to lay back down until I noticed it in the corner of my eye. A face. In the window to my right I saw the same man from earlier, grinning again. He waved at me, still smiling but looking more sinister by the second. I felt my blood run cold. Why is he here? How long had he been watching me sleep? I shot up, my fight or flight triggered instantly. I ran to my room and pulled the baseball bat out from underneath my bed and walked back to the living room where I had been sleeping, clutching it in hand. When I went back the man had moved from the window to the frount door. Knocking gently. “Let’s hang out and have some fun” I heard him say from outside. “I’m gonna call the police if you don’t get the hell away from my house!” I yelled back. He banged on the door, violently aggresive this time. “The hell you will you little brat”, He screamed. The doorknob shook violently, my dog was going mad at this point so I took her with me and locked myself into my room and dialed 911 on my phone.
I was explaining what was happening when I heard a couple loud bangs. He was throwing himself at my frount door to try to bust through it. I had texted my parents and they had already packed and started driving back. But all of that left my mind when I heard the frount door burst open and fall onto the ground of my living room. I whispered into my phone to the 911 operator that the man had broken into my house and the person on the other end of the line instructed me to stay quiet and sit tight at the police were minutes away, before I could think of anything my phone died and I started panicking. I quietly went over and shut my bedroom lights off and hid in my closet with my dog, petting her as to make sure she wouldn’t bark and reveal our hiding spot.
I heard the man walking through my house, searching under tables, behind couches, and in hallway closets. He stopped walking for a moment. I could hear him directly outside my bedroom door. He shook the handle and huffed that same way before, indicating he was becoming frusterated. A there was a couple bangs on the door before he was able to punch a hole through my door but enough to fit his hand through to unlock it. I heard the lock. It gave a small click sound before the door creaked open. It was pitch black in my room. The man took a step in, and stood there. Seconds felt like hours. I cupped my hand over my mouth to quiet my anxious breathing. I heard him rummaging through my belongings, he looked under the bed, under my desk. Then the last last to hide. He had his hand on the closet door. “I’m dead” I thought. I didn’t know who he was or what he wanted but I knew it wasn’t gonna be good.
Before he had the chance to open the closet my prayers were answered and I heard the sirens of police getting closer and closer. “Dammit” the man whispered. He exited my bedroom and ran through my home. I heard the backdoor slide open and the crunching footsteps through the dead grass. The 911 operator must have told the police where I was and I felt like I could finally breathe again when a officer opened the closet door and told me it was ok to come out.
They led me outside with my dog in leash and I sat on the edge of the set in the police car. I waited there as the police searched my house incase the man had still been there. The police said there were no signs anything was stolen. He wasn’t there for valuables. He was looking for me. That fact will disturb me till the day I die. There we’re many signs that it had been a break-in so the case stayed open for a while, but eventually closed. The guy was never found and it wasn’t known where he was. His identity was found and this man had past warrants for home invasions and failure to appear in court. The fact that he was never caught and is still out there somewhere shakes me to my core. But I know for sure I’m never ever opening the door for anybody ever again when I’m home alone.