"Hey, stop banging on the floor like that!
You’re going to get us in trouble by mom."
I kept playing with my dolls and
1 minute later,
I heard it again,
only this time, I was looking at my little brother
and the noise wasn’t coming from him.
I quickly grabbed my little brother and
pulled him away from his toy cars.
I hugged him close to my body with my back pressed against the wall.
I could feel his body shaking with fear
and his chest breathing heavily.
I had to be strong.
I had to find out what was making the sound.
The loud banging was coming from our bedroom window.
It had to be the wind blowing on our shutters
or a cat.
I told my brother to stay where he was
as I walked towards the banging.
A long-bearded, grey-haired man
stared at me with a creepy smile and missing bad teeth.
He looked like he hadn’t showered for weeks
with dark crusted looking skin that looked like a dried-up riverbed.
He didn’t say a single word.
He only pointed down at the window lock
as if he wanted me to open it for him.
I didn’t know what to do.
Maybe he was a homeless person asking for help?
I looked at my brother who shook his head in silence.
I looked back at the window and shook my head saying “no”.
As he stared at me,
his eyes began to squint
and in a split second,
threw his entire shoulder into the window
as if he tried to smash it.
I screamed and told my brother
to grab the phone and call the police.
“Stop!” I screamed at my brother.
The man held a knife beside his head
and looked me dead in the eyes.
I knew what he was saying.
He didn’t need to motion it,
but he did.
Dragging the knife across his throat,
he slowly turned his eyes to my little brother.
He was telling me,
he would not only hurt me
but my brother as well.
I could feel his cold knife on my neck.
I could feel how badly he wanted to hurt us both.
Every muscle and joint in my body froze.
I couldn’t feel myself breath or make a single sound,
but I knew we had to get out of there.
I grabbed my brother by the arm
and told him to run upstairs to mom!
She didn’t believe us.
Mom thought we were playing a game
or imagining things like
every 13-year-old and their little sibling does.
But we weren’t lying
and for all we knew,
this man already found a way into the house.
We begged her to believe us
and when she saw how scared we were,
she immediately got out of her bed
and walked to our bedroom window.
As she got closer to my room,
the banging got louder and louder.
She stood in my bedroom doorway and didn’t take another step.
I knew she could see him too
and even though I remembered what he looked like,
I had to see his face again.
I had to know this was real.
I peeked to the side of my room and there he was.
This time, he was telling my mom not to do anything
or else he'd hurt us all.
Even though he was outside,
my mom could see this man was not afraid
and that if we didn’t do as he was saying,
we'd be dead.
Luckily, at the corner of my eye,
I saw my uncle walk in with his headphones on.
He's not the strongest person, but
he was a wrestler and knows how to fight.
Running to him, and trying to catch her breath,
she wiped the tears from her eyes and
told him about the crazy guy outside my window.
Just as she finished her words,
we all heard a loud scream coming from the hallway.
I turned my head to my bedroom window to see if he was still outside.
He wasn’t…
he was inside of our home.
“Get inside the bathroom,
lock the door, and call the police.
Don’t open this door until you know for sure it is the police”,
my uncle told my mom.
As my mom was closing the door,
I could see my uncle walking towards the stranger in our home.
We heard loud bangs,
grunts,
screams and things being thrown around.
We didn’t know if it was coming from my uncle or the crazy guy.
As much as we wanted to help,
if we opened the door
we could be putting him and ourselves in danger.
So, all we could do was wait.
It took nearly an hour until the police arrived.
We heard the police come in telling someone to stop.
My mom opened the door and as we came out,
we saw my uncle on top of the crazy guy beating him up.
They had to pull my uncle off of the guy because he wouldn’t stop.
I thought the crazy guy would be hurting but,
he wasn’t.
He was still aggressive even with the police officers holding him down.
It was like he didn’t feel anything.
It took a while, but the police officers were able to cuff and take him away.
After a few days,
the police informed us the man had mental health issues
and was sent to a facility.
I don’t want to say he was a psychopath,
although his impulses and the way he practically didn’t feel any pain,
and his enjoyment in seeing us scared makes me think he is.
They never told us if he had done anything like this before.
Judging by that night,
I’d say it wasn’t his first attempt.
I always felt safe in my home,
but after that night,
I don’t know what to think anymore.