Sitting in the dining room looking at some boring homework that easily loses my attention. Relaxing on the kitchen counter is my Mom’s purse, which catches my eye. The dining room and kitchen is an open space concept where you can see the kitchen right in front of you when you are at my viewpoint.  On my right is a glass sliding door that goes to our backyard if you can even call it that. The only thing out in our huge yard is a small playhouse that I haven’t played with in years. It’s barely held together with the rusted screws hanging out of the wood. I quickly freeze like a deer in headlights when I hear my Mom say: “Alright sweetie, your father and I are going out for a few hours.” 

I hastily get off the chair and grab her bag, which feels like she could have a humongous bolder shoved in it. 

“Don’t forget this Mom” in an airy tone. I hand over the bag and give my Mom and Dad a tight hug. I swiftly wave goodbye and turn around to start my work again. The door slams shut and I hear a noise that I can only assume to be a door being shut and locked.

 It is always a peaceful night when my parents aren’t home or when my brother is out with friends. Tonight I have both outcomes. With all my chores being done, I had a plan to do my leftover papers with tons of formulas and problems all over each page, of math homework. I go into the dining room to grab my bright red binder which is holding much more than it can handle, and start to walk up the staircase. As I go through the hallway, I can see a vehicle slowly drive past my house through the living room window. It was an eerie feeling as they drove past, but I set my binder on the couch and closed the window curtains just in case. I pick my binder back up and put my right foot on the first step of the stairs. Finally, at the top of the second floor, I walk to the very end of the hallway and open the door. Looking through the door, I see a light that is emerging from the TV. It asks me, “Do you want to continue?” I grab the TV remote from my bed that can hardly be called ready-made. I climbed onto the bed and tapped the remote to continue whatever episode I was on. 

A few minutes pass. I hear a fumble of a door downstairs, then a loud shattering sound of what I can only think was glass hitting the floor. I hesitate as I get out of bed and slowly creak my door open even more to walk down the hall that seems like it’s going on forever. I get on all fours before I peer downstairs through the railing; I see someone wearing all black with a bag and a mysterious object that is in their other hand. I start feeling my heart beat faster and faster until I can no longer hear anything but muffled sounds around me. I try to make the least amount of noise back to my room, locking the door and running to the closet. So many thoughts spew through my head at what feels like a million miles per second. Everything suddenly stops. 

I feel a shortness of breath hit me as the front door slams shut.