Oh my god there it is again!
The banging on the window continued as I cowered underneath it. I was clutching on to my softball bat I had had since ninth grade and was wincing with fear every time I heard to banging and felt the window pane shake under the force. I haven’t made a sound since it started and didn’t want to show whoever was out there that I was even existing. Like a, “sorry this house is abandoned, come back later” feel.
It stopped for about five minutes and I peeked up through the window. I fell down in laughter, part relief,  when I found out that the monster banging on the window was actually a big stick swaying in the wind from the big tree in front of my house, hitting my window. This night was taking many unexpected turns, all I wanted to do was go to sleep! Was that too much to ask?! I took the bat with, still a little shook from the experience, and the fact that I had just watched a horror movie, and went back into my little room, and shut the door for the third time.
I threw the bat down on my bed, and locked my door. I laid down in the dark and could not fall asleep for the life of me. I rolled and shuffled. I covered and uncovered. I twisted and turned. I could be in the most comfortable bed in the world (which I like to think my bed is), and I would not be able to fall asleep.
Then, just to bring all the nights events to a close, my bedroom window starts getting tapped on. Thank god my drapes are drawn and my blinds are closed. I open the curtains a little bit and tip back the blinds ever so slightly, and peer outside. As I am hearing the banging, I am seeing nothing. There is not one living thing standing outside my window. It stops, then starts up again. This time, I can hear the tapping advancing up the window, but I still can’t see anything.
I opened the blinds all the way. Still nothing. I even opened the window. Nothing. I closed the window, left the curtains and the blinds open, and walked out of my room. If I wasn’t going to sleep, I might as well make the most of my night.
I made some coffee, grabbed a bag of hot cheetos, and plopped down in my bed, turning on my TV and watching some Skin Wars. I could not go a night without watching some Skin Wars.
As Natalie made her way to victory, and I cheered on Aryn, the tapping stopped, and
no weird noises came to greet me again. It was about four hours of binge watching shows until I heard another sound. This one, being the scariest one yet. And the sight, was much worse.

I walked down the steps as I heard the sliding of my glass door. I tiptoed as quietly as possible, cringing whenever my steps made the normal moaning sound they always do. Once I finally got down to my living room kitchen area, I saw that the sliding glass door that always stayed closed and locked, was unlocked and ajar. I could feel the cold bitter wind rushing in through the door when I walked over to close it after a few quick looks around. I shut the door and locked it and then closed the stringy curtains I had draped on the sides of the door. I stepped away and took a deep breath. THen I walked back up the stairs and back into my room. The door was still open and the light was still off. My netflix was still beaming light through the dark room and my bag of hot cheetos still lay there immersed in my blankets. I sat back down and stuck my hand back in the bag, and covered myself in as much blankets as I could, the softball bat dropping to the ground. I thought nothing of it and then went right back to watching my show.
A couple minutes later, I hear the mew of a cat come through my hallway, echoing into my room. I stepped out of my room and saw that Surfer lay on the ground outside my door mewing. He had a mouse in his jaws and he was waiting for me to emerge from the depths of my dark Netflix hole and congratulate him on his catch. I bent down and stroked his head and wrapped the mouse up in paper towels and put in in the dumpster beside my house. I had only one question, how did Surfer get in the house? Every door and window was closed and locked. Unless someone let him in, there was no way that he could have gotten in the house. I decided to search again. I searched through my entire house and there was not one noticeable footprint, fingerprint, or mark anywhere that I looked. I turned the lights on and everything and there was not another soul besides me and Surfer in my house, or so I thought.
I went back up into my room and decided to take Surfer with me. I got out some old blankets and piled them up on the floor and let Surfer chill out there while I crawled back into my bed and watched more Netflix. Surfer finally fell asleep, probably the most comfortable he has been in his life. I fell asleep too, finally comfortable, for maybe about two minutes.
Pounding on my closed door woke me up instantly. Surfer got startled too and started mewling. I walked up to the door and cracked it open a bit and then a hand shot through and hit me in the nose. I shut the door and walked back holding my nose. I cracked open the door again and looked out to see if the man is still there, and he wasn’t. I shut the door again and locked it. I sat back down in my bed and picked up the bat that had been laying on the floor and clutched it close to me. I turned the Netflix back on and tried putting 100% of my brain into focusing on that show so I didn’t think about what just happened. It registered in my brain finally when my sense came back to me that there was a man in my house and that I was sitting here doing nothing. I looked over to  my nightstand where I had put my phone when I had come home and it wasn’t there. My phone was gone. I turned on my light and turned my whole room upside down searching for my phone. I ripped off my blankets and my sheets, I searched under my bed and in my closet, I opened every drawer in my room and thoroughly checked every square inch of space and I could not find my phone. My door was still closed and locked and my window was still shut and the curtains were still drawn. When did this guy come in and take my phone?
All the events of the night started playing off in my head. He knocked on the door then hid below my window, he knocked on the window then went to the back, he opened the door then went into my room, took my phone, and hid. He somewhere in  my house and had my phone.
I opened the door and looked out. I held the bat with a death grip that was making my fingers feel like they would fall off. I couldn’t see him anywhere. I stepped out, still gripping the bat, and tried to turn on the light. It wouldn’t turn on. I flipped and flipped the switch and it wouldn’t budge. I went to the next light. And the next light. No lights would turn on and all the lights that were previously on in the kitchen were switched off. He had cut my power, stolen my phone, and punched me in the nose. I felt like this was some kind of taunt. Surfer came streaming out of my room with his tail in the air and looking at me with a confused face that almost asked me if we could go back to sleep. I wanted to, but I couldn’t let some guy roam around my house in the night. What would he do if I just left my door locked all night and stayed in there? Probably steal everything and run away. I had no idea who he was or what his purpose was, but he was here and that was all I could focus on right now. Being out in the dark away from my room with a man lurking in the shadows felt like a child straying to far from his mother. I slowly backed up to my room. That is when he jumped out and grabbed me. I whipped the bat around and smacked him right in the side of the head. He stepped back and clutched the point of impact. I took that chance to run back into my room and shut the door behind me. I felt like I would never come out of there again. I was in a permanent time out issued by myself.
Just when I relaxed for a second I realized that Surfer wasn’t let in my room. I couldn’t leave him out there. He could be killed! I cared to much about that cat to let him loose in my house with a stranger planning to do who knows what with the both of us. I took the bat in my hands again and strutted back out of my room, ready to strike the second I saw the man again daring to hurt my cat. I looked around and then right in front of me, at the end of the hallway, I see four candles lit up, with a man holding Surfer right above them. He was waving at me like it was some sick game and holding the cat to the flames. I didn’t move a muscle, scared of what he would do with fire and cat. I finally took one step and he dropped the mewling cat into the candles. Surfer shrieked and ran, his tail searing. I ran up to Surfer, scooped him up and ran back into my room with the man pursuing. I shut the door and let Surfer on the floor, just in time to lock it as he started pushing and banging on the door. I screamed and sat down with my back against the door, pushing back my staticy hair with my shaking hands. Surfer kept mewling and started to lick his tail. I found an old bottle of water and an empty laundry bin and washed off his tail, and hopefully soothed it for him. He sat down back in his bed with his tail tucked around his little black paws, and then laid there watching the door with bright yellow eyes that glowed in the dark. I stayed focused on his sun looking eyes, it being the only thing that brought me peace in this whole situation. My TV was off and my phone was gone. I couldn’t call the police. This man might even set my house on fire. What am I supposed to do? I instantly think of the perfect alternative. I could climb out the window.

I grabbed my sheets off my bed and as many as I could find in my closet. I sat down on my bed and started tying them together, and testing them by draping them out the window to see how far they went. I strapped a blanket around my waist and put Surfer carefully into it, avoiding his tail. I tied the sheets around me and then secured them on the side of my bed. I put one leg out of the window and started to make my way down. I was about halfway down when a voice stopped me dead in my tracks.
“Come on down Talia, atta-girl!” I looked down and saw the man standing there, holding a knife from my kitchen in his hand, his arms open like he was ready to catch me and bring me to my death.
I scrambled back up the sheet and back into my room through the window. I started pulling up the sheet and noticed a heavy weight on the end. I peared back out and saw that he was dangling on the end and trying to climb up. I let him climb and picked up the bat. This would stop him for sure. Once he got to the top and tried to hop in the window, I slammed him in the head with the bat and he fell off the sheets and down into the dirt below. I was a floor up in the air, and he landed with a loud thud, followed by squeals of pain. I looked down and he was on the ground on his back, groaning. I went back in and shut the window, then went downstairs and shut every door, window, and anything leading to outside. I grabbed Surfer and went into a different room, and left the door open as not to show that I was in there. I went into the closet and started to cry. I was scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. I didn’t know if I would even wake up that next morning and see the sunlight blinding me through the blinds. I was scared that I would lose everyone that mattered to me. Surfer curled up in the darkest corner of the closet, and went to sleep like nothing had happened.
I covered my mouth so that he wouldn’t hear me breathing when he came back in. I heard him open the front door and come up the stairs. I peered out the shutters and saw that he was looking through every room, and trying to find me. I looked around my own room and tried to find something that I could use to defend myself, and then I saw it. My phone. My phone was lying half exposed underneath a pillow on the guest bed. It was turned on and notifications were coming in, texts from probably a nervous neighbor seeing a man fall one story down from my window. I saw him come into my room just as I was about to creep out of the closet to grab my phone and call the police. He looked around and I saw the knife he was holding glisten in the moonlight from the open blinds. He looked around, and came right up to my closet shutters, and I covered my mouth once again so he couldn’t hear my nervous breathing. He looked around one more time and then walked out of the room. I knew what I was going to do. I was going to get out, close and lock the door and windows, and call the police. Adrenaline rushed through my blood as I tried to hype myself up to do it. I finally got the courage, and I opened the closet shutters slowly. Then, I bolted.

I rushed to the door after making my plans in my head. I ran as fast as I could across the room and to the door. I put my hands right on the doors as he also bolted in the room. I tried to close it before he got in as fast as humanly possible, but he got in. I backed up and he followed me, holding up the knife he took from my kitchen. I tried to get away, but he kept walking me back. It was to late when I realized that he was cornering me in the room. I backed up into the corner and then kicked him in the gut, trying to grab my phone and run. I got away for a minute, but he was to fast. He turned around and grabbed me right before my fingertips touched the bright screen. I felt the stabbing pain in my chest as I fell to the ground and blacked out.
I opened my eyes for the first time when I heard my front door open and heard the call of my name from downstairs. I recognized the voice immediately as my sweet neighbor, Jayde. She was 28 and she had a three year old daughter named Juniper. I loved Juniper very much. She was such a funny and bright child. It made me sad to know that I would never see her again. I blacked out again.
I opened my eyes the next time to her screams as she walked in the room and saw me  on the old wooden floor with pools of blood surrounding me. She saw I had my eyes open and bent down beside me.
“GO.” I choked out. “He could still be here.” I didn’t want my fate ending up like hers did, especially when she had Juniper.
She ran out the door and called the police, and it all went dark again.
THe last time I woke up, I heard the sirens blaring as they came right outside my house. I looked around myself and somehow knew this would be the last time I opened my eyes. I saw the pools of red, sticky liquid around me and moved my fingers a bit. I had kind of given up at that point. I wasn’t going to make it through no matter how much they tried to save me. I heard the front door open and the police searching my house, and for the last time, I took a deep breath, and shut my eyes, never for them to open again. Or so I thought.