My First Night Home Alone

I was around my early teens when it happened. My parents were going out to get some supplies from Home Depot and spend some alone time together, leaving me, my older sister and little brother at home. Even though our folks were confident that we would be all right, we were a little nervous as this was our first time home alone, especially at night. Aside from a couple of robberies down our road, our neighborhood was a safe place. Besides, our house wasn’t exactly a perfect target for burglars due to our cheap taste. Then again, one person could see a treasure chest while another sees a pile of garbage.

Once our parents took off, we all gathered in the living room to do our homework. We all agreed that we should stick together until our folks came back since we weren’t comfortable spending the evening alone in our rooms. But even within close proximity, we still felt uneasy as if something was waiting for the right moment to appear. Even the shadows both in and out of the room felt like they were hiding something sinister, ready to strike when we least expect it.

After a while, we eventually couldn’t take it any more and decided to huddle in our parents’ room. We closed the door and took our spots to finish our schoolwork. My sister and brother took the bed while I took the rocking chair. For a while, we felt the invisible sense of security in the room, bringing us complete serenity. It wasn’t long until we started talking to break the icy silence.

I don’t remember what we were talking about exactly, but I believe it was a mix of our friends, new movies coming out and jokes. After laughing at a joke that one of our friends made, it happened.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

We all screamed at the top of our lungs, all our eyes fixed on the door. I remember thinking that I should get up and make sure the door was locked or at least hold it in place so the intruder wouldn’t get in. But I couldn’t move. No matter how many times my mind would tell me to do something, my body stood stiff. It was almost as if I was glued to my seat. I could feel my eyes begin to water, ready to spill at any moment.

I glanced over to my sister, who was in the same petrified state as I was. My brother, on the other hand, began to cry with his tears falling down his red face, unable to move, too. My eyes returned to the door, which immediately began to open.

Just when we thought our whole world was about to end with no mercy or time to reflect… the intruder turned out to be our father.

“Hey, it’s okay, guys,” he said, looking alarmed. “It’s just me.”

We heard our mother cry out, “Honey, why are the kids screaming? What did you do?” as she walked in to see if we were all right.

At first, we couldn’t process what just happened. We all were so scared that it took a couple of minutes of us calming ourselves down. After some heavy breathing, our crying slowly turned into laughter. With all of us laughing along with our dad, our mom couldn’t help but roll her eyes with a grin.

Feeling relieved that it was our folks instead of a burglar, we asked them how they managed to get in without making any noise. Our dad pointed out that we forgot to lock the backdoor. Seeing that we were all huddled in the master bedroom with the door closed, he got the brilliant idea to scare us. So in a way, his prank worked; it just worked a little too well.

While we not only got a good story but it also taught us to always double check to see if we locked all the doors. Because we might get more than just a harmless prank if we don’t.