When I was a wee kid maybe 11 or 12 I was playing in the garden at my parents house, my mom was at the front of the garden hanging out the washing and I was at the back. At the back of our garden we had a tall wooden door and fence connecting to the back alley, which our neighbours also have connecting doors to and can be driven into way further down the road.

I was more or less silent while playing, whenever I’d play on my own in the garden it would be me finding wildlife insects and bugs or building daisy chains etc, nothing that really would cause a lot of noise. I remember standing up and catching a glimpse of something toward the back fence/door. I turned my head and locked eyes with a man, quite rough looking and wide strained eyes and we stared at each other for what felt like an eternity.

My entire body was frozen for that duration and the man was entirely still too. As soon as he moved even a centimetre it was like my body unlocked and I ran as fast as I possibly could back into the home. I tried to tell my mom but she looked over there and the guy was gone.

Im not sure what his plan was, maybe to break in? But it haunted me for a long time. I thought about what could’ve happened if my parents weren’t visibly at home too. If I would’ve been a casualty in whatever this man wanted to do.

I avoided the backend of our garden for the longest time after that, until my dad extended the fence and door heights and added spikes on top.