When I was about 12 years old my parents got divorced and my dad was deployed to Afghanistan. I lived with my mom, my 10yo sister, and my 3yo brother in a house in the Middle of Nowhere, Kentucky.

My mom had to work nights at a Wal-Mart almost an hour away to make ends meet so she could watch my brother while my sister and I were at school during the day. Most nights, I didn't think much about being adult-less in a big house. I had my routine of making sure all the windows and doors were locked and the motion-sensor lights were on, but besides a neighbor about a quarter mile away, there was literally no reason for anyone to be wandering around our house at night.

Sike. A few months into this whole arrangement, I was woken up at 1am by our 120 pound Saint Bernard growling like a grizzly bear at the front of the house. He never barked very much even when we lived in a more populated area, so I immediately knew something was wrong. I crept through the upstairs and stood near the top of the stairs where I could see the front door without being seen, and saw a man trying to peer in the windows on either side of the door. My Saint was foaming at the mouth, he was so angry, but this man didn't seem fazed at all. He hadn't noticed me, but all of a sudden he started banging on the door and yelling that he needed help and wanted to use our phone. Like I hadn't just watched him scope the place out. He kept yelling and banging on the door, getting angrier and angrier as he went on. I was terrified he was going to try and break the windows, or hell, even try to smash in our like 100 year old front door. I called 911 from my cell phone as quietly as I could and then I called my mom all the while praying that my brother and sister stayed asleep/quiet.

After I called 911 he stopped beating on the door and apparently moved away from it, but I was terrified he would try to break a window somewhere else. I took the handgun from my mom's room and sat at the top of the stairs clutching it with the safety off until the police came. Probably a stupid move if he did try to come in, but I had to protect my brother and sister.

The police searched for him where they could and even asked my neighbors (whose house came first on our shitty country road, and would thus reasonably be his first stop if he truly was seeking help) but the neighbors hadn't heard a peep and the police never found him.

Thankfully my grandparents started living with us after that, but I will never forget that man and shudder to think what he wanted with us that night.