I don’t remember exactly how it came up, but I think it was to do with her grabbing some stuff from under her bed one night – basically, she wouldn’t do it and was terrified of it. I never understood why…until she told me.

Her cousins, who she adored, came home one night to find the house unlocked. They were really confused and frightened about why, so they checked the house, but couldn’t find anything missing. They just assumed that they left the place unlocked.

That night, my ex’s cousin was lying on her bed, doing whatever young girls do (oh god that sounds bad when I say it like that. No!), when her cat just would not shut up. It was lying on the floor of her room, hissing. Despite her appeals, the cat kept going, being very aggressive towards the underside of the bed she was lying on. She decided to see what the fuss was about, so she got down on her hands and knees, and looked.

There was a guy lying there, on his side, staring right into her eyes, holding up a mean-looking knife.

This girl obviously screamed like crazy and bolted out of her room, taking the cat with her. Her parents came running, she hysterically told them there was a man with a fucking knife under her bed. Her dad grabbed the door and threw it shut, locking the guy in there, while the police were called. As much as he tried to hold this guy inside the room, the guy ended up overpowering him and getting the door open and running as fast as he could out of the house.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the guy was never found.