25. This is a sad story…

At about 2 am our neighbor rang our doorbell and was banging on the door. My dad opened the door and she said something about her brother, who was mentally handicapped, murdering her parents and locking her in the closet. He thought she was just having a nightmare, but it turns out she was telling the truth. Cops were called, the guy is in the insane asylum now. Neighbor still lives in that house.

26. What the FUCK

My mom had been calling a lot. It was my first semester away at college, and her husband had gone batshit insane. He hit her for the first time 4 nights before I moved out. She locked him out of the house and he banged on the doors. In the middle of the night he’d driven away and I hadn’t seen him since.

When I answered, she said she’d gotten a phone call while she was watching tv. The person on the other end of the line said he’d been hired to kill her and her kids but if she could make him a better offer he wouldn’t do it. He told her what tv show she was watching. He told her what dorm I lived in. He told her that my little brother was upstairs playing video games when he was supposed to be asleep. She ran upstairs. My little brother was playing video games in his room. She yelled at him to pack a bag. The person on the phone had hung up. She called me.

I waited for 45 minutes before leaving, hoping my roommates would show up and help me figure out what to do. I’d said call the police but my mom said no. She said please come help her. My roommates didn’t come home. The RA was gone. I got in my truck and made a 45 minute drive in 20 minutes. The highway was nearly deserted. I’d hoped a police officer would pull me over- they’d know what to do and I’d be able to say I hadn’t called the cops. I accidently missed my turn when my mom called me 3 times in a row. I accidently ran a red light when I answered. A cop was right there. He didn’t pull me over.

When I got to our neighborhood I parked 2 streets away and used my ROTC tactical movements to go through alleys to our backyard. I’d tried to call my mother 3 times but she hadn’t answered. I put my phone on vibrate. The gate was closed but when I opened it I saw the back door standing open, light from the kitchen partially illuminating the patio. No one was out there.

I hesitated and went in, calling out softly for our Chihuahuas. They weren’t there. Shit. Those dogs bark at everything. They were either not in the house or they were dead. Shit. I got a knife from the kitchen and started a room by room search. Kitchen and laundry room were clear. I refused to check the garage. Dining room – clear. Living room – clear but oh fuck, there’s a broken vase. Downstairs bathroom- clear. I didn’t go into the master bedroom because I fully expected to find my mother dead.

I needed to get upstairs to the second bedroom on the right, my bedroom, to get my rifle – the only gun in the house. But no one was downstairs and upstairs was completely dark. There was a blind corner right at the top of the stairs- anyone could be hiding there.

I was 100% freaking the f*** out as I climbed the stairs. I got almost halfway up when someone started banging on the front door which is right in front of the stairs. I froze. I turned halfway so no one could surprise me from the second floor.

“WHO’S THERE?” I screamed. My cover was blown anyway. If anyone was in the house they knew I was there now. Whoever was outside could see me through the glass at the top of the door but it was too dark for me to see them. No one answered but they kept pounding on the door. “WHO THE F*** IS IT?” I screamed, now at the base of the steps. They kept banging on the door. “I’LL KILL YOU, MOTHERF***ER” I screamed as I flung open the door, to see my mother standing there with the Chihuahuas in her arms.

“WHY didn’t you answer?!” I asked. She said she wasn’t sure if it was me or not. “And if it hadn’t been me? What were you going to do? Throw the dogs at them?” She hadn’t thought that far ahead.
I told her the back door had been open but she said it’d been locked when she left. I said I’d checked most of the downstairs and was going upstairs for the gun. She said go up and get it, so I went up with my knife and checked upstairs while I was at it. Then I checked the rest of the downstairs. She’d taken my brother to his friend’s house, which is why she hadn’t answered her phone when I’d called.

She’d been driving.

I spent the night barricading the doors and windows and begging her to leave- just leave. She baked me some cookies. Her face was blue and purple from her husband’s last visit. She said my brother had tried to protect her and he didn’t look so great either. I said I’d kill her husband. She said she knew, and so did he, which is why he always left when they called me. (I feel I should mention I’m a chick and he was a good foot taller than me and easily 50 lb heavier, but I WOULD have killed him.)

In the morning I had to leave early to be at PT for ROTC at 5:30 a.m. I’d had maybe 45 minutes of sleep where my mom had asked me to stay on the living room floor outside the master bedroom.

I lost it at PT and then again in my weekly meeting with my athletics advisor. My ROTC instructors and my athletics advisor were horrified. We got a restraining order that day against my mom’s husband. He couldn’t come on campus. I wasn’t allowed to walk on campus alone. My roommates also got extra security.

A few weeks later my mom’s husband tried to kill her on my 19th birthday. He was in his car and he’d thrown her phone (which she was using to dial 911) on the passenger’s seat. She reached in to get it and he grabbed her arm and held on while he reversed out of the driveway and dragged her down the alley. He let go and her head slammed to the ground. She had a concussion. He tried to back over her but she screamed and rolled away. He ran over her foot and hand. Our neighbor came out of her house and screamed, which scared him away. My mom and brother went into hiding that night.

Being on those stairs, certain my family was dead and I was also about to die- that was the scariest moment of my life. And having someone bang on the door and not answer when I’m screaming at them, having to open it while thinking a killer was on the other side… creepiest thing ever.

27. It’s only a legend…

Once, our internet connection didn’t work for 16 hours.