It was a dark and gloomy night, and the air was crisp with a slight breeze that would bring chills down my spine. I lived in Texas, where the weather was always hot and humid, so this felt nice, and I was enjoying it; It finally felt like fall. I was on my occasional daily walk around my neighborhood, but all I can think about was getting home and having a movie night with my friends Becky and Jess, who had agreed to come over my house. We were going to have a spooky movie night with some hot chocolate to welcome the fall season being upon us. Although all I can think about was enjoying some time with my friends, I couldn’t help but realize that I was being watched by my creepy new neighbor Michael who had just moved across the street from us. 

            As I walked down the long driveway that led to my front door for like what felt like eternity, I could physically feel him looking at me. My stomach was in knot, and I could literally puke in my own mouth. I was disgusted by him and by the lustful gaze he was giving me with those mysterious eyes of his. I quickly shut the door behind me and called my friends Becky and Jess to warn them about Michael and how unsafe I felt with him around.  They were scared, but still agreed to come over so that I wouldn’t be alone. I sat there and waited for my friends looking out the window praying that Michael wasn’t a nefarious man who lived two lives like in the movies. I could see him still staring towards my house as if he was plotting and evil act. At this point I was not in my most viable state, but in that moment, I saw Becky and Jess drive in, and I felt a big relief. I wasn’t alone anymore. I could finally breathe.

            Becky and Jess were a big distraction to the reality of what was going on outside these doors. We made sure the doors were locked and continued with our night as if there wasn’t a man outside watching our every move. We prepared our popcorn and hot chocolate, chose the movie, “Halloween” to watch, and we all sat down in complete silence waiting for the movie to begin. As it began, we hear a hard knock. “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!” We all jump in fear and look at each other. “What do we do?”, Jess asked. I compulsively said, “I’ll do it, I’ll open the door to check.”  As I opened the door, there was no one. We were in shock, because the bang was so hard, but nonetheless, we went back to the movie and intended to watch it once again, but things only got worse. We started hearing banging noises in every window in the house, it is like were being taunted. We did not know what to do, so we did what anyone would do, we called 911.

            After we made the 911 call, it was as if so, we angered him. He knocked on the door harder and harder and all we did was yell. Jess gathered the courage to look out the window and was she saw was traumatizing. Michael was holding an ax and rope. At that point we thought we were possibly not going to make it out, but we would do everything possible to survive. We started barricading the door, trying to do everything in our ability to make sure he doesn’t come in. We tried to buy as much time for the police to get here, but it was getting too late because Michael was breaking our front door with an axe. Moments later, as this was occurring, we see the cops. We ran through the back door in complete terror, yelling to the cops, “HELP, HELP.” The cops got to us and reassured us, that we were now safe.

            We could not believe it, we could not believe we made it out alive, but we soon realized that not everyone was as lucky as us. The things the police found in Michael’s house were disturbing. He was a serial killer, and we were just the lucky ones as they called it.  At this point, we did not know how many people his victims were, but we were just grateful to be safe and alive. It is a night we will never forget.