she held her breath and her brother

her hand over her brothers mouth trying not to make noise breathing. both hiding in a small dark closet praying that the attacker wont check here. Shane, my brother, was shaking. not because he is cold, but because he is scared. he is too young to experience this trauma. All I could think is why did mom and dad have to leave tonight than any other night. This easily became the worst night of my life.

We and Shane would play hide and seek a lot as we were younger so i'm trying to think of this as an intense game of hide and seek. But I just want my parents, I bet my brother does too. my hand thats covering his mouth is soaked from his tears. I cant cry. I cant let Shane know that I'm scared, it will just make things worse. so I'm controlling my breathing, trying not to listen to the ruckus happening all around the house. All the noises must be from at least 3 people, which makes it worse. Then a loud crash that sounded like glass breaking that made me jump and Shane whimpered panicky. My grip on Shane tightened to let him realize he cant make that noise but then slowly loosened it. The glass sounded so close. Shanes tears are dripping from my hand and footsteps are getting closer. loud, heavy thumps. Like the person is wearing big construction boots. The boots becoming louder and louder. Shane shaking more and more. Tears streaming from Shanes eyes to my hand on his mouth. the thumps getting slower but louder. Then they stop. nothing. it felt like i've never been in such silence before. My ears started to ring, it felt like minutes have passed by, but it was probably only about 15 seconds until that silence was broken, my ears stopped ringing and my hand kept dripping. me and Shane both jump when the closet doorknob rattled. They know. They know we are in here and they are tormenting us. They keep twisting the doorknob, then knocking very lightly twice. A deep giggle stem on the other side of the door. At this point I was silently weeping. Then I hear footsteps again. But this time they are getting quieter and quieter until they are completely hushed. I hear the front door open and close, but we both don't move. besides it could just be a trap and they are still inside. I do uncover Shanes mouth. he doesn't speak but he completely wraps his arms around me and cry. I try to keep him quiet just incase. We sat there for at least 2 hours. he fell asleep about 30 minutes in. then I hear the garage start to open and I feel this rush of complete relief. I dont get up. I dont move. I wait to hear their voices. I cant be tricked. I then hear my mother quietly yell my name. I say her name back. she is demented. not knowing where I was but headed my direction. she says my name again, I say hers back. she then slowly opens the closet door letting a beam of light in. She is stunned. not knowing what to say. I get up with Shane in my arms and tuck him into bed. and I walk back over to my mother. sitting her and my father down. explaining every little detail to them. They look at me almost like they don't believe me. but they do. my dad calls the cops, they interview me asking me too many questions. but they couldnt do much since we never saw them and there wasnt any evidence left of them. So we ended up getting stronger locks on all our doors and security cameras covering our entire lot and some of the street. I cant sleep at night anymore. I cant think of anything except how scared I was. how all I did was sit in a closet hiding. I did nothing. its all over now. I have to let it go. I have to get better.