Let's Not Meet Again

Scariest Night of My Life

This takes place late last Spring, almost exactly one year ago. At the time my parents and I lived a somewhat solitary life out in the countryside. Other than bad cell phone and internet reception, there were other homes in the area, but not many, and exclusively consisted of retirees and wealthy families.

My parents, who are wealthy and retired, were planning a trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to sight see and visit my mom's ill mother. I've been to Gettysburg before on a class field trip and decided not to go. I had schoolwork and projects to work on that were due that Friday and going to Gettysburg for a second time didn't seem all that interesting to me.

My parents do a lot of traveling and volunteer work, and, over the years, placed a lot of trust in me so they had no issues with me being alone for several days or even a week at a time by the time I reached 16 years old and obtained my driver's license.

So, anyway, I got up the morning of their departure and by the time I left for school my parents were preparing to leave. When I got home that afternoon they were already gone. I had three days alone.

I spent the first afternoon and evening doing homework and gaming. That evening I decided to drive out to the closest town and pick up a pizza for myself since I didn't feel like preparing anything.

When I got home, I ate about half of the pizza, and after watching some YouTube, decided to turn in for the night. I awoke sometime around midnight, which isn't out of the ordinary for me as I sometimes have trouble sleeping at night. I went downstairs for a glass of orange juice and decided to flip through the channels on our living room television.

I was sitting there, looking at my phone more than watching the television, when I saw a light turn on through one of the living room windows. It was our garage's motion sensor light. Did my parents come home much earlier than expected?

I sat quietly and waited. The light eventually turned off and I didn't hear any noises. Ah, it must've been an animal or something, perhaps a deer. I turned off the television and went upstairs and into my bedroom and lied in bed. I fell asleep not too long afterwards.

I awoke to the sound of my alarm. Time to get ready for school. Oh, joy. I arose, got ready and headed out the door into my car and drove off to school.

I got home that afternoon and spent the day similarly to before; did homework, gamed, ate dinner, went to bed. I slept through the night that night and awoke the next day and headed off to school. My mom called me during school and left a message saying that her and my dad are going to stay longer than expected as my grandmother was in some pretty rough shape.

I got home and once again the day went as it did the last two, except this time I finished up my senior project and was almost officially finished with high school. About damn time, I say. I relaxed that evening outside on our hammock and read a book until sunset, debating whether or not to travel to Gettysburg the next day to visit my grandmother.

Dinnertime came and went and I decided to settle on the couch and continue reading my book. Since it was Friday I had no school the next day and stayed up longer than usual. It was about eleven o'clock at night when I looked at my phone and noted the time. I decided to go upstairs and game for a couple of hours.