“You have got to be kidding me.”

“I wish I were.”
“How did this happen?”
“I don’t know! The door just locked behind me!”

Great. We were locked out. Just fabulous. Locked out, in the summer heat, and me without any shoes. We really need to start keeping a key under the mat. Because now we were stuck until our mother came home, and that wouldn’t be for another two hours.

“What do we do now?” my brother Tori asked me.

“I guess wait until mom comes home,” I replied, not sure what else to say.

“No way. I’m not sitting here for two hours. Let’s try to find an open window.”
“Okay.”
We split up, me going left, him going right. I tried each window, but they were all locked, just like the back door. I checked the screen door on the deck, but that was locked too.
“Find anything, Kristin?”
“No!” I shouted back, “Did you?”
“Sort of. there’s a break in the fence over here. At least we can go to the front yard.”
“Okay, let’s go through.”
We slipped through the small hole, and found ourselves in the front of the house. We checked the windows there, but they were locked too.
“Why can’t we have a keypad that opens the garage door?” Tori moaned.
“How should I know? Come on, let’s just walk around a bit to kill some time.”
“Fine, whatever.”
I knew better than to try to make conversation with Tori when he was in one of his moods. I just walked beside him, not talking or making any eye contact.
As we rounded the corner to or street the third time, I noticed that there was something different about the house. I wasn’t sure what, but I knew for sure that it was not the same as we left it. I ran ahead of Tori, rushing to the house.
“Kristin, what are you doing?” he called behind me. I didn’t pay him any attention. I looked at the living room window. The open living room window.
“Tori, I think someone is n the house,” I whispered as quietly as I could. “This window was not open when we left, we would have definitely seen it. Someone must have gone in while we were gone!”
Tori didn’t say anything, instead, he began to climb in the now accessible house.
“What are you doing?” I asked him, alarmed at his actions.
“I’m going to go in and try to fight this guy,” he informed me matter-of-factly.
“What? No, don’t! You don’t know if he could be armed, or weigh like 250 pounds, or even where in the house he is!”
“I don’t care, Kristin, I’m still going in. You wait here.”
I being ever obedient, remained standing where I was, watching as Tori climbed in and disappeared from view.
I don’t know how much time had passed. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, I had no idea. But the amount if time didn’t matter. All that did matter was that after that time had passed, I heard a bloodcurdling scream coming from the house.
I knew that it had to be Tori. I knew that he had to be in some kind of danger. And I knew that I had to help him. Taking a deep breath, I climbed into the house and ran towards the sounds of his screams.
I found them downstairs. There stood a tall man with a muscular build, with a choke hold on my brother. Neither of them saw me, and I wanted to keep it that way. I climbed back up the stairs, all the while hearing Tori scream for mercy.
I grabbed the phone and dialed 911. When they picked up, I placed the receiver on the top step, where the person on the other end could hear the struggle.
“Let me go, please!” Tori cried. His screams became louder as the man only tightened his grip.
Grabbing a knife from the kitchen, I walked quietly back to the stairs. I made my decent to the middle of the staircase, where they could still not see me, but I could see them. The man had his back turned to me now…perfect.
I jumped the remaining stairs, and plunged the knife in his back. He fell to the floor, writhing in pain. Releasing his grip on Tori on the way down. I grabbed his hand and led him up the stairs, as he was still in a bit of shock. Able to now unlock the door from the inside, we ran outside, just as three police cars pulled up.
“He’s downstairs,” I informed them. They nodded, and ran inside.
Tori sat down, me placing myself next to him. Suddenly, he let out a nervous laugh.
“What was that for?” I asked.
“Well, that guy could have came in when we were still inside, and then you wouldn’t have been able to get help. So…” he laughed again.
“So what?” I asked, still puzzled.
“I’m actually glad we gout locked out!”