“Shhhh… Calm down sweetie. I’m not going to let them hurt you, I promise. Don’t worry Tim. ” He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me tight. He stopped crying but continued to hold on tightly.

A loud smash of a window struck my family and me with terror. We could hear them scrambling on the bottom floor and overturning everything they saw.  The horror of having them inside the house was indescribable. The three were on their way up the’ stairs by now and nearing the safe room. Our hearts raced as the suspense kept building up. They kept coming closer, so close that you can actually hear them breathe. Moments later, sirens filled the air as cars pulled in with fully armored men arrived.  The three men stumbled over each other as they tried to escape, but they were too late.  The armored men surrounded the house and went in. The three intruders were immediately arrested and sent away in a heavily armored van.

Mark entered the house to check on everyone. He asked, “Are ya’ll alright?”

Tim looked a bit confused and asked, “Yeah. Why d-did they break in my house?”

“I’m not sure Tim,” said Mark.

“Are they gonna come back to get us? Will they kill us?”

“No, we won’t let the bad people hurt you.”

“Oh, okay Mark,” said Tim and walked away.

Everyone was shaken up by the incident. The police came in, questioned my father about the intrusion, and tried to figure everything out. He had no clue as to why we were victimized for this random attack. I went outside to sit on the swing and Mark followed me. The night was rather quiet. A gentle breeze whistled through the leaves of the trees behind my house.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just can’t believe that all happened today. You should have seen how terrified they were when the guys were in the house.”

“I’ll stick around for a while to make sure you all are safe, if you want me to, that is.”

“I’m sure my family would like that.”

I stood up, faced him, and tried to smile.  He jumped up and wrapped his arms around me. “Don’t worry they’re all safe now,” he assured.

“Yeah I know. I just can’t imagine what’s going to happen if they do get hurt. I really love them all; I don’t think I can handle losing any one of them.” I buried my face into his chest and eyes started to water.

“They will be fine. I’ll make sure of it.”