My Blood Ran Cold
I was watching my daughter’s kids while she and her husband were out of town. They have a teenage daughter, who we can call Alyssa. In the middle of the night, I‘m woken up by a weird rustling sound. I look out the window and see movement. I see a boy emerge from the bushes on the side of the house. I then see a bike tossed on the lawn that definitely wasn’t ours.
My first thought was that it must be a burglar casing houses. But since he looked young and came through on a bike, I figured scaring him straight would be enough for him to decide to head home. So I went out on the porch, flipped the lights on, and politely said “Can I help you?” The guy looked surprised, but not nervous.
He was wearing a letterman style jacket, but once I got a clear view of him in the streetlights, he seemed much older than my granddaughter. He walked up closer to the house and said “Yeah, I’m looking for Alyssa”. I gave him a disapproving glare, hoping he’d realize that looking for a girl late at night and getting a grumpy old person meant it was time to split.
I figured Alyssa must have known that her parents were going out of town and, before she knew I’d be staying over, told a secret older boyfriend to come over. It was late and I was alone with several kids, so I didn’t want him coming any closer to the house. I also thought it was weird that he came so late and I wanted to be sure Alyssa actually wanted to talk to him.
I said: “You wait there”. He started to walk up and I felt a sick burning feeling in my gut. Instinct kicked in. I yelled: “NO. STOP. FREEZE”. I readjusted and said, “You stay right there. This is private property. Don’t take a step closer. Wait. There”. So I go in and Alyssa is asleep just one room over from where the rustling first occurred.
I wake her up and say something to the effect of “I don’t know what the big idea was to have friends over this time of night, but you tell them to go home”. She has no clue what I’m talking about. I say “There’s a guy outside asking for you”. Confused, she gets up and goes to the window. She sees him and goes white as a sheet.
“He asked for me?” “Yeah”. “By name?” “Yes”. Her reply made my blood run cold. She told me: “I’ve never seen him before in my life!” I called the authorities immediately, but as I was on the phone with them, Alyssa started tugging at my arm. “He’s coming up!” I had younger kids in the house to think about, so I kept the door latched and pulled it just open enough to yell “None of us know an Alyssa. Leave my property immediately”.
He got angry and started yelling for her to come out. Thankfully, an officer came pretty quickly. When the guy heard the sirens, he grabbed the bike and ran off. I watched where he was running to and he jumped into the passenger side of a car without headlights or front plates and sped off. The officer followed in the same direction, but couldn’t find him.