This story just happened last night and I don’t know exactly what to make of it. I’m an 18 year old dude who lives at home with his mom. We live in the same neighborhood as my grandma’s house and only a minute away from all my aunts, uncles and cousins. It’s always been a nice and happy area for me because I grew up around here. To say it plainly, I love this place and I feel comfortable almost everywhere around my city. Most people in my city mind their own business and have a lot of respect for hard work and integrity, but we definitely have our fair share of crazies. We had a body found in a storage unit not too long ago, close to where I live. Another incident saw a man who used to work at the same power plant I work at, arrested for killing a woman with his car and driving away. Point is, shit goes bad sometimes, but most of the time it’s pretty calm. Regardless, what happened yesterday will stay with me for a long time… It was a typical Thursday, I got home from work and had my usual routine. A shower, some video games, a little weed, and dinner. My mom’s friend, April, was over. My mom told me that at about 9pm she was walking April back to her house. 9pm arrives and the two left. About a minute later I thought I heard tapping on my window. The tapping was so low and inconsistent that I just shrugged it off. I felt slightly paranoid, so I turned on some music to distract myself. No more than 2 minutes pass, and I hear my back door open. We always kept the spare key in the lock which jangles every time the door is opened. I turned my music off and sat in silence. I couldn’t hear anything. I know someone just opened it. I know someone was inside my house. I could feel it, but couldn’t hear footsteps, a voice or anything. I grabbed the knife I keep in my desk drawer and sat in complete silence. I thought to myself that if I acted like I had the upper hand, whoever it might be, will be intimidated or scared. I stood up and walked out of my bedroom. Knife in hand. I don’t know why, but I whistled, just one note. I took a few steps forward, stopped and whistled once more, still thinking I was acting tough, showing no fear. Needless to say by this point, I was terrified. I was about to take a few more steps, when I heard something that made a chill run through my spine. Someone just whistled back at me. Sounded like it came from the living room.. I was frozen in fear. I peered around the corner and saw nothing. The door was closed, but unlocked. I don’t know if it was me who left it unlocked. I truly couldnt remember. Knife or not, I was extremely scared and ran back to my room. A few minutes pass and the door opens again.. My mom is back.. I don’t know why but I didn’t say a word to her about what just happened.. I have no idea who it was, where he was, or if he ever left.. I was 21 at the time of this occurrence and was living at home with my mom. I used to stay up until 4am. The only show that was ever on and was any good at that time was law and order. The show comes on and I'm about to turn my lights off when I hear a small noise from the front of my house. I don’t think much of it and continue to get ready for bed. At this point, I have no clothes on whatsoever because that's how I sleep. The next thing I remember is hearing footsteps through the hallway and my doorknob jiggle. At first I thought I'm just hearing things.. I then hear my mom’s door close. I thought maybe she had gotten up to walk our dog because sometimes he would really need to go and would wake her up at any time throughout the night. Then it hits me, the footsteps were slow and there no light were on in my house. Had my mother gotten up, she would have switched on a lamp or something. I get up and slowly peek my head out my door, taking a step towards my mom’s room. I open her door to complete darkness. She's in the bed and it's obvious she’s been sleeping for some time. I say quietly call her name and all she says back is "go to your room." I tell her to turn the lights on. I was frightened. I knew someone was in my house and needed to know who! Again, she tells me to go back to my room. I've never felt so frozen with fear. I'm shaking. I ran to my room, put on some clothes and was looking for something to defend us with. My room is a girl’s room, I don't have shit to defend us with. I hear the bathroom door shut. It's across from both our bedrooms. My mom is now fully awake. She yells for me to get into her room. I slam the door shut and lock it. She tells me to grab the phone and dial 911. Meanwhile, we can hear this person going back and forth from my room to the bathroom. We can hear him opening drawers and going through my things. Less than a minute later the police shows up. They come to the door and the dispatcher I'm talking to tell me that our door is locked. They are going to have to break it down, unless we can come unlock it. It dawns on me that this guy came through our back door because I never thought to lock it every time I came home. My mom runs to the door while the guy has locked himself in our bathroom. The police come in and break that door down with guns drawn. I'm freaking out at this point. It hit me all at once. I was in real danger.. They cuff the intruder and drag him outside. They ask me if I want to try and identify him. I had no idea who he was. They retrieve many of my things he tried to steal. Cameras, old phones and so on.. They write a report and the whole situation is over in a matter of minutes.. Come to find out, he was my neighbor’s cousin. He had just been cheated on by his soon to be baby mama. He went out, got high on who knows what and decided to break into our place. I am not sure what his intentions were and am too scared to think about what could have happened if this situation ended differently..