A House With a Light On (38/73)

Around 430 am the house shook in sequence with a giant bang! As it did, I instantly awoke knowing it was time. It had started and I needed to go. My heart began to race in my chest as I stood up on the bed and started to unwind the window. It was the type of window that opened up from the bottom and popped out at a 90-degree angle. As I did, the loud destructive sounds continued and many voices started to screamed and yell. I could tell there were still a few people around.

The fear started to consume me because things sounded really out of control in the house. Once I got the window open, I tried to lift myself up to jump out. I instantly realized that I had not thought this through very well. There was no way I was going to fit out the window. Now I was really starting to panic. My Grandma came into the room and saw me standing up by the window. She instantly told me that I needed to lay back down and just stay in the bedroom until she came back for me. Only to please her I said yes and laid back down. She then quickly ran back out of the room.

Once I knew she was gone, I got back up and courageously made my way down the hallway. When I got to the end, I had a clear view of the fight. Everyone was in the corner of the dining room about 20 feet away attempting to stop Jack from punching my mother. I froze for a moment not knowing what to do. I knew I had to get out of the house. But how? Through a haze of fear, I looked over into the living room and noticed that the front door was unlocked and slightly open. This was odd as it was always locked because we never used the front door. We always came in through the back door.

In that moment, I knew I could escape out the front door, but I could not move. I was terrified of being caught. Seeing Jack so enraged made me wonder if he saw me if he would hit me too? I had to risk it. It took everything I had to make me legs move but they did and I dashed to the front door. As ran to the door I felt the velvet embossed wallpaper under my fingertips. With my right hand, I reached out for the doorknob and swung the door wide open. As it did the door slammed into the wall creating a loud clanging sound as the brass doorknob hit the wall. I thought to myself that was it I was caught. I quickly looked back into the dining room, but nobody even noticed or heard a thing. I could hear a voice in my head yelling RUN Dawn Marie RUN!

I then ran straight out the door, down three steps and jumped over the little white picket fence on to the neighbors drive way. I quickly looked back at the front of the house to see if anybody was coming as I made my way across the neighbor’s front yard and down the street to freedom. I frantically looked for a house with a light on. After I passed about eight houses, I finally saw a light and ran to the door. I banged on the door with both hands while screaming for help until someone finally answered.