My dad works nights every once in a while and when I was 16 he left me home alone one night. It was a usual evening. Eat something, watch tv, go to sleep.

Around 3 a.m. I got woken up by foot steps. 2 separate foot steps. I lay there for a second in kind of a fog thinking maybe it's my dad and he got off early and is having a friend over but then I realize it's 3 a.m. and that scenario made absolutely no sense at all. I snapped awake and listened. They weren't talking, just walking around. I got up, closed my door as quietly as I could, locked it, and called the police. I'm whispering to the dispatcher when I hear one of them walking down my hall so in a panic I hang up and just sit there holding my breath. I'm hoping and praying he will figure out the door is locked and turn around.

He didn't. He immediately started beating on my door. I guess he heard me close the door? I still don't really know how he figured I was back there. I live in Georgia and my dad is a hunter. He has always wanted me to hunt but I never enjoyed it but I was taught how to use a gun and I had been given a 30 30 rifle about a year before. So I grabbed it out of sheer desperation and screamed as loud as I could that I have a gun and I've already called the police. The pounding stopped and I heard them both storm out of my house.

People told me how brave I was and how they can't imagine how much courage it took but I honestly thought I was going to be murdered. I still don't feel like a big brave man. I'm almost 22 and it still gives me chills thinking about it.

The police never found them and we didn't stay in that house for long. The police think they were casing our house and knew my dad was at work. My parents are divorced so I would spend a couple weeks with my dad then go see my mom when I could. They think the people who broke in thought I was with my mom that night.