understand and it hasn’t changed much since.
Crash. The sound of glass breaking made me lose my train of thought. Petrified, I did nothing but listen. Something was moving around my house. It was knocking over objects and moving slowly. I heard no dialect coming from whatever was making all the noise. Not a single word.
I wanted to call the cops with my cell phone, but what would I say? I didn’t even know what it was. I could just call and say someone broke into my house. That made sense; I watched that on the news only an hour or two ago. Wait a second, I watched it, but Zeppo heard it. It could be him walking around trying to get me scared. Yeah, that’s just what he wants me to do. He wants me to call the police, have them show up only to find a puppet laying on the floor. When they see that, they’ll think I’m crazy. They’ll lock me up. He wants me to be locked away because of what I did to him earlier. No way, I’m not that dumb. As long as the door is locked, he can’t harm me. I’ll just try to go to sleep is all.
As I laid my head down, the noise only go louder. The few minutes I laid in bed felt like hours and I was surprised none of the neighbors reported the noise by now. The agony of my eardrums having to persistently listen to pieces of house decor being broken drove me nuts. It didn’t stop. It didn’t seem like it was going to stop. It was probably never going to stop. I was going to have to stay in this room and listen to the nonstop shattering of expensive pieces of furniture for hours if I didn’t do anything about it. I became angry. He was pulling my strings again. I wasn’t going to take it. I was gonna show him who’s the puppeteer and who’s the puppet!
“SHUT UP!” I screamed.
Silence. Utter silence. It was so quiet you could probably hear a mouse drop a crumb onto the floor. It dawned on me right there the possibility of it being a robber could be just as easily probable as Zeppo. Either way, I let whoever was in there know I was listening and irritated.
Then, I heard walking again. Slow walking, as if they were walking with a limp or something. It became louder and louder. That’s when I had realized whoever was in there was walking towards the door.
Their feet dragged on the ground, creating an eerie, irregular sound that was so foreign to my ears that it made goosebumps appear on my skin. My heart accelerated to a point where my chest was hurting and I was hyperventilating. Each breath I took only increased in volume and made the sound of the dragging feet seem like it was nothing compared to me. I became dizzy, so much so that I could no longer stand. I had to sit on the floor and lean on my bed in order to keep my head facing the door.
Suddenly, the movement stopped. I could no longer hear the feet dragging along the floor. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of myself respiring in order to keep more oxygen flowing through my lungs so I wouldn’t pass out from shock. I started to calm down a little, my heart beat decreased, I started slowing down my breathing. I was almost back to normal when all of a sudden I heard a loud bang on my bedroom door. They were trying to get in.
The sound of the door being banged on was not that loud, but it surprised me since there was nothing that could be heard except me breathing. The banging continued as both my heartbeat and respiration increased steadily. I felt like I was running out of air; each breath I took felt like I was taking in less and less oxygen. I was suffocating. Was this what Zeppo wanted? Did he somehow find a way to stop airflow in my room? I felt as if I was running out of air quickly. I glanced at my window and realized that I needed to open it. I got up and staggered towards the window, but couldn’t find the strength to move more that a few feet.
I collapsed on the floor with a hard thud. I had little energy, only enough to keep myself awake. The banging on the door continued as I lied on the floor, desperately trying to breath. Was there really no air, or was my mind convincing me that there was none available in the room? It didn’t matter, I could do nothing either way.