The Scariest Day of my Life
By: Juliano Righetto
Tags: Fear, Real Life Stories, Robbery, Humor, Scary

The room was quite small. There was only a single bed in it — where my friend slept — and a “bed-drawer” on the floor, where I slept. We talked there for a while, before going to sleep…

Until we heard a loud noise, a “bang” coming from the room. As if someone was forced to win a door until it opened.

We froze in fear.

After all, the same day, earlier, we had found the door open! It was certainly the thief who tried to steal the apartment earlier… He had come back to finish his job!

I had the urge to check what was going on, but my friend was even more afraid than I was. He told us to be quiet and wait. If we didn’t hear any more noise, we could leave the room. Otherwise… Let the robber steal the house, but not to kill both of us.

We waited a few moments, hoping that no more sound would come from the living room…

But we heard another one, this time, coming from the kitchen!

It was the plastic of the loaf! The thieves were messing with our dinner!

To make matters worse, the maid’s room door had no key. We couldn’t even lock ourselves in there!

I got up from the bed and held the door handle up. It was the only way to keep someone out. My friend, terrified, sat on his bed… And waited.

We were silent, listening to the sound of someone touching the loaf’s plastic.

“I think they are hungry …” — I said.

“Be quiet… If they hear us, they will come here!” — he said.

If anyone came, we would certainly see. As I said, the door was translucent. We could see the shapes of our clothes hanging on the clothesline outside; if someone went to the maid’s room, we would see their shape there too.

And, at that moment …

We started to see the clothesline move!

It was obvious! Someone was there, checking the area!

I waited holding the doorknob, thinking about what I would do when they forced entry…

But the clothes continued to move… And no one came to the door.

Then my brain started to forget a little bit of fear… And I began to understand the situation: we had left the beach because it was too windy, it was going to rain. The window in the area was open for the clothes to dry… What thief would not force the door to a room in an apartment he was robbing?

So obviously, who was making the clothes move…

“It’s the wind!” I told my friend.

“Shut up, they’ll hear us!” he said.

“No, it’s the wind! I’m sure! The window is open; that’s why the clothes are moving!”

“And the bread?”

“We left the package on the table… The wind is making the plastic move! I’m sure… We are not being mugged! It’s the wind!”

Before my friend interrupted me, I got up and carefully opened the door. The clothes were really blowing in the wind. I went to the kitchen and saw that the plastic of the loaf of bread also swayed in the wind. I was already relieved when my friend came up behind me:

“What about the ‘bang’ we heard at the beginning? Like someone had broken the door?”

He was right! I had no explanation for this! But, as I had guessed so far, I decided to take a risk. I grabbed a machete from the kitchen and went into the living room. There was nothing unusual; the front door was closed and locked… What could have made that noise?

I then saw the list of things we should do before I left, which had been fixed on the wall by my friend’s mother. It was on the floor. And it was “bent.” I had already noticed this; with the sun, it had warped…

And then I solved the riddle.

The wind blew the list down and, as the paper was bent, when it fell to the floor “standing,” it made a loud noise.

A “bang.”

Even with the mystery solved, we still searched the entire apartment, both holding machetes…

With brave men like us, who would need help?

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