Sometimes what seems like a blessing can actually be a curse, and the other way around. Rebecca had learned that the hard way, when she woke up to the sounds of an intruder in her home. She lived alone in a two story house at the edge of an HOA enclave west of Phoenix, Arizona. The clock beside her bed blinked 4 A.M. in bright red LEDs and somewhere downstairs doors were opening and closing.
Her first thought was to cry out. She’d only heard about break-ins on the news and in horror movies and thrillers. Those situations felt a thousand light years away—the kind of thing you laugh at and talk about how you would have handled the situation so much better if it happened to you. That was easy to say, because it never would happen to you.
Except it was happening.
She pulled her blanket tight around her body and listened. For a long moment there was silence. Then she heard another door pop open, followed by the sounds of someone opening and closing drawers quickly. The kitchen. They’d come from somewhere and gone to the kitchen. Rebecca’s small house was set up so the stairwell led down into a foyer near the front door. The kitchen was to the left of that door and if she tried to make a run for it the intruder would see her. Quietly she slipped out of bed and padded towards her phone on the other side of the room…