PTSD

The Night It Happened

I was nine years old. My family had moved to town when I was five and we had become well acquainted with the neighbors. They were over that night for a fire in my back yard. That night it had been my mom, my dad, my brother, my neighbors (both the parents), their two boys and their puppy. I was the eldest of the kids. One of the boys was a year younger and the other was 2 years younger. My brother and I are five years apart making him 4. It was a cool summer night. The adults were sat around the fire, the neighbor who was two years younger had gone inside with the brother to watch TV because the mosquitoes were eating them. I was running around the upper half of the backyard with my neighbors dog. Since it was getting colder my mother had told me to go inside and change into long pants. So I ran around to the front of the house and in through the screen door. Since everyone was out back we had left the front door open and the screen door unlocked. We had large windows that looked into the backyard so we could see into the house. Once I was inside I said hi to my brother and neighbor, the room they were in was the only room with a light on in the whole house. I ran through a few rooms and up stairs to my room to change. When I came back down my mom was in the dark kitchen getting the tray that had the smores stuff on it. I told her I wanted to take it out and that she needed to wait for me. I ran into the bathroom (I'm sure you know why) and when I came out and back into the kitchen in the doorway that lead to the room with the light was a man facing my mother and I. The light from behind him only aloud me to make out his build and a bit of his facial features. He stood there looking at us for what seemed like forever to me but was just seconds. Then he stated "Someone's trying to kill me." I remember those words exactly and too this day (I'm now 16 close to 17). My reaction was to plug my ears. Back then I was not a fan of murder. It always scared me. Nowadays I adore murder shows, but nine year old me would have nightmares for months upon hearing the law and order theme. My mom rushed him out of our house and to the backyard. Soon my neighbors other son joined us kids in the house. I shut the door behind him and locked it. But the boys insisted on lifting the shade so they could see out. In all of this my mother had called the cops who arrived very quickly. They put the man in handcuffs and my neighbors kept saying how cool it was and I continued to freak out about the fact that there was a man in front of my house in handcuffs who claimed someone was out to murder him. I can still remember him standing in front of the flashing red and blue lights in handcuffs. His wife arrived soon after and took him home with her. My mom came inside and explained to all of us that the main was a schizophrenic and that he was imagining the person trying to kill him. After that my neighbors went home. That's where my memory slowly stops about the night. I don't remember if I slept in my parents bed, or if I even slept at all.