Beginning of Essay
As children we make many idle threats and angry promises, never realizing the impact they could bestow upon our lives. At the age of fifteen I learned that lesson the hard way. The words my mother and I had exchanged during common adolescent--parent confrontations ....

Middle of Essay
.... in a couple of days.@ The initial thoughts were that of a typical adolensce ; party, party, party, but then the first night began. I remember crawling into my mother=s bed thinking about the party I would have this weekend and the many weekends after. Then I heard it: something stirring in the house. I jumped up and rushed to the windows as I looked out my eyes were enveloped in blackness, and my ears were drowning in silence. That=s when I heard it; thump, thump, thump and I heard it again but faster. Fear was sucking the very life breath out of me. I grabbed the gun and ran frantically from room to room while this sound pursued me gettin ....