MY WORST NIGHTMARE *TRUE STORY*

Shock began to settle in as I stood silently in the middle of the living room floor, scanning the massive puddles of blood surrounding me. It was 2:05 a.m. when my worst nightmare became my reality. Completely frozen in pure and utter disbelief, I managed to glance up to see what was directly in front of me. I could not move. I could only gasp as I tried to catch my breath.

Two nights before the incident occurred, I woke up to my house alarm going off. It was Friday, June 17, 2011 at 2:30 a.m. I was beyond confused as to what exactly was going on. I immediately punched in the code on the alarm and deactivated the deafening sound. My Bull Terrier, Gauge, was barking furiously so I put him in the bedroom to keep him calm. The knocking grew louder and louder as I began walking in a daze toward the front door. I opened it to find a gentleman in uniform posed in front of me on my front porch. The police officer proceeded to inform me that he believed an unknown individual attempted to break into my house by kicking in the front door. I was unable to think clearly about who would possibly want to enter my house as an uninvited guest. I could not comprehend how kicking someone’s door would trigger the entire house alarm to go off. Considering the fact that I was half asleep I simply shrugged off the bizarre encounter, thanked the officer, locked the door and retreated back to bed.

The next day it felt as if the incident was only a dream. When I realized it was real the fear began to settle in. I called my boyfriend at the time, Josh, who also lived with me in the house. He had already been out of town working offshore for two weeks and I did not expect him back home anytime soon. We didn’t exactly live in a particularly upscale part of town, so I decided to also inform my parents of the unsettling encounter from the previous night. They were genuinely concerned, yet comforted knowing I had a very protective dog to keep me company. I decided to make sure all the windows in every single room were locked and the blinds were down so no one could peer in. I checked the locks on the back door as well. Unfortunately there were no locks on the screen door outside. I locked the front door and set the alarm. I could not decide if it was my OCD or just paranoia taking over me as I continued to repeatedly check every single lock on each window and both doors as each hour dragged by. I must have looked at the alarm over 20 times to make sure the red light was on. I wanted to assure myself there was nothing to worry about and no one was going to take my safe haven away from me. That night I had my guard dog sleep in my bed and I felt at peace as I drifted off to sleep.

Even though I was in the beginning stage of my chronic illness, I woke up Sunday morning feeling energized and decided to take advantage of it. Nothing out of the ordinary happened last night so I put the incident that occurred on Friday in the back of my mind. It was a beautiful day outside so I cleaned the pool before I took Gauge on a walk. One of my neighbors happened to be outside at the very same moment we were coming home. I noticed him staring at me from a distance. Honestly it gave me the creeps. He had seen me outside several times in the past but had never spoken to me before. For the first time in an entire year he walked up to me. He reached out to shake my hand and I noticed it was trembling uncontrollably. I assumed he was going to introduce himself but the only words out of his mouth were inquiring about when my boyfriend would be returning back from working offshore. I was completely caught off guard and something deep inside me told me to lie. I quickly replied he is on his way now and should arrive later that night. He simply smiled and then turned his back to me. It was the most eerie conversation I ever had with anyone. I watched him casually meander two houses over and enter his front door. I never heard Josh speak of this neighbor before and that was a little bit disturbing. I assumed maybe they were friends before I moved in. So I went inside to make myself dinner and relax on the couch. I was beyond exhausted. I listened to some music for about an hour before passing out. I woke up a couple hours later to a 70 pound lap dog on top of me licking my face. I presumed he was hungry, so I fed him again. I went back into the master bedroom, washed my face and changed into some comfortable clothes to sleep in. I then decided to watch a movie on the couch. After the movie ended, I realized how late it was. It was around 1:00 a.m. and Gauge was already asleep in his bed beside the couch. I decided to leave him in the living room for the night. I took my sleeping pill and closed the door to my room. I drifted off into a deep slumber until all hell broke loose an hour later.

I woke up to an unusually loud crash. I could not believe how intense the noise was considering the door to my room was shut. I automatically assumed it was Gauge who accidently knocked over one of my glass vases. I laid there for a few minutes until I gathered enough strength to pull myself out of bed to go clean up the mess. The sleeping pill in my system was overpowering as I opened the door to my room and staggered into the living room.

I could only stand there. Stand there in the middle of my own living room. In the middle of a crime scene. Puddles of blood everywhere. Blood literally everywhere I looked. The glass on the window by the back door was smashed to pieces. The shattered glass was on the floor directly beside the recliner. The recliner was placed at a diagonal angle located to the left of the window that was broken into. There were even puddles of blood on the window sill. This was no accident. I could not move my feet. I had no idea if the perpetrator was still in my home or not. I still could not move my feet. I was frozen in place. Then I saw Gauge attempting to walk toward me. He could barely move. It was then that I saw the huge gaping hole in the middle of his throat. Blood was pouring from his neck. It took me about three seconds to gather my senses. His life was in danger. I suddenly gained the courage to make my way to the laundry room and grabbed a sheet. I tied the sheet around his entire neck and tried my best to apply pressure to the wound. My hands were violently shaking and my legs grew weak. I ran to the bedroom to grab my cell phone. I dialed 911 as I went back into the living room to keep my hand on Gauge’s throat. I was trying to explain the situation to the 911 dispatcher but I was so frantic she could barely make out what I was trying to say. I was screaming and crying and so worried that someone was hiding in a back room.

Within minutes a police officer arrived at my home. I had already unlocked the door and he came right in. His eyes were full of bewilderment as he saw the amount of blood on the floor. He told me I had to get my dog to the animal emergency hospital right away or else he would die within minutes. I told the officer I had taken a sleeping pill in the past couple of hours and should not be driving. I begged him to take Gauge and I to the hospital. The officer told me it was against police protocol to put an animal in the backseat of his patrol car so I would have to follow him in my own car. With blood squirting out of my dog I did not hesitate for a second to put him in my brand new car. Blood in my car was the last thing on my mind. The officer told me we didn’t have time to wait. He didn’t even look inside the house to see if anyone was there. He told me there was no time to investigate and assured me there was no one in the home. We immediately left and I followed the sirens on his car as we drove through every red light, traveling over 60 mph to the nearest hospital. Another officer met us at the animal clinic and they carried Gauge up the steps through the front door. The veterinarian looked scared and they proceeded to the back room. I sat in the waiting room quivering with fear and sadness. It was a little after 3:00 in the morning and no one I knew was awake yet. So I sat alone with just my thoughts. My confused thoughts. It seemed like it was hours before the lady who took care of my dog came to me with the news. Gauge was a survivor. If we had brought him there three minutes later he would have bled to death. I broke down as if I had just lost him. I was so grateful he was alive! There were three veterinarians who worked on Gauge and all three confirmed the puncture wound straight to his throat was a direct result from a knife. I could not believe it. A knife? They informed me they believed he saved my life that night. After he was all stitched and bandaged with a little cone around his face they released him to be sent home with me. By the time the staff carried him out to my car it was around 5:00 in the morning. I knew my dad would be awake getting ready for work so I called him as I sat in the car before driving away. He agreed to meet me at my house and help me carry Gauge inside. Little did he know he would be walking into a house filled with bloody chaos.

When my dad and I finally had Gauge settled inside his bed he went directly to sleep. That is when we began to look around the house. I could see the worried and fearful look on my dad’s face. I had never seen that look before in my entire life. We documented the scene with over 100 pictures of blood. At first we didn’t know where to begin. The blood trail originated through the window, into the living room, the kitchen, the dining area, the hallway, my bedroom and then finally outside in the backyard. There were footprints of blood leading to the backyard gate. While I was looking around outside, my dad opened the back screen door and there were drops of blood on the metal panel between the screen and the back door. This proved someone opened the screen at some point as blood dripped down and tried to enter through the back door. The entire scene was beyond horrific. We conducted our own investigation but no leads were ever found.

To this day I owe my life to Gauge.
To this day I still have no clue as to who broke in and stabbed my dog in the throat.

© 2014 Valerie Lynn

Out of over 100 pictures documented, the above are merely a glimpse into what we witnessed inside the house. The names in this true story have been changed in order to conceal their identities.