A Familiar Stranger In the Night

1:10 AM.
“WOOORRRUFF! RUFF, RUFF! WOOOORUFF!”
My dog’s barking tears through the blanket of silence covering the house.
I am the only one awake at this hour… I strain my ears and hear subtle snoring from the next room over.
I recognize the creak of the front door opening slowly… Too slowly.
My eyes widen in the dark and my heart drops into my stomach.
My breaths come to a halt.
CLICK.
The door has shut.
Frantically, but silently, I crawl out of bed and tiptoe to my bedroom door.
The door is propped open a few inches, but I paste my left ear on the middle of the door, listening.
I do not dare move that door.
Over the thumping of my heart, I hear another thumping…
An eerie thumping…
By the time I realize what the thumping is, I realize that it is getting louder... And louder.
Footsteps.
They’re footsteps! And they are headed down the hallway in the direction of my room.
Silently, with the exception of my hardly subdued heavy breathing, I make my way to my dresser.
I fumble around in the blackness for protection.  I finally recognize the feeling of cold metal and grip a pair of scissors firmly in my hand.
I slowly creep back to my bedroom door.
“Grrrr. GRRRR. GRRRRRRRRRR!”
My dog is growling. The thumping has stopped.  I feel a presence within a few feet of me and my heart begins to race.
My knuckles are white, my fingers are sore, and my hands are sweaty as I grip the scissors, blades open.
I feel the door sway the slightest bit and hear a hand hit the doorknob opposite the one in my view.
Instantly, my right arm flies upward, elbow bent, scissors in hand, ready to attack, while my left arm swings open the door.
"AAEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHH!"
I let out a high-pitched squeal and drop the scissors to the floor.
In front of me stands a six foot tall, 250 pound, hairy man…
with an extremely shocked look on his face.
I was looking into the eyes of my innocent step-father.

*Turns out he had went to retrieve something from his car, freaked the dog out, and was trying not to be any louder and wake up the house. On the way back to his room, he had noticed my door was open and was going to close it. And to think- I had almost stabbed him. EEK!*

*Amber