Jonnie Robinson was my name. I was fifteen when I first started noticing our next door neighbor. Just a man with rusty old windows and nothing but a welcome matt on his porch. I’m sure no one took that dirty old matt seriously.

One day momma decided to go take this man some leftover lasagna. I most definitely did not want to go! Who knew who this man was or what he was capable of? But I had to go anyway.

It wasn’t long before we were outside his house. We knocked for about a minute and nothing.

“Let’s go home, momma. Come on, he isn’t going to come out!”

She got mad about how scared I was. Who can blame me? I had no idea who this man was. As we were walking away we heard the door open. We turn around and there he was. The mysterious neighbor that no one had ever seen. Tall, dark, and handsome! He came out with an apron on and some old kitchen gloves. He said nothing, at least not until momma said something.

“Hello, nice to meet you. I’m Ms. Robinson,” said momma nervously. He answered back with “Oh Hello, pleasure meeting you. My name is Sebastian West. Would you like to come in?” I was surprised he even said anything and very frightened that he welcomed us in. I held on to momma the whole time.

Momma and Mr. West began to really hit it off. They began to talk about how crazy it was that they had never met each other after 2 years. They went on and on.

He had already been cooking, so he invited us to have dinner with him. Momma said yes so we stayed. We stayed there for about 3 hours and all they kept on talking about was food and how they both loved cooking. I was pretty annoyed with this so I asked momma if I could go home.

On my way over to my house I heard a strange sound. A sound of shattering glass. I ran back over there as fast as I could. I opened up the door and caught them dancing! It wasn’t them who made the noise; it ended up being a stray cat that had knocked over a flower pot. I realized how stupid I was thinking that a sweet man like Mr. West was a threat.

Months went by and momma and Mr. West had been dating. Ever since that day we went over, he has always been leaving flowers outside of our house. This sucked! I mean me and my and momma were like two peas in a pod. The best of friends and this man just comes in and butts in out of nowhere.

This is the happiest I have ever seen my mom. I found it really weird because at first I had the strangest feeling about him and now they’re dating? Wow! What are the odds?

Now and then I would have the same feelings I would get when I first met him. I’d forget them every now and then, but they’d come back.

June 5, 1999. This day was the day. The Haunting Memory.

It was 11:30 p.m. and my mom was nowhere to be found. I remember her telling me that she was going to go out with Mr. West but that was around 5 in the afternoon. She would always come home around ten and tuck me into bed and say goodnight. I was getting worried. I walked over to Mr. West’s house to ask if my mom was there. He nodded no and shut the door in my face. He looked as if he were in a hurry. So I started thinking. Why would he be in such a hurry when he was with my mom? I mean if they were going to go some where else I know my mom would tell me.

I went around to his back door to see what had happened to my mom. Peeking through Mr. West’s window I saw my mom’s jacket. I began to wonder. Why would my mom’s jacket be there when he said she wasn’t there?

I found his basement window and broke in. There was a bunch of old newspaper laying on the floor and a couple of plastic bags. On each wall there were these really long wooden lockers. Each with a different code on them. As I walked into the basement I noticed that he had different kinds of knives hanging down by the lockers. It made it seem as if he were some type of butcher.

I began to walk up the stairs. On my way up I heard mumbling, as if someone were trying to talk but couldn’t. So I kept on walking up. I went into the living room and blood was everywhere. I ran up to the second floor when I tripped on momma’s sweater. The man heard me and came out to check. Mr. West left the door open and I saw momma in there tied up. He came down and started running after me. The man was old so he had a hard time. I ran back to my house to call the police. They answered me to say that they were busy. I had no help. I was on my own.

All I had in my hand was a baseball bat and an old rusty wrench. It wasn’t much but I really thought I can take on this guy. Well, I was 15 I thought I was capable of anything.

Silence was all there was. I went into the house and went up to where I had seen my mom. I went back into the room and found her tied up with blood all around her body. When suddenly I felt pain running down my back. He had stabbed me in the back. He threw me down to the ground. I had found an old glass bottle he had in there and smashed it right on his head with the chance to run away. I ran outside yelling for help and nothing. I ran back home and got one of my mom’s old cooking knives. On my way over, I see Mr. West trying to sneak out of the window. I ran up to him and started stabbing him many times. I started to notice that he was not moving anymore. I had no care for this man. So I left him there and ran to my mom.

I went up to get my mom. By the time I was up there I seen her head dangling down to her chest. She was gone. I took her down and brought all the way to our house. It was around 3 o’clock in the night. I called the police again and they told me they’ll be right over. I’m guessing they weren’t busy anymore!

Laying down in our living room floor with my mom made me realize why I couldn’t have done anything before! The ambulance took her and put her in the truck. I followed in onto a different truck because the stab was killing me.

This was the worst day of my life. All those scary feelings about the creepy neighbor next door were true. I just wished my mom could have believed me. My mom was not only a mom but the best friend I have ever had. Now, she’s gone.

I am now nineteen living with my grandma. The day haunts me until now. I live with no regrets about killing the man. All I have now are memories, memories that will last forever.