A few minutes passed while I watched from the roof. One of the animals came out from the dark shadow of the house. It went to the big stone that had fallen and bent down. I could not see clearly what it was doing. Then it stood up, holding something in its hands. I felt sick as I watched.

I began to put a new bullet in my gun. While I was doing this, I saw the animal trying to move the heavy stone. I placed my gun on the wall edge, pointed it carefully, and fired. The animal fell down and moved a little on the ground.

 

Right after I shot, I heard the sound of breaking glass somewhere in the house. I quickly put more bullets in my gun and ran down the steps. I stopped to listen. I heard more glass falling. The sound seemed to come from the floor below me. I ran down more steps and found the door to an empty bedroom. I opened it slowly.

 

The room was dark because something was blocking the light at the window. I could see the shape of an animal climbing through the broken window. I shot at it, and suddenly the room was empty. Light came in through the broken window, along with cold night air. From outside, I heard soft crying sounds and pig-like noises. I moved to stand at the side of the window and waited.

 

I heard noises and saw something climb up to the window—a hand with long fingers. Then an animal’s face appeared in the window. Before I could shoot, the wood around the window broke. The animal fell with a loud noise. I looked out the window but could not see much. The moon was behind a cloud. I could hear more animals moving below.

 

I wondered how they could climb up to this window because the wall was smooth and it was a long way down. Then I noticed something on the wall—a long metal pipe for water to flow down from the roof. This was how the animals were climbing up! I heard another one starting to climb. I reached out, felt the metal pipe with my hand, and found it was loose. I used my gun to push and pull the pipe away from the wall. With a loud noise, the metal pipe fell down, with an animal still on it, into the garden below.

 

I waited a bit longer. After some noise, everything became quiet. I knew the animals could not climb up to this part of the house anymore. For now, I felt safer.