“I am heading out,” I told my little brother, Gledis. “You know what to say if our parents call you, right?”

“Yes,” he responded. “Tell them you’re sleeping and not in a party.”

“Don’t even  mention the word party,” I said.

“Ok, I won’t.” said Gledis. “Bye!”

“Bye,” I said as I closed the door and left.

Our parents were in Shkodra for some business and would stay there for 3 days. Due to that, I decided to go to a party with my friends. I left my little brother home alone since Genc, my older brother, said he would come home soon. My friend’s brother picked us up and took us to the party. The party was lit. A friend of ours, who was kinda scared since we were just 14 and everyone there were adults, said:

“What if someone decides to jump us?”  

“We are a group of 16 people, no one will be able to do anything to us, like jumping or robbing! As long as we are together at least,” I responded.

“Well, we are just 14 years old. We aren’t even supposed to be here. We’re here just because our friend knows the manager.”

“It will be fine,” I responded.

The party was full of music and full of color changing lights, which made the party even more awesome. We stayed there for about 3 more hours. When we decided it was time to go, it was about 2:30 A.M. Once we got out, we decided not to go home, but chill for a little longer, since it was too ‘early’ to go home.

After about another hour of just saying jokes and sad and funny stories that have happened to us, we finally decided to go home. Since there was no one to pick us up and there were no Taxis around, we decided to walk home. Their homes were very close while mine was the farthest. It was just 45 minutes of walking so it wasn’t that far. My brother called me.

“How’s the party going?” asked Genci.

“It finished about an hour ago,” I said. “I am coming home now.”

“Would you want me to pick you up?” he asked.

Since I didn’t want him to leave the house and get into a car just for me, I simply replied with no. It was dark, cold and I was all alone. I felt like something was going to happen. I wasn’t scared though. On my way home, I remembered that I needed to buy a disk for a school project. It was about 4:15 A.M but I knew a place that sells disk which closes at 4 A.M. I decided to go since it was near my house. Once I got there I saw that it had closed. “At least I tried,” I said to myself. That place was very dark and it was very quiet. It was a scary silence.

“It’s been a full month of me doing boxing four times a week, nothing will happen to me,” I thought to myself.

I started walking faster. Not running just walking faster. Even though my house was very close, I still decided to take a shortcut, which my parents have told me to never use. It was very, very dark. The place was full of graffitis on the wall. Even some on the ground, which I thought was pretty weird.

I heard a voice say “Haha! Look what we got here. Looks like a rich little boy to me. Hey, B1, B2 come here!”

I turned around and I saw three people. They were all dressed in black and had black caps, black glasses, and black bandana. They looked like they were around 17-18 years old. I started to get scared. I looked around and there was no one to call for help. It was very dark, I could barely see which meant that running would be useless since I would probably bump into a wall. Then I thought to myself:

“Why am I scared? They are three people, about three years older than me. That’s it!”

Then all of them took out some very sharp pocket knives.

“And pocket knives. I might still have a chance of beating them up,” I thought.

Then my brother called me. I took out my phone.

“Hmm. That some cool phone. Would you mind if I took it?” said one of them.

“I don’t think he would,’ replied one of his friends.

“GIMME ALL YOUR MONEY. EVERYTHING YOU HAVE IN YOUR POCKET TOO. ESPECIALLY THAT PHONE!” screamed the other guy.

His voice scared me a little. I still wanted to try and fight them, but I was scared they would stab me since all three had a knife. I thought to myself for a moment and thought giving them everything would be smart. I gave them everything.

“Don’t tell nobody ‘bout this,” said one of them, as they punched me on the stomach, really hard.

They started running. The punch they gave me hurt a lot for a moment, then not that much. When I got home, Gledis was waiting on the couch and was watching TV.

“Why are you still awake?” I asked him.

“I want to play the Spiderman game in your phone, that’s why,” he responded.

I started thinking what I was going to say to him. I couldn’t just tell him that someone robbed me. Then I heard Genci’s door room open.

“You’re finally back!” he said.

I didn’t want to tell him that I got robbed because he would get worried, but I also couldn’t hide it from him.

“Yeah, I just came,” I responded. “I need to tell you something.”

I told him everything. He became in rage. He put a jacket on, put some shoes and opened the door.

“Where are you going?” I asked him.

“I’m going to find them, and beat the hell out of them,” he responded quickly as he closed the door.

I opened the door immediately and grabbed him by the hand. I had to convince him not to go, somehow. After a long argument, I finally convinced him.

“Ok, fine I won’t!” he responded in an angry voice.

Gledis and Genc went to sleep. I went to my bed, but I didn’t sleep. I started thinking what would happen if I fought them back. After thinking for about 30 minutes, I realized that fighting them would be the dumbest decision.

“At least I am still alive,” I said as I fell asleep.