Cherry must have seen the look on my face because she turned around and froze.

Even I was terribly scared now. I could hardly think.

No, no- I couldn't lose control. I had to keep my cool.I I counted to three and tried to draw all the knowledge I had acquired from watching all those scary movies.

I shook Cherry- who still was in shock.

"Are there any weapons in the house?" I whispered.

"Yeah Dad is really into archery and stuff. He collects various bows . We can go down to his study and take them out. "

We tiptoed to the study and found all the bows and arrows locked in a glass cabinet.

"Um, No offence, but why do all of these look terribly old?"

"Well - yeah. I kind of forgot to mention that he is into 'medieval' archery."

"What? Do these even work?" I shouted- whispered .

"I am not sure" she replied.

I rolled my eyes at her.
Suddenly, I heard a strange rattling sound.

I broke the glass cabinet open with some golf clubs lying there , grabbed the nearest medieval bow and nearly collapsed under its weight.

I grabbed another one- this one was suprisingly light. I also grabbed some arrows and went out. Cherry had armed herself with golf clubs.

I looked at her .

"What?"she demanded."You know that archery breaks my nails."

Rolling my eyes at her, I went to the living room. Then I saw the cause of the strange rattling sound.

The white mottled men , apparently tired of waiting, were rattling the lock on the french windows -trying to break in.

"What do we do now?"asked Cherry.

"I think we should wait them out. After all, I don't think that the lock is going to break that easily." I replied.

We both sat down, watching them make futile efforts to get in.

By now it was past midnight. Suddenly, the power went out. Somehow, it made the situation even more terrifying.
I was trying to make sense of it all,  when I heard a knock on the front door.