Backyard camping with my little sister, and the man who obviously didn't belong.

This happened back when I was 16, my sister was 11 and our cousin was 13. We had stumbled on the idea of backyard camping since we were old enough to not need to be babysat by adults but still too young to go camping alone. We had a lot of fun, but we also hadn't expected what would happen.<br><br>We set up our tent and sleeping bags, and had spent the rest of the night fishing in our small creek, and sitting by the fire. It was a nice night.<br><br>It started with noises in the woods. At first we assumed it was raccoons since we knew a few of them had been brave enough to go into our trash cans before, but then the sounds had gotten louder. We assumed it was just the wind until we heard steps, followed by a voice.<br><br>It was a man, and he seemed to be talking to himself, but as we would later find out, he wasn't alone. "Hey there little girls...." He had said. We had quickly blown out the fire and gotten into the tent, as we had realized this wasn't a raccoon and the man had seemed to be talking to us. My cousin had been brave enough to poke her head out of the tent, only to take a gasp of air and jump back inside. "What is it?" I had asked her. "There's a man there" she had answered. I looked myself and saw a man, obviously drunk and disheveled walking through our yard towards us.<br><br>They seemed to have stopped at the creek, and that's when I heard it. "Shut up....Shut up and stop complaining." The man had said. We heard a muffled sound, like someone was gagged and trying to say something. From where I was, I couldn't tell, but my cousin swore she saw a woman.<br><br>The man had continued on through our yard until he was at the road. We heard him yelling at someone, but we couldn't make out what he was saying. The last thing that we heard was a car door shutting. My cousin and I had decided to take a peek, and it was a horrible idea.<br><br>As we crept out of the tent, we had seen the man drunkenly walking back towards the woods, with a limp body being dragged behind him. I didn't get a good look at her, but my cousin had said she had recognized her as a missing woman from the news. Yes. The missing woman.<br><br>As we had watched them limp away, I had been shocked into stillness. My cousin on the other hand seemed to have regained her strength, and had grabbed my arm and started to drag me away from the tent. "Come on, we have to go inside." she said as she dragged me through the grass. We had gotten about halfway to the house when I stopped her. "W-- What about my sister...." I had a lump in my throat. She looked at me, then back at the house. "I thought you had her....." There was a look of horror on her face as we both bolted back towards the tent. We had stumbled and struggled, tripping over our own feet as we had gone back up the hill.<br><br>When we had gotten to the tent, my sister was gone. I had called out for her, but there was no answer. My cousin had grabbed my arm again, and this time she was almost in tears. "We have to go inside, and we have to go NOW." I still don't know how she had the strength to get us to the house so quickly, but we managed to get the screen door open before we collapsed in tears.<br><br>We had managed to calm down enough to call the cops, and they had immediately sent someone over. We explained to them what had happened, and they had seemed to be very concerned. They had called in more officers and had set up a search party for my sister. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my entire life as I was waiting to hear if they had found my sister or not. My cousin and I were so worried, and we had both been in tears.<br><br>They found my sister about 30 minutes later, she was laying in the neighbors yard. She had heard us grab our stuff and leave, and she had assumed that we were just going to sleep inside instead. It took her a while to get to sleep, but in the end she had fallen asleep safely in her room.<br><br>The police had also found the man, and the woman with him. She was exactly who my cousin had said she was. The woman who had obviously been kidnapped, beaten and probably worse. The man was arrested, but it was ruled as self defense. He had a knife, and the officers who had found him said he had tried to attack them.<br><br>I still have no idea why we aren't dead. We should've been the ones they took, we were right there. My cousin had been watching them the whole time, and had said that the man was looking around suspiciously, probably looking for other witnesses. We were so close. I've been having bad dreams ever since that night, and the thought that this could've been me gives me goosebumps.<br><br>I'm just glad that we're okay.<br><br>White, drunk, disheveled man who dragged the woman with him that you had obviously kidnapped, you're not welcome.<br><br>Edit: Wow this blew up. I'm glad some people got a good story out of this, but I'm still shaken.