In what seemed like a second, Rae went from almost asleep to shocked into wakefulness. She blinked the impending sleep out of her eyes and stared as Topher crossed the room in a couple of strides. And when her eyes met with a stranger on the other side of the room, the situation dawned on her. Someone was here. And they had passed right over Rae and Topher and gone for EJ.
Within two seconds, Rae had hurried across the bed and was looking at her son, who was still soundly sleeping. The situation had barely jarred him.
"Ah! Hey, what the fuck?!" the guy shouted, trying in futility to push back against Topher's grip.
Rae placed herself firmly between the impending melee between Topher and whoever this was, and her son, and her eyes narrowed. She listened to Topher's questions, and heard EJ make a waking-up noise behind her. She turned, reaching down and smoothing her fingers across her son's cheek to try and soothe him. "It's okay, Lilja. Sh, sh, sh..." she crooned, and then turned her head in the direction of the melee. When EJ settled a little, she moved her attention more toward the fight.
The man—at least they had the frame of a man—was wearing all black, and a ski mask. Rae could make out the smoky gray of his eyes in the moonlight, and she took a couple of steps forward, reaching up and grabbing at the ski mask he wore. "Answer the question!" she whisper-shouted, so not to alarm her son any further. "What were you trying to do to my son!?"
Whoever this man was saw fit not to answer, and Rae felt her eyes narrowing as she glowered at him. "Right now, you're very close to a busted face, so answer the question before he loses his patience anymore!" she snapped.
There was another few seconds of silence before the man spoke again. "I wasn't going to hurt him!" the guy spoke, slightly louder than Rae's own voice. EJ made a noise behind them, and Rae turned her attention to soothe him again.
"Well then what were you trying to accomplish?" she spoke quietly, but sternly, leaving no illusions as to whether this was over or not.