The voice started to get angry and said, “See I knew you were there. Now open the door!” Zane got up as fast as he could, almost stumbling backwards, but he caught his balance and ran up the stairs as fast could. 

Stumbling down the hall Zane ran into his room and slammed the door shut. He struggled to move the bed across the room, but he eventually got it in front of the door. He threw his nightstand on top of his bed and started to throw anything he could find in front of the door. Zane then ran over to his closet door and opened the door, so fast the hinges sounded as if they would break. 

He tore through the boxes to find his baseball bat from last school year and shut the door behind him. After a few hours, he sat down gripping his baseball bat close to his chest and fell asleep. 

***

The morning light shined through the cracks of the closet door onto Zane, who laid on the dusty ground gripping his baseball bat. Zane gasped for air and sat up right in the closet. He sat there silently and listened. The birds outside were chirping and everything else was silent. 

He took a deep breath and gathered his courage to peek outside. Zane opened the door enough to fit his head though and looked out.The room was brightly lit due to the sunlight coming through the windows’ thin curtains. The bed was pushed over to the door and his night stand and the rest of his belongings were gathered in front of the door the way he left them. 

All the sudden, Zane could hear the sound of tires outside. He walked over to the window, but hesitated to open the curtains

. The sound of knocking on the door could be heard from up stairs, Zane took a deep breath and opened the curtains to find a police car outside his house. 

He felt a huge sense of relief and he ran over to the door and moved all his belongings away tearing down his barricade with happy tears in his eyes. He moved his bed just enough to open the door. Then he dashed down the narrow hallway, almost tripping down the steps. 

Zane slid off the chain and opened the door to the two cops. One was about maybe a foot taller than him and the other one was so tall that if he tried to come in he would hit his head.

The smaller officer said with a sad look in his eyes, “Are you Zane Fortier by any chance?” 

Zane tried to respond, but couldn’t speak and shook his head yes.

 He said, “ I am sorry to have to tell you this, but during the storm last night your grandfather slid off the road.”

 Zane had a look of sadness in his eyes, but was soon overcome by fear. “So it really wasn’t my grandfather outside last night.” Zane’s voice started to shake, “I knew it wasn’t him, but I heard his voice.” 

The two police officers looked at each other and the shorter one said, “It couldn’t  have been him he was found 5 miles down the road.” 

The taller one looked down at him and said, “If it really was his voice, but wasn’t him it could have been a wendigo.” 

Zane asked, “What is that?”

 The shorter police officer said, “Stop that nonsense, you know it's not real.” 

The tall police officer shook his head and said, “They very much are real. They mimic the voices of people crying for help, but it couldn’t have been that.” 

Zane’s  eyes widened and he asked, “Why do you say that?” The man got down and patted him on the head and said, “You need not to worry. It must have been your imagination. You know that it was very stormy last night.”

 Zane insisted through his tears, “Why couldn’t it have been that?”

 The man replied, “Because once wendigo finds its prey it never lets it escape.” 

Zane started trembling at the mire thought. “All stop scaring the boy, you do realize he just found out his grandfather got into an accident! There is no reason to scare him. There is no way that monster is real! Monsters don’t exist!” 

The two policemen walked Zane over to the car and he got into the back seat, while the taller one shut the door behind him. The short police officer spoke, “You are safe now. We are going to go to the station and find out what to do next, okay” 

Zane nodded in agreement. 

And they took off down the gravel driveway. But all the sudden, Zane could feel the hair on his arms stand up on end and he turned around quickly to his home. He saw something move the curtain inside the house and showed the bottom of its face.