Whether the voice was intended to be a man ' s or a woman ' s , Ern couldn ' t immediately discern , but what he was certain of was that its origin couldn ' t be human . It was off , like the speaker was trying out the words for the first time , unsure of emphasis and cadence , and punctuated by odd pauses and other noises . Ern backed away from the door .
“ Ernest ,” croaked the voice again . The door ' s shaking intensified . “ Ernie . Ern . I want in . Let me in .”
Instinctively , Ern tried to cover his ears , recoiling slightly when the cool metal of the gun still in his hand grazed his ear lobe . He wanted to shout at the thing , beg for it to just leave him alone , but the fear of actually being heard by it seemed to choke the words as they formed . He needed to run . He couldn ' t be here when that thing got through the door ; he didn ' t want to see what could possibly be on the other side , what could possibly be behind that voice , that hand . There was nowhere to run to though , he realized , his gaze falling on the shuttered door of his tiny closet . There was only somewhere to hide .
Even with the meager moonlight from the room outside coming in through the door ' s shutters , the closet was dark . There was no lock , there wasn ' t even a knob on the inside to hold the door shut with . As Ern sat on the floor , huddled in the shadow , he realized his only hope was that the creature wouldn ' t find him , and failing that , that it would leave him alone . Somewhere inside of him , a part of Ern knew he was hoping against hope .
He could hear the events outside the closet . The banging on the bedroom door gave way to sounds of
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