Tom pulled his jacket off and coiled it around his arm till he was sure it was thick enough. He ran his arm around the inside of the window frame, brushing away all the shards of glass. He winced as the glass fell off and shattered, making more noise than he'd like. Every so often Tom took a quick peek at the door to see if it was still locked. After the night he had, he wasn't looking forward to severe injuries from carelessness.

When he was sure it was safe, he unwrapped the jacket and tossed it out the window. Swinging a leg over, he shifted his weight. Freedom was oh, so close! He could see the front gate from where he was. All he had to do was get outside and sprint. Suddenly, two hands grabbed his shoulders and yanked, pulling him clean out of the room.

"Fuck ...fuck ...fuck," Tom screamed as he landed on the unforgiving ground. Adrenalin kicked in, and he broke into a thin sweat. Terror rolled through him as Tom scrambled on all fours, attempting to find his balance. Sticky palms slowed Tom's efforts, forcing him to lose whatever grip he could muster.

'IT had found him. IT was back for him...' These were the two chilling thoughts screaming through his head as his heartbeat quickened to an incredible rate. His blood pounded in his head so loudly that he could have sworn even the dead heard it. Tom dared not look behind him. He knew he wouldn't like what was waiting for him.

Just as he managed to straighten up, more hands grabbed his legs and Tom fell face first on the ground, hitting his chin on a sharp rock. Pain shot up his face, and he felt a terrible stinging sensation confirming that the impact had broken skin. Dirt mixed with his blood, turning the stinging sensation into an awful burning one. The combination of fright and pain sent shivers down his spine and rumbled around in his belly till he felt he was going to vomit uncontrollably.

"Please... please... please," he begged, his hands rising to his chin to curb the bleeding.

Massive clouds rumbled in, curtaining the moon and spiraling the world around him into absolute darkness.

Tom knew that escape was futile and so he sobbed and stayed on his back, drawing his knees into his chest. Two dark silhouettes just stood there watching him as he trembled.

"Please," he tried again, "I didn't do anything."

The two silhouettes were silent.

"Please, I meant no harm." His free hand reached for his front pocket, and he pulled his wallet. Tossing it, he said, "here take everything, just leave me be."

Just then, the sound of rushed footsteps piqued Tom's curiosity, and he opened his eyes.

"Escort his sorry ass inside," JT said, bending down to scoop up the wallet.

Tom felt relief flood over him. He stopped begging, but the fright still left him trembling. "Oh thank God! You're not IT."

"IT?" JT inquired with furrowed brows.

"Man, you're just in time I say," Tom said as he attempted to stand. His earlier trembling had ceased and aside from the pain pulsing through his chin and nausea still threatening to upchuck his last meal, he seemed to have found some sense of normalcy.

The clouds roared, and a massive downpour began as if disagreeing with Tom.

"Quickly please," JT said, turning away and stomping off to the nearest entrance.

Dev and Etash grabbed Tom by his arms, and half walked, half-dragged him. Aalam and Brij took up the rear.

"Hey! Be gentle, man. I'm hurt," he said, but his plea fell on deaf ears.

By the time they entered the house, JT had fetched and placed two chairs in the hall. He turned them to face each other and then sat down on one.

"Sit," he said to Tom.

At that precise moment, the power went off, shrouding everything inside the house in complete darkness.

Curses were whispered, and soft clicks followed before bright beams danced across the roof, crisscrossing each other before they found their mark. All three torches landed on Tom's face.

"Hey!" he objected, shielding his eyes from the intense glare.

"Find some rope or something," JT said to Etash. Then he dug in his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. "For your chin," he said throwing it at Tom.

"What the fuck do you need a rope for? I'm hurt here. And it's your fault! Take me to a hospital!" he demanded.

JT nodded at Aalam who had placed himself directly behind Tom. At the signal, he cuffed Tom on the top of his head.

"What the fuck, man!" Tom yelled, his hands going to his head protectively.

"Shut up and listen," JT ordered.

"We know who you are ...Tom ...and we know why you are here. We've been watching you for a while now." He pulled out his army ID and turned the flashlight on it so Tom could read. "See that? I would take me very seriously if I were you."

Tom went quiet. The whole room went quiet. No one said anything more as they waited for Etash to return.

Upon his return, Etash handed the rope to Aalam who proceeded to tie Tom's hands behind the back of the chair. When everyone was relatively comfortable, JT continued.

"Now tell me what you meant when you said, you are not IT."

Tom said nothing. JT nodded at Aalam who cuffed Tom on his head again.

"Okay, okay, geez. Must you? Is this how you treat all foreigners to your country? No wonder you're a shitty people and no one recommends a visit to your country," he spat out.

"That was quite unnecessary," JT said before nodding at Aalam again. Another cuffing followed.

"Okay! Fine, if it's that important, I'll tell you. Except, I have no clue." Tom saw JT nod at Aalam again and quickly added "No, really, I swear, I came here looking for ... ahh... er... for a quick look-see. I saw a for sale sign a little while back, and since I was passing by tonight, I figured I could hop in and take a look around."

Not wanting to play games with Tom all night, JT spoke to Etash, "Fetch Dev, and tell him to bring his laptop."

Minutes passed by as everyone waited. Tom tapped his feet on the ground in impatience.

"How about some water?" he said, trying to break the silence.

No response.

"Man, I'm hurting here. How about a medic?" he whined.

No response

Frustrated, Tom tried a different approach. "I want your names and ranks! All of you. Then I'm going to complain to the British embassy first thing in the morning."

That earned Tom a snicker.

Dev and Etash walked in a second later, and silence followed as everyone watched Dev set up the laptop.

The silence rolled away as the first recording began.

"Hello."

"Dude. Where ya calling from? I don't recognize the number."

"India."

"Can't believe you actually went after the bitch. She ain't worth the trouble, man."

"The fuck you saying? I had her right where I wanted her and she ups and leaves! I haven't been banging her all this while to walk away empty-handed. She owes me!"

"True, she's got a large inheritance, but dude, surely you can find someone richer and prettier right here."

"Hell no. I don't have the time to start from scratch. Besides, I scared her good and proper. You should have seen her when my fists did the talking. She cowered in the corner and whimpered like the bitch she is."

The recording stopped there, and Tom blinked his eyes rapidly before he roared with laughter.

"Oh man, you had me going there for a while. I should have known the bitch put you up to this. I gave her too little credit. So what did she do? Fuck you all? Pour out some silly sob story? Offer you money?"

JT got up and cuffed Tom. His insults were beginning to get old and irksome. "If you must know, she doesn't know you're here and that we have you. She didn't send us. No one knows where you are and if you continue with that foul mouth of yours, it will stay that way. All I have to do is draw up some paperwork, put some light on you as a person of interest and the army will lock you away in some dark and dingy prison in some unknown destination for years."

Tom stiffened at JT's ominous tone.

"Now, I ask again. What is IT?"

"I... I don't know. I swear. I came here searching for the bitch..."

A hard thunk on the back of his head ended Tom's recount.

"Now, try that again, with a little respect."

"Fine," he spat out. "I came here in search of Gwen. The place was empty, and so I took a walk. I wanted to see if she had left a clue about her whereabouts. I mean, it's not like she has places to go and things to see right? Just as I reached the garden, there were shadows near the gazebo. From a distance, I could tell it was a man and woman, embracing. Then I heard sobbing before the gazebo shot up in flames." He clicked his tongue to emphasize. "Like that man! I've never seen anything like it before."

"I got scared, so I ran. When I looked back, the two figures morphed into one." Tom shuddered at the memory and continued. "I couldn't see anything. Even in the light, IT stayed like a shadow, all black and wispy-like."

Taking a deep breath to compose himself, Tom continued. "It shrieked as it chased me. Man, what an unearthly sound. I've never heard anything like it before. The screech was so loud that I had to cover my ears. Anyway, when I got to the house, I ran into the closest unlocked room I could find. I bolted it from the inside and hid in an empty closet. A fucking long time went by, and IT didn't find me. So I decided it was time to get out of here. However, the door was locked from the outside. I thought IT knew where I was and was locking me in for later. I wasn't waiting, man. So I broke the glass, and that is when you found me."

Everyone stood quietly, digesting Tom's story. Etash was the first to laugh. "You had us going there for a minute. Liar. Just admit you set the gazebo on fire, and you trashed the equipment."

"No, no I swear I didn't do anything. Wait, what equipment?"

"You're going to continue playing dumb, aren't you? The camera equipment idjit!"

"Fuck man, you had the place under surveillance? Why don't you look at whatever was recorded? You'll see I didn't do it." Tom was getting excited now. He just might be able to convince these bums that he was innocent and then he could walk out of here.

"Are you a special kind of stupid? I just said the equipment was trashed."

Tom groaned and rolled his head on his shoulders. "Must have been IT," he said and shuddered again.

"Outside," JT ordered the others, not wanting to discuss anything in front of Tom.

"Hey wait, what if IT is still here? Don't leave me here man. Fuck!" Tom screamed.

Etash hurried back and positioned a torch on the chair, the beam hitting Tom straight in the face. He had to follow JT's orders, but he didn't have to be nice about it.

Back outside, a heated debate began, accompanied with enthusiastic hand gestures and much pacing.

"Do you believe that crock of lies?"

"If only we had the security footage..."

"What do we do with him now?"

"Let's hit him some more!"

"Do we tell Gwen about all this?"

A scream halted all conversation. The five men debating the credibility of Tom's story ran inside.

A broken flashlight bumped into the broken laptop as it oscillated on the floor.

"What the hell dude! Now, why did you go and do that?" Dev growled as he gathered the broken bits of his favorite gadget.

"I – I – I didn't! IT did!"

"Not that excuse again!" Etash groaned, unbelieving of Tom's excuse.

"I'm telling you. Honest. After you left, the flashlight began rolling to and fro like it is now, then it toppled over, and the light went off. Then IT whisked by and shattered the laptop before it hit me! Look, look at my face. I'm bleeding from where IT hit me."

"He's probably part-right. While it would be entirely too easy for Tom to stretch his legs and topple everything over, there's no way he could have hurt himself with his hands bound behind him." JT observed.

"Finally! Someone believes me," Tom piped in. "Now, get me the hell out of here before IT returns!"