The stillness of the water is broken by a ripple of bubbles. The bubbles get bigger as It gets closed to the surface. Then a row of triangles breaks the surface, swishing back and forth, back and forth. A low hissing sound can be heard. It sounds like a reptile with laboured breathing. It comes from deep within the monstrosity's throat. The rasping sound loudens, as the head comes out of the water. It looks sort of like an alligator, swimming alone at night. But, this is not alligator. It is bigger and way more vicious. It's eyes glow a fiery red and with good reason. This creature has infared vision. It's body blends well with the water and the darkness all around. As It pulls Itself on to the shore, little water dropplets fall on to the beach sands. It's footprints are hard to notice because, the creature, for all It's size and appearance, is extremely light. It moves towards the town road with surprising quickness and agility, hardly making a sound. It pauses in the bushes as a police car passes by, making it's nightly rounds.

When the cars taillights dissapeared over a hill, It continued on It's journey. It knew where to go and how to get there. It knew what was waiting for It, and It couldn't wait. It dissapeared into the bushes once again, as the police car passed by, going the other way, it's routine finished.

It had once had a name. That name was now forgotten and lost. All those who had known it had died, save for a few cops and It's original keepers. Twenty years ago, they thought they had killed It. But It came back. Again and again, over the next four years, until finally, special government agents had been sent into the lake, armed with underwater shoulder rocket launchers. They brought It's dead carcass onto the beach and burned it. There had been no unexplainable deaths since then, until now. For some reason a little girl had dissapeared mysteriously without a trace. So far Manchek and Williams thought there was only one death, possibly two, but they were sure there would be more.

10:40 PM

Williams opened his eyes. At first everything he saw was a dark blur. As his eyes got used to the darkness, he began surveying his surroundings. He senced that wherever he was, it was large. As his sences came back to him, he felt a numb pain in his wrists and ankles. Then it all came back to him. He had vague recolections of walking out of a bar of some sort, and then heading towards his car. Then it hit him. Memories flooded back with sudden angerat being kidnapped. Him, Chief of Police. Whom ever did this was in deep trouble. Serious charges were more like it. Kidnapping is a felony and if his captors were caught, they would be sent to a federal prison for ten years or more. His captors!

He swung his head frantically from side to side, looking for a sign of life other than rats. He heard footsteps. They were approaching rapidly. he heard a metal key being inserted into a keyhole, as a buzzer went off to indicacte that the door was now unlocked. Williams observed three men in white labcoats entering the room. He surmised at once that he was in some sort of laboratory. His hypothesis was justified when one of the scientists flicked on the lights. He closed his eyes against the brightness, but he opened them when he thought he had adjusted to the glare. He saw that the rats he heard where really white lab mice in cages.

"Ah, so you're awake." Williams had been staring so intently at the rats that he had forgotten about the three scientists,, which had now been joined by a fourth. The new arrival was constantly looking at his watch.

"Where the devil is It?" He asked impatiently.

"Patience." muttered another. Obviously they were used to his imaptient behaviour.

Williams cleared his throat and attempted to speak, but before he could get a word out, he was silenced with a look from the first scientist.

"Do not be worried, sir. Actually you should be quite honored. You are about to become a test subject for our.... experiment." He cackled with glee.

"I am Chief... " Williams managed to croak before he was silenced with a blow to the face.

"Quiet you fool." The scientist who slapped him hissed with a foreign accent. "We know who you are. Chief Williams of the "mighty" town police force. No wonder there is so much crime in America. With police chiefs like you, what to stop the crooks?"

"Silence S4. Stop bickering with the test subject. The time has arrived. It will be here any second now." As if on cue, they all heard a rasping noise at the side door. The third scientist hurried to open it. When Williams saw It, he guessed what his fate was to be, and he tried frantically to get out of his bonds. The scientists just laughed at him.

"It will do you no good, Williams," The first scientist proclaimed triumphantly. "You see, you were one of the first to come upon our creation. And one of the last survivors."

"All this time you have been feeding it humans?"

"Yes. Mostly homeless people and people we have illegally imported from far away places. Had you not stuck your nose into our buisness, we might have let you live."

"What about the girl?"

"That was purely accidental." said S2, speaking for the first time.

That voice! It sounded familiar. Williams cranned his neck to get a better veiw of the scientist who had just spoken. He was shorter than the others and his voice was softer too. He began to think that that perticular scientist wasn't male, that he was infact, female. That thought disgusted him. Him, Chief of Police, the captive of a woman? Impossible, he thought. Yet as S2 moved into his field of view, he got his first good look at her and was taken aback. This was impossible. How could she? His own wife!

And he had told her everything. These scientists, they knew everything he knew. Everything except.... had he told her? Had he told her that Kelling was coming back? No, he had not. He let out a smalll sigh of relief. He gathered his strength and managed to rasp, "Margrett, how could you?"

"It was easy," she replied. "Do you know how much these guys pay? Do you know how valuable I am to them? At least here I get to do more than cook and clean up your mess. You should try it sometime, if you survive, which you won't. It would help you lose some of that beer gut you carry around with you." With that retort, she turned and walked over to It. "Are you hungry boy?" She pointed at her husband and whispered "Sick!"

Williams didn't even have time to scream. It dragged his lifeless body out into the night, to It's secret feeding area.

The scientist lleft the room as the janitors walked in with their mops and pails. At least they are paid to clean, Margrett thought angrily. A Samuel and David Something. They were twin brothers from Chile, and they didn't ask questions.

Late one night, on his way to clean the laboratory, Samuel accidentally eavesdropped on the group of scientists. He even caught a glimpse of It, dragging a body out the door. He had up until then thought that the blood on the floor had come from dead lab mice, but obviously he was wrong. Samuel hadn't told his brother, but he was bound to find out sooner or later. He thought about going to the police, but he was afraid of getting caught and being sent back to Chile, because they were illegal aliens in this country, brought here by these four scientists. Samuel knew what these men were doing was wrong but he just couldn't go back to Chile. If he did, He and his brother would be sent to war to defend his country, where he would almost certainly die. So he kept his mouth shut and hoped for the best.

3:00 PM

Manchek awoke with a start. The phone rang again. He stumbled out of bed to answer it. He lifted the reciever just as it started to ring again. "Who ever this is, you better have a [insert assorted words here] good reason for calling."

"Lieutenant, I didn't know you could be so naughty."

"Oh its only you, Kelling. What do you want?"

"My plane just landed. Could you come and pick me up?"

"Sure, I guess. I'm already up thanks to you. What airport and terminal?"

"Vindburg Airport, third terminal. Don't keep me waiting Lieutenant." With that she hung up.

Manchek groaned. Sometimes this woman could be a pain in the... but she did hold a higher position than him and she did have her contacts high up in the governement. He had to respect that of suffer the consiquences. The Lieutenant dressed quickly and stumbled out his front door, grumbling non-commitical comments about the time.