Monster Lake Read online

She waited a moment, but still—

  No answer.

  Of course, she was really fooling herself. She knew where they were. The same place they were every night, sometimes till long after dark…

  She peeked out the kitchen window, at the sinister opening between the trees in the backyard.

  They’re still down there, she realized. They’re still down there at the lake…working in the boathouse…

  ««—»»

  The words echoed ever so faintly:

  They’re getting bigger—

  Eyes—giant, black, shiny eyes with gold-colored irises—blinked.

  Bigger—

  The bushes rustled. Trees shook. Large bent legs with rumpled, spotted skin strained and pushed forward on big webbed feet like a duck’s…

  Only it wasn’t a duck, was it?

  Bigger…

  The big black eyes blinked again. They were so big; they were as big as basketballs!

  The crunching sound echoed through the woods. The giant webbed feet squashed the bushes flat, and as the thing moved forward, some of the trees actually fell down.

  They’re getting bigger, the words continued to echo through her head.

  It was a toad, crawling up from the woods across the backyard in the moonlight—

  A toad as big as a car!

  Its long, curved, thin-lipped mouth snapped open, showing teeth the size of kitchen knives…

  Bigger, bigger, bigger, the words raced round her mind as the giant, hideous creature hopped toward the house, heading straight for Terri’s bedroom window—

  They’re getting bigger and bigger, Terri, and they’re coming for you…

  ««—»»

  “Terri?” A hand gently nudged her. The voice, at first, seemed far off, like in a dream. “Terri, honey?”

  Terri awoke with a chill buzzing up her spine; she almost screamed. Her eyes snapped open as she shivered. She was lying on the couch in the family room, the TV screen full of white static, and right now, two concerned faces peered down at her: her mother and Uncle Chuck.

  “Honey, are you all right?” her mother asked. “My goodness! You’re shivering!”

  Gradually, Terri remembered. She’d come back from Patricia’s and then had gone into the family room and turned on the TV to watch The Simpsons, and then…

  I must’ve fallen asleep, she realized. I fell asleep…and dreamed…

  “Terri, honey, are you sick?” her mother asked.

  Uncle Chuck was down on one knee, he put his palm on her forehead. “She doesn’t have a fever,” he said, “but she looks awfully pale.”

  Terri rubbed her eyes and sat up on the couch. “I—I’m all right,” she said sleepily. “I just had a bad dream. I dreamed there was a toad coming up the backyard, but the toad had teeth, and it was as big as a car…”

  Her mother and Uncle Chuck looked worriedly at each other, in silence. Then Chuck said quickly, “Well, don’t you worry about that, because everybody has bad dreams sometimes, and dreams aren’t real. Dreams can never hurt you.”

  “It’s late, honey,” her mother added. “You better get to bed now.”

  “Up we go,” Uncle Chuck said, and then he picked Terri up and carried her to her room, setting her down on her bed.

  “What time is it, Uncle Chuck?” Terri asked, still groggily rubbing her eyes.

  “Real late. Past midnight. Your mother and I lost track of time while we were working down at—”

  “Down at the boathouse,” Terri finished for him.

  “Er, well, yes,” her uncle said very quickly. “Like I told you, your mother has a very important project she’s working on for her job, and I’m helping her.”

  Terri nodded, almost frowning. “Can I go to the library with Patricia tomorrow?” she asked.

  “Why, sure, honey. But right now, you better get to sleep, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight.”

  Then Uncle Chuck left her bedroom and closed the door.

  Terri put on her pajamas and got into bed; she was still very tired, but when she reached to turn off the light, her hand hesitated in the air.

  She didn’t want to turn it off.

  Because as tired as she was, and as much as she’d like to go back to sleep, there was one thing that bothered her.

  If I go back to sleep, she considered, maybe I’ll have that dream again.

  It was definitely the scariest dream she’d ever had: the giant monster-toad, as big as their station wagon, and with teeth the size of kitchen knives! And when she thought about it just then, she began to shiver again. But then she calmed herself, and thought: Don’t be a baby, Terri. Toads never get that big!

  Uncle Chuck was right: everybody had bad dreams sometimes, and dreams could never hurt you because they weren’t real. They were just thoughts and fears inside your head, and they always went away. Dreams were nothing to worry about.

  But then, she knew, there were some other things she had to worry about. Like the way Mom and Uncle Chuck looked at each other when I told them I dreamed about a huge toad with teeth. Plus, the strange words and the boathouse and the glass tanks, the locked trapdoor, and the weird bottles full of that creepy, ugly-looking gunk.

  But she tried not to think about any of that now. She got up her courage, turned off her light, and then lay back in bed to go to sleep.

  But…she couldn’t…

  Nightsounds flowed in through her open window, a great, loud throbbing sound from all the crickets and peepers and tree frogs that lived in the woods behind the house. The moonlight flowed in too, and cast a large square of eerie faint-white light on the floor. Terri irritably tossed and turned in the covers. The more she tried to go back to sleep, the more awake she felt.

  Minutes ticked by but they seemed like hours. Eventually, though, Terri began to nod off and slowly drift back to sleep, until—

  Ka-CRACK!

  She jerked up in bed. What was that! she wondered in brand-new fear. She’d heard a loud cracking sound coming from the open window. She wanted to get up and look out the window, but something kept her from doing so, and she knew what it was: fear. She didn’t dare look out the window because if she did she was afraid she’d see all those big, toothed toads in the yard like she had the other night. But there was one thing she was certain of: the loud cracking sound she’d heard had come from deep in the woods behind the house…

  From the lake, she realized with a chill.

  And one other thing she noticed. The room was completely silent now. The steady, throbbing nightsounds had stopped the instant she’d heard the cracking, almost as if all those crickets and peepers had gotten scared from the noise and fell silent.

  And then—

  Ka-CRACK! she heard again. And:

  SPLASH!

  Something had fallen into the lake, something, she knew, that was very, very big…

  Don’t be stupid, Terri, she kept telling herself. It was nothing to be afraid of. It was probably just a tree branch breaking off and falling in the water.

  Yeah, she thought sleepily, her eyes growing heavy. Just a tree branch…falling…in the water…

  And a moment later, Terri fell fast asleep.

  And because she was asleep now, she never heard the next sound that sailed out of the woods:

  A scream…

  ««—»»

  An hour earlier, Terri wasn’t the only one who was having trouble falling asleep. Patricia, too, lay wide awake in her bed, tossing and turning. So many things were on her mind right now, things that bothered her, things that just weren’t right.

  The big toad that had jumped out at her this morning, causing her to fall and cut her knee. And that big slimy-black salamander she and Terri had seen on the boathouse pier.

  With fangs, she remembered. The toad and the salamander both had fangs…

  Patricia wanted to tell her parents but she knew she couldn’t. Her parents would never believe her; they’d think s
he was making it all up. And Patricia knew there was only one way to prove to her parents that it was true…

  I’ll have to go back to the boathouse, she thought. I’ll have to catch one of the toads or salamanders and show it to them. Then they’ll have to believe me.

  And she knew she’d have to go alone; Terri would never go back to the boathouse herself—she could get into too much trouble. I’ll have to go by myself, Patricia realized. I’ll have to go alone…

  It was a crazy idea, she knew, and a scary one, but she knew that if she was careful, she could do it.

  But then she thought about that big black salamander again and remembered how big it was—over three-feet long!—and that toad that had jumped out at her—it was pretty big too, now that she thought about it. Trying to catch something that big would be hard or maybe even impossible. The things would try to bite her if she got too close or tried to pick one up, and, besides, what could she use to catch one with? A bucket? A big plastic garbage bag? she wondered. But, no, she couldn’t see any way to do that without the risk of getting bitten, and she sure didn’t want to get bitten by one of those ugly things!

  But—

  Wait a minute! she thought next. There was a way she could show her parents without actually catching one, wasn’t there? Downstairs in one of the cabinets in the den, her father had a digital camera, and it had a built in flash so it would work in the dark.

  I could take some pictures of the toads and salamanders! she realized. And then show them to my parents. Then they’d have to believe me!

  What a great idea!

  Patricia, excited now, got out of bed and quickly put on her shorts, T-shirt and sandals. Then she sneaked downstairs. All the lights were out, and she knew her parents had gone to bed hours ago. She tiptoed through the hall to the den, careful not to make any noise, and after only a minute or two, she found her father’s digital camera in one of the cabinets. There it is! she thought.

  Then she grabbed the camera and snuck out of the house.

  ««—»»

  It didn’t take her long to get to the woods behind Terri’s house; she’d jogged the whole way. And even though it was the middle of the night, she didn’t have any problem seeing. The moon was full and very bright and it lit up Terri’s backyard quite well. Even when Patricia entered the narrow path between the trees, she could see just fine; the moonlight reached down through the high branches and illuminated the walkway.

  Her footsteps crunched over the gravel. The path wound down through the woods until it ended at the boathouse and the creaky-planked pier. Patricia stood still a moment, at the front of the dock, and glanced out. The lake looked perfectly black, with squiggles of white moonlight floating on the surface. Tiny green-glowing dots, thousands of them, blinked on and off in between the trees and over the lake—lightning bugs. And just the sound of the lake itself seemed so intense, the shrill, pulsating chorus of crickets. For a moment there, standing on the wooden dock, Patricia felt as though she were the only person in the world.

  The windows of the boathouse were dark.

  She felt creepy looking at it, for the boathouse reminded her of all the things that had been happening lately—bizarre things, scary things, things that couldn’t be explained. But that was the reason she’d come down here, wasn’t it? To take some pictures that would prove what was going on.

  So I better get on with it, she told herself. The sooner I get some pictures, the sooner I’ll be out of this creepy place and back home where it’s safe.

  She looked out over the pier’s rail, to examine the lake shore, and sure enough, she saw lots of toads and salamanders. They’re huge! she thought, amazed. But unfortunately, they were too far away for her to get a picture of them. She needed some close-ups, showing the fangs.

  Then Patricia’s heart skipped a beat when she walked around to the front of the boathouse.

  A long black salamander with big yellow dots on its back was sitting there on the pier, in the same place she and Terri had seen the salamander this morning.

  Only this one was even bigger…

  And when it raised its wide, black head and opened its mouth, Patricia could see the fangs all too well. She jumped back, almost shrieked. The salamander’s pointed, white teeth were easily as long as Patricia’s fingers!

  Her first impulse was too run. But that would defeat the whole purpose of coming down here, and then she remembered how slow salamanders were. Don’t be scared, she ordered herself. Even if it tries to chase me, I can out-run it easy. And I’ve got to get that picture!

  Patricia remained where she stood. She raised the camera to her eyes, leaned over, and when she did so, the salamander’s mouth opened even wider. Perfect! Patricia thought. It was just what she wanted! Then she put her finger on the camera’s button, began to press it down, and then—

  The salamander jerked around very quickly and slithered over the side of the pier into the water before Patricia could snap the picture.

  Oh, man! she thought. He’s gone!

  The toads and salamanders on the shore were just too far away, and she sure didn’t want to walk down there. It was all muddy and wet; her feet would sink in the mud, and she’d make a mess of herself. She frowned in frustration, realizing that coming down here had been a total waste. But…maybe not.

  Just then she got an idea.

  The boathouse, she realized.

  Terri had told her that there were more toads and salamanders in the boathouse, in glass tanks in the backroom. Of course, the boathouse door was locked, but then Patricia also remembered how Terri had cleverly opened it with her library card.

  And it just so happened that Patricia had her own library card in her pocket right this moment.

  Can’t hurt to try, she thought, taking out her card. The moon shined right on the door; Patricia could see how the wedged bolt went into the slot of the doorframe. She thought back, remembering how Terri had done it, and then she did the same thing, slipping the card against the bolt. She pushed down gently, working the card deeper until the bolt started to move.

  click!

  Patricia couldn’t believe it! The door opened just like that! Well, that was sure easy, she thought. She went into the front room and turned on the lights. One down, one to go, she thought, and then went to work on the next door, the backroom door, marked DO NOT ENTER.

  This one was harder, and it took longer, but in only a few minutes of jiggling the library card—

  click!

  —this door opened too.

  “Wow,” she muttered to herself once she got the light on. “Terri was right.” Three of the room’s walls were lined with metal shelves, and on the shelves were dozens of square, glass tanks. In each tank there was either a toad or a salamander, giant ones, like the one she’d already seen. And they all had fangs…

  But before Patricia could raise the camera and start taking pictures, she noticed something else.

  What is…that?

  On the floor, toward the other end of the room, there was a big trapdoor, with large metal hinges and a lifting ring. Why would they have a trapdoor in the floor? she wondered. It couldn’t lead to a basement because she knew the only thing under the boathouse was water.

  What could be down there?

  Well, that was one question she couldn’t answer, because the trapdoor had a large, heavy-duty padlock on it. There was no way she could use the library card on that—it needed a key.

  And then she noticed something else.

  More shelves, she saw. On the next wall. Only these shelves contained glass bottles instead of glass tanks, and the bottles were filled with this mucky-looking stuff.

  Yuck! Patricia thought when she picked up one of the bottles to have a closer look. The bottle was heavy and felt slightly warm, and when she shook it, the gunk in the bottle barely moved at all. What is that stuff? she wondered. It looks like mud, only it’s yellow. It had a small label on it that read REAGENT 7c. Reagent, she remembered. One of the words the
y’d looked up in her father’s dictionary. In fact, all of the yellow bottles had labels with the same word. But then, when she looked closer, she noticed a few bottles full of green gunk, and these bottles had a different label. COUNTER-REAGENT, they read. Another one of the words they’d looked up.

  This was all very interesting, not to mention weird, but Patricia knew she better take her pictures and get out of here. It was getting really late. So she reached up to put the yellow bottle back on the shelf and—

  NOOOOO! she thought, her heart suddenly beating wildly in her chest.

  The heavy bottle slipped out of her fingers and fell—

  crash!

  —right on the floor where it shattered into hundreds of pieces.

  “Now you’ve really done it!” Patricia said aloud. “I’m going to get in all kinds of trouble for this!”

  The yellow muck in the bottle spread quickly across the floor. At once, a faint creeky smell filled the room. Frantic, Patricia rushed about, looking for a mop and bucket to clean up the mess, but there were none. All she could find, in a small closet, were a few paper towels. She grabbed the towels, then immediately knelt down and started picking up the big pieces of broken glass, careful not to cut herself. And when she wiped at the gunk on the floor—more bad luck.

  The stuff was staining the wooden floor yellow!

  I better just leave it, she thought. Maybe they’ll think the bottle just fell off the shelf. There was no way she’d be able to clean it up properly. She put the paper towels in the wastebasket. Just take the pictures and get out of here! she thought. So she turned toward one of the shelves with the glass tanks, raised the camera, and—

  thunk!

  Patricia froze.

  thunk! she heard again.

  Her heart beat violently against the inside of her chest. What was that noise?

  Then she looked down, and her eyes went wide as big silver dollars.

  The yellow gunk on the floor, she saw now, was seeping down through the cracks in the trapdoor! And the trapdoor—