Monster Lake

“I know, I will. I’ll call you later.”

Terri took a deep breath, then, and closed her eyes for a few moments. The image of the salamander, its fat, slimy body, and its needlelike teeth, still stuck in her mind. She’d never forget the way its jaw was snapping at them just before they ran away.

But I’ve got no choice, she told herself. I have to go back there, and I have to do it now.

And with that thought she opened her eyes again and turned. Then she began to jog back down the path.

Back—

A chill shot up her spine.

—back to the boathouse.

««—»»

Terri ran as fast as she could through the woods and down the winding path. Her sneakers scuffed the gravel; tiny tree branches reached out and threatened to brush her face. The path seemed strangely longer now, with more twists and turns. Just when she thought it would go on forever, she arrived at its end, spying the mirrorlike, silverish glare of sunlight off the lake.

The boathouse sat before her.

She stared at it, reluctant…

Afraid.

Hurry up! she screamed at herself then. You don’t have much time!

The wood planks creaked when she stepped onto the pier. She crept slowly along the walkway, keeping her eyes peeled for the hideous giant salamander. A salamander with teeth! she couldn’t help but keep reminding herself. But when she peeked around the corner of the boathouse, she saw that her earlier conclusions were quite right.

The salamander was gone.

It must’ve gone back into the water, she thought. And that was fine with her.

Quickly then, she trotted into the front room of the boathouse, to retrieve her library card. Her intentions were simple. Get the card, close the door behind her, and run back up to the house as fast as she could, before Uncle Chuck could wonder where she was, or worse, before he could come down here.

There it is!

She found the library card right where she knew it would be: on the floor in front of the door marked DO NOT ENTER. She picked it up, began to put it in the back pocket of her shorts. But—

Her curiosity seemed to wrestle with her, it seemed to tick in her head like a loud clock. She’d almost gotten the door open before, hadn’t she? I would have, she realized, if Patricia hadn’t screamed.

So…

She did what was probably the least sensible thing she could imagine. Instead of leaving, as she’d planned —

You really shouldn’t be doing this, Terri, she warned herself.

—she slipped the library card back out of her pocket. She couldn’t help it.

She simply had to know what was in that room!

Don’t mess around! she ordered herself. Sometimes Uncle Chuck stopped at the store after taking her mother to work; with any luck, he’d do the same thing today. Terri rushed to the DO NOT ENTER door, and slid the card back into the gap.

She worked quickly but carefully. Within moments she had the card wedged back between the bolt and the doorframe, and the bolt was moving again!

Come on! Open!

Then—

click!

She got it, and in good time! The door popped open…

Well, she thought. Here goes.

The room was very dark. Terri quickly felt along the wall next to the door, found the light switch, turned it on.

Then she stood and stared.

This room was nothing like the other room. There were no computers, no file cabinets. Along the front wall were big metal shelves, and each shelf contained rows of tall glass bottles which each seemed to be filled with some gross-looking yellow liquid. Gunky, she thought, making a face at a faint creeky smell. And then she noticed that a few of the bottles were full of green, not yellow, gunk. She had no idea what the stuff could be inside these bottles. Then she turned around—

The other three walls were lined with shelves too, but there weren’t any bottles on them. Instead, these shelves were filled with…

Fish tanks? she wondered.

No, not fish tanks, but terrariums: fish tanks with no water in them, and no fish. Instead each glass tank contained dirt and rocks and plants, with a small foil tray of water.

And they had animals in them too.

But not the kind of animals she would expect.

Toads, salamanders, newts—yes. But—

They were all huge—much bigger than normal.

And—

Terri gulped.

They all had teeth.

Just like the toad she thought she’d seen last night, and just like the three-foot-long salamander she and Patricia had seen only a few minutes ago.

Teeth.

Sharp, white, pointed teeth. Like a dog’s teeth, or a wolf’s.

It was so strange, and so scary…

This can’t possibly be, Terri thought, staring through the glass tanks.

Terri moved over to one particular tank, and looked intently in. There was a toad inside, sitting in the foil pan of water, but it was so big! It sat there in the tray of water, spread out and nearly the size of a kitten. Its gold-irised eyes were almost as large as the salamander’s, and a big white sac fluttered under its chin. But stranger still were the teeth. This toad’s teeth were so large that even with its mouth closed, the teeth stuck out past its lips like sharp, white fangs…

Taped to the front glass of the tank was a white sticker, which read in neatly typed letters:

COUNTER-REAGENT 6b ADMINISTERED

…and then there was a date.

The date was yesterday.

Terri remembered the words on the computer in the other room, especially the word reagent. But she didn’t know what that meant, nor did she know what counter-reagent meant.

She turned away, and then noticed something else.

Right there, in the middle of the floor…

What is that? she wondered.

A square outline cut into the wood-plank floor.

A trapdoor, she realized.