Monster Lake

She fainted right there in the path.

««—»»

And Terri woke up…

The room was velvety-dark. Her eyes opened very slowly, blinking. It took a few moments to realize where she was:

In her bed.

And when her eyes adjusted to the room’s murky darkness, she looked up and saw a figure standing beside her. At first, Terri thought of Patricia, the way she’d been deliberately standing in the shadows down by the lake, and then the rest of the memory jolted her like a bolt of lightning. Patricia said she got some of that reagent gunk on her hands, Terri slowly but surely remembered. And it changed her…

It changed her into something that was part-human, part-toad…

But this figure standing before her now couldn’t possibly be Patricia. The figure was much taller, and then, when the figure spoke, Terri knew at once that it was Uncle Chuck.

“Are you all right, Terri?” her uncle asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “I think so. I guess I—”

“You fainted, honey. We heard you scream, so we ran up the trail and found you lying there. Then we brought you back up to the house, to your room. You’ve been sleeping for hours.”

Beside her, on the nightstand, her clock was ticking. But she couldn’t see the dial. “What time is it, Uncle Chuck?” she asked groggily, and then rubbed her eyes.

“It’s almost midnight.”

Midnight! Terri thought. I’ve been sleeping that long?

And then Uncle Chuck asked, “What happened, honey?”

It was then that Terri came fully awake, and she remembered everything. All kinds of different feelings in her heart seemed to crash together, and she leaned up in bed and shouted, “What happened? You know what happened, Uncle Chuck! I found out everything, everything that you and Mom have been doing down at the boathouse!”

Uncle Chuck’s shadow stepped back. A long pause hung in the air, and then, in a lower voice, he asked, “What do you mean?”

But Terri spat right back, “You’re using genetics! Mr. Seymour at the library told me all about it! And Patricia and I have seen them!”

“Them?” Uncle Chuck asked.

“The toads and salamanders that you and Mom used that reagent stuff on. It makes them bigger! It makes them grow teeth! And I also know that you’ve made a giant toad that you’ve been keeping under that trapdoor in the boathouse! And last night, it broke out. You’re using special chemicals to change the genes of toads and salamanders—you’re mutating them!—and turning these poor animals into monsters!”

Uncle Chuck took another step back in the darkness. “You’ve got it all wrong, honey—well, part of it. It’s true, we did create a special reagent, but not to make monsters.”

“I don’t believe you!” Terri shouted back at him. “I just told you, I’ve seen them!”

“You’ve got it all wrong,” Uncle Chuck repeated.

But then Terri reached up and turned on the lamp on her nightstand—

She screamed as loud as she had when she’d seen Patricia.

Uncle Chuck’s head had turned huge, and his eyes were as big and black as Patricia’s had been when Terri saw her on the path. Tan and brown bumps covered his skin—

And when he opened his long, wide mouth to speak, Terri could see the jagged teeth.

“Several weeks ago, we accidentally spilled some of the reagent into the lake,” Uncle Chuck said. “And all the animals there, mostly toads and salamanders…changed. But it was an accident, Terri! We didn’t do it on purpose! I promise you that! It was an accident!”

But by now, Terri couldn’t believe it. They’d been hiding things for all this time. Lying. Covering up.

“And the same thing happened to you that happened to Patricia!” Terri yelled, knowing she was right. “Look at what’s happened to you! You’re changing too!”

Uncle Chuck, now standing in the bright lamplight, turned and looked at his reflection in Terri’s mirror hanging on the closet. His giant toad eyes widened, and then he screamed himself, and ran out of the room.

Terri jumped out of bed and followed him through the house, but Uncle Chuck dashed out the open sliding glass door, ran across the back yard, and disappeared into the opening of the trail.

Going back to the boathouse, Terri wisely concluded. And my mother’s probably down there right now, too—making more monsters out of the innocent animals in the lake. And she’s probably changed—mutated—just like Uncle Chuck and Patricia.

She decided not to follow him. Why do that? She was on her own now, and she knew it. The only thing she could think to do was call the police and tell them everything. They’ll have to believe me, she thought. When they see what Mom and Uncle Chuck have been doing down there, and when they see what they’ve changed into, they’ll have no choice but to believe me!

She went to the kitchen phone, picked it up, was about to dial 911, which her father had taught her to do if there was ever an emergency when she needed the police or an ambulance. But just before she could dial, she heard:

creak

Terri stood still as a statue. She knew that sound…

It was the sound the wood floor made when someone had stepped into the foyer.

Someone’s there, she realized. Someone’s in the foyer right now, and it can’t be Uncle Chuck, because I just saw him run down the path back to the boathouse.

It had to be Patricia or Terri’s mother. There was no one else it could be.

Terri boldly walked toward the darkened hall, toward the foyer. “Patricia?” she called out. “Is that you?”

But there was no answer.

“Mom?” she called out. “I know what happened, so you can come out.”

Again—no answer.

Terri walked the rest of the way down the hall. Then she turned and faced the foyer.

It came as no surprise. A tall figure stood there in the darkness, perfectly still.

“Mom?” Terri asked again. “Patricia? I know it’s one of you. So come out and we can call the police and they’ll take care of things.”

But the figure didn’t answer her—at least not yet. It stood there looking at her from the other side of the foyer.

“Come out of there!” Terri exclaimed. “You’re scaring me!”

And then the figure moved a little, taking half a step forward, and it was then that Terri noticed how tall it was—much taller than Patricia or her mother—

In fact, it was so tall that it had to duck its giant head just to stand upright in the foyer.

Terri’s heart skipped in her chest. Her eyes widened, and fear like electricity suddenly ran through her body.

It’s the monster, she realized, unable to move. It’s the giant seven- foot toad that Patricia saw break out of the trapdoor in the boathouse…

And the giant figure opened its mouth, revealing shiny white teeth even bigger than Uncle Chuck’s or Patricia’s.

Teeth that were twice as big…

“Terri, honey,” the figure croaked. “Help me…”

And then Terri almost fainted again, when she recognized the voice.