Monster Lake

No, she was right. It wasn’t Patricia or her mother’s voice.

Oh, no—

It was…her father’s voice.

««—»»

Terri’s breath seemed to leave her; she couldn’t say a word. Instead, all she could do was stare back at the giant toad-creature that she knew now was her father.

“Oh, Terri,” the thing croaked. “Things just went so wrong.”

“Did—did Mom or Uncle Chuck do this to you?” Terri asked in shivery words.

“No, no, it was me. I accidentally spilled some of the reagent on myself several months ago. Your mother and uncle had to keep me in the big tank under the trapdoor, while they tried to make a counter-reagent to change me back. So far they haven’t been able to, and now they’ll never be able to because they’ve changed too, just like I changed…”

Terri stared some more, shivered some more. It was a thing, a monster, but still, she realized…

It’s my father—

“But—but, Dad,” she asked. “What can I do? There must be something I can do to help you.”

Her father shook his large toad-like head. “Nothing,” he said in that same low, croaky voice. “There’s nothing. But you have to promise me something, honey. You have to promise me that you’ll leave. There’s money in your mother’s desk—take it and get a bus and go to your grandfather’s house as soon as you can. Get as far away from here as you possibly can…”

Terri, as shaken as she was, didn’t understand. “But why, Dad? Tell me why!”

“Because,” her father croaked and paused. “Because we might change more. The reagent—we have no idea how much it will change us. You have to leave while you still can because we might change completely, and…”

“And what?” Terri asked.

“We might try to…hurt you.”

Terri couldn’t believe this, but—

“We wouldn’t want to, honey,” her father croaked on, “but soon the reagent could take over our minds, and we wouldn’t know what we were doing. So you have to protect yourself. You have to get away from here. So promise me. Promise me you’ll leave as fast as you can.”

Tears flowed from Terri’s eyes. She didn’t know what to say.

“I have to go,” her father said next. “I have to get back to the lake, in the water, or else I’ll die. Promise me!”

“I can’t!” Terri shrieked.

But then her father was stepping forward. He moved past her, toward the kitchen, and as he did so, he very gently pushed her aside.

“I love you, honey,” he said, and then ran awkwardly away toward the kitchen.

“Dad!” Terri screamed. “Don’t go! I’ll call the hospital! Maybe doctors could help! I can call the lab where you used to work—”

But Terri didn’t hear a word from him after that. He’d slipped out the back sliding door, across the back yard, and was moving toward the path which would take him to the lake.

««—»»

Teary-eyed, Terri watched out the kitchen window as the thing that was her father disappeared down the path.

I can’t! she told herself. I can’t do it! I can’t leave them!

No, there was no way she could go away, not after knowing all that had happened. But she couldn’t think straight; millions of questions filled her mind. Like: What about the divorce? If her father and mother had gotten divorced, why was he still here?

And another question, even more important:

What should I do?

She stood a moment more at the kitchen window, let her heart slow down. She had to sort her thoughts out and decide what she was going to do.

And then it dawned on her:

No, I can’t leave. I have to go down to the lake. There must be something I can do…

She had no idea what that might be, but she knew she had to do something—

But— Oh, no, she thought.

When she looked more closely out the window, she realized that getting down to the lake might not be so easy. Because the back yard was full of large mutated toads, as big as footballs now, and they were all hopping around with their mouths open, showing long white sharp teeth.

How could Terri get down the path to the boathouse without getting bitten?

Carnivores, she thought, remembering the word. The reagent had changed all the toads and salamanders to carnivores, and carnivores ate meat…

Meat, she thought.

She rushed to the refrigerator, swung it open. There, sitting on the top shelf was a large package of ground hamburger meat. She plucked it up, her heart racing again, and tore the package open as she ran out the sliding door into the back yard.

As expected, the giant toads began to move toward her, but as she jogged across the back yard, she threw a small clump of the ground hamburger whenever she saw one approaching. And—

It’s working! she thought. The ground meat was the perfect bait to keep them away. The toads went for the meat instead of her! And this allowed Terri to safely get to the path behind the house, without getting bitten.

The high, bright moon lit her way. She scurried down the path. Gravel crunched under her feet; branches swiped at her face like feisty hands, but she ran on, as fast as she could. The nightsounds throbbed in her ears, louder and louder the closer she got to the lake. Her sneakers skidded to a halt on the dock. An explosion of butterflies seemed to swell in her stomach when she looked over the pier rail; along the lake’s narrow shore, dozens more toads and salamanders hopped about or were slithering out of the dark water, all huge and showing their fangs. But they were far enough away that they didn’t present any danger to Terri. To her left sat the boathouse. The lights were on and the door was open.

They’re in there, she thought with a shiver. Dad, Mom, Uncle Chuck, but they’re all different now. They’re…changed…

But then:

“Terri! Terri!”

She’d been wrong. The voice didn’t come from the boathouse; it came from the lake. Terri glanced nervously over the rail and squinted out.

And the butterflies in her stomach doubled.

There, in the center of the lake, she could see them: Her father, her mother, her Uncle Chuck, and even Patricia. She could only see their heads above the water, but she knew it was them. Their giant, shiny-black eyes looked sadly back at her, and when they spoke, Terri could tell that the mutation—the change—had gotten worse. Their voices were more croaky, barely human at all now…

“Terri!” her mother croaked.

“The boathouse!” her uncle croaked.

“What?” Terri shouted back. She didn’t understand. “What do you mean?”

“You might be able to help us,” her father croaked out.

“How?” Terri pleaded, her hands gripping the pier rail till her knuckles turned white. “Tell me how!”

But the mutation was changing him so fast that his words were deteriorating even as he spoke. She couldn’t