Monster Lake

Monster Lake

by Edward Lee

Smashwords
Edition

Little Devil
Books

A Division of Necro
Publications

2011

This book is for readers ages
8-12.

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| — | —

Monster Lake

Monster Lake
© 2005 by Edward Lee

Cover art © 2005 by Erik
Wilson

This digital edition
January 2010 © Little Devil Books

ISBN:
978-1-4524-0926-9

Cover, Book Design &
Typesetting:

David G. Barnett

Fat Cat Graphic
Design

www.fatcatgraphicdesign.com

a Necro
Publication

5139 Maxon Terrace •
Sanford, FL 32771

www.necropublications.com

Also available in a signed
trade paperback

ISBN:
1-889186-56-2

And a limited edition
hardcover from Camelot Books.

www.camelotbooks.com

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the hard work of this author.

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| — | —

DEDICATION: This book is
for Audrey Craker. Perhaps one day I'll write The Little Girl Who
Was A Skeleton By Day. Oh, and don't forget what redundant
means.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The author
would like to thank Taylor Bartscht for much needed editorial
consultation. Further, I must acknowledge the swamp behind my
grandmother's house in Pound Ridge, New York, which was full of
green muck...a far-reaching inspiration.

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Prologue

It’s nighttime…

The lake is still, like a black crystal
mirror. Fireflies hover over the water, reflecting swarms of
green-glowing dots. Bullfrogs and toads hop about at the water’s
edge; salamanders climb sluggishly over rocks.

And the moon hangs low over the trees…

The night is teeming with sounds. Crickets
and peepers pipe their throbbing chorus. Nightbirds caw, and big
white-faced owls hoot from high in the trees. And if you listen
carefully, you can even hear the distant titters of bats.

But then—

Suddenly, the woods turn dead silent.

The nightbirds fly away. The bullfrogs and
toads scamper to hide…

And the still surface of the lake begins to
churn.

From the water, the hideous thing rises, its
huge black eyes never blinking, its mouth crammed with rows of
razor-sharp teeth that glitter like bits of broken glass in the
moonlight.

But what
is
the thing? It’s big,
tall as a man, with a wide head and a pitted, bumpy
face.

Not an animal at all but a creature, a
monster—

And it’s coming up out of the water now,
looking for something.

Maybe it’s looking for you…

Monster Lake

“
Ter-
ri!” Patricia complained. The shuttlecock whizzed past her as
she rushed to swing her racket and missed. “Don’t serve so
hard!”

“
Sorry,” Terri replied. She
knew she was a good badminton player; her only problem was finding
someone good enough to practice against. And here, in Devonsville,
there weren’t many kids her own age. “Let’s just volley, okay?” she
suggested, trying to make the game a little easier for
Patricia.

“
Yeah, that’d be better.
I’m nowhere near as good as you.”

It was a beautiful summer
day, a cloudless blue sky, birds chirping high in the trees around
Terri’s house. She and Patricia Kennedy had only met a few weeks
ago, when the Kennedys had first moved here, but they’d become best
friends fast. They were both the same age—twelve—and they both
liked a lot of the same things, like Game Boy,
The Simpsons,
and nachos with cheese
and salsa. And, of course, they both liked to play badminton—or
lawn tennis, as Terri’s Uncle Chuck like to call it—but Patricia
wasn’t very good. It didn’t matter. They’d been hanging out
together most every day since Patricia had moved to
Devonsville.

Patricia’s long blond hair
swayed as she rose on her tiptoes to serve.
Poink!
the shuttlecock went, then
sailed across the net. Terri’s hair was just as long but a shiny
dark chestnut color, and she had emerald-green eyes instead of
blue, like Patricia’s. She easily returned her friend’s serve, and
they volleyed the shuttlecock back and forth for several minutes.
Terri could tell that Patricia was trying hard to beat her
but—
poink-poink-poink-poink
—Terri was
able to return all of Patrica’s hits back hardly without even
working up a sweat. Eventually, Patricia missed and declared,
“All
right,
already! You win!”

Terri smiled to herself. “It’s getting hot.
Let’s go around to the back of the house and get a drink from the
hose.”

“
Good idea,” Patricia
agreed, wiping her brow.

They returned the badminton rackets to the
side shed, then headed for the house, a nice, three-bedroom ranch
with cedar shingles. “You’re really good at badminton,” Patricia
complimented. “Who taught you to play?”

Terri’s smile faded. “My Dad. He was going
to start teaching me to play tennis soon, too, so that once I get
to high school, I’d be good enough for the team. Dad and I would do
lots of stuff, until…”

Patricia kicked at a dandelion puff. “Oh,
you mean before he and your Mom got divorced?”

“
Yeah,” Terri sadly
replied. These days lots of kids’ parents got divorced. Terri never
quite understood it until Uncle Chuck explained that sometimes
people changed over time, and they didn’t agree on things, or see
things the same way. “Sometimes parents grow apart,” her uncle had
explained, “and they can’t get along anymore.” But that was the
weirder part, because Terri could never remember a time when her
Mom and Dad didn’t get along.

She could only hope that one day her parents
would get back together…

And there was one thing she’d noticed very
clearly: that since the divorce, her mother had started acting
really weird, and Uncle Chuck too.

“
How do you like
Devonsville so far?” Terri asked, to get her mind off the
subject.

“
Oh, it’s okay. It’s a lot
different from the city, where we used to live. The city was real
crowded and had lots of smog. Devonsville is so pretty,” Patricia
observed, looking around now at the healthy, green lawn, the clear
sky, and the woods behind Terri’s house.

“
We used to live in the
city too,” Terri said. “But I like it here much better.”

“
What’s school
like?”

“
It’s okay. Not as many
kids as the city, but everyone’s nicer here.”

Patricia grinned wickedly. “Any cute
boys?”

“
There are some,” Terri
answered. And then her thoughts drifted. Yes, she was at the age
now where she’d be getting interested in boys. She even knew some
girls at school who were going steady! And there were a few boys,
she knew, who were interested in her, like Matt Slattery, who was
on the eighth-grade wrestling team; and Marty Cadeaux, who was fat
but nice and asked her to the school dance once. And Terri knew she
must be pretty, because if she weren’t, why would these boys be
interested in her? It was nice to know that boys liked her, and
that she could have a boyfriend if she wanted, but it just seemed
that…

Terri frowned at herself as she and Patricia
cut across the big yard.

It seemed that she’d lost interest in those
kinds of things since her parents had gotten divorced.

And there was still one more weird thing.
Terri knew that when parents got divorced, the father usually moved
away—like Terri’s father had—but she also knew there was something
called visitation rights, so that the father could visit on
weekends.

But my father’s been gone
all summer,
she reflected;
for months, and he’s never visited me on the
weekends.
And this made Terri even more
sad.

Maybe he doesn’t
want
to visit
me…

But Terri couldn’t
even
think
about
that.

“
What grade are you in?”
Patricia asked, the sun shining brightly in her long blond
hair.

“
Seventh—well, I’ll be in
the eighth when school starts up after the summer.”

“
But you’re only
twelve!”

“
I know. I got moved up a
grade.”

“
You must be real smart,”
Patricia offered, along with a hint of jealousy.

“
I just study hard,” Terri
admitted. “My Mom and Dad always taught me to study
hard…”

And then the thoughts
returned.
Mom and Dad…

Dad…

Suddenly, Terri felt really depressed, like
there was a big hole where her heart should be.

Will I ever see my father
again?
she wondered, fighting to hold back
tears.

««—»»

“Ooo, that’s good!” Patricia remarked.

Cool, clear, fresh water gushed from the
garden hose as Terri and Patricia leaned over and took turns
drinking. They laughed, frolicking, as they sprayed each other. The
cool water felt wonderful in the hot sun.

Then: “Look!” Patricia exclaimed.

A big, bumpy toad looked up at them, sitting
in a small corner of shade cast by the back porch steps. It had big
black eyes with gold irises.

“
That’s the biggest toad
I’ve ever seen!” Patricia observed.

“
Oh, there’re bigger ones,”
Terri said.

“
You’re
kidding!”

“
Yep. I’ve seen toads three
times as big as that one, and bullfrogs even bigger. They’re all
over the place.”

Patricia suddenly looked flustered. “I
wonder why we don’t have any toads and frogs in our yard.”

“
That’s because we have a
lake.” Terri pointed to the tall trees at the back of the house,
where a little path formed. “See that trail?”

Squinting, Patricia nodded.

“
It leads down to the
lake,” Terri went on. “It’s not a very big lake, but it’s neat.
That’s where all the toads and frogs come from. There’re fish in it
too, and big salamanders.”

Suddenly, excitement lit up
Patricia’s face. “Let’s go! I’ve never even
seen
a salamander, except in books.
Come on!”

Terri hesitated. “No, we better not. I’m not
allowed.”

“
Why not?” Patricia
objected. “You’ve got a lake behind your house but you’re not
allowed to go see it?”

“
Well, I’m allowed but only
if my Mom’s with me, or my Uncle Chuck. We’ll go soon though, I
promise.”

Of course, that might be a hard promise to
keep since, these days, both her mother and Uncle Chuck frequently
worked late into the night.

“
I can’t wait,” Patricia
enthused. “I can’t wait to see it!”

“
You will.” Then Terri
leaned over, and—

“
No, don’t!” Patricia
shrilled.

—
and picked up the big toad
by the porch steps.

“
You’re not supposed to
touch toads, Terri,” Patricia warned. “They’ll give you
warts.”

Terri scoffed. “No they don’t. I’ve picked
up lots of toads and I’ve never gotten a wart. Toads can’t give you
warts; that’s just an old wive’s tale.”

“
How do you
know?”

“
My Dad told me. He’s a
zoologist.”