Read Online Skinny-Dipping at Monster Lake by Bill Wallace - Free Book Online

a sandy spot on the bank. I pulled my right foot up in my lap and put the light down beside me so I could see.
    By the time I got the stickers out, the others were quite a ways off. Frantic and still yelling, Zane ran from one guy to the next. He shook everybody except Pepper.
    â€œHurry! Come on. I saw it!”
    They followed him a few more feet, then stopped to shine their lights out on the lake.
    Tilted to one side and limping, I tried to catch up with them. Then—I decided to just walk.
    â€œIt was right there!” Zane’s voice cried out. “Just to the left of that bank pole. I saw its eyes.”
    â€œZane, you’re always seeing stuff,” Daniel’s irritated voice growled.
    â€œI swear! They were red or orange. They glowed. I saw it! We were skinny-dipping with . . . with that thing in the lake. We were skinny-dippingwith the monster. It was out there . . . with us. Right there!”
    Streaks of light danced across the water. Then the moaning and groaning and griping started. All the guys took turns at him with:
    â€œYou idiot. You probably saw the light from a boat, across the lake.”
    â€œYeah. You’re always seeing stuff, Zane.”
    â€œIt probably wasn’t even a boat. It was just somebody’s porch light, reflecting off the water.”
    â€œZane, you’re a total knot-head. There’s no such thing as a Lake Monster. Between you seeing the Lake Monster and Kent getting attacked by a wild catfish . . . man, this is turning into one loooong night.”
    â€œI promise!” Zane pleaded. “I saw its eyes. They were red. I’m not lying this time. Honest.”
    A movement caught the corner of my eye. Halfway to the gang, I stopped dead in my tracks. Without shining the light, I turned toward the lake.
    Thirty feet out, and maybe two to three feet below the surface . . .
    Two eyes stared at me.
    The breath caught in my throat. Every muscle tensed, but I didn’t move. I didn’t even blink.
    The eyes weren’t red, though. They had sort ofan orangish glow—almost a dim yellow.
    A little shudder raced from my tailbone up to the nape of my neck. It set the little hairs at the base of my skull up on end. I don’t know how long I held my breath. I finally had to let it go and suck in a new one. I really had seen eyes before!
    Zane was right. The thing was out there with us. We were skinny-dipping with the yellow-eyed monster. Then I saw how far apart the eyes were. It didn’t matter that we were skinny-dipping. We could have had our bathing suits on . . . we could have had our jeans . . . no, all our clothes . . . it didn’t matter. That thing was big enough that it could have swallowed us in one gulp and . . .
    You wimp! I told myself. You’re as bad as Zane. There’s no such thing as monsters. The light’s coming from someplace else.
    I took another breath and stared at the bank, across the lake. No lights danced and shimmered on the ripples. I scanned to the left and then the right. There were no boats. Then I focused back on the spot where I saw the eyes. Sure enough, the light came from beneath the surface. The lake was pretty clear, and I could see the sediment or little particles of dirt and dust scampering before the glow. Then . . . the eyes blinked and flickered.
    I didn’t mean to slam into Jordan. I hit him sohard, I almost knocked him flat on the bank. Trouble was, I was sprinting so fast, I just couldn’t stop.
    â€œHey, what’s with you?” He stumbled and caught his balance.
    â€œAh . . . er . . . ah . . . I was just coming to see what all the commotion was.” The stammering lie finally made its way out. “What happened? Is Zane okay?”
    â€œOh, he’s having hallucinations again,” Jordan answered.
    â€œYeah,” Daniel chimed in. “He saw the