Croaked Read Online Free Page A

she pointed. Not at me, but behind me.
    A frog the size of a tool shed, and I’m not kidding, rose from the water with barely a ripple. Its slimy skin glistened, and its gigantic eyes looked down at us with amphibian disdain. As if in respect, the other frogs in the immediate area fell silent.
    The great slit mouth opened wide enough to swallow the national debt, and something shot toward me. I released Vantassel and jumped aside again, as the frog’s enormous tongue sliced the air.
    It smacked Vantassel right between the shoulder blades as he turned to run.
    He screamed, that high-pitched panic scream you make when you know you’ve bought it, and flew backwards into that huge mouth. His screams carried through the frog’s thin skin, and the sack under its chin bulged with his struggles. Then the frog made a big swallowing motion, the screaming grew more muffled, and the frog’s throat swelled out in a huge bubble. The croak that washed over us rattled the leaves on the trees.
    “Come on!” Tanna yelled. I splashed toward her, anticipating the thud of the monster’s tongue against my back, but one victim apparently satisfied it. Tanna pulled me close, and with one hand drew a circle in the air around us. “Close your eyes,” she whispered urgently, and I did, just as a great cold wind blew over us. She pulled me along behind her.
    ***
    I didn’t open my eyes again until I felt gravel under my feet. We emerged onto Lost Lake Road at almost the exact spot we’d entered the woods earlier. The icy autumn wind cut through my wet clothes as I unlocked the car doors. “I’m going to be the hypothermia poster boy. What the hell kind of damn frog was that?”
    “Something prehistoric, maybe,” Tanna said. “The lake was out of linear time, it could pull frogs from the past, the future, anywhere.” She turned back toward the woods, which she could no longer see because of the absence of fireflies. “By the Goddess, we didn’t close it. The frogs are still there. I’ll have to bring my coven out here as soon as I can; it needs more than just my magic.” She paused. “Of course, the poor frogs that are in there will be trapped. They’ll die off.”
    “Well, what happens if you open it all the way up instead?”
    “Then the lake comes back. That would make a mess, wouldn’t it?”
    “Might. Can we get in the car now?”
    The dashboard clock showed that only fifteen minutes had passed in “real” time since we’d parked. With shivering hands, I worked my car keys out of my soaked pants pocket, started the engine and turned on the heat full blast.
    And of course, immediately the radio greeted us with Three Dog Night singing, “Jeremiah was a--”
    Well. You know.

 
    ~III~
    THE DESCENT
     
    A copy of my own newspaper smacked onto my desk. A jowly man in an expensive suit glowered down at me.
    “Can I help you?” I asked.
    “Are you the editor?”
    The nameplate on my desk clearly established this. “Yes, I’m Ry Tully,” I said as I stood. He didn’t offer his hand, and neither did I.
    “I’m Titus Barstow, the director of the Redneck Riviera,” he snapped. “What do you think you’re trying to do?”
    I stared blankly. I was good at that.
    “Your story on the Descent ride,” he went on. “Flying demons, screaming skeletons. What kind of theme park do you think I run?”
    Now I blinked. “The Descent?”
    “We have nothing sacrilegious at the Redneck Riviera,” Barstow said. “I’m a Christian, a father, and a Baptist lay minister, and I would never condone that sort of thing. We run a family theme park, and we’re proud of that.”
    “But...I talked to people when they came out,” I said weakly. “That’s what they said .”
    “So you didn’t take the ride yourself, you just relied on hearsay? That may fly in blue states, Mr. Tully, but this is Tennessee, and we don’t accept that. Not at all!”
    He stomped out in a cloud of legal threats, leaving me open-mouthed and astounded.