Alexa had quickly gotten bored with the conversation. Grampy had been saying all kinds of nonsense and her brother and sisters had been following along like they understood what he was talking about, so Alexa had figured she might as well duck out and go play in the water.

At first, she settled for getting her toes wet, but when that failed to grab anyone’s attention, she decided to roll up her pant legs and wade in ankle-deep. The water felt nice and cool as it lazily lapped against her leg. Mud oozed up between her toes, giving the whole experience a nice, squishy feel. She heard the others fall into a bicker session and had been about to distract them with a good splash when she noticed they weren’t alone.

On the other side of the lake, back near that ugly, broken shack they’d come from, stood a yellow man. Normally, Alexa would have found it odd to see a yellow man on the edge of a small lake, but of course by now she knew his coloring only meant he was a memory. Since he wasn’t real, Alexa didn’t give him much more thought and again prepared to splash her siblings. But then he did something strange.

He waved.

Do I know him? she asked herself. He looks a bit familiar. Not having an answer, Alexa remained curious, watching as he pulled something about the size and shape of a flattened football out of his jacket. She was pretty sure it was not, in fact, a flattened football. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand up, and Alexa immediately felt repulsed. The memory man carefully set the flattened football down at the lake’s edge, shooed it into the water, then stood, looked directly at Alexa, and put his finger to his lips in the age-old sign for “Don’t tell Mommy.”

Alexa, being a big girl and smart enough not to listen to strange memory men when they tell you not to tell Mommy, had been about to turn and yell out to Zack (who would have done just fine as a Mommy stand-in) when she noticed ripples in the, until now, still waters of the lake.

The ripples had started close to the far shore, where the memory man had lowered the flattened football into the water, but they had very quickly expanded outward, growing in both size and intensity. Fascination had held Alexa in place as the edge of the ripples approached. She had been pretty certain about the need to say something or do something or run somewhere but had been unable to resist the oddly soothing effect of watching the ripples float atop the lake.

It wasn’t until she’d caught sight of the Nasty, Slithery Something just under the surface of the water at her feet that she broke out of the spell, and it wasn’t until the Nasty, Slithery Something had wrapped itself around her ankle that she had the presence of mind to scream.

“Alexa!” shouted Zack, diving past Sydney and Janice and into the water.

The Nasty, Slithery Something yanked Alexa’s leg out from under her, and she fell into the water with a splash. Since she was only standing in ankle-deep water, she landed on her rump with the water up to her belly button. But the Nasty, Slithery Something started to drag her out into deeper water, tugging her through the muck a few inches at a time.

“Help!” she screamed.

Zack belly flopped into the lake next to her, the shallowness of the water knocking the wind out of him as he landed. Even so, her big brother reached out and took hold of Alexa’s arms as he fell, anchoring her in place.

The Nasty, Slithery Something seemed to understand its prize was no longer such an easy claim, and its spastic tugs grew stronger in response. Alexa struggled against the pull, shoving her free foot deep into the lake bottom for leverage. The Nasty, Slithery Something was stronger, however, and try as she might, Alexa was slowly but surely drawn toward deeper water.

“Guys! Help me!” called Zack, getting to his feet and straining to keep his little sister from being dragged to her death.

The elder Rothbaum girls were at his side before he’d finished his plea, and they quickly joined his efforts to save their sister. Between them, the three children were almost able to match the sheer power of the Nasty, Slithery Something.

Almost, but not quite.

“Help!” screamed Alexa in rising terror as her body ran taut like a rope in a game of tug-of-war. The top of the Nasty, Slithery Something broke the surface of the lake as it clung to her, and it was every bit as nasty and slithery out of the water as it was submerged. It looked like a giant slug, brown and gray and disgusting and covered with tiny little slits all along its skin.

“Hold on!” commanded Zack, straining with all his might.

She tried to do as she was told, but felt her grip slipping slowly out of his hands. With a final gasp, she realized her brother and sisters were going to lose the fight.

“Nobody breathe!” hollered their all-but-forgotten grandfather, stomping his way into the water, holding something in his closed fist.

Alexa didn’t understand how not breathing could save her, but she put her faith in Grampy and quickly did as she was told. As did Zack and Janice.

“What do you mean, don’t breathe?” asked Sydney, who would very soon regret not holding her breath. “What are you—?”

With a final lunge, Grampy lurched past the three older kids and tossed whatever was in his fist toward the Nasty, Slithery Something.

A fine black powder floated down through the air onto the slimy skin of the Nasty, Slithery Something. Suddenly, dozens of the narrow slits on the creature opened up and sucked flakes of the powder into its system.

The creature sneezed.

The force of the powerful blast shot Alexa up and over her siblings, landing her on the shore of the lake. Without the Nasty, Slithery Something pulling against them, all three of Alexa’s siblings toppled backward—Zack and Janice with a gasp and Sydney with a sneeze. Meanwhile, since every action needed an equal and opposite reaction, the Nasty, Slithery Something jetted uncontrollably backward across the lake in multiple, sneezy bursts.

“What was that?” asked a semi-dazed Janice.

“The powder?” asked Grampy as Sydney continued to sneeze in fits and starts. “Pepper. The creature? I don’t have a name for it, but it doesn’t belong here.”

He quickly ushered everyone out of the water.

“You mean—achoo!—in this lake?” asked Sydney, her eyes watering.

“I mean in this memory,” replied Grampy. He bent down to a knee next to Alexa. “All good?”

“That was nasty,” she answered.

“Yes, they are,” he agreed, hauling her to her feet. “We need to leave this memory. Right away. Follow me.”

Without waiting for them to respond, he set off away from the lake in the direction of a tiny structure standing alone under a tree.

“What do you mean, it doesn’t belong in this memory?” asked Zack, hurrying to catch up. “Where’d it come from?”

“I intend to find out,” said Grampy, reaching the tiny structure.

“Is that what I think it is?” asked Janice, eyeing the little building dubiously.

“Could be,” he answered. “What do you think it is?”

“An outhouse.”

“Then you’re right.”

“Ew,” said Janice.

“What’s an outhouse?” asked Alexa.

“An outdoor potty,” answered Sydney between sneezes.

“Ew,” said Alexa.

“Luckily, whoever’s memory this is never used it,” said Grampy, opening the door wide to reveal a wall of black. “In you go.”

The children hesitated.

“That thing will continue to grow,” he explained. “Very soon it will pop out little baby things. Soon this whole memory will be swarming with them.” He sighed and took a final look around the picturesque lake. “Shame. I liked it here.”

As if in answer, a horrible, gravelly roar bellowed forth from the lake. The children quickly piled into the outhouse.