The Ringing

Chapter 2

 I opened my mouth to ask for the answers to some of my questions before Grandpa coughed, startling me. Grandpa looked hesitant. My stomach did flips as I anticipated his explanation.

 "Do you know what this is, son?" He asked.

 I thought to myself. All these books were of the imaginary creatures that make up my Grandpa's mind. I frowned, racking my brain to try to think of what was happening.

 Finally, I said, "Research?" Grandpa squinted his eyes, as though thinking about whether or not he's satisfied with my answer. "It's all the notes I took of them there things when I was younger." There were a lot of books. What does he mean by that? Many questions raced through my mind. "Grandpa?" I asked. He looked at me, expectantly. "When did this get here? The treehouse, I mean." He lit a cigarette. "You know the summer we moved out of this house? Well, my friend, Benny, moved in. We've known each other since.. seventh grade? No.. no.. eighth? Yes! Yes, eighth grade. Where was I..? Oh, of course, my apologies. So, we've known each other for many years. When we were younger, we'd go out after all those creatures that were so very feared by everyone. Everything we learned about them, we recorded in these books."

 Grandpa went after these things? What was he thinking? He said he went on these little adventures with his friend. Maybe I could talk to him about these things too.

 "Grandpa, what happened to Benny?" I asked. Grandpa suddenly looked very old and tired. Whatever happened to this Benny person must've been awful. Grandpa then collected himself a bit.

 "In his senior year of high school, he moved to Georgia. Never really specified why, though." He answered.

 "I'm sorry for interrupting the story. Could you continue please?" I asked. Grandpa nodded.

 "After all these years, I kept these books. A few years ago, me and Benny got in touch again. I asked him where he'd been and what he'd been up to. He filled in the details for me. He told me he was moving back here around where me and your Grandma live. Some time passed, me and your Grandma decided it was time to move. Benny moved in here at our old house. I showed him all our books that we made. He suggested we made a place to continue our journey of uncovering the truth of the strange beings. I agreed and we got to building and.. well.. here we are now." He said.

 I took a moment to process everything. So, Benny lives here? I realized something. My eyes widened and the color disappeared from my face.

 "Grandpa, if Benny lives here, why haven't we seen him? Where is he?" I asked.

 "Benny's doing some things back in Georgia at the moment. He won't be back until later." He said. I nodded, before wincing.

 The ringing in my ears again. I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I squinted due to its brightness. The clock read 4:00 AM. I turned off my phone and placed it back in my pocket. I looked at Grandpa. "What's wrong?" He asked, concerned.

 "We should get back home. Grandma's going to throw a fit if she finds out we were out for so long." I said. Grandpa slowly nodded. We climbed down the ladder and drove off in the car.

 I slowly and quietly opened the door so I wouldn't wake up Grandma. "Well, I'm going to bed, Jordan. I think it's best you do too." Grandpa said. He walked up the stairs to his room. After a few moments, I heard the faint sound of a closing door.

 I made sure to turn off all the lights and the television before making my way upstairs as well. I got back into my room and saw my blankets and pillows messily laid on my bed. I yawned while stretching and got onto my bed. The ringing in my ears still hadn't gone away, but somehow I was able to ignore that. I fell into a deep sleep, thinking about everything that happened tonight. I wondered what tomorrow would bring.