Freakish *ON HIATUS*

Chapter 2

It was supposed to be a regular Saturday afternoon until her grandfather received the mail that was delivered.

The thing that stood out to her most was not the fact that people still used paper to send messages, but Grandpa's shocked face as he read a letter written on thick paper - was that parchment?

"What's up, Pop?" She asked from the living room.

He barely looked up for a second, muttered something, and went back to the letter again, walking towards the kitchen. She sat up puzzled, she asked him again, but he ignored her.

"Dad," she called, hoping to get his attention. "What's Grandpa reading?"

Immediately, he came back into the living room and, with a furious expression on his face, shook his hands and head frantically.

"What's wrong, now?" Her father called from upstairs.

Startled, and a little worried, she complied with Pop, "Sorry, Dad, false alarm."

He didn't say anything again, and Grandpa heaved a sigh of relief.

Leah stood up. "What's going on?"

It took him a while to form his sentence.

"Oh, uh - you see, it's... It's nothing, flower-bud, adult stuff, nothing children need to get invested into." He ended.

"Well, it didn't seem like a normal reaction to a very large credit card bill." She said, and reached out to take the letter from him. "Why is this paper so old anyw - ?"

"No!" Thundered her grandfather with such volume that Leah literally jumped backward.

He lowered his voice, but she could still hear the pressed anger underneath. "It's not for kids to read, Leah. And your dad, of all people, must not find out about this."

"But what is it?"

"Like I said, nothing." He said firmly. "Don't ask questions."

She flopped onto the sofa again, very confused, as he went upstairs to his room. What was so frightening about the letter that her Grandpa, the sweet, spoiling, cuddly teddy bear of man, who never once yelled at her, had ordered her to stop talking about it? Was it news about family? Then why had her father been excluded? Was it something from his side of relatives?

Questions without answers never helped, so she quietly followed him up the staircase and found herself outside his closed door. She was going to open the door, when she heard him say something inside.

"Hello? Yes, good day, child - may I speak to your father?"

Who was he talking to? She didn't think Pop knew any children.

"Well, when can he call me back? Because -" he paused for a few seconds, and then fumed, "No, I don't care whether he's going to be busy for the rest of the week; I need to speak with him now!"

Okay, now Leah was really scared. What happened to her Grandpa?

Before she could even begin answering that question, she heard a noise near the window. When she turned towards it, she nearly screamed.