The Invisible World

Chapter 3: Eye of the Tiger

Jack slowly turned his head towards Jenny. "What do you mean by that?"

Jenny thought for a moment. "You've put yourself in a precarious situation, buying this house. Look at this." She went rifling around in her purse before taking out a map titled "Welcome to beautiful ALLWINE, UTAH." "It's a good thing I carry around one of these. I've needed it to get around town since I moved here. Now, do you know where your house is geographically within Allwine?"

Geographically within Allwine? What was she trying to say, and why wouldn't she just say it already? "It's in Golden Oaks, which is on the northeast part of town...right? Yeah. It's about a ten-minute drive southwest to the city center."

Jenny shook her head. "Then you don't really know your town as well as you thought." She knelt on the floor and began to open up the map. Curiously, Jack knelt down with her. By the time he was on both knees, the map was completely unfolded. "What's your address again? 4744 Singleton Street?"

"Yes."

Jenny traced her finger down Singleton Street on the map. "Between McFarley and Jameson...Yep. Your house is directly in the center of Allwine."

"How? The city center is in the center!"

"No, it's not. Apparently, you people don't know how to do urban planning because a lot of homes were built northeast of the city center, relatively placing it in the southwest."

"Okay," Jack admitted. "My knowledge of this town is wrong. Where are you going with this?"

"Think about it this way." Jenny took a Sharpie out of her purse. She showed it to Jack. "Pilfered from your car. I wonder why I don't carry one of these around."

"You stole from my car?"

"Hush hush. I'm the paranormal expert here. Let's see..." She drew a dot in the center of the map, presumably the location of Jack's house. From there, she began drawing concentric circles starting in the center of the map and expanding outward. Once she was done, she showed the map to Jack.

"So?"

"Ever since I got here, I've been detecting paranormal energy all over town, and there seems to be a pattern," Jenny explained. "It's weakest on the outskirts and gets stronger as you move inward, and your house is as inward as it gets."

"Detecting? How?"

"Secrets of the trade. What I'm trying to say is that in a hotspot of paranormal activity, your house is, like, a hotspot hotspot. That incident with Misty is just the beginning."

"What? Lead with that next time!"

"Hey, I'm a writer. I like to build suspense."

"We don't have time to build suspense. This is my house we're talking about!"

"Alright, alright, okay. So you know what we have to do now, right?"

"Move to another house?"

"And take out another mortgage?"

"Um..."

"Face it. You have to become the town's defender from paranormal threats."

"No, I don't. You seem to have more experience than I do. Why don't you do that?"

"I can help you, but don't expect me to cover for you when some actual ghosts and ghouls show up in your basement and not teenage girls returning from the void." She folded up the map and put it in her pocket. "I could be your assistant. If there's anything you need help with, I'll be by your side."

"Reporting it all to the Inquisitor?"

"Exactly!"

They both stood up and made their way up the stairs. "I've been wondering, though," Jack said. "Where did all this paranormal experience you supposedly have come from? I don't think you ever mentioned it in college."