The Invisible World

Chapter 11: White Wedding

It was about five minutes later when we were all seated around the table that we heard the front door swing open and saw an irate Jack stomp in. "Well, Katie, I hope you're happy." He slammed a sheet of paper on the table next to me. It was a receipt for services rendered by Van Hoover's body shop. "I spent $500 because your sorry hide didn't bother to stick around and pay."

"I don't have any money!" I exclaimed. "I left so I could talk to Brian about getting it paid for, but then I got distracted when I saw his car driving by."

Jack was silent for a few seconds. "Wha..."

"She got my car back," Brian explained. "Did you not see it out there?"

Jack looked over his shoulder. Then he ran out the front door again. Jenny, Brian, and I followed him out there. We watched him as he gazed out on that brown Subaru in amazement. "You got it back? How?"

"We waited at one of the gas stations for the ghost to show up and then ambushed her."

"Wait a minute. We?"

Misty came up behind us. "Who do you think drove it here while Cat was busy driving her own car?"

"A team effort, huh?" Jack nodded. "I didn't think you were up for it, Katie."

"Well, I couldn't drive both cars by myself," I said.

"See?" Brian smiled. "You've gotten a little bit of your humanity back."

"Sure, a little," I admitted, "but I don't think I'll be fully human until I..." I looked down at my body. I could see the whole thing. Except for the face, that is. I had no idea if it had any invisible splotches.

"Nope," Brian replied. "You are completely visible."

I sighed in relief. "Thank you." I had my full body back, at least for now, but Brian needed to keep his mind's eye to himself. I wish there was some etiquette for telepaths that discouraged responding verbally to someone's thoughts. It feels intrusive.

"So what about the ghost?" Jenny asked. "Did you get rid of it?"

Misty furrowed her eyes. "The...ghost?"

"Yeah. The one driving the car. Was she driving the car?"

"The ghost?" I replied. "Screw 'em. We got the car back. What's there to worry about?"

"We're paranormal investigators! It's our job to help this ghost move on to the next plane of existence."

"No, it's not," Jack shook his head. "We got the ghost out of Michael's Diner. We got it out of Brian's car. I say we're done."

"But what if it goes back to Mr. Billingsley's? Or tries to steal Brian's car again? Face it, we have to get it out of this town. We have to know what it wants."

"You know what, she has a point." I pointed at Jenny. "I kind of want to know what that ghost wants. It just seemed like she was driving around with no defined end point."

"She starts out banging the pots and pans at Michael's Diner," Brian said, "and then she steals my car and takes it for some kind of multi-day joyride. The only motive I can think of right now is pure chaos."

"But it can't be pure chaos." Jenny put her hand on her chin. "People have to have motives to do things. Even if her actions seem chaotic, there must still be something she's trying to tell us."

"Tell that to whoever's pulling people in and out of the void," I muttered.

Jack gasped. "Tell us! That's it! Right before we went to the hospital, we left Mr. Billingsley to communicate with the ghost using a pen and paper. We just have to go back to him and ask him what he found out!"