Disclaimer: I don't own Beetlejuice, the movie or the TV series.
…
At ten sharp, it had reappeared on the frightened teen a night after "the wedding". The poor preppy Goth practically jumped out of her skin as her black nightgown was swallowed by red fabric, a literal waking nightmare. It appeared again the next night much to the family of five's horror. On the third day, after much trauma & stress, Barbara lost her temper with the lipstick-red dress from hell.
So it seemed that even after the monster/pervert/bio-boogieman had been defeated he still tried to torture them. Thankfully, the red "mass of hoops" disappeared off the poor girl at the stroke of midnight (the hour of his devour) leaving Lydia scared and shivering in her black nightgown.
Both ghosts knew it had to do with the type of haunting trick they read called a: re-occurring cycle. To which, neither Adam or Barbara knew how to stop. Delia & Charles gave up after the first night; choosing to leave the supernatural dress to, well, the supernatural. Even though Barbara rode a Sandworm bareback - quite a feat in itself - she didn't have a clue how to stop the looping fabric nightmare.
"I-it just won't come OFF!" Lydia screamed.
"Don't worry, Sweetie." She smoothed over the red spindly fabric - an effort to calm the frightened teen. "Adam!" Barbara hollered down to her husband. "Quick I need your help with this!" 'Hopefully, he could help.' She thought.
A chill crept up Lydia's spine.
Soon the hollowed sound of footsteps came from the stairs. "What's the matter?" Adam stopped and took in the sight. Lydia still wore the fiasco of a wedding dress and his wife, now back to normal in her house gown, was trying to wiggle the red sea of tulle off.
"I can't get this dress to corporate! Dust Bunnies, I think it must be glued to her or something! There aren't any zippers!" Barbara moaned and Lydia rolled her eyes.
"Have you tried scissors?" At his wife's do-I-look-stupid-to-you glare he looked towards the ceiling. "What about pulling it up and over her head?"
Barbara gave a long sigh. "Yes. We've tried everything. Scissors, shears, pulling on the sleeves, lifting it "up and over" as you put it, we even used… fire. Nothing works." At this Barbara let go of Lydia and flopped onto the girl's bed. Lydia turned and looked at Adam, giving him a dejected look.
"Perhaps we should contact Juno…" He scratched the back of his head thoughtfully and gave a small tug on his plaid shirt to loosen the collar.
"You should have thought of that an hour ago." Rasped the nasal voice of an old woman.
'Speak of the devil…' Thought Adam.
Quicker than most thought possible she came up and smacked him on the back of his head. Turning abruptly, like a vulture, her gaze & finger pointed towards Barbara; a cloud of grey cigarette smoke billowing about her.
"I told you to NEVER speak his name! Now, look at what happened!" Her posture jerked to face Lydia. "You got a human involved."
"Actually they got more than one…" Lydia's eyes widened at the old woman; who at first glance didn't look all that dead. A strange feeling grasped Lydia and she found herself moving towards her dresser. The woman herself wasn't that scary, although the slit in her throat spewing smoke didn't look too appealing, there was an aura that made her take a step back. Briefly, she remembered feeling something similar in the presence of …him.
Though, surprisingly, at the time it wasn't threatening at all. More like a hundred buzzing flies caught in her stomach and a few beetles clattering around her brain. Yet all the thoughts in Lydia's mind were quickly dashed away when the older woman advanced on her. Only, thank heavens, to be blocked by Barbara.
"Please Juno, it wasn't her fault, don't take it out on Lydia."
"What do you think I was going to do? Eat her? Please." She motioned with her hand and Barbara gently moved aside. "Move. I'm going to get her out of that ridiculous get-up."
Lydia didn't relax as the woman's eye's zeroed into her. The red dress itched, and it didn't help that the more her body perspired the worse the feeling got. Then the tension was broken. Juno pulled out a slim white cigarette from a silver case, and then with the tip of her thumb, lit the stick. Eye's wide, she just stared at the lit cigarette, amazed at the simple trick.
Juno harrumphed. 'The living…'
The old woman snapped her finger and the fire on her thumb went out. Taking a large pull from the cigarette she let the smoke drift out the slit in her throat. Giving a deep sigh she expelled the rest right in the young humans face.
Smiling she watched as Lydia's expression of awe turned to horror as the smoke darkened and slithered around her. Soon it completely surrounded the girl blocking her from view. A rather loud scream came from within the smoke causing both the Maitland's to jump at the cloud. With another snap of her fingers both Adam and Barbara stopped in their tracks as the smoke lifted and cleared. There stood Lydia Deetz, stock still, hugging her arms and shivering, clothed in her simple long black nightgown. Juno smirked, it had been a long time since she'd last scared a mortal, however, the little satisfaction was short lived when the girl's eyes widened even more and the corners of her mouth lifted up in a small smile.
"D-Deadly-Voo…"
Put off Juno's posture sank; surely she wasn't losing her touch? 'Kids these days…' She thought. Waving her hand she un-froze the Maitlands and turned to Adam. "See to it that she gets some sleep. Oh, and don't worry about that ruffled/lace disaster, trust me, it will not be back. I stopped the cycle and cremated the remains." she rolled her eyes to the ceiling, expecting it to give her guidance. None came of course and that left her feeling bitter.
"I have a lot of your mess to clean up and even MORE paperwork." Juno whipped around to Barbara. "You will both be required to come to a court hearing in ONE Realworld month." She sighed, though this time most of the air came out her throat. Bring in the cigarette up to her mouth she took a drag, quite ready to leave.
"Wait."
Everyone's attention turned to Lydia.
"What about…" she gestured to the air. "…him."
Adam looked at Barbara who looked to Juno. Juno's just stared at the girl as if she'd grown a second head and spoke in a whisper.
"Don't you dare even think about calling him, got that girl?"
"You mean he's still…" Barbara fumbled for a word. "… un-alive?"
Adam groaned.
"Yes, unfortunately, the idiot has more afterlives than a cat." Spitting the words out. "He's currently in the Waiting Room as we speak."
"Y-You must be joking!" Adam hollered. "He-do know what he did? And you're just going to let him WAIT around?"
Adam moved too quickly towards Juno, grabbing the older woman's hand. Overhead the light began to blink and dim. The dresser that Lydia had propped up against began to open and close its drawers. Suddenly it felt as if there was an earthquake in her room. Barbara in a panic went and grabbed Adam by his hand making him lose his grip on the struggling Juno. He spun and turned on Barbara, his hand in the air ready to slap her. The light in the room suddenly became blinding and blew out in a rather large explosion.
Lydia screamed.
She crouched on the floor, partly covered by Juno, and shook like a leaf. Adam was green. No, literally. His skin was a pasty green and his eye's glowed. Barbara was a vivid dark pink and her hair became a large blob of red-orange curls; her talon-tipped hands held onto Adams. One was struggling to hold his left wrist the other gripped his right hand, blocking him from hitting her.
"You two stop this instant!" Without moving, Juno snapped her fingers and the two ghosts ripped apart from one another. "Remember yourselves and get a grip!" She snapped her fingers once more, Adam and Barbara stood up back in their normal forms, looking dumbly at one another.
"W-What just ha-happened?" Barbara slid to the floor and shook. Tears pricked her eyes and began to run down her cheeks.
Adam collapsed to his knees. His eyes darted between his wife and the two women huddled on the floor. What had he done?
"Ju-Juno... what did I…"
Juno jerked herself up from the floor bringing Lydia with her. She kept the mortal behind her, not trusting the new power the two ghosts suddenly developed. 'No...' She thought. '...not just simple ghosts anymore.' "Congratulations, you just bumped up a class." She said in an ironic voice. "You managed to build enough anger to become Temporal Poltergeists."
"What?" Lydia peeked out from behind Juno.
Eyeing the girl Juno shook her head. 'Why not tell her, it's not like the kid knew too much already.' Juno put her hands on her hips; the smell of nicotine calming her spectral nerves. "Too much anger caused by a stressful situation can cause a normally "peaceful" ghost to become a Temporal Poltergeist." She drawled a puff of smoke. "Talking about him…" She blew out the smoke. "…caused Adam to use quite a bit of his ectoplasmic energy. It will happen again if you don't learn to control it. If not controlled those forms you were just now would become permanent."
She sighed at the puzzled looks. "Adam used too much of his own energy and had to draw from some of the life force in the room." She gestured to the light. "Not thinking properly, an emotionally enraged, he tapped into the electricity." She pointed at the blackened bulb. "Electricity can act as a small power boost, like eating an energy bar." She shifted and turned back to Lydia. "I stopped him from drawing energy from you, a "natural essence" and a much more powerful energy source, then Barbra tried to tap into the outlet an overloaded the circuit. That's why the bulb blew." Without missing a beat she turned to Adam. "It's obvious a tiring experience and no way in hell was it only fueled by that light." She took another drag and blew it at Adam. "You used some of your soul on a hissy fit." Her eyes shifted. "Barbara too…"
Adam blanched. Which would have been funny in another situation, after all, he didn't have blood, so how could he? Lydia shook her head. She was getting off topic.
"But why did he turn a different color? And Barbara had talons?"
Juno turned around to look at her; then shifted to stare at Barbara.
"Obsession is natural if not necessarily a part of a ghost's spectral existence. However, it can turn into a serious situation like the one we have here." She gestured to the two ghosts. "The Maitlands remained behind because of unfinished business. Of course, most of it linked to their house." Juno turned to look back at Lydia. "But… when you and your family moved in that obsession slowly changed."
Lydia gulped.
"I-I just wanted to p-protect her… Ad-Adam was going to hurt- I couldn't just stand by!" Barbara muttered from the floor. Adam fell all the way back on his butt his arms supporting him as the news filtered through his ears.
"You're saying that Barbara became that t-thing to stop me from hurting Lydia?" Adams' eyebrows rose above his glasses.
"Yes." Juno gave him a hard look. "This has become quite a complicated situation." She gestured wildly with her hands. "The both of you are tied together in the afterlife from your bond while you were alive. Adam is obsessed with the house and his model; Barbara as well..." Juno took a large breath and an even longer drag, causing the ash to come all the way up to the butt, and let it all out in a great whoosh. "However… Barbara is now obsessed with Lydia." Her eyes narrowed at the woman. "Always wanted a child of your own, do anything to protect it, mother's instincts. Humph."
Barbara only nodded her eyes downcast bleakly looking at Lydia's bare feet. 'I'll have to clean up the glass before she steps on it…' Her mind wandered.
"This situation can't go on…" Juno sighed once more; it just seemed like a great day for breathing. "…I'll see if I can get Judge Mental to bump up the hearing date-"
"Judgmental?" Adam perked up at this; looking confused.
"The Neitherworld is backward and full of ill-fitted puns. "A joke on life in the afterlife." Apparently, some find it funny." At that, she smiled, and then as if remembering something or rather someone, let it fall into a scowl. "Anyway, I can't let Lydia here with you two in this condition."
Barbara went to speak.
"No, Mrs. Maitland. Both of your spirits are looking to recover lost energy and since Charles and Delia Deetz are out of the house, thank The Powers That Be, you'll unknowingly go straight for Lydia." Both said ghosts paled. "I'll take Lydia to the Neitherworld for a few hours while you recover."
"Really!?" Lydia jumped out from behind her looking excited.
"No-" Barbara and Adam made to stand.
Juno snapped her fingers and they just stood there frozen in a daze. "As I said, you will both stay here and recover." 'I'd hate to see the light bill for this month' Juno thought wearily. "Don't worry about Miss Deetz. She will be fine. You might not know it but humans slip into the Neitherworld more often than our government would like to admit…"
At this Lydia snorted out a laugh and Juno became aggravated. "Miss Deetz, this is not a funny situation. I'm using a lot of Smoke on this."
"Smoke?" Lydia repeated.
At the girls puzzled expression she proceeded to explain. "Yes, Smoke, it's my form of ecto-energy. Like his…" She made quotation marks in the air. "…Juice." The mention of HIM Lydia clammed up. Juno just shook her head at the girl. Wasn't this all just a little bit much for a thirteen year old?
Giving the girl a once over it was hard to believe that this human had just hit puberty. She was tall for her age, yet didn't have any sign of a chest and only a little baby fat around her cheeks. For a moment Juno wondered what had gone through her ex-partner's head. Surely nothing went through the one in his pants for this little girl. 'Of course', disgusted she thought, 'this was Betelgeuse she was contemplating…' If that were the case she'd needn't worry, the Neitherworld didn't tolerate that shit, and if that happened to be his intentions he certainly wouldn't be in the Waiting Room.
He'd be worse than those poor bastards stuck in the Closet.
Deader than death for the dead.
The alarm on her Droolex went off signaling the woman's next appointment. Shutting it off and wiping the slobber from her wrist she took out another cigarette and lit it. "Well, we'd better get going…" Juno took a drag and took hold of Lydia by the girl's arm. "Mr. & Mrs. Maitland we will see you in a few, I expect by then you'll be in your right minds and corporal bodies."
Lydia waved at Adam and Barbara looking excited and scared all at once. Juno blew out another large cloud of smoke and slowly they faded from view. As soon as the smoke dissipated the two ghosts collapsed to the floor looking rather stunned.
"Oh, Adam-"
"I know Barbara…"
Gently they hugged each other surrounded by broken glass staring at the spot where Lydia had disappeared.