AN:I know, I know. I've got four other stories in the works, and here I am starting another one. But I've gotta do some research for Eternity and Together Forever. And I'm just not feeling Untouched. Then Al Gets Glomped doesn't have a clear direction, so it's hard to write the next chapter. This story is rated M because of swearing, blood, and touchy subjects. I don't know if it'll end up a romance. Probably, since they are married.
"But, babes, ya can't leave!" He couldn't believe this was happening. But there she was, packing her last box.
"I'm sorry, Beej. I have to." The goth refused to look at him. She was afraid of what she would see in those unnatural green eyes.
"Lyds, we're best friends." She couldn't leave him. She couldn't!
Lydia twisted the simple gold band on her ring finger. Had it really only been three years since the incident? She was only sixteen when she had first met him. When she had made a deal with him. He'd save the Maitlands from that fat idiot, Otho, and she'd marry him. If it weren't for that sandworm, she'd be his wife instead of best friend now. He had returned about four months after that. The Powers That Be had made him come and apologize. He didn't, of course. As he had said, he held up his part of the deal. Lydia knew he was right, and had apologized to him for getting eaten by a sandworm. He had gallantly said he'd been through worse. She had asked him what. Thus beginning their odd friendship.
Now she was leaving. Her family was moving back to New York. She for school, and her parents because they didn't think they would be able to stay in a "haunted" house without her.
"I'm sorry, Betelgeuse." It was a whisper, but she knew he heard her just fine. She loved being with him, but she couldn't do it anymore.
"Lydia." It was just as soft.
"No, Betelgeuse." Just one more time, and he'd be banished to the Neitherworld. She didn't know why she loved being with him. He was a dirty, peverted, con man, and he constantly chased skirts, drank, and smoked. Not to mention he knew every whore in the Neitherworld by their real names. She was rather surprised he hadn't done any more than the occasional kiss to her.
And he was violent.
He had no qualms about spilling blood. The only reason he didn't murder was he didn't want to waste time recovering from the punishment. Once, he had told her about his time in the Lost Souls Room. He was able to escape, but it took a few weeks, and about a month afterwards until he was completely recovered.
She had had to stop him several times before a prank on Claire Brewster went too far. He didn't seem to understand if her rival was put into extensive care, the police would come for her. And she wouldn't be able to tell them a poltergeist did it. They'd lock her up in the mental hospital and drug her.
Lydia taped the box and finally looked at the poltergeist. He was so sad. Like a lost puppy. Or a lost rabid puppy who wants to rip your thoat out.
"Don't, Lyds. Please?"
He never said please. But what scared her was the fact he meant it. He didn't want her to leave. She didn't want to leave. But she had to. She couldn't do this anymore.
Lydia closed the distance between them, slipping the ring off her finger. She stood up on the balls of her feet, and brushed her lips against his. As she pressed the ring into his hand, she whispered "Goodbye, Betelgeuse."
There. She had banished him to the Neitherworld. Hopefully, he wasn't too pissed when someone summoned him again.
Lydia wiped away the tears that fell when he left. She threw a black sheet over the vanity. No way was she going to take it with her. It was basically her phone to the Neitherworld.
The goth left her former bedroom and shut the door behind her before turning to the resident ghosts.
"Well, how did he take it?"
Lydia turned to look at Adam Maitland. He had his arm around his wife, Barbara.
"Not how I thought he would. "
"What do you mean," Barbara asked.
The young woman shrugged. "I think he was too shocked to really do anything."
She hoped he didn't do anything drastic once the shock wore off.
AN: There we go! It's mostly movie-verse, but it's got cartoon-verse in it, too.
