DISCLAIMER: I do not own the source material or the characters involved in this piece. Movie BJ is owned, I assume, by Tim Burton, Geffen Entertainment, and Warner Brothers. I am making no profit off of this piece, nor do I intend to make any profit off of it, so please don't sue me. I'm very poor and it would do you no good.
Lydia passed slowly through the graveyard where many a morbidly happy moment of her childhood had passed, trailing pale fingers over the headstones she remembered so well. A cool autumn breeze played on her face, bringing with it the damp smells of decaying leaves and dark green moss from the wood nearby.
Lydia was much older now, the victim of a failed marriage and a failed career. At the age of thirty-five, she found herself newly single and desperately seeking work as an art teacher at the very school she had attended the last time she'd lived in this quiet, peaceful town.
A wry smile passed over her lips. Not so peaceful, in fact, she thought.
She gave herself a shake, forcing her mind back to the present and away from the events of that night. Lydia pointed herself at the woods and walked on.
Dry twigs snapped underfoot as she wove her way through the sweet-smelling pine trees, a creek burbling softly somewhere to her right. She found a relatively clean rock and sat down, tired from another sleepless night. She was glad of the silence of the woods – having just moved back into the long-abandoned house of her youth, she found it difficult to adjust to all the changes in her life.
Being endlessly questioned by Barbara and Adam, her adopted ghost parents, didn't help.
[~]
"But what happened, really?" Barbara asked. "You and Daniel seemed so happy together."
"A match made in Heaven," said Adam.
Lydia sighed as she buttered her toast.
"I don't know," she replied, "I guess we meshed too well. I got bored, he got bored…it happens."
The split had been amicable, and easily accomplished since they had no children. She gave him their Manhattan apartment and talked her father and Delia into letting her take over the Winter River house. Her parents had long since moved back to the city, and despite her father's talent with Real Estate they had never been able to sell the house.
"So what will you do now?" Adam asked. "You can't skulk around the house from here to eternity."
Lydia glowered at him for a moment.
"I just moved in. Can I have a little settling-in time before I plan out every second of the rest of my life?"
Adam opened his mouth to reply, but Barbara cut him off gently.
"Adam? Could you help me with something in the attic?"
"But I was just going to say…"
"Now, sweetie?"
Understanding dawned on Adam's face and he grinned sheepishly at Lydia before leaving the room. Barbara dropped a kiss on Lydia's head and gave her a reassuring hug around the shoulders before following suit. Lydia swallowed the last of her toast and decided she needed some fresh air.
[~]
Sitting in the silent wood, Lydia took a moment to probe her mind, trying to find an answer to Adam's question. What do I want? What should I do? Who am I? She closed her eyes, drifting into a meditative state, letting her mind wander where it wanted to go.
Dirty blond hair, tinged with green. Blazing emerald eyes. Pallid, bluish skin. A cunning smile, laced with mischief. An aura of crackling energy…
Lydia slid off the rock onto a soft bed of pine needles, drifting into a dream…