Some notes: Finding Lydia's age in the film is a problem. In the cartoon she says she's in 7th grade, making her in 5th or 6th grade in the film (the last scene in the film with lydia's test results happens a year after the events of the film) and the cartoon begins a year after the movie came out. So she was either about 12, and then 13 in the cartoon. However, Winona Ryder herself was about 15 or 16 at the time of the film. As a compromise, I've called her age at 15 with her year at the girls school about 8th grade- just before high school. Why am I bothering to say all this? Because this story is set in Lydia's future with an exact date and I don't want anyone looking at me like I have five heads when time period gets detailed, haha. Thanks for reading.

She looked up at the ceiling. A couple months ago in a childish zeal, she'd bought a sheet of very sturdy glow in the dark stars and had begun to make constellations with them above her pillow. Pulling out her old astronomy books, she'd actually gotten a little excited about the task and tried to replicate on her ceiling what she had been looking at in her book. She traced the constellations with her eyes, counting each star as she passed it. Only a fifth of her ceiling was covered- she really should go back and pick up more sheets.

Finally, he rolled off of her. He took in a few deep breaths to catch up with himself before pulling the cover up a little over his chest. Lydia yawned and stretched, grateful to have space to move again.

"I think I'm gonna get some sleep now," she said with her eyelids starting to close on their own. She reached over to the nightstand on her side of the bed, grasping for her cell phone. It was new, in color even, and she took a bit too much satisfaction sliding the screen up and down to constantly check the time. 11:36pm.

"Oh, but Lydia dear!" a rasping voice said behind her. "I might want to…you know." She could hear the grin in his voice as she turned to face him. "Craig. It's late. And….you totally wore me out," she argued, adding a laugh at the end as an afterthought. He seemed to buy her compliment and raised a brow in an attempt to be seductive.

"Well you know, my dear….I just can't get enough of you." Craig leaned towards her again and Lydia raised her head to avoid his kiss. He took her neck instead, causing her to reflexively roll her eyes. She found herself staring at the constellations on her ceiling again.

"Craig…," she protested softly. He sighed, pulling away. "Ok, ok, you win!" he said, giving her a jokingly stern look. Lydia gave him a weak smile and started to roll over again when he put his hand on her arm. "But one more thing…before bed." Lydia muffled a sigh and plopped on her back, looking at him from the corners of her eyes. Craig raised a finger at her, and then turned, riffling through a bag he had beside the bed. Her eyes began to fully close when something velvety and a little cold was placed on her chest. Slowly she opened her eyes and saw a small jewelry box.

"Craig…" she said, almost in a warning tone. Craig propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at her and seeming very pleased.

"Go ahead. Open it," he told her.

She spent some time looking from the box to him and back again nervously before picking it up and carefully opening it. Inside was a platinum ring with three large square-cut diamonds in a row protruding from an overly shiny setting. "Craig!" she shouted, lifting the box a bit to get a better look. Craig laughed.

"You know, that's the third time in a row you've said my name," he said bemusedly, "If only you were that keen when I…" He stopped himself from finishing as Lydia just stared at him, holding his gift in mid-air. Clearing his throat, he looked up at her through his brows and covered her hand holding the box with his own.

"Lydia Deetz…," he began. She continued to stare, her eyes wide and intense. They were so intense that Craig paused and considered waving a hand in front of her face to see if she was even still listening to him. He cleared his throat a second time. "Lydia Deetz…will you marry me?"

Lydia swallowed as she looked at Craig and her mind worked fast. Her face broke into a smile. "Of course! Of course Craig!" He smiled, and she decided that she should probably hug him. After several minutes of both of them looking over the ring and him pointing out all the highlights of the splendid craftsmanship, he encouraged her to try it on.

"Ohh, no, no, I couldn't," she replied suddenly. Craig frowned. "Because…," she continued, trying to glance at the nightstand behind her, "Because if I wore it now, in my sleep, I'd probably put my eyes out with those huge, beautiful diamonds, and that wouldn't make for a very lovely wedding ceremony, am I right?" she laughed nervously. Craig merely smiled and nodded. "Very well then. Anything for my ravishing bride to be!" Lydia beamed in return and quickly put the box on the nightstand.

Saying their goodnights, Craig turned off the lamp on his side of the bed and laid down to sleep, facing away from Lydia. Long ago he'd explained to her that ever since he was a child he could only sleep on that side, you know. When Lydia suggested he sleep on the other side of the bed to make up for it, he said he could never put her out like that. Never mind the fact that the side of the bed he chose was the one she normally slept on when he wasn't here.

Lydia stared at the open box on the night stand. Stared at the three gleaming diamonds as they stared back at her. Letting out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding in, she reached up to the lamp and turned out the light.

–

"yer breakin' my heart, hunny…."

Lydia shot straight up. The deep, gravelly voice had been right next to her ear and her ear now felt frozen. She reached up, grasping at it and then laying her palm flat against it to try and bring some of the warmth back when she realized she was sitting in complete darkness. It was as if the windows were gone- no light pollution from the street could seem to find its way in. She strained her eyes to see when the voice came again.

"gettin' married….ughhhh, man, I wasn't enough for ya?" it said, cackling into the darkness.

Lydia frowned and dropped her hand to her side. "What kind of dream is this?" she said quietly to herself. Suddenly, above her head, came a cartoonish whistle, far away at first, but the closer it came the lower the pitch dropped. Something was falling. Groping in the dark, Lydia felt behind herself and rolled backwards into nothingness when a massive baroque mirror landed in the exact spot she had been sitting in. The mirror was well lit although she had no idea how, and she saw her own reflection in her nightgown leaning forward on the balls of her hands. The mirror was wrought intricately in brass, but as she leaned forward just a bit to get a closer look, she saw tiny devils and dancing skeletons and large breasted women with flesh falling away from them covering the frame. They were dancing, dying, killing, even having very creative sex. The last one made Lydia lean back just a bit, her brows raised up in mild approval at the level of ingenuity. Her eyes were then drawn back to her own reflection. Her hair fell around her shoulders in a long, dark brown, but her eyes…her eyes looked tired. So, so tired. A pained look slowly crept across her face at this discovery when suddenly her eyes seemed to grow huge. They did grow huge. Lydia gasped as her reflection grew eyes so gigantic that they birthed teeth and eyes of their own and streaked themselves with red and bulbous purple and appeared to press violently against the morbid frame of the glass for escape as Lydia flung herself backwards and the entire image in the mirror dissolved into a sickly green smoke. She started to breath a sigh of relief when she noticed that the smoke wasn't just inside the glass but was now making its way outside, and slowly curled its way towards where she sat. She inched away, falling back on her hands and almost crab-walking backwards when the smoke suddenly halted, and fell to the floor as dry green sand.

"WOW! lemmy tell ya- you really have filled out, haven't ya? I mean, look at those knockers. those are an impressive pair. hey-" it continued in its best cab driver voice, "camman! give us a peek, eh? fa' old time's sake?"

Lydia frowned and slowly began to shake her head as the voice broke into peals of rough laughter at its own joke. "No…" she whispered. The voice quieted down.

"no, but really though, babes….."

Lydia turned her head away from the mirror and stared at it narrowly as she tried to subtly pull her nightdress down. Silence.

"you'll flash 'em, right?"

Lydia's face lit up in revulsion as the voice fell over itself again in laughter. It seemed to draw closer as it continued, coming from all corners, and she raised her hands to her ears to block out the noise. Squinting her eyes shut she shook herself violently and suddenly found herself face first in short, rough carpet.