Disclaimer: Beetlejuice and Co belong to Geffen. Alas that he did not choose to make further use of them.
Author's Notes: This is almost exclusively movie-based, with a few nods to the excellent cartoon in the form of mirrors. It begins really dark, but it's a haunting, right? Thank you to you wonderful writers and reviewers and readers-- this is a bit of a departure from the existing Beetleverse, and i am still a little nervous about posting it. Please let me know what you think! xoxo
Concept artwork for the characters is up on my homepage. No original drawings-- it's all massive amounts of Photoshop goodness.
Favorite Quote (from chapter...um... 15?): Transportation by poltergeist was never, ever going to catch on, except possibly as an extreme sport.
Chapter 1: Lydia looks in the mirror.
Lydia shut the door behind her against the jeering, drunken laughter and fumbled for the lock. She berated herself on ignoring her better instincts, but her roommate, Bethany, had insisted, using several exhibits in a comical prosecuting scolding, and Lydia had relented. Now Beth had vanished into an upstairs room, and Lydia was alone and very, very scared. Stupidly, instead of going out the door, she had gone higher into the house, and was now trapped. In a very unwashed, bile-smelling bathroom. Urgh.
A heavy, slurred voice hooted outside the door. "Linda! You in there? Cmere, little goth girl, and have some fun!" That would be Billy, her… "date."
"The hell I will! Leave me be!"
"Ha! You have to come out sometime. I gotta piss!" The ugly voice trailed off into general hilarity in the hallway, and Lydia rubbed her eyes. "It's Lydia, you drunk asshole." But no one out there was concerned about her name. She rested her hands on the sink and stretched out her shoulder blades. Maybe, if she waited long enough, the bastards would all pass out. And choke on their own vomit. And die. An angry, tearful grin split her lips, and she snorted daintly. Goodness, what a mess.
In the semi-darkness, Lydia examined her face. Paler than usual. She had actually been a little glad to get out of her room for a little bit. The night was fine, a beautiful fall evening before the deadly cold of a New York winter set in. It was supposed to be a theater party, and she liked theater people, mostly. But when they had arrived, she hadn't seen any familiar faces. Beth had, tho, and introduced her to Billy, a graceful, tall blonde boy with a ready smile. She had been, she flushed to remember, quite flattered. But the keg had gone too fast, and someone had broken out a bottle of gin, and the dynamic of the evening had changed…
"Need to get rid of the living…?" The flicker passed through her memory, and she grinned ruefully. She hadn't thought of him in a long time, though she had just seen Barbara and Adam last weekend. They had become part of her family, but Beetlejuice… he had never returned from that auspicious night. And then Juno had made her promise faithfully not to call him back. No matter what.
The thought coalesced in her head. It had been… nearly five years since he had tried to win his freedom. At her expense. But what style… "Beetlejuice," she whispered. Dangerous, Lydia. Surely there was a better way. A pounding on the door shocked her out of her reviere.
"I gotta use the john—who's hoggin' the frickin' bathroom?"
"Beetlejuice." He probably wouldn't even be listening. She flicked her eyes towards the door, and saw the handle beginning to turn. Panicking, she closed her eyes. "Beetlejuice."
For a moment, there was nothing. A light breeze stirred the fine hairs at the nape of her neck. She felt a chill, and then a tickle at her ear as a gravelly whisper floated against her. "Thought you would never ask, babe." She jumped, sucking in a startled scream, and then nearly screamed again as she turned to see… herself.
Her doppelganger was, if possible, even more pale, with purple smudges under her eyes and a glint of something… not quite sane in her dark eyes. Lydia took a step back, and pressed up against the wall. "That's really frightening, Beetl—" Her dark double bared sharp white teeth and threw up her had to cover Lydia's mouth, but Lydia had already caught herself. "…um, B." She smiled uncertainly, and the other girl smiled, too, a feral smile than chilled Lydia through. Gods, what had she set free? The pounding began in earnest, and they were both jolted back to the immediate moment.
"I'm coming out!" Beetlejuice-as-Lydia singsonged in Lydia's voice. She… he opened the door, and struck a coy position in the doorframe, her own hip pressed against one side of the frame, and her back curved gracefully to set her shoulder against the other side. "Hello boys. Did'ya miss me?"
From where Lydia stood, she could see Billy's expression, at first full of scornful triumph aimed at the girl he thought was his conquest. But as she watched, uncertainty filled his eyes. Her double just stood there, and Lydia could only imagine what sort of expression Beetlejuice had set upon her own lips. She heard her voice again, but with a dark intonation she had never ever imagined she was capable of. "C'mon, sugar. Didn't you want to have a little… fun?"
At the last word, the uncertainty in Billy's eyes darkened to abject terror. His mouth opened wider than she thought possible, and then the scream came, a choked keening that didn't sound remotely human. And then he vanished down the stairs faster than anyone she had ever seen, drunk or sober. She grinned, and then laughed out loud. Beetlejuice turned back to her, his eyebrow at a rakish angle, and grinned that feral grin. Somehow, it looked much nicer on his mouth than on her own, like it belonged there. "That was too easy."
"Yeah, well, you just make it look easy, B." But her voice was still a little shaky. She gathered herself, and stepped up next to him, but he faded from view, with a lingering whisper.
"Now it's your turn to make it look easy." She realized that he was going to make her walk out on her own. She took a step into the hall to find that all noise in the house had stopped. Completely. The hall was deserted, and as she walked down the stairs, wide eyes stared back at her. Everyone's full attention was centered directly on the frail looking girl in black who had evidently just made Billy Martin wet his pants and run screaming out the door. Then, unexpectedly, a hesitant clapping startled her. A tanned, blonde girl in the downstairs foyer was… applauding her. Another girl, slim and dark, joined in. And another. Lydia's heart was pounding wildly, but she continued to walk with her back straight down the stair to the curious applause. A grin broke out from her tightly suppressed emotions, and the blonde girl smiled back fiercely. The sound of clapping followed her out the door.