Crossed the Line

a Beetlejuice fanfiction

Two: Butterfly Effect...

Beetlejuice, the self-proclaimed "Ghost With the Most", wasn't always the jovial, relatively harmless poltergeist he was after he and Lydia became acquainted. In fact, there was a reason Juno was put in charge of him...

Beetlejuice used to be known as Betelgeuse, and everybody knew he was neither to be trusted, nor to be disrespected. Somehow, this one particular soul had amassed and accrued so much power, such sway over the ever-tenuous rules of the Neitherworld, that he could easily conquer the whole of Afterlife itself. Thankfully, Betelgeuse had no such inclinations. To everyone else's horror, however, he had quite an inclination for wreaking havoc. Betelgeuse always felt like he'd been stolen from the mortal coil long before his time was truly up, and he meant to make everyone else, in both the land of the living and the world of the dead, as angry about his untimely demise as he still was.

Every time it rained frogs or stones, every plague that swept Europe and America, every insurrection that cost some important potentates their heads, Betelgeuse was behind it all. There was no wretched horror in which he didn't stick his blood-stained fingers. Things were even worse in the Neitherworld, if you can believe it. Routinely, he pulled horrible pranks on other spirits, exposing them to the very fears they avoided in life and the very reasons for their deaths. Naturally, you can imagine how traumatizing this was for them, to be faced with the constant reminder of their life's extinguishment. The Neitherworld deserts were flooded with lava. The trees switched from a stony, petrified material to electrified metal constructs, sparking lightning in random directions. Oceans were filled with the filth from Rome's oldest sewers and the flaming garbage of the valley of Hinnom. The skies in the Neitherworld didn't rain anything as safe as frogs or stones; instead, they rained knives, swords, flails and warhammers, and the occasional anvil. Betelgeuse would pit armies of unwilling denizens against each-other in constant fights to the death.

One of these denizens Betelgeuse crossed was one of the "big wigs" of the Neitherworld: Johann Adam Weishaupt. Adam, as he was usually known, watched in horror as Betelgeuse released the Spanish Flu on the citizens in Germany... killing many members of his own family, especially those closest to him. Understandably, Adam was furious. He watched, helpless, as his family's children started coughing up the bright red blood so unique to this strain of influenza, complaining of seeing a decaying corpse in a brown and red ferryman's uniform dancing about their beds. The symptoms were chalked up to hysteria, brought on by the illness. None of them were allowed to know that their tormentor truly was the one they saw. Betelgeuse's wretched glee, as he watched each and every victim succumb to the torment of his horrid disease, was too much for Adam to bear. At that very moment, as he heard 8-year-old Elizsa call out to him, the fever spiking to inhuman levels of heat within her body, literally cooking her brain, Adam made a vow: one way or another, Betelgeuse would pay... dearly.

Placed in a crushing stone stockade, surrounded by concertina-wire fencing, sat Lydia Deetz and Beetlejuice, awaiting the verdict. The trial had been interminable. One by one, a seemingly-endless string of plaintiffs and witnesses, even including the reluctant ones... such as Jacques LeLean and Ginger. Even the Monster Across the Street was a little apprehensive about testifying against Beetlejuice and his best friend: not because he particularly cared for Beetlejuice, but because the situation was so dire, and because Lydia was involved. Every time another testimony was given, every time another cross-examination took place, Beetlejuice would stretch his head around to Lydia and rest it between her shoulder and her neck, and quietly reply, "I'm so sorry, babes. I should've known this is how things would turn out. It's all my fault." Lydia would try to reassure Beetlejuice. Then, the Warden would come over; and, using a device that tapped into Beetlejuice's own power, cause both suspects to feel the pain of billions of volts of electric glass burrowing into each and every nociceptor in their bodies... or, in Beetlejuice's case, burrowing into his spirit. This was torment enough for Beetlejuice, who saw the effect his power was having on the girl who had made him feel truly alive for the first time in well over 600 years. The trial, let-alone the torment of his dear friend, made him realize - not for the first time in his afterlife, - that Lydia was the only one who could see through his vile, wretched veneer to the kind of man she alone thought still existed.

After much deliberation on the bench, some expressions of shock that were clear in the body-language of the other big-wigs, and a few heads shaking, Adam stood before Beetlejuice. "You have been weighed in the balance," he began. "You have been measured. You have been found absolutely wanting. Beetlejuice, your crimes against both humanity and spiritkind are too much for this conclave to ignore any longer. We have decided on a punishment for you, the Deetz's, and Juno." Removing his mask, with an eerie sneer, he remarked, "Justice will finally bring the Sword of Damocles crashing down upon you, cleaving you in twain."

In perfect German, Beetlejuice replied, "Long time, no see, Herr Weishaupt. How's the family holding up? No need to thank me for reuniting you all."

Juno shot Beetlejuice a dirty look. "Great idea, Juice," she remarked, "Taunt the big-wigs."

Beetlejuice looked at Juno mournfully. "I gotta be me," he replied, hanging his head.

One of the other big-wigs stood. "Beetlejuice, have you anything to say before sentencing?"

Beetlejuice was freed from his prison, unable to return to Lydia's side. Juno and Lydia both regarded Beetlejuice with expressions of pain: Juno, because she could see how badly this hurt the lost little boy buried inside the horrid con-corpse; Lydia, because, even knowing her friend's past, she was still appalled at the charges against him.

Beetlejuice looked up at the big-wigs, and for the first time in well over six centuries, felt a visible sense of remorse. "Look, I know I ain't exactly Spirit of the Year material. Hell, I've hurt damned near everybody in this courtroom today, at some point or other in my afterlife. I'm perfectly willing to pay for my crimes, but Lyds hasn't done shit to any of you, besides being a good person! She don't deserve to be punished for what I did! Put me on the Rack, draw and quarter me, fuck, exorcise me... but don't punish Lydia. If you got any decency in your hearts, you won't punish her."

Adam stood again. "Decency?!" he asked, his voice getting louder. "You, of all people, want to talk about DECENCY?! Was ANYTHING you've done DECENT?!"

One of the other big-wigs put a hand on Adam's shoulder, and Adam regained his composure, but the look of pure hatred was palpable in his eyes.

"Juno, for your compliance with Beetlejuice in covering up his crimes, you are hereby sentenced to a new post: you shall be required to set up a branch of the Department in Sandworm-Land on Titan. Lydia Deetz, the court briefly considered a harsher punishment for your use of Beetlejuice and his powers, and for the danger you could have posed to others; however, taking into account your naievete, and the fact that no one was seriously hurt, you and your family's punishment will be far less severe: every reference to Beetlejuice, the Neitherworld, and any of the Neitherworld denizens, shall be permanently erased from all your memories. Your family shall be under the impression that you, alone - with absolutely no help from anyone or anything else, - wreaked all the havoc for which Beetlejuice was responsible."

Lydia couldn't hold back. "What about the Maitlands?!" she cried.

"The Maitlands did summon Beetlejuice, yes," replied Adam, "but they were ignorant of his crimes. Since learning of his crimes, they have been against him: beside which point, if you recall, they were granted freedom from their haunt."

Finally, vitriol dripping from his words, Adam turned to Beetlejuice. "For your crimes against the citizens of the Neitherworld and the Otherworld, living, dead and undead, in the former life and afterlife, you are sentenced to a thousand years in the Lost Souls room. There, your powers shall be rendered relatively useless by the environment of the room."

The other judges got up to leave. As they left, however, Adam slipped another paper into the docket, granting himself the right to show Beetlejuice Lydia's condition at any time he saw fit.

Mournfully, all the Neitherworld denizens looked back at Beetlejuice and Lydia. Beetlejuice was being hauled in one direction, Lydia in another, and Juno in still another. Juno remained silent, but Lydia wept openly. Beetlejuice's arms stretched to wrap around her. "Forget the long arm of the law, babes," he said, "I'd go to any lengths to comfort you..."

Those were Beetlejuice's last words to Lydia Deetz, before he was given "the Boot" - a gargantuan boot, which swung down from the ceiling and kicked Beetlejuice into the Lost Souls room, - and the door slammed shut. Deep within it's recesses, Beetlejuice's juice still glowed from within him, but he couldn't get out. He tried for a whole year, before he realized there was no use. A year later, the screen appeared. By then, Beetlejuice had begun to atrophy and rot even worse...

... and, that's when his true Hell began...

... until one night, when it was just too much for him to take.