(A/N: Well, here's chapter 2. This part was based on a strange dream I had once. I figured it'd work well here.)
Lydia glanced around her. All was dark, save for the ghostly moonlight that shone through the breaks in the trees. The eerie atmosphere grew heavier as more and more fog settled in the wooded area. Lydia had the sensation that someone, or something, was watching her - and that made her feel even more uncomfortable. "Lyds... something's not right. I should come out."
She looked towards Beetlejuice, whom was half-hiding behind her hair.
"Beetlejuice,
"Beetlejuice,
"BEETLEJUICE!"
A soft pop next to her signaled his arrival. Now full-sized, he was shaking slightly, but his voice was calm.
"Babes..." he whispered.
She turned to look at him. His face, usually grinning and laughing, was solemn, and maybe, there was a hint of fear.
"Beej... what's wrong?"
"It's as I thought, Babes. I can't juice anything... at all."
Lydia's eyes grew wide. "Can't juice anything?! Is that even possible? Then... how did you even get here?!" She stared back at him, his eyes gazing in wonder at something behind her.
"Lyds... look!"
A rundown building, made of rusted sheet metal, had somehow suddenly emerged from the darkness. There was no door, or rather, not a proper one. Instead,
it resembled a door-less garage, with a wall missing. Staring into it, the darkness grew denser and denser as the building stretched on.
"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Beetlejuice whispered. He took one step toward the building and froze.
"What?" Lydia gasped, the cold surrounding them, "What is it?"
"Babes... whatever this is, it's not of this world, or the Neitherworld."
"Wait... what?"
Beetlejuice turned to her, his face sullen. This wasn't like him, not at all. "This... isn't of this world, or the Neitherworld. This... there's a ton of spirits here."
"I kind of figured that, they say this place is haunted." Lydia replied, "but... not of this world? Or the Neitherworld? What do you mean exactly?"
"Lydia!" A faint voice on the breeze sounded. "Lydia! Where are you?!" Another voice ran out.
"Bertha? Prudence?!" Lydia called back, not sure if they could even hear her. The fog swirled around her, incredibly dense, now, that, Lydia thought, if she took out her knife, she would probably cut through it. She ran towards the voices, catching them every so often.
"BABES! WAIT!" Beetlejuice cried, but she continued running into the fog, towards the voices of her friends.
"Lydia?! Lydia!!"
"Where are you, Lydia?!"
She cut through the underbrush, branches whipping at her face. She screamed, but no sound came out. Her hands to her mouth, she looked around in confusion.
The building was still right behind her, as if she never moved. Beetlejuice was nowhere to be seen.
"Beetlejuice?" she mouthed, still no sound. She crept toward the building, looking to see if the poltergeist was inside. Next thing she knew, a wall sprang up behind her, closing her in.
Lydia ran towards the wall, beating on it, trying to get it to open, mouthing silent curses. She collasped, crying, lost, scared, and no sign of Beetlejuice anywhere.
After about a minute, she slowly got up, and took in her surroundings. The building stretched on in darkness in front of her, as if inviting her to dare try to penetrate it. She noted that she was wearing her Neitherworld attire - she wondered how on earth that happened. Hesitating, she made her way forward, stepping around scrap metal and broken objects, making her way into the darkness.
"Lydiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!" Beetlejuice called. He stood in the middle of the woods, unsure as to how he got there. One minute, he was next to the building, the next, he was standing in the woods, the creepy building nowhere in sight.
He had a slight idea of what could be going on. The only other time he'd experienced a feeling such as this was when Juno had shown him the Lost Souls room in her office. Death for the dead. It's one thing to die once, something else to die twice.
He gulped in fear. If this was very similar to the Lost Souls room, then they were in trouble. He wasn't too worried about himself. He was worried about Lydia. She still had her life in this world ahead of her, and for it to... to.
He shook his head. No, no time to think about that. She's lost in here, somewhere, and he was going to find her, even if it took him the entirety of his afterlife to do so. The wood grew darker as he trekked, running, tripping, getting whacked by some branches.
Damn. His luck had been really good. Once.
"LYYYYYYYYYYDS!" he called out, on the top of his non-working lungs, the only response being his echo ringing cruelly through the trees.
Lydia was still in the building, catching a few glimpses of the outside through several high windows set in the scrap metal walls. The moonlight from said windows were the only things lighting her way through a sea of scrap, junk, and broken things. She could hear a scurrying sound in the background;
a feeling of dread told her they were probably rats. And not the usual kind, either.
She was lost in one of these thoughts when she walked through it - a cold spot. Cold enough that she could see her breath in front of her, and for a moment,
she wondered if she had stopped breathing. It swirled around her, her surroundings taking on an unearthly green light. A soft, low moan sounded in her ear,
making her jump. She passed through it, her insides still cold, her flesh dotted with goose bumps. She turned around slowly, and saw a face. A face of a man, long dead, floating in mid air, glowing bright green. He moaned again, reaching for her.
Lydia screamed, and this time, it came out, loud, clear, and frightened. The figure lunged for her, gracefully soaring overhead as she ducked. It growled,
an unearthly growl that froze Lydia to the spot. All she could do was stare straight ahead at this man, this... spirit, as it slowly made it way towards her,
reaching for her. Lydia could feel her body grow cold, her breath going shallow, her heart slowing.
"LYYYYYYYDS!!"
Beetlejuice came crashing in through the nearest window, into Lydia, knocking her out of the way of the spirit. The spirit let out a vicious growl before disappearing.
"Beetlejuice!" Lydia cried, throwing her arms around him, sobbing into his chest. "I thought I'd lost you"
"I thought I had lost you too, Babes," he said, holding her, "What an enterance, eh? What the hell happened? I saw you run into the fog, and next thing I know, poof!"
"Beej... I'm just glad you're okay," Lydia whispered, "I just... I just wish I knew what was going on here." She began shaking uncontrollably, out of fear, and a new wave of tears came as she buried her face in his chest.
"I'm here, Lyds, I'm here." Beetlejuice held her tightly to him, "I don't know exactly what's going on... but... I may have an idea..."
He explained to her about the Lost Souls room in Juno's office, there in the Neitherworld, and how it's usually where souls that have been exorcised end up.
"Death for the dead..." Lydia whispered, "But... how would that tie into what's going on here?"
"Looking at that spirit," Beetlejuice began, "It looked as if maybe the room has, well... run out of room. And there's no way Juno can blame this one on me, even if she tried."
"Wait... out of room? Beetlejuice, is that even possible?"
"Nothing is impossible. Just improbable. Just my being here prooves that nothing is impossible."
"Point taken," she replied, "now... how do we get out of here?"
Beetlejuice picked her up, cradling her in his arms, and turned towards the darkness. "We continue on, babes. That's the only thing we really can do." Carrying her, he stepped around the junk strewn on the floor, taking care to avoid the cold spots that dotted the inside of the building.
"Beej..." Lydia broke the silence, "What... what was that thing trying to do to me?"
"Stealing your life force," came the reply, "the dead of the dead are usually wicked beings, for the most part. It's in their nature to attack a ghoul in the Neitherworld, but if they caught scent of a living being..."
"But, why?"
"Jealousy. They're jealous of the living, and of the once-dead."
He put her back on her feet as they approached a door made of what looked to be scrap metal, random boards, and something that looked suspiciously like bone. A long, thin line of what looked to be blood ran down the entire length of the door, and from what Lydia could tell, there seemed to be one hell of a racket going on behind the door.
Swallowing hard, Beetlejuice placed a hand on the handle, and pulled.
Lydia gasped.