Chapter Four : A Game With Fools

The streets were empty and the sound of his heels striking the pavement echoed between the buildings. He hummed to himself between long drinks of another bottle of rum he had bought on his way to the bar.

"Day-o! Me say daaaay-o!" he sung out loud as he approached the corner. The glowing sign across the street said 'Coffin Nail' and flickered above a seedy, hole-in-the-wall bar. A wide, sinister grin grew across his face. He chuckled to himself and threw the nearly empty bottle against the building next to him, shattering it and leaving a stain on the bricks.

"Daylight come and I won't be alone," he sneered as he swaggered over to the door.

With a well placed kick, the door flew open. Everyone in the bar fell silent until he walked through the door and into the dim light.

"B-man!" everyone shouted.

"It's showtime, baby!" he shouted back. Within seconds, a girl with blue skin grabbed him by the arm and giggled, "Hey, how ya doing? Go get me a couple of drinks, won't ya honey?" The girl nodded and ran toward the bar giggling, "Ugh, these neitherworld dames are so easy," he scoffed and looked around the room. He knew the Muck brothers normally hung out at this dive bar and he quickly found exactly what he was looking for sitting at a table in a dark corner of the bar.

Three men mumbled and groaned as he stepped up to their hiding spot. "What the hell do you want, Beetlejuice?!" one of them demanded.

"Ok, first off, don't ever say my name, got it!? Second, what do you think I want, asshole? I want to take your money in poker, so start shuffling the damn cards before I lodge the whole deck in deep within that pretty, little, bullet hole you're sporting in the back of your head." Beetlejuice said with a menacing grin.

The man swallowed hard and quickly pulled out his deck of playing cards. It was clear Beetlejuice was in no mood to be messed with, and being an extremely powerful poltergeist, you did not want to get on his bad side. Beetlejuice pulled up a chair just as the dead girl came back holding two glasses of alcohol. She sat them down in front of him and leaned in to whisper in his ear. Beetlejuice smiled and tossed back one of the drinks as he stood up.

"Gentlemen, hold that thought. Something has come to my attention that I feel I must address immediately." He smirked and took the girl by the waist and led her to a back room.

"Damnit, what was that about? I thought he wanted to play cards?" one of the men inquired.

"Don't worry, the prick will be back in a few minutes and then he'll take us for everything we got, again."

"How is it that he gets girls so damn easy, huh?"

"Don't you know?"

"Know what exactly? How he cons 'em? The guy's a gross, ugly, jerk? I don't get it, how else can he bring in the cute girls like that if it's not a con?"

"Well, first thing is that he's a powerful poltergeist. Women, dead or alive, have always loved power and he's got a ton of it. Second, he's a shape shifter. I'll give you two guesses how he uses that to get all the girls he wants. That's all it takes for girls to over look the rest of him for a night."

The brothers continued to talk until Beetlejuice appeared again. The girl he was with scampered out of the back room behind him. She wiped the corner of her mouth while she hurried back to her group of giggling friends, signaling what she felt was a victory. Beetlejuice showed even less discretion as he walked up to the table while zipping up his fly and fixing his suit.

"Now that that's out of the way, where were we?" he said with a cocky grin.

"We were just waiting for you, B," one of the men said with a bored sigh.

"Well, I'm here ain't I?" Beetlejuice retorted, "Let's get this party started."

It didn't take long for Beetlejuice to win most of the brothers' money. He made sure to lose a few hands so they wouldn't catch on that he was cheating. The one with the deck dealt out the next hand. Beetlejuice picked up his cards. They were terrible, but that wasn't a surprise since every hand they dealt him was terrible. Just to keep up the illusion that he was playing fairly, he picked out three cards and passed them to the dealer after everyone finished their starting bet. The dealer gave him three new cards and the other men traded sly looks.

"All in." one of the brothers said pushing what little money he had left to the center of the table.

"Me too." the other two said as they followed the first ones lead.

Beetlejuice thought for a second, "Alright, I guess I'll call," he said putting enough money in the center to match the highest bet. The brothers started to laugh.

"We got you beat this time, beetle brain." one of them taunted. The three men set their hands down; all three of them had ace high straights. Anyone could see that they were obviously cheating, there was no doubt. It was the only way this group thought they could get their money back. This was actually one of the reasons why Beetlejuice played with them as often as he did. These guys would play other suckers and win off them, no problem. Then, Beetlejuice would come by every so often and take the brothers for everything they had.

"Well, B, what you got?" one of them asked, impatiently tapping his fingers on the table, "Hurry up, I'd like to buy a drink with my winnings."

Beetlejuice gave them a disappointed look, "Well shoot guys, how can I beat those hands?" he said while giving a finger snap for effect. With that snap, he channeled his power to the cards in his hand and turned them into a flush just before he set them down.

"What?!" one of the brothers shouted, "That's impossible! The only way you could've won is if you…"

Beetlejuice slammed his hand down on the table, picked up a huge bug and promptly plopped it in his drink, "You accusing me of somethin', buddy?" his voice was unsettlingly calm and it complimented the seriousness in his eyes. The men traded nervous looks with one another.

"Uhh, n-n-no B-Man, no way! We, um, we just want to make sure that, uh, that, uhhh…" one brother stammered, unable to think of a good excuse.

"We want to make sure that we're using the good deck and not the one we use for fun, ya know?" another chimed in as he grabbed the rest of the cards.

Beetlejuice pointed at the cards and shot some of his power at them to make sure the rest of the cards synced up with the cards he had already changed so there were no duplicates. He then knocked back his drink, half drowned bug and all. The three men franticly searched the cards but could find no evidence that he cheated.

"You guys still got a problem with how I play?" Beetlejuice sneered.

"N-no B-Man we just thought you may have…"

Beetlejuice's eyes began to turn red, "What? Cheated? You assholes think I cheated!? That's what scum buckets like yourselves do to unsuspecting saps. No one can cheat me. And I sure as hell ain't gonna sit here and let a bunch of low lives accuse me of being a swindler," he growled. He collected his winnings, then dropped his voice to a whisper as he leaned in close, "Besides boys, I bet there are quite a few folks here that would love to get their hands on some scammers, if ya know what I mean."

The men forced tense laughter and gathered the cards, being careful to not touch Beetlejuice or the money left on the table.

"Thanks for the game, B-Man, it was fun. W-we should do it again some time," one brother said as they hurried for the door.

"Hey guys, ya know I could buy you three a drink…" Beetlejuice said while waving a few bills in the air. The brothers stopped and turned, unsure if they should leave or stay.

"…but ya know I WON'T!" Beetlejuice shouted then busted up laughing. The men sighed and mumbled to themselves as they left.

Beetlejuice, still laughing to himself, walked up to the bar. He leaned on the bar next to a couple of girls.

"Hey ghouls, what's your stories?" he asked.

"We both liked to party and over dosed on the same night," one girl said.

"So, that kinda makes you two death twins, huh?" he said with a raised eyebrow. The girls giggled in response. Beetlejuice worked his way in between the two and wrapped an arm around each one, "Why don't I show you ghouls why they call me 'The Ghost with the Most'."

With that, the three walked out the door and headed down the street. Beetlejuice laughed with the girls on their walk, but inside he was simply annoyed. It was always easy with these neitherworld girls. They never gave chase or even tried to get to know him. They rarely ever rejected him either. It just wasn't fun, but then again nothing was anymore. The only reason he hadn't had a rain cloud following him around, like a certain prince, was because he had a reputation to uphold. He would laugh and joke and toss around his power, but inside all he wanted to do was stay home and never come out again. He would just spread a rumor that he was lost to the sandworm desert. It's not like anyone would miss him anyways. If anything, most everyone who knew him would be more than happy to be rid of him. Maybe tonight, he thought, no, defiantly tonight should be the last night he ever leaves his house. It would be for the best anyways.

*Hi again. So, it looks like Beetlejuice is back to being the way he was before he met Lydia, well outwardly anyways. Without his façade, he's a complete wreck. Will he ever see Lydia again? Will we find out what happened between the two? Will BJ sacrifice himself to the sandworms? Will BJ get his own rain cloud and become the next Neitherworld prince? Find out next time, maybe… or maybe you'll just get another Lydia chapter. ^.^*