Chapter Six

Beetlejuice's Past

Lydia decided to take a hot relaxing bubble bath. She walked into the bathroom and turned on the faucet and let the water run. She poured in the bubbles. A few minutes later Lydia got into the tub.

"Ah, now this is more like it." She said to herself. She closed her eyes and thoughts raced through her mind.

Ever since she met Beetlejuice they've been like peas in a pod, inseparable.

"He's only guy that really understands me." Lydia thought. She sighed deeply. Another thought entered her mind. What would really happen if her parents found out who BJ really was? Lydia was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice her friend was standing in the picture that was hanging on the wall by the tub.

"You're gonna turn into a prune if you stay in there any longer." Beetlejuice said. Lydia's eyes snapped open. She saw B.J. in the picture and screamed.

"Beetlejuice!"

"What!" B.J. whined. Lydia stared at B.J. hopping he would get the hint, but it was apparent he didn't get it. Lydia sighed in annoyance.

"Can't a girl get some privacy?" She said loudly.

"Oh." B.J. said. He looked around and laughed nervously and blushed. "Sorry." B.J. vanished out of the picture. Lydia felt herself blush. She shook her head a little and smiled to herself. She sat there about five more minutes before getting out of the tub. She drained the tub and wrapped a towel around herself. Lydia walked out of the bathroom. She looked up and down the hall to make sure the coast was clear. She hurried to her bedroom and walked over to her vanity mirror and flipped it down so that the glass part was facing the floor.

Beetlejuice walked over to one of the walls inside the Roadhouse. He noticed something was different. The mirror was a doorway between the Neitherworld and the outer world looked different. B.J. could no longer see into Lydia's bedroom. All that he could see was the floor.

"Hey" B.J. said.

Lydia finished getting dressed. She heard Beetlejuice's voice coming from the mirror. She walked over and spun the mirror so that B.J. was visible.

"Sorry B.J." Lydia said. "Had to do that." Before Beetlejuice could reply, there was a knock at Lydia's bedroom door. B.J. ducked out of sight. The door opened. It was Delia.

"Everything okay in here?" She asked. "I heard screaming." Delia added.

"Yeah. Everything's fine. I, uh, was taking a bath and I noticed I had a zit on my nose." Lydia said.

"That's funny. I don't see any zits on your nose." Delia said. On that note, B.J. zapped Lydia and a big zit appeared on her nose. He chuckled quietly to himself.

"Oh my." Delia said now seeing the unsightly pimple. "Well put some cream on that and it should clear up in no time." She smiled sweetly at Lydia and left the room. Lydia made sure the coast was clear before turning back to her vanity mirror.

"Beetlejuice." Lydia said warningly. B.J. cackled loudly.

"Sorry babes. Had to do something to convince your mother." He Beetlejuiced Lydia's nose back to normal.

"Everything okay, dear?" Charles asked Delia.

"Everything is fine, Charles. Lydia just had a pimple on her nose." Delia explained.

Lydiastudied Beetlejuice for a moment.

"B.J. There's been something I've been meaning to ask you.

"Ask away, babes." B.J. said.

"How did you die?"

"I was wondering when you were going to ask me that." He said. "Just say the "B" words and I'll tell you. Lydia said his name three times. B.J. floated through the mirror and was now in Lydia's bedroom. Lydia backed up. B.J. was floating in the air and Lydia sat Indian style on her bed.

"It all started six hundred years ago." Beetlejuice began.

The year was 1390; Beetlejuice was living with his parents, Gnat and Bee. His father was working on the farm they had while his mother stayed home. Beetlejuice was always playing pranks on people even when he was a kid in school.

"You know, B.J." Gnat said. "One of these days you're gonna pull one of your foolish pranks on the wrong person and you may not be so lucky. You're gonna get yourself hurt, or worse."

Beetlejuice waved a hand at his father.

"No way." He said ignoring his father's warnings.

Gnat and Bee were poor. Beetlejuice was always looking for ways to earn money. More often than not, not always the most honest ways, but he did what he knew best; conning people into giving him their money.

"Little did I know that last prank cost me my life." B.J. told Lydia

"Obviously." She said. "You'd think you'd learn your lessons after that." Lydia added

"You'd think" B.J. said. He went on with his story.

One day B.J. decided to take a walk through the village they lived in. He wanted to see whom he could con and play tricks on. He hid behind a tree when a gentleman was walking by. B.J. stuck his foot out and tripped the gentlemen. When he fell, B.J. was rolling on the ground laughing. The gentlemen got up and brushed himself off. Beetlejuice waited for the guy to get upset. He sat up and the gentleman turned around and said,

"Young man. I have been watching you for quite some time now. You and all your nasty pranks you've been pulling on people."

"What can I say? I'm a natural." B.J. said.

"That wasn't a compliment." The stranger said. "For your actions, I must teach you a lesson you'll never forget."

B.J.'s facial expression turned serious. Before Beetlejuice had time to react, the stranger pointed at BJ's chest and B.J. felt a pain so strong it was nothing he'd ever experienced before. Before he knew it, B.J. felt all life from his body leave him. His cold corpse fell to the ground.

"You will remain in the Neitherworld forever and cannot return to the outer world unless someone summons you by calling your name three times." The stranger said and on that note, made B.J. disappear.

Beetlejuice was lying on the rocky ground when he heard voices above him.

"Sackly Vou. It seems we 'ave a new soul." B.J. heard one voice say. By the sounds of him, he was French.

"Yeah. Maybe we should help him out and show him around." Said the other voice. It sounded small and rather squeaky.

"'Ello miser." Jacques said to B.J. B.J.'s eyes slowly opened. Above him he saw a skeleton wearing red shorts and a blue shirt. Beside him stood a medium sized pink spider wearing tap shoes.

"Where am I?"" B.J. asked. Before they could answer, B.J. noticed the color of his skin. It was not flesh colored anymore, but a pale lavender color. His fingertips were red. He checked for a pulse, but couldn't find one.

"Oh my god. I'm dead. But how can this be? I'm awake." B.J. said. "Am I dreaming?"

"You're not dreaming. You are in fact dead. The reason you're awake is because you're a ghost." Ginger said.

"Oh. Okay." B.J. "That explains that." He added still not quite sure that's what happened. "Who are you two?" He asked. "And where am I?"

"I'm Ginger and that's Jacques La Lean." The spider said.

"Who are you?" Jacques asked in his French accent.

"Beetlejuice, but my friends call me B.J."

"Well judging how you used to treat people, it seems to moi that you did not 'ave many friends." Jacques said. He pulled B.J. to his feet. "Well beeattlejuice, looks like Ginger and I will be showing you the ropes about the Neitherworld.

"What's the Neitehrworld?" B.J. asked.

"This place you're in right now. It's the place where the dead roam free." Ginger said.

"And how did you die, Ginger. Did you eat a bad spider?" Beetlejuice joked. He looked at Jacques and asked,

How do I get out of here?" Jacques rolled his eyes.

"And I thought I was zee bone 'ead." Jacques said. "You can't leave here because you're dead."

"Oh right forgot about that." B.J. said.

"The dead can't be with the living." Jacques added. Beetlejuice sighed. This was just too much to comprehend. But deep down this would be where he'd have to remain.

"Then later that day Ginger and Jacques showed me around and strange enough I met that same guy who took my life and that's when he told me about how I could set free." B.J. told Lydia in conclusion to his story.

"By calling your name three times." Lydia said.

"Exactly." B.J. said. He smiled at Lydia. "Which led me to you."

Lydia blushed a little

"I'm glad I got to know you, B.J." She said and walked over to him and hugged him tight.

"Me too, babes. Me too."