Chapter 8
Call For Help!
The stripes. The illusion of black and white stained my memories from hiding under Lydia's bed as a middle aged cat. Despite how rude to me he was and careless about me at the times, I needed his help. Well damn.
He bared his teeth back at me and I flinched, in attempt to make it look like I meant no harm...personally. Those green eyes glared strait through me, his ragged blonde hair probably the messiest I've ever seen in my life. I had not yet attempted to talk, but as if on instinct I opened my mouth and groaned, "Do you everbrush your hair? Or even your teeth?" I was surprised. That was the first time I had ever spoke, and I guess since I've lived around a lot of humans during my life it was a lot easier for me to adapt to than possibly other cats who have had to put up with something as similar to speaking English. "Do I know ya?" Beetlejuice grunted the question at me, ready to leap at me as if I were his prey. My hands balled into fists at the threat in his actions, but I managed to control myself.
"Yeah...you do, unfortunately. Look, I don't have time to get into any trouble with you right now. Lydia is in trouble!"
At the sound of her name he seemed to halt and take a step back, then leaned forward as a low growl rumbled in his chest. My lip slightly curled up to reveal a few of my teeth as I leaned forward as well. Growling back at him, I exhaled a slight hiss and cocked my head, waiting for him to at least offerhelp. As much as anyone would doubt that he would, he seemed concerned about her enough. "How do you know Lyds," he replied with a question of his own. "What is this, twenty questions? I'm her cat, for Christ's sake! She dragged me in here on accident when she went lookin' for you! Then this happened to me and I don't even know where the hell I'm going!" My chest heaved as I had said all that without space for a single breath. The ghost pulled back from my yelling and then eyed me. "Percy? There's no fucking way you're Percy."
"Wanna bet?" I asked and quickly shifted to my normal size as a cat. My jaw opened and I let out a long meow as if it say, "Told you fucking so, jackass."
"Percy was old, he couldn't have gotten younger."
I shifted back to Ryan's shape and hissed through my teeth, "I know that I was old, shit head! How can I shove it through your thick skull that you're standing in front of possibly the only trace of Lydia left in this hell?!" Beetlejuice seemed taken back by this, but quickly giving up the idea of retorting something, he sighed. If I knew any better, he was considering my point that I had obviously still had not completely made, and didn't know what else to do. I could see it, that he was desperate to find her. Hell, so was I! "Look," I said, calming down and ignoring the stares of people from cars going by. "The last time I saw her was in an alley, while I was still an old fart. Something grabbed her from behind and pulled her into the black. After I changed I could pick up scents a lot better than I had before, but at the end of the alley both traces of Lydia and whoever the hell took her were gone. They had to be teleported or something."
Long, dreadful awkward silence.
He looked up at me, those green eyes no longer filled with hate. They were filled with fear. That I thought I'd never see. Was he thatscared of losing Lydia? "All right, pop quiz, to prove that you're really Percy," he said finally. "When was the first time you visited the Nietherworld, and what all happened?"
Was he serious? I look at the back of my hand and answered, "First time I visited the Neitherworld was on Halloween when Lydia was around 12 or 13, memory is a bit blurred, but I was kidnapped by a witch and taken to the Witch's Ball." I said as if I had explained it a million times. I looked up at him and continued with a short detail, "You and Lydia had to dress up as witches in order to enter the party and save me. I was too scared of one of the larger cats to really do anything but try to run." His mouth dropped in disbelief. But slowly it closed, and his weight tackled me to the ground in a desperate hug. "Oh man, Percy, am I glad to see you! I was starting to think that Lydia was leaving me for good but now that I know you're here she's got a good reason for disappearing'," he cheered and squeezed me. Oh, the wretched smell.
In order to save my senses I pushed him off and took a deep breath of the fresher air away from him. "I was supposed to die but instead I turned into a big thingie that eats people!" I whined and flailed my arms. Well, might as well tell him whyI'm here. A bypasser looked at us strangely and quickened his pace. Probably the only other monster actually walking on the sidewalk today. "So, Beetle-"
"Nobody says the B words!"
"Sorry, Beej," I referred to him with one of Lydia's many nicknames for him. "Anyway, we gotta find her fast. I don't like the smell of whoever it was that took her."
"Well, what did he smell like?"
"Rubber, powder makeup, and not as foul as you, but still dead."
"Don't try to cheer me up," he muttered at the foul stench portion. Looking down to the ground, I could tell he was going over the list once more in his head. Realization took form as an expression on his face as he looked up at me. A low growl arose from his chest, somewhat shaking the earth. "Clown, no doubt, right?" he asked. "What the fuck is a clown?" Okay, yes, I can speak human now, didn't mean I knew what everything was. Lydia only talked to me about her problems when no one else was there for her. I only knew enough to get by. Talking to your cats help, folks. Makes us feel more loved."You...don't know what a clown is." It was more of a statement. Well, that's what it sounded like. I rolled my eyes and he grunted. "Okay, skip lessons for today. It has to be a clown. And there's only oneclown that I can think of that hates us enough to kidnap Lyds."
Before I could open my mouth to ask what he was talking about, both of us poofed off the sidewalk.
It hurt to talk. It hurt to try to talk. Tears of pain streamed down my cheeks as I pressed my hands tightly over my mouth and jaws, but that only made it hurt worse. It was useless. I was in pain. Lots of it. Nothing helped. On my knees again in the middle of that dark room, I sat in the small pool of light escaping into the room through a crack in the boarded window. My breathing was small, and not very even. One way to make it hurt less was to breathe less. It would limit the amount of blood flow. Keeping my breaths limited, I let myself drench in the warmness of the only light in the dark room. The rest was just black outlines and faint shadows. Nothing more. That was decided. I was going to die.
That guy wasn't going to need me til' probably a little while longer. He was going to venture just around the Neitherworld and get most of the town's leaders, Mayors, Kings, Queens, anyone with lawful rights to take Mayor Mayknot's place. After that, it was war. I was smart, I could figure it out. The empires and cities around the capital will fall completely, and with not much back up, we will fall just as easily. But how was he planning on getting rid of Beetlejuice? That I didn't understand...ghosts and monsters can't exorcise each other! So what was he going to do to get close to exorcising him? I just didn't understand.
But still, he was going to call for me. And Scuzzo and Fuzzo were going to open those doors to retrieve me. I was in a freakin' storage room! Who knows what was in all these boxes! Taking a deep breath to feed more blood cells, I took my breaths to their normal level once more and waited about a minute, then got to my feet. I staggered over to the window and did my best to rip the boards from the window, letting the rest of the light pour into the room. Finally drenched in the light of the Neitherworld's sun, I looked around. Not as dark as it use to be, but still pretty dim. Oh well, didn't matter. I dug around randomly in boxes until' my hands came across something. What was it...a pipe? Very large, metallic, copper? No, iron. Heavy too. Pulling with all my strength, I wedged it out of the box and managed myself ready for position. As soon as those doors open, them clowns are gonna see nothin' but stars!
So I waited...
...and waited...
...and waited.
A sound of clicking forced my eyes open. Had I fallen asleep? Leaning my back off the wall and attempting to pop it, I looked around. The light was now dimmer than it was earlier. It's probably about noon by now. I had fallen asleep in a sitting position against the wall, the pipe at my side. My eyes again snapped open. The clicking sound! Someone was opening the door! The pipe! I needed the pipe! My hand flew to my side and gripped it, my body flying up into the air and into a balanced position. I looked like I was getting ready to bat at a baseball game. Again, the clicking sound. This time a little more forceful, and then it finally pulled open. Scuzzo's shadow broke in through the doorway, and I swung around into site beside it. The pipe jerked in my hands. I hit something! Scuzzo! He flailed back, and lost consciousness. That went a little better than I expected. But not for long. Fuzzo rushed to his aid, and I pulled my arms up to swing again. This time, he caught the pipe. Damnit! Fuzzo took the pipe and ripped it from my hands. I turned my side to him to flinch, and to avenge his brother's pain, Fuzzo pulled his arms back and brought them around, hitting my spine and sending me flying back just like I did to his brother. Though, I didn't land on my back. I landed on my stomach, my arms pulling to my sides in attempt to lift me off the floor weakly.
His shadow casted over me, the pipe raised above his head, ready to hit me again, but this time, he was knocked out of the way. By a source of power. It looked familiar. I wanted to lift my head and scream with delight if I could at all, but my jaws were still wired shut. The happiness died anyway, though, because it wasn't Beetlejuice whom I thought had saved me. It was him. The Boogieman stood in the dark corner of the room, the hood still hiding anything above the mouth of that damn mask. "You can do whatever you wish to her body once I'm through with her," he hissed at Fuzzo and yanked me off the ground the minute he seemed to stride across the room to my aid. Fuzzo stayed back, and Scuzzo lifted himself off the ground, finally regaining consciousness. "I can't get any farther with the job until' Beetlejuice is cut out of the picture. Lydia, I need you for this part."
WHAT?!
I wanted to scream. My voice frantically fought it's way through my forced teeth and I couldn't help but make noises from my throat. I'm not doing a damn thing for him! Not a damn thing! But I had no choice. He gripped my arm and yanked me through a different door, this time to what must have been a living-dead room at some point. But now it was just an empty room with a table in the center. The table had a chair at it, and a small candle, one similar to the candle I have at home, sat in the center. Along the walls, which were shades of dark blue and purple, were cluttered boxes and old furniture covered in dust blankets. My attention was brought back to the small table once more, to what really frightened me. The book sitting in front of the chair on the table. The Hand Book For the Recently Deceased.
The pain in my jaws grew, only enough for me to realize that the wires in my jaws were retreating. I could open my mouth again! I could call for him! I could scream his name yet the pain was too great to allow me to. Then it was gone. Relief rushed through my veins and I exhaled through my mouth, then gasped, spitting out and sputtering all of the blood that I have been forced to swallow since the moment I was forced to keep quiet like that. "You won't make me do this!" I coughed and wiped the blood away with the sleeve on my arm, my tattered poncho matching the red liquid exactly. "You're pretty smart to figure out what I have planned for you when I didn't even get to the part yet," his voice had a laugh to it. It was always so damn calm! "You're exorcising the ghost. The only way you can get out of this situation is by killing yourself," he spat and tossed something onto the table. It was a pocket knife. "But if you do that then you'll be spending the rest of eternity working in offices, never time to visit or go home for vacations. And then you wouldn't be able to see Beetlejuice at all."
"You bastard."
"And if you refuse to do either, I'll do the same little wire trick, only throughout you're whole entire body. Now do it!"
I yelped. That fucking hurts. I had no choice. Disappointed in myself, I sobbed a little. If I were twelve-years-old again, I would take all that pain. But I can't now. I've grown soft. I've been broken. With these past few days, none of this can compare to losing my best friend, and I'd be doing it all over again, one last time. Why was I doing this? How had I just given up so easily?!
Taking my time slowly, I timidly approached the table. A slight wind blew, opening the book and flipping pages, then stopped and let the book rest at chapter ten; Exorcism. The distance between me and that dreaded table was finally closed, and along with that, my eyes closed too. Inhaling a deep breath, I smiled, not bothering to look down at the book.
I had to move fast. My hands balled into fists and raised up in the air. Stretching out slowly, until' I sensed the heat from the suddenly lit candle touch my knuckles, the fists stretched into tense hands, as my eyes snapped open and I moved as fast, yet as gracefully as I could with this. "Though I know I should be weary." The tensed hands stretched over the candle, capturing the light and then gracefully moving my body along the border of the table, "Still I summonsomething scary." The hands capturing the heat and flowing to my sides, my elbows bending and stretching as I tried to make this look as much like exorcism as I could. "Ghostly huantings I turn loose!" The hands pulled back and balled up again as I forced and jerked them into the air above me, as if releasing every ounce of power my body held in its core. "Beetlejuice," I murmured, suddenly slow and calm, then trying to keep up with the slightly faster version I was using. Before continuing, I turned to look at himin the back of the room through the corner of my eye. He was frozen, trying to recall if that was exorcism or not. "Beetlejuice!" My body couldn't control itself any longer. My body flailed back at the table with excitement, my hands flying into the air again as I said it that third and final time.
"BEETLEJUICE!!"
My voice seemed to echo in the unforgiving darkness behind me. The name forcing out of my mouth with excitement as I said it with a forceful amount of venom on the tip of my tongue. I couldn't help but laugh, the cackle I had always wanted to try out for myself slipped my throat. I cackled just like he did, enjoying every bit. Thunder rolled and intruded the air within the small dark room. My cackling stopped, and I was suddenly quiet again as the candle's light grew brighter. Eventually, it blew out, and shots of electricity emerged from the core within the glass. Then it shattered, into so many pieces, right before my eyes. The shards rippled against my skin, though I didn't flinch, as fear took over me again. That was new? It was dark again. The room barely lit.
"You little bitch!" the Boogieman was suddenly behind me. I whirled around in just enough time for him to grab my throat and pin me up against the wall. "Look what you've done! You've summoned him!" I couldn't reply. The room was silent, I couldn't even breathe under his grip. Attempting to make any noise at all, I failed.
"Attention K-mart shoppers," a gruff, yet cheerful voice announced. The Boogieman's grip on my neck loosened, and he became distracted from my presence just enough for me to pull away and run into an empty shadow. All darkness in the room was terminated, now that a light had suddenly filled the room and vanquished most of the shadows. Boogie growled and grabbed the tail of my poncho, pulling me closer to him. I let out a scream for help.
"Hey Chuck, pick on someone your size!"
My head turned and I leapt in the exact opposite direction I was headed as I attempted to meet up with the Ghost with the Most. "Beetlejuice!!" I cried, but was pulled back by the Boogieman once again. "Help!!"
"Don't worry, Lyds!" Beetlejuice raised himself into mid air, "I'll knock 'im windin'!" He laughed and inflated his fist, punching the Boogieman into a spin that twirled him hard into a wall. I was tempted to laugh, but restrained myself and ran across the room to find a way to help him. "Beetlejuice, look out! He can move through shadows!" I warned. That might just work for now. "Darling, you know me too well," the soothing voice laughed as a hand placed on my shoulder. Damn, didn't know he can escape Beetlejuice's juicing. I tried to scream but could only 'eep' and then was pulled back into darkness. How many times had that happened so far today?
Damn! Where'd he go? "Lyds? Babes, where'd you run off to!" I ran to the bit of shadow in the room that she was at last. I felt something that's for sure. Pulling it into the light, I cursed. "Scape goats. You know I hate 'em." I muttered as I tossed the old goat standing in Lydia's place back into its corner and began to throw a tantrum. "Must you make so much noise," a low hiss came from behind me. "Them idiots are going to hear us in the room next door. Lydia and that dark creature, whatever he is, disappeared elsewhere, for now."
"Percy, I hope you do know that the only thing keeping me from juicing you right now is the thought of how pissed off Lydia will get if I touch a hair on your head."
"Which is why I intend on enjoying this while I can," the voice chuckled. I spun around and rolled my eyes. "I didn't use to hate cats until' now. Soon I hope it starts to rain just dogs and I forget an umbrella." I lifted an umbrella over my head and a few dogs fell from lord knows where above me and through the fabric of my rain protection, knocking me to the ground. "We don't have time for this," Percy hissed and pulled me to my feet. The claws of his new body were ice cold, not the enjoyable cold either. "Right, well, what's your plan, then?"
"You're not going to like it, but listen up anyway."
"Oh boy."
"That thing took Lydia into the storage room, I can smell their presence somewhere in this building. And one of the weirdoes next door is the one who kidnapped her. That much I know. Lydia's not leaving this old place any time soon, so the best time for my turn to strike will be later tonight."
"No! We're getting her back now! And we're kicking some ass!" I protested. "If you don't hear my plan first, you're not going to kick any ass at all! Now zip it!" Damn the literal puns part of my juicing. My lips zipped shut and I unzipped them, narrowing my eyes at him. "Fine," I spat, crossing my arms. "So are you going to listen, or what?"
"Go ahead," I snorted as my hands, feet, and head turned into large ears as smaller ears dotted randomly about my body, "I'm all ears!"
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A/N: Yesh! Shorter chapter! And sorry it took so long to put up. Been kinda busy, y'know? Lol, anyway, yeah, thanks for reading! I don't really have much to say tonight so...hope you enjoyed it! -
