Beetlejuice

Season 1: The Neitherworld Saga

Chapter 10: I'm Sorry

In a matter of days, Lydia had fully recovered from the toxic air of the Neitherworld and had read the Angelic Journal that Aldar had given her from cover to cover. It seemed odd to seek out and read someone else's journals and it even seemed a little like prying. Nonetheless, she read the journal till she nearly had it memorized, hoping to find any bit of information she may have missed in the times that she read it before. "What are ya reading Lydia?" Prudence asked her during lunch period, noticing that Lydia's head was up in the clouds for most of the day, so far. "Huh?" Lydia was torn from the journal with a start. "Sorry Prudence. It's a journal of sorts. I discovered it in my house last night and have been trying to make sense of some of the things written in it." "Let me see it." Prudence offered. She so loved books, in fact it was rare to see her without one. Lydia debated with the offer for a little bit before Ben arrived at the table. "What on the barby for today?" He asked in his Australian accent. "What took you so long?" Lydia asked, tearing away from Prudence's offer. "Had to find another lavatory. Apparently, some bloke wrote hateful words on the door of the closest one and the janitor closed it down to repaint. So, what's on the menu?" He informed his friends. "Glue tasting grilled cheese sandwiches or bland Sloppy Joes." Bertha stated. Ben showed an expression of grim dislike before proceeding to the lunch line while mumbling, "I knew I shoulda brought me own."

"So, can I take a look at the journal?" Prudence threw back onto the table. 'She is smart. Maybe she'll make better sense out of it than I ever could.' Lydia thought to herself. Before she could hand over the journal, a large hand came in from behind her and snatched it away. "What's this? Your diary?" Lydia heard Adrian's voice coming from behind her as he plucked the journal from her grasp. Lydia turned around in shock and began to reach for it from where she stood, however José and Michael jumped in between and blocked Lydia's advance. "Give it back Adrian. It's important." Lydia begged, hoping that he would simply give it right back. Adrian flipped through the book a little and retorted. "What's the spider silk? Hah. Sounds dumb." 'Not as dumb as you.' Lydia thought to herself. "Just give it back." She begged again reaching in between José and Michael with her right arm. Adrian simply made a little smirk towards her and coyly said, "Go out with me and we'll see." Lydia was appalled at his request. "What? Are you crazy? No frigging way!" Adrian selected a page out of the book and began tugging on it as if he was meaning to tear it out of the bindings. "That's too bad. It looks like I'll just have too..." Suddenly a sharp pain in his right shin made him break his sentence and drop the journal. It was caught by little Prudence who promptly escaped behind her friends with the book clutched closely to her chest. "Ow. You little bitch! I'm really gonna put your nose in a book now." Adrian threatened when he was finished grabbing at his pained shin.

"It seems like you blokes are in need of another knuckle sandwich each." Ben's voice came from behind Adrian. When Adrian turned around to confront his adversary, he was greeted with a heap of tasteless sauce and phony meat substance. Adrian collapsed to the ground on his butt and the other two stood by to catch their leader. "Unfortunately, all I had was a Sloppy Joe." Ben then added to his earlier statement with a smirk on his face. The rest of the lunch room had seen the whole thing play out from when Adrian snatched the book from Lydia and began bursting out laughing. It seemed like Adrian now had both Sloppy Joe and egg on his face when he got up and ran from the laughing crowd of people, humiliated. José and Michael stood by and looked at each other for a few seconds before retreating themselves. "Now that's a couple of smart kids, there." Ben then admitted after watching them run away. "That was a right brave thing you did there, Prudence." Prudence simply stood behind Bertha continuing to hug the Angelic Journal clutched in her hands, saying nothing. "You'd better let her read the book now, Lydia. She won't let it go for the rest of the day." Bertha informed her. "Ok." Lydia trailed off with slight confusion. She then leaned down to speak with the now defensive Prudence. "Take good care of it for me, alright?" Lydia asked kindly. Prudence slowly nodded in agreement while continuing to hug the journal. She stayed defensive throughout the rest of the lunch period and barely ate anything. Ben was down his tasteless Sloppy Joe, but still had grapes, two percent milk, a stale roll, and something resembling baked beans on his plate.

The bell rang to end the school day and Prudence had finally settled down enough to place the journal in her back pack. "I'll take Prudence home, so she isn't constantly looking over her shoulder." Bertha said to Lydia and Ben. "Should I join? Ya might need my protection." Ben stated, worried about his friend's safety. "Is that alright?" Bertha asked Lydia. "What are you asking me for?" She retorted questionably. "It's not like he's my brother or anything. It does sound like a good idea though." "I'll just have ta explain to me gramps the situation." Ben stated. Lydia then suddenly noticed Adrian, José, and Michael emerge from the front doors of the school. "Speak of the devil, I think we all should get moving now." Lydia mentioned while motioning with her head in the direction of the bullies. The rest of them turned toward where Lydia had motioned at and also noticed the bullies looking for them. "Let's go this way." Prudence finally said with her voice close to a whisper. She pointed toward the direction of her house and began leading her friends to possible safety.

They made it across the street from the school when Adrian's voice could be heard yelling, "There they are! This way guys!" "Prudence, how far is it to your house from here?" Ben asked worried for his safety and health. "Too far." Prudence answered just as worried. "Put the book in your back pack and guard it with your life." Lydia ordered, stepping in front to attempt to protect her friends. The bullies continued on with their pursuit of their targets, intent on "getting even" with them. Lydia tried standing her ground to no avail. She wasn't able to wear the spider silk in the Outerworld and that left her vulnerable. Thoughts began running through her head. Thoughts like, "Can I endure their beating after just surviving being poisoned?" as well as, "What will happen if he hits me hard enough? Can I handle his punch even in peak condition?" She would soon find out, as Ben darted in front of her to head the bullies off before reaching them, however, he was soon confronted by José.

"You got the jump on me last time, hombre. But now, I'm ready to fight you." José claimed. The two raised their fists to defend themselves and then began circling each other. All the while Michael and Adrian continued on to the girls. "Prudence." Lydia turned her gaze to her miniature friend with a look of worry and a twinge of fear, "Run!" Prudence hesitated at first, worrying for her friends who were protecting her. "Get out of here and go home, Prudence!" Lydia shouted. If nothing else, Prudence fled out of a sense of fear. Lydia then turned toward Bertha, "Protect her till she gets home, Ok?" Frightened and confused, Bertha slowly nodded and turned to follow her lifelong friend. In an attempt to at least slow them down, Lydia removed the backpack from her back and began spinning it by the straps. When it gained enough momentum, she hurled it at Adrian, who avoided the bag easily. However, it struck Michael in the face and he toppled to the ground, on his back. 'It's a good thing that the science book weighs around fifty pounds by itself' Lydia thought to herself. Just then Adrian snagged the sides of her school uniform at the kidneys and tackled Lydia to the ground. Lying on her back and seemingly helpless, Lydia kicked and thrashed to get the large bully off of her. He instead, put more pressure on the place at where he gripped her uniform. The fabric pulled tightly against the skin of her stomach and pressed in like the back side of a knife. Pain shot through her body as she screamed out as if she was being cut open while alive and not sedated. "Not so tough are ya now? Hun, girlie?" Adrian said, feeling the rush of complete dominance flow through him. He tugged harder on her uniform until the buttons began popping off, one by one, until he exposed her light violet bra, and even then he pressed down as hard as he could on her shoulders to keep her pinned.

During all of this, Ben was feeling both the pain from Lydia's fight and his own as well as Lydia feeling the pain of every punch and kick Ben received. Ben's fight wasn't easy at all. Apparently, José had spent his life training to be a pro mixed martial arts fighter and had finally gotten used to timing Ben's strikes. Ben was beginning to slow down from the pain of all of the punches and also was distracted by the pain he felt from Lydia's fight as well. José came in with a left cross punch and Ben was too tired to dodge within a few minutes of the fight. When the punch connected, Ben's head whipped around as his body followed. He lost his balance and almost blacked out before he even hit the ground.

Lydia, still in pain from the pressure Adrian was placing on her shoulders witnessed her guardian ghost collide with the ground and refuse to get back up. Suddenly, she felt, and heard her shoulders pop backward and the intense pain made her let out a blood curdling scream. Tears began rolling down her cheeks as the pain lingered and even intensified as Adrian leaned in, placing even more pressure on her dislocated shoulders, and whispered in her ear, "This is going to be fun...for me anyways."

José looked down at Ben with a slightly concerned expression and said to him, "Your heart just wasn't in it, man. I thought you were stronger than that." His words weren't meant to mock Ben in his beaten form but to try to encourage him to rise once more. Ben simply grunted, "You get your 'thug' off of my friend and you'll see a real fight." José looked on at Adrian only to watch him place his face so close to the girl's that he might as well be kissing her neck. "Adrian!" José called to him, appalled and sickened. "What are you doing man? It wasn't supposed to go this far." "Shut up José! I know what I'm doing." Adrian demanded with a mean and possessive tone. The Spanish boy watched in horror as his so-called-friend began molesting a sixteen year old girl. Unable to move her arms, Lydia was nearly helpless and with Adrian controlling the situation, she could only hope that her guardian ghost would rise to his feet and rescue her before she was violated.

A good swift kick to Adrian's face was what it took to get him off of Lydia. But the kick didn't come from either Ben or José. Apparently Michael had gotten up from Lydia's assault, and witnessed Adrian doing that to Lydia. With a bloody nose he reared back his leg and swung it upward as hard as he could, connecting it to Adrian's face, right in between the eyes. Adrian lost consciousness the moment Michael's foot collided with his face and was thrown back and off of Lydia. After the tension subsided, both Michael and José stood where they were, Michael to Lydia's left, and José just a few feet in front of Ben, both staring at the ground in shame of their friend's actions. It was so quiet, you could hear the sound of the gentle gusts of wind as they danced by gracefully.

Finally José broke the silence, "You can get up amigo. Take your friend to the hospital to get her arms fixed up. We'll take Adrian home and give him a good taking to, ya know." Woozy and barely able to see straight, Ben stood up to lift Lydia to her feet. Suddenly a white Toyota sedan whipped around the corner as José and Michael began dragging Adrian off. The sedan pulled around and Prudence's mother quickly opened the driver side door with a genuinely worried look on her face. "Are you two alright? Prudence told me that her friends were in trouble. So I came to break up the fighting." She exclaimed before noticing that Lydia's shirt was torn open. "Oh, goodness, are you alright dear. They didn't hurt you did they?" Lydia was still in too much pain to answer her outright, so she simply looked at Ben with a weary look of always present pain and sadness written in her eyes. "Her shoulders are dislocated, miss. We need to get her to the hospital quickly." He answered for her.

The ride to the hospital was like most of her trips to the hospital, rushed and quick. The scenery flew by when she gazed out of the window. The only difference this time was that the wounds weren't self inflicted. She had stopped doing things like that when she met an inspiring short lived friend in Oregon named James. He taught her that life was worth living to the very end and was soon parted when she moved away. The last she remembered hearing of him was that he started working at becoming a police officer when he was shot in the back by a local gang banger. He survived the attack but she never heard from him since. She returned to her reality when the sedan came to a gentle stop in a parking space at the emergency entrance of the hospital. It was pretty decent for a small town like Peaceful Pines, and probably had a decent amount of money donated into it. Lydia was rather impressed as she gazed painfully at the bright red and white rectangular building adorned with clear bluish glass windows. With her still unable to move her arms very well, Ben and Prudence's mother helped her out of the car and into a wheelchair and wheeled to the nurse at the front desk, where Prudence's mother explained the situation. Lydia was then rushed through a series of similar doors and into an operation room where the doctors put her to sleep with a sedative.

Ben was also being looked at and gave the nurses a hard time by squirming around and causing a ruckus. In the end, the nurses decided to simply place ice packs on his swollen areas and patch up his wounds. Prudence's mother dialed out to her daughter. "Honey, it's mom. Do you have a phone number for me to call your friends' parents?" She asked. Prudence proceeded by giving her the phone number for Lydia's parents. "Thanks honey. I'll swing by and pick you and Bertha up to visit your friend when she comes out of surgery." Prudence's mom said. "Surgery!" Prudence gasped loudly into the phone. "Yes, the girl's shoulders were both dislocated, the doctors are just going to put them back into place. I'm going to call their parents to tell them of the situation. What was the phone number of the boy's parents?" Prudence could only answer with what information Ben had divulged to her. "He lives with his grandfather in the woods near the town. Apparently, the old man doesn't believe in telephones." She answered. "Oh, well that's certainly different. I guess we'll just have to try and locate him the hard way then." Prudence's mother surmised. "There'll be no need for that." Ben stated after approaching the woman. She nearly jumped out of her skin from being startled by the reckless boy. "Sorry about that miss. Didn't mean to startle ya." He said bashfully. "What do you mean that it won't be necessary?" Prudence's mom asked while Prudence was still on the other line listening. "Me grandpa will find out when I get back home. I can tell him then. I just don't want you worrying him into a heart attack." Mrs. Copperton thought about it for a short while and assumed that the boy knew what he was doing. "Alright Ben, but I'm dropping you off near the forest. Is that clear?" Ben looked at her slightly uncomfortable then he finally answered, "Crystal."

It was some time till Lydia left surgery and Ben was feeling every cut the doctors placed onto Lydia's body. By now, Delia and Charles arrived at the hospital to see if their daughter was alright. Ben looked at them in shame for his defeat. "I'm sorry Mr. and Mrs. Deetz. I wasn't able to protect Lydia this time." "You little..." Delia began in an emotional rage. "Easy, Delia. It's not his fault. He tried." Charles tried to calm down his wife. "Tell me what happened." The words that left his mouth were serious in tone and demanding in feel. His eyebrows were lowered in frustration of his powerlessness and anxiety. Ben looked at Charles and shamefully began recounting the events that occurred. While Prudence and her mother sat in the chairs as close as they could get to the operating room without leaving the lobby area. Prudence was reading the Angelic Journal that Lydia entrusted to her just to see why Lydia would hesitate to loan it to her. Half of the things written in the journal hardly made sense to her. Something about a red cloak called the spider silk and writings about its mysterious origin and different studies on its capabilities and powers. She read about how at one point the spider silk had the power to create blades of light in its wielder's hands and another time when it caused the wielder to enter a state of raw uncontrolled rage and power. Most of the abilities written in it were so erratic that it was difficult to make proper sense of it. She even read in a particular entry that the spider silk even gave its third wielder the ability to fly at high speeds. 'This doesn't even seem like a regular book at all. It's like it's a research journal.' Prudence thought to herself still engrossed in the books contents. Still trying to make sense out of the words written on the pages she closed the book again and started reading back from page one.

Just then the nurse came back out to speak with the party that brought in Lydia. Prudence's focus was interrupted the moment she heard her friend's name and made her way to the group of parents speaking to the nurse. "She's going to be alright. I suggest she take her activities easy and nothing rigorous for the next few weeks. She'll also have to go through some exercises to maintain her arm movements just to be sure." Was what the nurse had to say. "Can we go see her?" Prudence blurted out. The nurse looked at the tiny girl slightly surprised and then answered, she's sedated for now, but I think it's alright. Follow me."

The nurse led them back toward one of the many rooms for their patients on the second floor of the building. There, lying in a hospital bed in the room numbered two hundred and fourteen was Lydia. She was wearing a light blue hospital gown and had bandages wrapped around her shoulders, the bed sheets covering her up to her breast line. She was sleeping peacefully and breathing as if there was no pain. Both Charles and Delia nearly broke down to merely see Lydia in the hospital. Ben, however, actually began to silently cry from the torment he knew she went through. He stood there and shut his eyes to try and blot out the images running through his head as tears welled up more than he could contain and they ran down his cheeks while he clenched his fists tightly, keeping them down at his sides. She wasn't hooked up to any life supporting machines, though you would have thought she was by their initial reactions. She finally began to stir and let out a small groan, alerting all of her inevitable awakening.

Lydia's eyes slowly opened and she blinked a few times as she regained enough consciousness to be aware of herself. She first allowed her eyes to adjust to the light before looking around at her strange surroundings. She found herself in a small room filled with monitoring equipment that she recognized. The events of the fight still fresh in her mind, she began to wonder where Ben was and if Prudence had made it home safely. She was alone in the room and she was pretty certain that she had woken up more than three times during her sedation and probably displayed some crude and humorously embarrassing behavior. She looked around the room to find something that could tell her exactly where she was and what day it was. Eventually she found a small dry erase board with the words "Lydia Deetz", "Shoulder Dislocation", and "Wednesday" written on it. A set of numbers underneath the word "Tuesday" told her that it was the eighteenth day of September. Lydia plopped her head back onto her pillow and sighed, "Less than a day, huh." She looked over to her left arm and noticed the needle strapped to it injecting doses of pain killer into her blood system every now and then. She began to think to herself about the events that happened so far and the valuable help of her guardian ghost so far. 'Maybe it's time I forgave him completely?' She thought to herself. 'He's probably at school right now.' She smiled and slightly chuckled to herself. She felt a sharp pain shoot through her shoulders and down her arms as she did so and cringed at the sensation.

Back at school, Ben sat at his desk fidgeting with his pencil, worried sick about Lydia's predicament until he felt the pain of a needle shoot through both his arms. 'Lydia must be awake.' He thought to himself. He had been meaning to desperately apologize for being so weak the other day. He also had about two days worth of homework and studying for Lydia to do. He knew that Bertha and Prudence were probably worried about her as well, but telling them on a simple feeling may make things overly complicated. He decided to keep his mouth shut and make an effort to keep their spirits up.

When lunch time approached, Ben was once again approached by Claire Brewster. "So, where's Lydia today, huh?" She asked coyly. Ben simply looked away from the snotty blonde girl and answered honestly. "She's in the hospital." He answered. Claire's eyes widened from the shock of that news and she instinctively asked, "Why? What happened?" Ben looked around slightly surprised at Claire's reaction. "Adrian dislocated her shoulders. Why are you so worried?" He quizzically responded. Claire snapped to her reality as she made a desperate attempt to salvage her prissy reputation. "I, uh, was just curious. So, now that she's out of the picture, you wanna take me to the Spirit Week dance next Friday?" She soon ate her words as Ben got upset at the way she disregarded the injury of another. "Look Claire, Lydia was the first friend I ever made since I got here. I'd actually prefer to take her. She actually gives a shit about people other than herself. Now beat it!" Mentally kicking herself Claire reacted in the only way she knew how, "Fine see if I care from now on. You didn't have to be a dick about it." After returning harsh words with harsh words, she grabbed Ben by the shoulder, turned him around and slapped him in the face. The same side that still was sore from José's punch. And then she stormed off out of the lunch room to cool herself down. As she left, Ben gave off a pained shriek that shattered both eardrums of Bertha and Prudence.

She stormed all of the way back to her locker, which happened to be only three doors to the right of Lydia's. Claire found herself slightly nostalgic thinking about the new girl. Gazing up at the numbers of Lydia's locker, which were two hundred and thirty seven, Claire mentally kicked herself for acting the way she did, and she then leaned in and rested her forehead against Lydia's locker and silently cried to herself. "Why did I slap him?" She asked herself out loud. "What's so special about you, Lydia? He never even notices my advances around you. Even when you aren't around he thinks about you."

While Claire was brooding over herself, Bertha sat in her seat feeling sorry for the poor girl. "She was just trying to cheer you up, you know? She has the biggest crush on you." She said to Ben while drinking her milk through a drinking straw. She gave Ben a look of disappointment and irritation. Still slightly irritated, Ben huffed and began thinking about the way Lydia might handle a situation like that. "Just go and apologize to her and I'm pretty sure that she may apologize back." Bertha added to her earlier statement. "Get off me back." Ben huffed at her. "Look, she's my friend too, ya know. And Claire seemed more upset then angry, anyway." Bertha retorted. "Ever since she's been in the hospital, you've been an ass." Prudence nervously said. Somehow, that caused Ben to reflect on the words he said to Claire. He buried his face into his arms in shame and thought about how he could find the blond girl. Suddenly, the bell rang. Effectively ending the lunch period and the two girls got up and started making their way to their next class. Ben then solemnly stood up and emptied his lunch tray into the nearest trash can before heading to his own class. Suddenly, it clicked in, 'Claire shares English class with Lydia and I. I can apologize to her before class starts.' He thought to himself, and then hurried to the English class.

Alas, he waited till he could see Claire walk in through the door, but it never happened. Then teacher began role call and Claire apparently was marked absent. Now Ben was worried about Claire. 'What's going on? She never misses class, no matter how much I reject her.' He thought to himself. 'I have to go find her.' He thrust his hand upward to catch the teacher's attention. "Yes, Ben? What is it?" "I need to head to the lavatory. It's an emergency." He blurted out in a slight lie. "Fine," The teacher, a graying, wrinkled seventy three year old man that freakishly resembled Einstein. "But, take care of it before class next time." He added. Ben simply responded, "Yes sir", and dashed to grab the hall pass and hurry to find Claire.

He found the girl in the same place she came too when she left. A small feeling led Ben to Lydia's locker and he saw her there, she had apparently dropped to her knees and continued sobbing away, her fists against Lydia's locker, her cheeks stained with tears and her makeup ruined form all of the crying. He silently crept up to her and gently placed his left hand on her right shoulder. She jumped from the shock of the sudden feeling and found that Ben had come to comfort her. Relieved and somewhat still angry at herself, she dropped her arms to the linoleum floor and stared at the ground just in front of her knees.

"Look, I'm sorry for yelling at you during lunch." He solemnly said to her in a near whisper. Her eyes opened nearly all the way when she heard him apologize first. He was gazing at the floor just in front of the lockers in shame and defeat. "I'm just worried for Lydia and, in a way, I blame me self for not being able to protect her as a friend." He turned his gaze back to Claire to finish his apology, "I shouldn't have taken it out on you like that." Claire looked at Lydia's locker once again before saying in her own near whisper, "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have said those things the way that I did. I didn't mean any disrespect to her, I'm just used to having all of the attention, I guess. I really was concerned when you told me she was in the hospital. I'm probably just over conscious about my stupid reputation, I guess." "I'll take you to the Spirit Dance if you tell me your story." Ben blurted out. Surprise caught Claire by the hair and whipped her head back to look at the Australian boy in shock. "What about..." Claire began to ask. Ben interrupted her with, "Don't you worry about Lydia. I'm sure she'll understand if I tell her the truth." Claire then smiled the gentlest smile he had seen from her since arriving in the Outerworld, and then said somewhat coyly, "We'll see Ben." Satisfied with that answer, Ben stood up and extended his hand to Claire, offering to help her up. "Shall I escort you to English class miss?" He asked her in a gentlemanly tone. She took his hand and allowed him to gently pull her up to her feet and they walked, as friends, back to the class room.

Later that day, Ben visited Lydia in the hospital. "Hey Ben. Good to see you." Lydia said still groggy. "Look, I think I need to finally forgive you for turning me in to Naria. If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't exist today." Ben solemnly responded in humility, "Yah, but if it wasn't for me, you probably wouldn't have had to go through all of that anyway." "Actually, I'd be still stuck in the Nietherworld being chased by sand soldiers and sand worms." Lydia reminded him. Ben simply smiled at his friend and finally said to her, "I'm taking Claire to the Spirit Week dance next Friday." Lydia simply shot her eyes open and shouted, "What?"

End of Episode 10