A/N: Here's chapter ten!

I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter, but I know that there's nothing that can be done with it at the moment. It's been a long time since I've written anything climactic or action-y, so please excuse me. XD

I actually wrote this chapter after finishing chapter 4, so I had to go back and rewrite a lot of stuff, and I think that also contributed to this chapter's crappiness/anti-climactic-ness. I had to delete a lot of stuff that didn't work, because the story didn't turn out like that.

Buuuuuut… No matter. I hope you'll enjoy it, anyway:)

Tim Burton OWNS ALL.

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CHAPTER 10

A Sudden Snap

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Lydia held her cup with both hands, staring at the contents. The smile on her face was gigantic as she looked up at Beetlejuice, who sat beside her at their table, and who had dared her to drink it.

Last time she checked, they had added several beetles to a vanilla milkshake, plus water, salt, pepper, and some of that fake sugar stuff. It looked like someone had vomited into her glass.

"It's disgusting," she said, leaning forward. He laughed.

"Aww, come on, try it, babes!" he said, leaning towards her.

"Only if we go to that carnival," she said slyly.

"Only if you drink it all," Beetlejuice challenged, looking down his nose at her.

She debated for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, fine," she said.

"Yes!"

Without thinking twice, Lydia downed the disgusting drink. It was more like a pile of sludge than a milkshake now, crawling down her throat like it was alive. She tried not to let it touch her tongue, but it wasn't much use. It tasted something close to what she thought sewage would taste like, and she was quite literally battling her gag-reflex the whole time. Finally, after she had shaken the last drops out of the glass, she slammed it on the table and pumped her hands in the air triumphantly. Beetlejuice began cackling at her almost pained expression.

Lydia gagged, trying to laugh and chew her drink at the same time. Beetlejuice just laughed harder at her, leaned back with his arms wrapped around himself. She tried her hardest not to laugh, but it was no use, so she tried to quickly swallow what remained in her mouth as Beetlejuice gasped for air; every time he saw her expression he started laughing again.

"BJ, quit it!" she laughed through a mouth full of bugs, slapping his arm, "If you make me laugh too hard, I'll throw up in your lap!"

"Alright, alright, babes!" he giggled, inching away from her, wiping his cheeks with his hands.

She swallowed with a tremendous amount of effort, sticking her tongue out in disgust. "How can you like those things, Beetlejuice?" she asked, grimacing.

He leaned back, hiking one leg up onto the seat. He picked a beetle up and examined it. "How can you not?" he asked, and tossed it into his mouth.

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Beetlejuice followed Lydia along the boardwalk. She could feel his restlessness in the way he held her hand. All these unknowing people! They could all be victims of such great pranks! She tried to ignore it, but not to much avail.

He moved closer to her, more by her side than behind her. "Babes, look!" he said, gesturing forward to someone looking out to the sea. They were leaning precariously far over the railing. "Just a snap of the fingers, and he'd be over that thing!" He shuddered with desire, almost danced. She half-turned and grabbed his other hand, pulling him in front of her. He began walking backwards, facing her.

"BJ, you can't," she said, "I know that as soon as you do, you'll just want to keep doing it." He grimaced, knowing she was right. She glared at him with the most serious expression she could manage.

He looked straight up, at the sky. Daaaaaaaarn iiiiiiiiiiiiiit. He couldn't take it. He had to, he'd gone so long without pranking anyone. He spun them both around and ran forward, ramming her into the railing. She squealed in shock.

"BJ, what're you--?!" He twisted one of his hands free and half-turned, sending a shock of electricity straight across the boardwalk. The man he'd been eyeing earlier was lifted from his spot and tossed into the ocean.

Beetlejuice laughed. Lydia's panicked, but the way he had her pinned made it impossible to move. He paused as though that was actually the only one he'd do. And then something in his eyes changed; he looked hungrier, a little bit insane, as if something in his mind had suddenly snapped.

Without a word, he turned a little farther and sent a shock to a person who was staring into an old cannon. The cannon suddenly exploded with a gigantic spray of water, absolutely drenching whoever happened to be in the way. He finally turned around the other way and sent a bolt at the rollercoaster, which was quick to take on a much crazier shape, full of countless nauseating loops and twists. Lydia shrieked.

"Beetlejuice, stop it!" she screamed, twisting and kicking at him. He began cackling and dissolved into a puddle on the spot. She watched the striped puddle ooze over to an empty spot on the boardwalk. "Beej!!" She followed it, standing over it, willing him to materialize so she could give him the slapping he deserved. "Be--"

But before she could say anything, the puddle suddenly erupted into a gigantic carousel-type thing, with her sitting on top. She screamed, suddenly finding herself twenty feet off the ground. Beetlejuice's insane cackling echoed down the dock; everyone turned to stare at the bizarre black-and-white thing that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Beetlejuice, listen to me!" she screamed, "Stop it! You'll be thrown to the Sandworms!"

She slid off the top of the carousel-thing and landed on the boardwalk with a loud, violent thud. She pushed herself up and looked up at what had once been Beetlejuice. What had once been his two arms, now two long, snake-like tentacles, were traveling along the boardwalk, doing rather rude things to the people who were trying to get away, as well as breaking anything in sight. One of the tents spontaneously caught fire, causing her to jump.

"Stop it!" she screamed again, "You're hurting people!" She ran around to the front of the carousel and watched him. The only sounds were his guffawing and the guests' screaming. She covered her face for a moment, groaning angrily, unaware of one of Beetlejuice's arms wrapping around her leg. She screamed in horror when she was hoisted into the air.

Instead of being dropped into the water, however, she was lifted to face him upside-down. "Beetlejuice!" she screamed, her tone suddenly rather like a stern, angry mother, "Put me down right now!"

Slowly but surely, he began shrinking back to his original size. She was dropped on the boardwalk again, and she immediately stood up to find him standing awkwardly in front of her with his hands in his pockets, slouched forward, pigeon-toed.

She clenched her hands into fists, grinding her teeth together before slapping him as hard as she could across the face. He did nothing to stop her. "You idiot!" she screamed, "Judge Mental is going to go crazy when he finds out about this!!"

"But, babes, he--"

"You're not going to get any second chances, Beetlejuice!" she interrupted, "That's what this was!" She pointed to the ring on her left finger. After glaring at him for another moment, she spun around, striding away, tugging at her hair.

It made her sick to think about it, that he could be thrown to the Sandworms. Suddenly she bumped into something. She looked up, even though she already knew who it was. Beetlejuice stared down at her with a bitterly apologetic look on his face. "Babes, I--"

She shoved him away. "I don't care, BJ. It doesn't matter, anyway. People will hear about this soon, and then who knows what'll happen."

He shuddered. He stepped forward and grabbed her arms. She didn't look at him until he forced her to. "Babes, I'm sorry," he said.

She wrinkled her nose angrily and jerked her head away. She sniffed. "Sorry won't work on Mayor Maynot! Sorry won't work on Judge Mental! They were just waiting for you to slip-up like this!" She shook her head, pulling away from him and continuing on her way towards the hotel. Beetlejuice followed her like a puppy.

"I really think you're overreacting!" he tried.

She said nothing.

"Babes, please. You can't leave me to face Judge Mental alone!" he pleaded. She spun around.

"Why can't I?" she snapped, "I'm not the one who will have to explain. I tried to stop you. Maybe you deserve this!"

Neither of them moved; they just stood there and stared at each other. Finally she swallowed.

"Beej… I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't mean that."

"Nah, it's alright," he said, although he did not look like it was 'alright'. "Maybe you're right, I'll probably be thrown to the Sandworms! But you know, Lyds? I realized something in the week I've been married to you."

He grabbed her shoulders and shook her back and forth a bit. "I realized how utterly in love with you I am," he said, "I realized that maybe being married to my best bud isn't so bad. I realized that sharing my bed with you is possibly the most wonderful thing I've ever done. And… I've really liked spending all this time with you, despite all the crappy things that have happened to us…" He said nothing more after that. She was too afraid, for one reason or another, to look at him. He let go of her and walked away with his hands in his pockets, leaving Lydia standing there alone, feeling rather like an idiot.

She wrapped her arms around herself and stared at him. He didn't turn back once as he headed towards the beach, and as his familiar striped suit got farther and farther away she felt a horrible feeling in her chest, as though someone had taken a match and lit her heart on fire. After a moment, she turned around and continued towards the hotel.

It startled her how loud the slam of the door was when she closed it, and how angry she sounded when she screamed at the empty room, and how much it annoyed her that she couldn't dam up her tears. She stayed curled in a little ball on the floor of the tub as the shower ran, and she stayed in that little ball position while she lay in the coffin-bed, sniffling and wiping her nose.

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Beetlejuice opened the door to the hotel room and stepped inside. It was obvious from the silence that Jacques, Ginger and Donny weren't there.

"Hello?" he asked, "Babes? You in here?"

His question was answered when he turned the corner into their bedroom and saw her curled up in the coffin, a big thick robe covering her. He walked over to her and kneeled down beside her, shaking her awake.

"BJ?" she mumbled, lifting her head a bit.

"Babes," he said.

She rubbed her eyes and sat up, hugging herself. "Beej, I'm sorry," she whispered, "I didn't mean what I said back there." He yanked off his boots, then climbed into the coffin. She watched him, a bit miserably, until she was encircled by his arms and hugged so tightly she thought her ribs might break. He lay down and took her with him. He laughed a bit, but said nothing. She studied the ring on her finger, then looked up at him. She snuggled into him, closing her eyes. "BJ, what are we going to do? I can't let you get thrown to the Sandworms."

"I'm still workin' on that, babes," he said nervously, "I've gotta have a really good story, or there's a really slim chance I'm getting out of this alive… well… dead… and alive…"

She stared at him sadly for a moment, then leaned forward, pressing her lips against his. She felt him stroke her hair gently, his hand resting on her cheek. He leaned forward, slipping his hand under her robe, but she pulled it away, looking apologetically at him.

"Beej, not right now," she mumbled, "Remember yesterday?"

"… Right…"

After a moment, she undid the buttons of his jacket and the first few of his shirt, then pulled his tie off. She hugged him tightly, sighing.

"Uhm… I love you," she said awkwardly. But she did, so she figured she'd get the truth out there in the open.

He said nothing for a moment. He put his arms around her and readjusted himself so that they were both comfortable, then (Against that little voice in his head who resisted all the lovey-dovey crap) mumbled, "Love you, too, babes."

And they both fell asleep.

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Whew! We've only got one more chapter to go (And then an epilogue)!

Hope you've enjoyed it this far. We're almost through!

-Skellagirl