Chapter 25: The Map
"Gerald, I need your help!" Lydia shot into Gerald's apartment in a blinding, bright purple blast, knocking the poor man off of his feet and, in turn, scaring the daylights out of him.
"Oh! Lydia, what on earth is wrong?!" he gasped, as she stumbled over herself trying to help him to his feet.
"I can't exactly tell you, but it's urgent! I have to know where this is, and I have no idea how to read it! Can you help me, please?" she pleaded, holding the map up to his face with quivering hands.
"A-are you sure you're okay, Lydia?" he asked, dabbing at the sweat now forming on his brow with a handkerchief. "It's not that husband of yours is it? I heard what happened, and I've been worried about you ever since."
"I'll explain everything to you once I do this. Yes, it is him, but it has just as much to do with me. If I don't fix things, I'll be doomed for eternity! Please, Gerald!" she begged, wringing her hands in desperation.
Gerald sighed, his breath shaky. His face wore the expression of doubt and intense worry, but he hesitantly agreed, despite that fact. "Okay, Lydia." he swallowed, taking the map from her. "I'll help."
Beetle coughed, wiping a hand over his grimy forehead. "The fuck am I doin' here?" he wrinkled up his face in confusion, seeing nothing but strange, black waves lapping at the shores around him. The sky was purple and red with the coming of dusk, and he was stranded, alone and still without his precious powers. There was no telling what his scorned wife had in store for him. He figured she was most likely keeping his ass in one place until she notified the fuzz of his whereabouts.
"Double-crossin' little wench..." he muttered bitterly, too weak to even juice himself a smoke. "Remind me never to to get married again." he growled, his voice thick with resentment. The nerve of that little hag! All he wanted was to be hitched to her, since he'd had no more of a choice in the matter, and not only had she tap danced on his balls all along the road to their blessed union, she ultimately decided to have him euthanized as well!
"No wonder I never trusted women." he groaned, standing on shaky legs and walking along the shore, his hands in his pockets.
Beetlejuice knew he was a shitty poltergeist to be married to, but hell, he'd actually tried with Lydia. He tried hard, too. And what did it get him? A one way ticket out of existence, in the end. He'd been such a terrible asshole in the past that she'd never been truly able to get over it, especially since every asshat she'd come across tried to talk her out of being with him.
Maybe he was too much, even for the likes of someone like Lydia Juice. Of course, he wasn't going to feel sorry for himself over it. No. He'd gladly misdirect his rage at whoever he felt like, and call it a day. So far, he felt like raging at Lydia, so that was just what he'd do. It was her fault for putting the ring on, her fault for being a wishy-washy, fence-sitting little optimist, and it was her fault he was going to be turned into a big blob of ectoplasmic shit! "Yeah, thats better." he straightened himself, refusing to succumb to soft, weepy feelings about his fate.
He was alone, but hell, he'd been alone for centuries. "The B-man don't need nobody else, anyways." he proclaimed, straightening his dirty, striped jacket. He then looked about himself, feeling leary of his surroundings. "A' course, the B-man could use a little hidin' spot right about now..." he said, his eyes locking on the jungle in the distance.
Lydia watched with baited breath, as Gerald scratched his chin, eyeing the map he'd tacked to the wall of his study, magnifying glass in hand. "This is truly remarkable..." he spoke, seeming in awe of the strange, cryptic symbols on the map. "It has the standard longitude and latitude that the maps of the living have, yet there are additional symbols. It looks as if there are two extra sets of coordinates that are used in the afterlife..." he mused, taking his pen out of his shirt pocket and scribbling the extra two confusing symbols on a notepad. "Hmmm..."
"So, what does that mean?" Lydia asked, stepping over his shoulder as he began to jot down notes and scribbles at his desk, though Gerald was far too into his work to notice.
An uneasy silence fell over his study, as Lydia looked away, feeling that sinking and hopeless feeling trickle back inside of her. What if Gerald couldn't help her? What if she truly was too late to right the situation in any way? Would she have to to help Beetlejuice hide from the authorities for the rest of eternity? Or would she simply have to avoid him forever? Was he truly doomed to be exorcised for good? If so, she'd be doomed to regret these moments for all of eternity. Lydia sighed, her breath shaky from her highly troubled state of mind.
"Ah-ha!" Gerald exclaimed, snapping his finger as he scribbled down a final note to himself, before standing and quickly searching through his book collection. He stopped his finger on the spine of his copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. He quickly opened the booked, and flipped through the pages, stopping when he found what he'd apparently been searching for. "I think I know what these mean..."
"What is it?!" Lydia gasped, stepping up to the book and hoping against hope that she still had a shot at fixing her afterlife.
"It reads a bit like a textbook, but right here it explains that there are different planes of existence in the afterlife. The Neitherworld is a sort of Limbo-like area, neither remarkably good, nor bad like a punishment. There is the Corporeal plane, and that is where we are now, and how I'm able to 'haunt' my area here, which is that of the living. There's also the Metaphysical plane, which is supposedly how ghosts travel and use their will in various planes. In living humans, it's merely thought and mind. Then there are various other planes, specific to belief systems and such, like Paradise and Torment, etcetera. The handbook says that the Metaphysical realm is the base for all other realms. It is the base number plane from which everything else forms." he explained, his eyes tracing over the words.
"What does all that mean?" Lydia questioned impatiently, wondering just where he was going with all that information.
"Good question, Lydia. I believe these strange symbols are actually directions. If you notice there are only two of them - a circular symbol and a cryptic line. Each one has a number beside it. I'm not exactly sure, but I believe that one means 'higher' and the other means 'lower'. If you notice, the longitude and latitude change respectively, but the symbols on the grid have the same value, each a base of zero. That tells me that it's quite possibly an area on the Metaphysical plane, which is the base plane. Neither up or down any level, but in the middle of all existence, or zero." he continued, pointing to the strange coordinates on her map.
"So I need to go there..." Lydia mused aloud, staring at the map intently.
"I'm not sure you can go there just from normal travel. How did you get the map from this place?" he questioned.
"I sort of traveled there with my mind. It's a thing I can do." Lydia replied. "But I need to get close, or...Something bad could happen to me..."she trailed off. "It was painful enough just finding this from so far away."
"Well, if you must..." Gerald sighed, taking a blank piece of paper and drawing an "X" in the middle of it. "Pretend that the Neitherworld is this whole sheet of paper. According to the coordinates, this 'X' is where you'll need to stand when you travel into that plane. But, do be careful, Lydia. Everytime I see you, your behaving more erratic and things are worse than the last time. I'm afraid that whatever mess Beetle has conjured up may bring you down with him in the end. Are you sure you have to do this, given its risky nature?"
"Yes, I'm positive. It's the only thing I think I can do. I don't know any other way." Lydia admitted, trying her best to cover up her fear of the unknown.
Gerald looked to her, his eyes deep with concern. "Are you sure you can't tell me what you're doing? Maybe someone should know."
"I'm sorry, Gerald. I can't." Lydia swallowed, fighting back the urge to give in to her desperate and fearful emotions.
He nodded, hanging his head in defeat. "Alright, Lydia." He stepped up to her grabbing her hand and cupping it in his own. "I know that if you say it's important, then you mean it. Just, please don't get yourself in too much trouble. I want to see you visit under better circumstances next time. And, please, let there be a next time."
"Thanks, Gerald. You're a good friend. I'm sorry I can't repay you for all you've done..." she smiled sadly, before slipping out of his reach, dissipating in thin air before he could find a way to talk her out of it.