"Lydia! Breakfast is ready!"
There was a groan, some rustling of blood red bed sheets, and then a mop of black hair jerked out from under the blanket.
Lydia yawned, slowly sitting up on the mattress and rubbing the crust out of her eyes. The only light source in the room was a sliver of sunlight beaming in through a crack in the blackout curtain drawn over the large window.
The girl sighed and threw off the blanket, a chill running through her. The only thing she was wearing was a light gray T-shirt and a pair of thin, baggy pants. She crawled to the edge of the mattress and scooped up a black and gray striped sweatshirt, pulling it over her head.
Lydia quickly ran haphazard hands through her hair, wincing when she got to a particularly gnarled spot in it. She had been wanting a haircut for a long time, but her father had liked it long, and had never allowed her to cut it past the middle of her back.
An entirely new chill entered her body at the thought of her father. She hadn't seen or heard from him for almost two months, ever since her Mom had ran into the apartment with a taser and whisked her away to Middle-of-Nowhere, Connecticut.
Lydia knew that her mother had acted accordingly. She also knew her father was a walking piece of shit. Yet she still missed the apartment she grew up in, the noisy atmosphere of waking up in the middle of the city, with the sound of cars honking and the smell of distant cigarette smoke to wake up to.
Now, her mornings were mostly filled with the pleasant sound of songbirds and the smell of whatever all-american breakfast Barbara had cooked up.
The girl stretched her arms up, smiling when she heard the satisfying 'pop'. She sighed and reluctantly placed her feet on the chilled wood floor, pushing herself up from her mattress on the ground.
Once properly standing, she looked back at the ratty mattress with contempt. Almost everything else in her room had already been set up. She had a glossy black desk pushed into the far corner by the window, where she frequently pulled out a sketchbook and drew whatever came to mind. Then, on the wall right in front of her, was the huge vanity that Adam had insisted he make by himself. All things considered, the drawers worked well and it had few imperfections. Other than the light purple colour he had painted on it. Lydia could live without that. The closet beside her was still too empty for her mother's taste, but only consisted of a large selection of neutral colours, with the occasional dark red or navy blue scattered inside.
The one thing that she needed, but seemed to be taking forever, was her bed frame. They had all taken a day to look through furniture magazines, and she had immediately fallen in love with one of the bed frames. It sat low to the ground, painted glossy black with a red sheen, and the bed posts came to sharp points at the top. The headboard was shaped like a triangle, with two small shelves near the side.
It was perfect, and she refused to look at any of the other options her Mom or the Maitlands presented to her. So, it was ordered, and was set to come in a week.
It had now been three weeks, and Lydia was still sleeping on a mattress on the floor.
"Lydia! You're breakfast is getting cold!" Adam called from downstairs. Lydia broke out of her frustrated train of thought and made her way through the dark hallway and down the creaking stairs.
As she got closer to the bottom she smelled eggs and some kind of sizzling meat, which meant Barbara was making burned omelets again. There was also the faint residue of coffee, which meant her mother must have gotten off to an early morning.
She entered the kitchen and, sure enough, Barbara was messing around on the stove with black chunks of egg on a plate beside her while Adam hummed a soft tune, reading through the newspaper on the table.
He looked up with a bright smile as she walked through the doorway. "Mornin', Lydia! How'd you sleep? We didn't hear any nightmares last night. That's a good sign, right?"
Lydia scowled and took up the seat across from Adam where her mother usually sat. Adams' smile dimmed a bit, but he just shrugged and continued to read.
When she first realized that the two were ghosts, Lydia thought little of it other than it was weird they knew her and her mother seemed to know them. After all, she had been able to see the dead for as long as she could remember.
Lydia learned a lesson very early in life what happens when you talk to invisible people in public, however, which is why she never told anyone. Not even her Mom.
The only one who knew of her gift was the nice old lady who had recently died in the apartment across from theirs, and would occasionally come to visit Lydia during the Bad Times.
So, when her Mom had explained to her that the Maitlands were ghosts, she thought nothing of it. Thought it would be cool, even, to actually live with them.
What she didn't anticipate was the almost total lack of privacy when it came to Adam, and especially Barbara. It was nice that they wanted to get to know Lydia and make up for time they had missed, but that thoughtfulness was pushed to the back of Lydia's mind after she realized it meant they wanted to be around her twenty four seven.
The only reprieve she got from them seemed to be in the bathroom and the moments right before sleep and right after she woke up.
Lydia appreciated their efforts, she really did, but she barely knew the couple. It had only been about a month and a half since they moved in, and that was not nearly enough time to generate the level of affection that the Maitlands were giving her.
That's how Lydia saw it, anyway. It took time to build relationships, and they were acting as if they had known each other for years. It was exhausting.
"Ha!" Barbara cried triumphantly, sliding a still mostly egg omelet out of the pan and onto a plate. With a flourish, she spun with the plate in her hand, plopping it down right in front of Lydia. "Breakfast is served, little lady!"
"Uh, thanks, Barbara." Lydia replied, feeling a tad guilty when she saw Barbara deflate at her monotonous tone. The woman turned back to the stove and silently got back to work on another omelet. What for, Lydia wasn't quite sure, as her mother seemed to be gone and Lydia never ate much for breakfast.
"So, Lydia, we have a job for you today." Adam probed, putting down the newspaper and fixing his attention squarely on Lydia. She was in the middle of a bite and quickly swallowed the rest, scrunching her nose at the small aftertaste of charcoal.
"Yeah?" Lydia asked, hopping off the chair and making her way over to the cabinet to get a glass and filling it with water.
Adam hummed an affirmative. "You see, your Mom went out early this morning to shop for some paints and some new chairs for the dining room." Lydia nodded in agreement to that, as the small wooden chairs they had now hurt after awhile. She took a sip of water and made her way back to the table to finish her omelet. "And she has been talking about maybe clearing up the basement space to make more room for any hobbies you might have."
"Really?" Lydia asked, eyes wide. She never got her own space other than her own bedroom. Her mind drifted, a small smile coming to her face as she thought of all she could do with it.
Barbara looked back at Lydia's face and giggled. "Yes, dear, but first we need to clean it out. And, well..." she drifted off awkwardly, looking to Adam for assistance.
"Uh, we would love to help her out and do something nice, but we can't really...stomach going into the basement." he finished, averting his gaze back to the newspaper. Lydia tilted her head, scrutinizing their odd behavior, before it finally clicked.
Her eyes widened and she cleared her throat. "Um, yeah, I'll go start cleaning it out." Lydia quickly grabbed the plate with the half eaten omelet on it along with her glass, placing it on the counter near the sink. She was desperate to get out of the tenseness that had appeared in the kitchen.
"Oh, alright. Let me show you where the entrance is at least-"
"That's okay! I know where it is!" Lydia interrupted, brushing past a slightly surprised Adam and Barbara to get to the doorway.
She sped down the hallway towards the chipped door, only slowing when she saw that they didn't follow her. Lydia let out a breath and relaxed. She looked up and down at the door, frowning at the debilitated state of it. Surely Adam, who always likes to fix things, wouldn't have willingly left it like this?
Then she remembered once again why she got out of the kitchen so fast and shivered. This is where they died. Of course they wouldn't want to go down there or have anything to do with the space.
Lydia reached towards the cool iron doorknob and slowly pulled it open, coughing when she was assaulted by a gust of pure dust. She waved it away and peered into the dark staircase. She looked, but didn't see any light switch.
This would be her first time in the basement. She had always known it was there, and had been somewhat curious what it looked like down there, but she simply never got the chance to explore.
The first step down groaned loudly under her weight. It gave Lydia a moment of pause, because if the old wood was straining under only about fifty pounds, was it safe to go the rest of the way? In the dark, no less?
Taking a deep breath, she decided to go for it. Leaving the door open, she went as fast as she could, wincing at every creak and groan. Finally she reached the bottom, and waved around blindly for a light to turn on.
Her hand bumped against a metal chain, and she eagerly grasped onto it and pulled. The light was almost unnaturally bright in the darkness, and her eyes took a moment to adjust.
"Woah..." she breathed, her eyes now taking in what she could see from her spot near the staircase. It was a lot bigger than she thought it would be, and filled with an amalgamation of boxes and clutter.
Her feet were chilled on the hard concrete floor, but her eyes were ravenously looking over everything as her legs took her deeper into the mess.
Despite not even being able to see the walls, Lydia could tell that the room was just one, large space. It was so big that the one light at the doorway wasn't enough to fully light the room to the back wall.
Lydia buzzed with energy, itching to look through all the old, decrepit things. Enthralled, she almost shrieked when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.
Slowly she moved towards it, and found a large, full body mirror propped on a tower of boxes. The outside frame was mostly black, with spider web decals of silver woven throughout, coming to a head at the silver spider that resided on the top.
Lydia fell in love. The actual mirror was extremely dusty, so she ran a hand over it to expose her face on the surface. It was just dark enough that her features were muddled, and she could barely tell that it was her in the mirror.
She was getting even more excited about her discovery when a large rat peaked out from a box beside the mirror. It curiously squawked at her, whiskers twitching in an attempt to figure out just what she was.
Lydia giggled at it. She was tempted to reach out and pet it, but drew her hand back at the last second.
The giggle, however, seemed to spook the rat. With a screech it leaped off the box, sending the precariously balanced box and its items to the floor. Lydia gasped and side stepped away, watching the tower fall and the rat scurry away with a multitude of squeaks.
She frowned in the direction the rat ran off to, and bent down to start putting the things back in the boxes.
First she picked up all the old photos, books, and jewelry that had fallen out and put it in a box, and all the old, hole-ridden clothes in the remaining ones. It took much longer than she would have liked, but Lydia wouldn't be able to stand herself if she simply threw the clothes back into the box without folding them.
She grinned at her small accomplishment, moving the boxes to the side and going for the one at the very bottom that wasn't touched. Might as well start cleaning here, right?
She slid the box away from its spot on the wall, and furrowed her eyebrows. It was sealed shut with a mountain of duct tape. Lydia was about to slide it towards the rest, ready to dismiss it, but then she saw a bright sheen of red from a hole near the bottom of the box.
It was some sort of cloth, and it looked expensive. Most of this stuff was probably her Moms, Grandpas and Grandmas, and while they were well off with money this didn't look like anything they would buy and wear, if any of the old photos she saw were true.
Face set, Lydia went to work on ripping open the box with all her strength. She ripped, pushed, and in a moment of frustration even kicked it, but it still stayed sealed, though the cardboard dented slightly. Lydia grunted, glaring at the box, before she tried one last time. She wiggled three fingers of each hand into the same hole she could see the red fabric from, and pulled.
With a loud tear the cardboard ripped, and Lydia's breath caught at what was revealed.
She pulled out a bright red, beautiful dress, with small-were those black diamonds?-littered across the bodice in the shape of some kind of bug. The shoulder straps were poofed outward, and the skirt looked lush and soft.
Carefully Lydia pulled it out of the box. She held it up to herself, and turned towards the mirror, brushing off even more dust with her hand. It was almost comically large on her, definitely meant for someone much older than her, but she still smiled at the image of her wearing it. She would prefer a darker colour dress, but Lydia couldn't deny the appeal.
With a large smile Lydia went to carefully put the dress back into the box when a glint of metal caught her eye. There were two rings at the bottom of the box.
Lydia folded the dress and slowly put in on the ground, kneeling next to the box as she reached inside and pulled them out. Both were simple black and silver bands, only one was smaller and had a small red diamond placed in the middle.
She fell back so she was sitting on the cold concrete, placing the larger ring in her lap to get a closer look at the diamond. It was a beautiful ring, and would match perfectly to the dress, but Lydia still didn't have a clue who it could have been for.
She twisted the ring around, trying to find an engraving. When she spotted it her face lit up in surprise.
It said Emily. That was her Mom. What was a wedding ring doing in the basement with her name on it? And, now that she saw they were most definitely wedding rings, did that mean the dress was meant for a wedding, as well?
Lydia was so confused, she could only put down her mother's ring and pick up the other one, supposedly belonging to the person her mother was going to marry, if her guess was correct.
She looked in the same spot, and was even more confused at the same she saw there.
"Beetlejuice?" she whispered, lip curling and eyebrow raising at the weird name.
A chill suddenly spread around her. Her eyes widened and she frantically spun her head around, expecting to see Adam or Barbara, or even another ghost that she didn't know lived here. When she saw nothing, she turned back to the ring and inspected it closer.
It was the exact same as the other. Lydia frowned and brought the engraving up to her face again, trying to see if she was seeing things or she just simply read the name wrong.
But it still said the same thing.
"Beetlejuice." she repeated, incredulously. Why in the world would her mother get engaged to a man named Beetlejuice?
A small green light caught her eye from the mirror, and she looked over to see what it was when it disappeared. It was cold enough now that Lydia was practically shivering, and she pulled her sweatshirt tighter against herself.
A bad feeling pooled in the pit of her stomach. Something was wrong. But, contrary to what her body wanted her to do (run), she stayed where she was and glared at the offending ring.
If her Mom had married this guy, would that have meant Lydia would have had a better life? That she wouldn't have had to fear her own father, and she wouldn't have the scars to show for his anger?
Her own anger rose up at that, and she was surprised the ring had not melted yet from her fierce glare. Maybe this guy was the man her mother really loved, and she only settled for Lydia's father.
"Beetlejuice, whoever you are...you're a piece of shit. And your name sucks." she spat, throwing the rings back into the box and stuffing the dress back in.
She only had about half the dress inside the broken box when the hairs rose on the back of her neck. Immediately after the door to the basement, which she left open, slammed shut. Lydia froze, and it was then that she realized the basement had become eerily silent. Even the constant hum of electricity coursing through the circuits had stopped.
Cautiously, she stood and turned around, and if it wasn't for the large hand that clamped over her mouth, she would have screamed in terror at the sudden appearance of the man's sickly face less than a foot in front of her.
"Heya," he rasped, letting loose a small cackle when the girl in front of him winced at the smell of his rotten breath. His wicked smile stretched even farther than humanly possible.
"Nice t'see ya again, Em."