Happy New Year everybody! I meant to upload last week just after Christmas but I literally had one of the WORST weeks ever emotionally. My former coworker had to go to the ER for some heart issues and I went to stay with her kids while that was going on but they were doing surprisingly well thank goodness. She was able to come home New Years Eve so I went and spent a little time with my family. Got a freak thunder and snow storm this morning so my boss gave me the day off and I've been spending it writing ALL DAY. It's been really nice. Hope you all had a good holidays and as always, I thank you for keeping up with me! Leave me a message or review with any questions or comments you may have and I'll try to get back with you somehow! Thank you especially, my faithful guest and Numbervania! Love you guys! :D
Peter Venkman gasped for breath, staring straight ahead at the opposite wall of what looked like the smallest storage closet in the Netherworld. He had his back pressed against the door he had firmly but quietly shut behind himself half a moment prior and he bent over his knees, coughing. He hurriedly stopped himself and pressed a hand to his perspiring forehead, running a hand through his already disarrayed hair. He heard a pair of frantic footsteps, one sounding more hollow than the other and he froze as he recognized the voices belonging to the two ghosts who had been chasing him for the past twenty minutes.
"…Blast you! You're the one who lost him in the first place! If Juno decides to punish us for this, I'm throwing you under the bus to make sure you get the brunt of her irritation." The bowler hat ghost's voice sounded shrilly. There was a pause and a dull thunk followed by a curse as the other ghost apparently aimed a hit at his partner.
"And yer known for yer outlandish lies. I bet I can get her to lengthen yer sentence to at least a decade longer than mine'll be." The skeleton pirate ghost hissed back over the strained growls coming from the bowler hat ghost. The pair of footsteps faltered and hesitated outside the closet door and Peter held his breath.
"We'll find him, don't worry. Just follow the sounds of people screaming. A Ghostbuster in the middle of the Netherworld? He'll stand out like a mouse scurrying out from the pantry at a dinner party." The bowler hat ghost said hopefully. The pirate scoffed at the other man's lilting manner of speaking.
"His time's almost up anyway. If we just keep him distracted long enough, he'll turn up at the Waiting Room on his own." The pirate skeleton hissed. Peter frowned, and swiped his hand across his forehead once again as a bead of sweat dripped into his eye. The two ghosts on the other side of the door muttered gruffly to each other and their footsteps picked up as they resumed their trudge around the corner of the hallway past the storage room door. When he was sure they were out of earshot, Peter reached over his shoulder for the thrower that should've been in its holster over his shoulder. When his hand fell through empty space, an icy feeling shivered through him as he remembered his broken pack.
"Come on Venkman…think." He muttered under his breath to himself. He stood up from his crouch, wincing at the stiffness in his joints from being forced to sit in that position for those long few minutes of time. He took a breath and pressed his ear to the door, listening for signs that anyone was waiting on the other side. He waited in silence, the only sound in the space being his hammering heartbeat. When he had psyched himself up enough, he inched open the door and slipped out into the dimly lit hallway. He glanced in both directions before he decided to edge around the corner to his right and he was startled to find that Juno stood there.
"About time." She muttered sourly. Her thin arms were crossed over her chest and a thin line of smoke sputtered out of the gash just above the collar of her blouse. The half-finished cigarette she'd been smoking disappeared with a quick pop as the short woman flicked her fingers and turned to motion for the Ghostbuster to follow her.
"Where we headed now, June?" Peter remarked coolly, using Beetlejuice's nickname for her out of spite. Juno didn't bother to even turn around to acknowledge him as she answered.
"To the place where all new ghosts are brought to, the Waiting Room."
"But uh, lady…listen to this." Peter stopped short and put a hand to his chest where his heart still beat heavily after his darting run from the pair of hench-ghosts. Juno half-turned and Peter watched the one eye in his view sweep over him regretfully. He swallowed past the dread that one look cast over him and patted his chest solidly. "I'm not a ghost, I'm not dead."
"Yet." She said quietly. The iciness in her voice was gone, replaced with such a tiredness that Peter almost felt sorry for the woman. He'd been through a very similar sense of exhaustion himself on countless occasions with this unique job he'd started with his colleagues. Peter kept his hand pressed over his heart as he carefully followed the woman, waiting for her to elaborate.
As they slowly made their way down the hallway, veering around a few sharp turns and through splits Peter felt a chill run through his body at the somber mood in the silent Netherworld.
"You gonna kill me down here?" He asked sternly, directing a wary stare at the back of the ghostly case worker's head. "Because from what I heard, you didn't treat Egon this way."
"Dr. Spengler wasn't brought down by an interdimensional cross rip." Juno said through another drawn-out sigh. She led the Ghostbuster around another curve and paused by a simple grey door. She set her jaw and then turned to face him warily. Peter frowned and stopped just after the curve they had rounded, afraid to get any closer to the woman. Juno noticed his hesitation and set her jaw, staring down at the doorknob under her wrinkled hand. "If I had it my own way, Dr. Venkman…you'd be on your way back to your…Ghost-busting…friends. We don't need any of you down here any sooner than you're meant to be. But in your case…it's so unique. In the end however, certain protocols must be followed."
Peter stared Juno up and down, trying to think of any loop holes he could argue himself through. He shifted his weight and felt the damaged proton pack grate against his sore back, and a few broken pieces tinkled to the tile floor quietly. Surely he could run and find a way out…there had been an uncountable number of doors and separate hallways he had flown past in his retreat from the pirate and bowler hat ghosts. If he had to spend the next several hours trying different doors and portal jumping, surely he'd end up back with his colleagues sooner or later. It would beat just giving up and accepting his fate, at least. He smiled wearily and spread his feet in a grounding stance, crossing his arms in a sudden show of daring.
"You sure I can't sweet talk anybody into tipping me off on the right general direction of the way back home? I'd rather not get lost on my next run." He asked in a slightly joking manner. Juno smirked coldly at him and shook her head, conjuring up another cigarette with a flick of her hand. She rolled it across her palm and then wedged it between her fingers in the same movement, offering it to the Ghostbuster peaceably.
"I don't make the rules, Dr. Venkman. I just enforce them. By any means necessary." The last part was meant to be a threat, Peter was sure, but Juno's exhausted voice made it sound almost like a plea. Peter sighed to himself, his gaze growing distant as he eyed the offered cigarette and then he was staring at the door just past Juno as she waited to usher him through it.
"What about Lydia? I want to see that she's alright. That she was able to get back home…where she's supposed to be." Peter said, finally making his bargain. If he wasn't going down without a fight, he at least wanted to make sure the case worker knew his ground rules. If she refused him on that, he would give in less easily. Juno smiled as if she had been caught, remembering the show that had played out in the room where he and Beetlejuice had emerged.
"She's fine. She's probably just now regaining awareness. Any binding of thoughts or spirits usually takes a while to get adjusted to. She's already been returned to her home. I just got the notification that the portal we'd left for them has closed." Juno answered him honestly. Peter nodded as if he was assessing the explanation and he immediately had a response ready.
"And I'm supposed to just take you at your word? You're really not going to let me make sure she's okay? She is one of my clients, after all. We Ghostbusters have an image to keep, we like to keep all our customers safe and happy."
Juno pursed her lips, her irritation beginning to resurface. A crash sounded from somewhere behind Peter, way back down the long winding hallway. Distant shouts and cries of surprise followed the clearly damaging outburst. A flash of concerned panic crossed the ghostly case worker's face and Peter uncrossed his arms to turn around as if he could see what was going on for himself.
"Dr. Venkman…" Juno called to him wearily after Peter had already started a curious retreat around the corner from where he'd come just a few moments before. Peter held a hand up towards the woman as an order for silence, and he peered around the corner suspiciously. She stood stiffly by the unopened door but made no move to follow him. "I really think you ought to follow me now…"
When Peter rounded the corner, he could see the silent and seemingly ordinary hallway extending before him for about fifty yards before it swung a hard left to continue its mazelike endlessness. He could hear more added voices shouting with indignation, these appearing to sound closer than where they had originated from. A bout of slamming doors, followed by another rumbling crash echoed toward him and he suddenly felt woozy and shaky on his feet. Peter's right leg was lifted into the air and he leaned heavily back on the corner he stood by. He tried to steady himself on the wall but the sudden shriek of voices melded together and forced him to press both hands against his ears to stifle the growing roar. The dimly lit hallway in front of him began to spin, contributing to his pounding headache. He tried to force his feet to back around the corner but he suddenly couldn't find them to force them into motion.
"…Dr. Venkman?" Juno's voice broke through to him after what felt like hours of grinding voices and throbbing pangs of dizziness.
Peter opened his eyes hesitantly and found that his world had been flipped on its side. The parallel walls were now the ceiling and floor and the flickering lights were shining from the left-hand wall. Peter felt like a magnet was holding him to the right wall, and upon closer examination he noticed it was cold like tile against his face. He carefully lowered his hands from his ears, silently thankful that the hallway seemed to be cast in its usual silence despite the distant voices coming from further down the hall.
"We've got him," A familiar husky voice said not unkindly from somewhere on the wall to his left. He felt thin hands pry for his left elbow but the cool wall that he was magnetized to refused to release its hold on the Ghostbuster. The hand shifted up his arm until it was gripping under his shoulder for more leverage. The voice on his left grunted in his attempt to peel Peter off the wall. "Little help?"
"He's still borderline with us…hey chap, you feeling alright?" Another accented voice called from in front of him. Peter forced his eyes open again, not realizing he had let them close. The bowler hat ghost stood crouched in front of him, sideways in his vision. Peter frowned and his vision blurred out of focus and then back again. He tried to force his right elbow away from the wall on his right but his unsettling weakness seemed to still have a strong hold over him.
"Help him up, boys." Juno's voice ordered them quietly. The bowler hat ghost stared down at Peter uncertainly before he rose from his crouch and moved to help the other pair of hands lift him from the strong pull of the tiled wall.
"What…what was that?" Peter finally managed to say as the two pairs of hands seemed to have more success against the weakening magnetic wall. His right shoulder was finally free and the thinner pair of hands braced against that side of him, the gruff pirate's voice chuckling uneasily on his right.
"What was what?"
"That…that didn't feel good. At all. I feel like my head almost cracked open." Peter muttered, squeezing his eyes shut for a long moment before opening them slowly to slits. The world was righted once more, the center of gravity shifting back to normal as his mind wrapped around the fact that he had somehow fallen, and the hall hadn't actually spun around like he first assumed.
"Time's almost up, old boy." The bowler hat ghost said serenely on his left. Peter tilted his head toward the man and eyed him skeptically.
"What does that mean?"
"This place is not for the living." The pirate on his right answered him quietly. A pair of heels clacked loudly behind the trio crouched on the ground. Peter looked up to stare at Juno as she regarded him with her familiar wariness. He rubbed a hand down the front of his beige jumpsuit as if feeling for his heartbeat to prove to himself he was still alive. After a moment he felt the familiar thud of his heart pounding through his ribcage and he let himself be temporarily reassured by that.
"So I am still alive then." He said daringly to the woman standing over him. Juno's expression didn't falter but he felt the boney hand of the pirate ghost pat his arm consolingly.
"For a little while longer, I'm afraid. It's not a pretty sight to behold when the end does come though. It drags ye into madness until –"
"Oh, stop being dramatic." Juno said, rolling her eyes. Peter's face was a hard mask as the woman extended her hand down to him. He gave the two ghosts on either side of him a sideways glance before he finally took it and hauled himself to his feet with very little help from Juno. Once he was standing upright, the dizziness returned but only at a fraction of the intensity he had just felt. When he was able to focus again, he noticed Juno's bitter stare. "I hope you know how much paperwork this is going to take to cover all that's happened."
"Sorry to be such a burden on you, sister. In the real world I try my best to adhere to my fellow human beings and be as little of a nuisance as possible." He said, crossing himself with a sarcastic look of apology. Juno didn't even spare him another irritated sigh as she glanced down at her pager. She turned away from him and headed back for the door she had been about to open before Peter's fainting episode. The Ghostbuster remained where he was, staring after her but he jumped as a high pitched scream echoed down from the long hallway behind him. Before he could turn around to peer down in search of the sound, a firm hand clapped him in the middle of his back and Peter realized that the two ghosts had been standing alongside him, silently awaiting Juno's orders.
"Come along then," The bowler hat ghost said gently as he latched a hand around Peter's elbow. Peter looked from the ghost's face down to his arm defensively, his stare lingering on the almost transparent hand firmly gripping his arm. He raised an eyebrow.
"What I wouldn't give for bodyguards like you guys." Peter said quietly. As if in response, the pirate ghost also clamped a hand down on his other arm. Giving him a simultaneous jerk in the direction of the door Juno was waiting by, the ghosts silently ordered him into motion. "Hey! Easy on the suit fellas…hey…was that cigarette still on the table?"
"Oh give it a rest…" Juno said unamusedly as she finally turned the knob and opened the door into a void of blackness.
"Hello?!" Beetlejuice's voice echoed in every direction through the wide open space of Saturn's endless dunes. The Sandworm had made a gigantic dive through the large hill Lydia had fallen behind but had yet to resurface for several moments. Beetlejuice crawled on his hands and knees through the sand, silently thankful that his monstrous foe had forgotten him for the time being. He paused once he crested the broken dune that the Sandworm had reduced to a fraction of the mountain it had been merely a moment before. Beetlejuice stared through the sand carried by the whipping wind, scouring the desert for any sign of movement around him. "…Anybody out there?!"
The few sickly colored clouds flying through the atmosphere overhead swirled ominously and Beetlejuice grimaced at the uncomfortable feeling of sand grains filtering through his suit with each movement he made. He attempted to brush off the worst of the visible trails of yellow on his crisp black and white suit and he stumbled up to his feet to stand for another look out over the quiet landscape.
Beetlejuice blinked out the grains of sand that had blown into his eyes and then, biting his lip hopefully, he gave a curt nod. When he opened his eyes again a fraction of a second later, he was furiously disappointed to find that he still remained in the desolate desert on Saturn. He frowned gruffly and made a show of pushing up his striped coat sleeves and shaking out yet more sand with the gesture. Before he could try another transporting nod, Beetlejuice clutched at his chest with a surprised cry of alarm. He glanced down at his hand where it had instinctively buried itself just inside his jacket. His chest was tight as if something kept pulling him back with every attempt he made to run. After a moment, he groaned defeatedly and finally ceased in his useless retreat. Clearly there was no getting out of there without the girl he was now bonded to.
Beetlejuice shoved his hands into his coat pockets. When he waited for another long moment hearing nothing but the deafening sound of the wind blowing sharp needles of sand into his face, Beetlejuice turned his conflicted stare back up to the sky where he could see the clouds change colors before his eyes in the rapidly approaching evening. In the few times he had found himself stranded of the godforsaken planet, it had very rarely been at night. But if the Sandworm's attacks were anything to fear during the day, he hated to be around for the creature's lurking rounds at night.
"Hey kid…if you wanna go back home now's the time! You've just gotta say so…" Beetlejuice called out, spinning around with his gaze darting over every crevice and slope within his sight. He slouched miserably as another blast of sand answered him in the always-changing wind. He spluttered out a mouthful of the tiny grains and spat in the sand to his right. "…Lydia?"
Beetlejuice began trudging absently down what was left of the mountain of sand the Sandworm had exploded through in its pursuit of the teenaged girl. He purposefully dug his feet heavily and kicked clumps of sand outward with each step, visibly voicing his grudging attitude. His hands were clenched into fists in his pockets and he tensed against the wind as it changed direction every few seconds, as if the planet and its weather patterns were attacking him personally.
"Why couldn't it have been Pluto we ended up on? Too cold for Sandworms out there…I'd rather be dealing with snow and ice than this…sand…" Beetlejuice muttered angrily to himself on his descent. He looked once more towards the horizon where he could distantly see the ground shifting. He stopped, his expression lifeless as he dreaded another return of the Sandworm. He raised his arms, finally exposing his hands to the biting sharpness of the airborne sand and let them fall back to his sides with a defeated clap. "Well come on then, let's get this over with!"
The echo of the giant monster's roar met him after a few seconds as if in response. Beetlejuice kicked at the sand with each step as he resumed his trek through the thick dunes. He lost sight of the Sandworm's movements after a few seconds and he whirled around, trying to find the rolling hills so he could at least keep the creature in front of him. Beetlejuice narrowed his eyes and steeled himself for the Sandworm's sneak attack.
"He's a fast learner. Knows how to play with his food first…I admire that." He growled to himself. Beetlejuice smirked in anticipation and puffed out his chest, foot-long spikes creeping their way through his suit jacket and even down his arms. "I hope he chokes this time…"
The demonic ghost had all of his attention directed at the coming Sandworm, he almost missed the light touch of something brushing against his shoe. Before he could glance down for the disturbance, the large dune to his left began to shrink with the growing earthquake that signaled the Sandworm's approach. Beetlejuice jerked his head back up and was forced to shield his face as the wind decided at that exact moment to fling a handful of blinding yellow sand into his eyes. He muttered out a string of curses and shook his head, crouching down against the brunt of another change of wind direction. He felt the desperate prodding on his shoe again and wondered in horror if the Sandworm had a nest of young Sandworm-lings writhing up from right beneath his feet.
"What the…?!"
Beetlejuice fell silent as he blinked through the sand showering over him and back into his eyes. He could see a splotch of black waving weakly up at him before being buried by the rolling sand. Beetlejuice stood up straight, his eyes wide with realization. His gaze darted up for the area where he had seen the sand shifting a few hundred yards from where he stood. The rolling sand seemed to be moving more rapidly, and Beetlejuice cursed himself once again for blatantly calling the creature back to him.
"Lydia?!" He shouted in what could have been interpreted as relief. He cleared his throat and moved back into his crouch, searching through the sand by his shoes for where the cloth had just disappeared. "Hang on a minute, kid…I'll get you outta there…"
Before he could make good on his promise, the ground began to sink into itself all around the would-be heroic ghost. Beetlejuice hesitated in his search mission, his dark eyes turning regrettably steely once again as he prepared for the Sandworm's resurgence. When the ground grew still a moment later, Beetlejuice hauled himself to his feet as silently as possible. The Sandworm's large head shot up through the sand just where he'd been crouched , throwing the ghost forward and away from where he'd been digging for the scrap of black clothing. Ignoring the Sandworm's looming shadow as it towered over him, Beetlejuice scrambled back to dig through the changing sand for the remnant of Lydia's presence. The roar of the Sandworm briefly distracted him and he glanced up to see that the giant worm was circling him like a shark in murky water.
Beetlejuice growled out an anxious curse and plunged both hands deep into the sand, desperate to find Lydia so that they could have a chance at escaping the unpleasant dismemberment from being the Saturn Sandworm's playtime snack. Beetlejuice grimaced as he found himself leaning over and rummaging through the sand up to his shoulders. When his fingers finally found purchase on something that wasn't fine yellow granules, he made a triumphant shout and began to straighten up from his crouch. He gave the fabric in his hands a firm tug, pulling it up to the surface just as the ground rumbled with the Sandworm's slowing movements.
"Come on, Lydia…give me a little help up here will ya?!" Beetlejuice grumbled pleadingly, leaning backwards on his heels in an effort to lever the girl up from the scrap of clothing he had latched onto. With one final heave Beetlejuice tumbled backwards and landed on his backside, holding up the piece of dark clothing still clutched tightly in his hands. Weighed down with yellow sand, the dark shawl clearly belonged to Lydia, but no longer housed the young goth girl.
The ground shifted beneath Beetlejuice once again and the Sandworm's roar sounded almost like an amused taunt at the ghost's unfortunate realization. Beetlejuice slowly turned to peer up at the towering creature where it had stopped just behind him. The ghost winced up at the Sandworm and glanced down at his arms where he had unknowingly retracted his defensive spikes. Beetlejuice blew out a frustrated breath and placed a hand against the dry, rough scaly torso of the Sandworm as he struggled once more to his feet. The Sandworm's head loomed up above him, thankfully blocking out the bright evening sunlight so he could clearly see the dozens of teeth snapping and beginning to shine with the monster's saliva. Beetlejuice held up the shawl slowly, watching as the Sandworm's dark eyes flicked suspiciously from the piece of clothing back to Beetlejuice's thoughtful expression. The ghost gave the shawl a heavy wave, watching as great clumps of sand fell from it. He leered up at the gigantic snake and waved the shawl again to clear it of another portion of sand.
"…Wanna see a magic trick before you go, you copy-catting snake?" Beetlejuice taunted the creature. A deep guttural growl rumbled up from the Sandworm's body, merely a foot from where Beetlejuice stood. The ghost raised an eyebrow mischievously and nodded. "Stripes are my thing, you know. But hey, I'll give you some entertainment before your dinner. No hard feelings."
Beetlejuice lifted the shawl in another few practiced waves, scattering another bout of sand grains, some even striking the Sandworm's rough scales before tinkling to the sandy ground. The creature growled in irritation and moved itself even further into the sky for a better strike, its body rising from its place in the sand. Beetlejuice twirled off-balance in the sand and made a show of wrapping Lydia's ruined shawl around his shoulders. The Sandworm's giant body writhed behind him in anticipation and Beetlejuice's eyes flashed dangerously as he continued to spin drunkenly, edging away from the monster a yard or two at a time. The Sandworm inched itself up further into the sky as it watched Beetlejuice's exaggerated dance and with each spin, Beetlejuice flicked his intense glare for the end of the Sandworm's tail as it grew closer and closer to the surface of the dunes.
"That's it Sandy…" Beetlejuice muttered through gritted teeth. He moved his loping dance back toward the Sandworm, quietly cheering as the creature reacted just as he wanted it to. He hugged the dark shawl to himself tightly and then as he shoved himself to the right side of the monster, he tossed the shawl in the opposite direction. The ever-changing Saturn wind was on his side for once in that moment and it carried Lydia's shawl several yards away in the next instant.
Beetlejuice watched in amazement as the sand began to sink back down with the Sandworm's sudden dive after the shawl, thinking that Beetlejuice himself was still carrying it. His relief was short-lived though, as he found that he was now tumbling down the huge moving crater left by the Sandworm's tunneling. Beetlejuice braced himself as he spotted the dark hole rapidly approaching, knowing that if he fell down into the closing tunnel he risked being buried in the endless depths of the sand until the Sandworm somehow discovered him later in its random prowls through the sandy surface of the planet.
"I…am not…going out like this!" Beetlejuice growled menacingly through gritted teeth. He threw himself onto his stomach in the still-moving sand, turning his back on the hole slowly closing behind him. He slammed a clawed hand down deep into the sand in front of him as he tried to anchor himself into slowing his descent. He immediately did the same with his other hand and as he did so the tight, tugging feeling in his chest returned full force. Beetlejuice felt his whole body seize up and he folded in on himself as if in pain. He lost what little traction he had in the process and let the pull of the sand roll him over once more to face the dwindling tunnel where the sand was still rolling down.
Beetlejuice stared in furious agony at the tunnel closing just a few yards from him now. The tugging sensation seemed to physically pull him through the sand, and as he tried to fight it again he was taken aback by what felt like a slap to his face that caused him to stare in wide eyed surprise at a fixed point in the funneling sand. His gaze zeroed in on a dark spot in the middle of the bright yellow crater and he immediately flailed all four of his limbs in a desperate attempt to crawl through what could only be described as a whirlpool of sand.
"Hang on Lyd, I'm coming!" Beetlejuice shouted as he literally swam against the current of sand to reach the dark splotch that the pull was trying to draw him to. The ghoulish ghost was so intensely focused on reaching the girl's limp arm where it protruded from the top of the forming dune that he wasn't able to appreciate the slowing of the funnel that signified the closing of the Sandworm's tunnel. The tightness in his chest seemed to aid Beetlejuice in his fight to claw his way up the through the thick sand, and he was suddenly grateful for the ritual that had tied the pair of them together. He shook his head to clear away that thought as soon as it had formed in his head.
With a solid thud Beetlejuice slammed his palm down, digging his fingers through the sand and pulled himself up within reaching distance of Lydia's arm. The ghost reached for the teenaged girl's pale fingers with his left hand, leaving his right anchored into the sand for fear of slipping back down the gigantic crater again. When the girl made no move of acknowledgement that Beetlejuice was there, he began to panic. He attempted to pull himself even closer, moving his grip from Lydia's hand to her forearm.
"Hey…Hey kid, you alright?" Beetlejuice muttered, his eyes bugging wide once again as his voice rose an octave in his building dread. Not waiting for a response he knew might not come, he began to furiously brush away at the sand shielding her from view, releasing his anchoring hold to do so. He tugged violently on her only exposed limb, trying to free her. "Lydia, come on kid…"
Beetlejuice found his feet losing traction in their holds he'd dug in his climb up the crater so, using Lydia's arm, he hauled himself up and made his way around her so that he was nearer to the top of the dune. He dug handfuls of sand at near lightning speed with his desperation, still holding firmly onto the girl's arm as if he could will her to reappear back to the surface of the dune unscathed. He muttered wildly under his breath, cursing himself for ever thinking that being bound to the girl was helpful. Because of it, his supernatural abilities were limited to her approval or influence and since she was currently incapacitated…
"I can't do anything without your say so, Lyd…you've gotta give me something to work off of…" Beetlejuice grumbled hurriedly, looking up and wincing as the wind found him and sent another blast of sand in his face and down his collar. He finally managed to uncover the girl's upper body, and a sick feeling washed over him as quickly as the sand that blinded him in the lashing wind. Her face was pale, even more so than her normal pallor and as Beetlejuice tilted her face up out of her sandy grave, her head lolled back so quickly he feared her neck would snap. With a sharp intake of breath, he steadied her head in the crook of his elbow with a discouraged groan. "Geez…I guess this bond was short-lived then huh?"
The Sandworm roared furiously from over the top of the crater, finally having figured out the ghost's diversion. Beetlejuice found himself holding onto Lydia tighter as the sand started to shift with the giant monster's movements. Before she could be reburied in the rolling grains, Beetlejuice set his jaw and tried to part the sand supernaturally. He was slightly relieved to find that the falling sand now diverted around them, though it still confined the pair in an oval-shaped space. Apparently when it came to the safety of the one controlling him, his abilities had some grey area. Testing out his theory, he focused fully on the mound of sand still piled heavily on Lydia's lower half. At his will, the sand suddenly blinked out of existence, revealing Lydia's dark skirt blanketed around her and the lower half of her body. Silently applauding himself and his ability to deduce the fuzzy rules of the bonding situation, Beetlejuice cracked his neck cockily and prepared to focus on the girl's weakened state.
A dark shadow blocked out the fading evening sunlight and Beetlejuice looked up at the Sandworm with a new fire in his eyes. Still holding Lydia's head up with one arm, he gestured to the sand around him with the other. The creature regarded the striped ghost and unconscious girl with an equally furious glare, this time not hesitating in its hungry approach. Beetlejuice flipped his hand and shot his arm upward, watching as a large river of sand followed his movement and flew straight up into the Sandworm's face where it was beginning to descend over the two figures. When the giant snake roared in outrage and jerked its head back to shake the sand out of its eyes, Beetlejuice turned his attention quickly back to the girl in his arms.
"Come on kid, this'd better work…" Beetlejuice screwed his face in concentration, but before he could even form the thought to hopefully heal Lydia, her eyes shot open and she was immediately wracked with heavy coughs. Wads of sand flew from her mouth and her eyes were red and irritated from the grains that had blinded her in her rapid burial.
"B-Beetlejuice…?!" She choked out in disbelief before her body was hit with another bout of coughs. The ghost nodded, for once dumbfounded into silence as he watched the girl gasp for breath. Lydia absently clutched at his striped jacket to steady herself as she shakily fought to stifle her painful coughs. "The…the Snake…!"
Beetlejuice suddenly shook himself back into awareness and noticed too late that the Sandworm was already in midstrike. He shoved Lydia aside and dove backwards himself, watching as she skidded down in the sandy crater a few yards. Lydia choked out a scream just as the Sandworm's jaws slammed into the dune right where they'd both been crouching half a second before. She scrambled weakly back up towards Beetlejuice and he held out a hand to haul her back to him and to her feet.
"Can you get us out of here?!" Lydia cried over the Sandworm's furious growls as it thrashed violently in its effort to free its face from the sand. Beetlejuice held up an arm to shield the two of them against the sandstorm blowing around them.
"Ya gotta be specific!" He answered back after trying as soon as the words had left her mouth. The tugging sensation had pulled him directly back to the girl huddled just behind him like he was on a supernatural dog leash. He threw a frantic, wincing glare at her and she whirled around as the ground shook beneath them in their retreat. "Where do you wanna go?! You have to – WOAH!"
Lydia and Beetlejuice both were suddenly thrown away from each other as the uneven dunes slid apart. The Saturn Sandworm's head emerged like a whale erupting out of the waves and Beetlejuice had to roll to the side to veer away from the creature's snapping jaws. Lydia knew to keep silent instead of scream this time and once Beetlejuice regained his wits, he blipped himself to her side and away from the Sandworm's seeking snout. The girl jumped, startled at the ghost's instant reappearance and then latched onto his arm desperately.
"The Netherworld! Take us back to the Netherworld…we need to get to Doctor Venkman!"
Beetlejuice smirked at the girl's heroic thoughts even in the dangerous situation they were currently in. He'd expected her first reaction to be to return home. Just as he was about to comically bow and make some remark about her wish being his command, the monstrous shadow fell over them again. An idea suddenly flew through his head and he looked the girl up and down unsurely.
"Beetlejuice, what are you doing?!" Lydia screamed when he didn't immediately transport them off the planet. He offered her a mischievous grin and whirled around just as the Sandworm moved to strike back down at them yet again. Lydia's voice was a shrill scream that matched in pitch with the shrieking wind that polluted Saturn's atmosphere. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"
The two people stared up at the rapidly descending monster, its jaws open wide with the intent on not missing its target. Lydia's eyes widened in horror and when she realized she could see down the dark interior of the Sandworm's throat, she released her hold on the ghost's arm to try a last second retreat from the strike zone. Before she could even take a step back, Beetlejuice's hand lashed out and he yanked her back to his side just as the creature's jaws closed over them. Lydia's terrified scream echoed through the new darkness and she clung tightly to Beetlejuice's arm until her breath ran its course and her voice fell silent.
"Hell of a shortcut, huh?"
Lydia opened her eyes after what felt like hours, her face immediately flashing with anger. She flicked her glare up to Beetlejuice's smug face where he clearly had been waiting for her in anticipated silence. His dark eyes twinkled with amusement that was only broken when the girl pulled her arm out of his to slap him hard across the face.
"…Ow." Beetlejuice remarked softly, lifting a hand to his right cheek, his gleeful smirk replaced with a surprised frown. Lydia didn't soften her furious glare as she swept a hand over her face to brush away the remaining grains of sand that still stuck to her cheeks.
"What was that?!" She demanded shrilly as she brushed down the front of her dark blouse and skirt, a bright yellow circle of sand falling around her to the tiled floor. Beetlejuice shrugged and let his own hand fall from his face.
"Sandworm." He said simply. Lydia fixed him with another wave of heated anger in another glare and the ghost raised an eyebrow in her direction. He swept his arms to either side of him for emphasis. "Look, it got us back here didn't it?"
Lydia stared hard at him for another moment before finally acknowledging their new surroundings.
Instead of the sickly colored sky and ugly yellow sand dunes that had extended in every which direction, the pair now stood in what looked to be a small, dimly lit office space. Complete with bookshelves, a large wooden desk and chair set and a few mismatched chairs for clients and/or visitors to sit in, the room looked as if it had been abandoned for some time before their abrupt entrance. Cobwebs stretched from each corner of the room and to the large unused pieces of furniture and at least an inch of dust covered the large desk set against the far wall opposite them. From the way the fluorescent light above them flickered lazily, Lydia could only assume that, like Beetlejuice had said, they had returned to the Netherworld. When she finally blinked past the confusion and mix of emotions, Lydia shot the ghoulish man another mistrustful glare.
"…Was there not an easier way back than…than that?!" She squeaked, seeing the wide open jaws and numerous giant teeth from the monstrous beast as she closed her eyes briefly. She opened them again to find Beetlejuice's nonchalant frown as he gave her another unenthusiastic shrug.
"Figured since you can't get hurt, we'd go the quicker route."
Lydia gaped at him in horrified disbelief. She glanced down at herself and the shredded remains of her long black skirt and the sand that still clung to her dark blouse. She indicated her missing shoe, lost somewhere in the infinite depths of dunes on Saturn, and with a furious kick, she launched her remaining black flat straight at the ghost.
"I can't get hurt?!" She repeated sarcastically. "I…can't…get…hurt?! I was buried alive and then eaten by a giant alien snake! This doesn't qualify as getting hurt in your book?!"
Beetlejuice finally turned to regard the girl with his judgmental dead-eyed stare. She stomped her bare foot and felt herself grow even more frustrated when more sand fell from her outfit to the floor around her. Beetlejuice crossed his arms and rolled his eyes in a halfhearted gesture to their surroundings.
"Look where we are, kid. Think back to what ritual you just rushed into performing. We're pals till the end of time, or probably longer, who knows? There's no running from it, we're perpetually stuck together."
Lydia stared hard at the ghost in front of her and then turned away from him. He sighed heavily from behind her. She heard him take a few steps around the room and when she glanced back his way she saw that he had settled into an uncomfortable sitting position of the dusty desktop.
"So you're saying I can't die." She inferred quietly. Beetlejuice returned her hesitant gaze levelly and then shrugged again with a slight shake of his head.
"You're not fully alive or dead. You're something in between." He answered her solemnly. Lydia held her serene frown for a long moment and then took note of the quiet ticking of a clock hanging on the wall just beside her. She processed what the ghost had told her as she peered absently up at the device. She couldn't even read the time through the heavy coating of dust and grime that covered its glass.
"Just where did we end up this time, then?" She spoke up roughly. She crossed her arms in what she hoped was a challenging pose and then turned a cold stare to Beetlejuice's still uninterested frown. "Apparently my control over you has been pretty lacking so far. I told you to get us to Doctor Venkman and then we ended back up at my house…"
"It was rigged!" Beetlejuice blurted out sharply, rolling his eyes to the cobwebs in the ceiling overhead. His face flopped back forward and he hurried to elaborate. "The doorway. Juno rigged it with a portal that transported us back 'home.' That's where you kept saying you wanted to go, wasn't it? She's gotta have her scapegoats in place in case you ever try saying she didn't keep her word."
"That doesn't matter, you were the one to fix things back at the house anyway. Before any of this even happened…but again – when I told you to get us back to the Netherworld…why the heck did you send us to Saturn?!"
"That was truly an accident. My bad." Beetlejuice held up a hand for emphasis and shifted his features in apathetic apology. He smirked to himself and chuckled, immediately catching himself as Lydia narrowed her stare at him. "Alright! I was distracted by your BFFs and when Adam came charging at me with a baseball bat like the crazed psycho he is, I may have let my thoughts wander to where I could send them both for timeout…"
Lydia frowned at him in disgust, unamused. Beetlejuice scrunched his face into a mocking expression that was supposed to mirror hers. The girl couldn't help but crack a smirk at his effort and her demanding façade fell away as her adrenaline finally subsided for the moment.
You didn't answer my first question," She said, her voice gentler this time. "Where are we now?"
Beetlejuice fidgeted with a few holes he'd found in the sleeve of his striped suit jacket. He cleared his throat and shook out his shoulders, brushing off a layer of yellow sand from his clothes. He took a deep breath and slowly extended his arms outward in what Lydia assumed was going to be a grand introduction of some sort. When he noticed that she was waiting in anticipation just as he was leading her on to be, he slouched his shoulders again and returned to picking at the hole in his left sleeve.
"Just my old office."
"You're kidding." Lydia retorted, regarding the ghost with a doubtful look. When he shook his head and gestured around the room again, no trace of kidding in his face Lydia took another glance at the dark and dusty room they resided in. The books on the shelves were old, sure, but they didn't look like they'd ever been pulled from their spots on their designated shelf either. She caught sight of movement on one of the cobweb-infested shelves and upon further examination, Lydia blanched at the sight of an assortment of jars that held numerous specimens of bugs and other slimy creatures. With the amount of dust and the musty smell of disuse permeating the air, it was a wonder that the creepy crawlies inside their glass prisons were still alive. Lydia mentally corrected herself, taking into account the fact that they were currently in the Netherworld, and that there was a chance that the collection of specimens very likely could have been ghosts themselves. She finally turned back away from the bookshelves and fixed Beetlejuice with a questioning frown. "You? In an office?"
"It's been a while. I preferred working in the field much better." He admitted wittily. His eyes flashed darkly. "I'm more of a hands-on type of guy."
"Uh huh…" Lydia said nodding absently, not missing the shadowy meaning in his comment. He'd tortured and antagonized hundreds if not thousands of ghosts and living people alike before he'd moved on to the Maitlands and her family, and he still didn't seem to hold any concern over his past deeds. Lydia shook away the reminder from her thoughts and swept her gaze around the flickering room once more before frowning deeply. "Um…where exactly is the door?"
Beetlejuice hopped down from his perch on the dusty desk and froze in a comical pose, arms stretched widely by his sides as he looked around in shock. Lydia stepped back as the ghost crossed past her feeling along the bookcases and walls, a panicked look on his ghastly face.
"Oh no…oh no…" He murmured frantically. He started to toss heavy volumes of books from the nearest shelf, stirring up the room's thick coating of dust in the process and causing Lydia to break into a fit of sneezes as she tried to dodge the flying books. Beetlejuice didn't seem to notice the girl's discomfort and he continued to fling the shelf's contents over his shoulder with an almost furious intensity. "This can't be happening…Damn Juno…come on!"
"Beetlejuice, what is it?!" Lydia called, demanding a reason for the ghost's frantic activity. Beetlejuice stopped abruptly, after tossing one final book right at the poor girl. She caught it messily before it could collide with her face, and she held the large volume in front of herself like a shield prepared for more airborne objects. As Beetlejuice turned in an about-face to finally meet her worried expression, Lydia noticed the wicked gleam in his dark eyes. He crossed his arms and a long, taunting sneer stretched across his face where there was sheer panic a moment before. As Lydia lowered her makeshift book-shield with an unamused frown, Beetlejuice raised a hand in a quick gesture, causing all of the shelves and furniture in the room to jerk mechanically, dumping all of the contents to the floor.
"Boy, you're an easy one to scare," Beetlejuice commented as Lydia jumped nearly a foot in the air when everything else had moved. Lydia's frown grew more angered at his comment and before she could even open her mouth in a retort, Beetlejuice held up a hand to stop her, raising his gaze to the cobwebby ceiling sarcastically. "I know, I know…'we don't have time for this!'"
"Well, we don't!" Lydia snapped at him. Beetlejuice turned away to fixate his attention on the bookcase he had emptied by hand. Lydia blushed embarrassed while his back was turned, realizing how clearly he had been able to mimic her voice. "And for the record, I don't sound like that…"
"Juno had this office sealed off from available use, knowing it's one of the easiest places I can get in when I'm transporting here. Like I choose to come here anymore, in case you weren't able to tell." He gestured to the unused books and objects now strewn on the floor and the dust motes floating lazily through the stale air around them. "Anyways…we should be able to get through right…here."
Lydia gasped as Beetlejuice's hand automatically clamped around her wrist, and she let the book-shield fall from her grasp as he pulled her along after him. With his other arm outstretched in front of him, the pair phased through the shelf and wall as if they were walking through a curtain of thick, unmoving water. Lydia's skin prickled and her breath caught in her throat as she felt the solid wood and plaster going through her body. With an impatient tug, Beetlejuice pulled her the rest of the way through the wall. The girl stood frozen once she fully emerged on the other side and into another empty office and a violent shiver passed through her when Beetlejuice finally released his grip on her wrist.
"That…that wasn't very pleasant either…" Lydia said softly, and she swallowed hard fighting back nausea. Beetlejuice raised an eyebrow amusedly, and Lydia cringed. "How do you stand that? How does any ghost stand traveling these ways?"
"Ya get used to it…after a few decades." Beetlejuice said drily, a joking gleam in his eye. Lydia had already fixed her attention on the room they had newly emerged in, so Beetlejuice's dull humor fell flat on the teenaged girl.
"Okay…so if that was what used to be your office, who's is this? Your secretary's?" Lydia responded, trying to match the ghost's snarky tone.
"Ha." Beetlejuice rolled his eyes at the girl's attempt.
Lydia stared around the slightly larger room, noticing the stacks of seemingly disorganized papers and folders piled so high on the desk that the small lamp wasn't even visible anymore. She also noticed an array of bookshelves almost identical to the ones that had lined the wall of the room they had just passed through, only these books seemed to actually be used on a semi-regular basis. Dust still coated the surface of each piece of furniture, but rather than being caused by disuse, the acclimation of cobwebs and dust seemed to be present on account of the owner's lack of time or interest to clean. The worn chairs sitting opposite the desk caused Lydia to suddenly realize where they were. She herself had sat in one of them what felt like a lifetime ago, but really must have been only a few hours prior.
"Wait…" She muttered, taking another sweeping stare at her surroundings. Both Lydia and Beetlejuice jerked their heads in the direction of the room's only door as they heard the clacking of high-heeled footsteps approaching the office.
"…just going to leave this in here for when Juno's finished her business with the new arrival. She won't be happy, but we have to keep things moving. We've lost so much time with this whole thing as it is…" An accented feminine voice grew closer and closer, accompanied by the loudly clacking heels on the tiled floor. The doorknob twisted open and the green-skinned receptionist stepped into the room, just turning her head from over her shoulder from where she had been speaking to another of her coworkers. Her eyes took a brief moment to focus on the occupied room which she clearly had expected to be empty in Juno's absence and she dropped the new addition of files in her surprise.
"Babe, you're back!" Beetlejuice finally broke the moment of horrified silence. As if that were confirmation that the two figures standing in front of her were real, Miss Argentina let out a shrill scream and turned back out the door, slamming it in her retreat. Beetlejuice growled impatiently and stomped past Lydia on his way after her. "Always on the run…"
The door exploded outward from its hinges just before Beetlejuice reached it and he stepped through unbothered with Lydia scurrying to keep up with him. She wasn't sure fully what he was doing, but she was counting on his suddenly hostile demeanor to get them as quickly and efficiently as possible to their goal. As they both emerged from Juno's office and into the hallway outside, the receptionist was just picking herself up from where she had presumably fallen in surprise at the door's blast. She turned to face them, throwing an angered but terrified glare at Beetlejuice and then shooting a miffed look of surprise at the teenaged girl accompanying him.
"Where's the Ghostbuster, doll?" Beetlejuice asked smartly, slowing his approach as the red-haired receptionist paused unsurely. A skeletal head poked around the corner just behind the woman and its eye sockets seemed to widen in horrified surprise before the skull ducked back out of sight. The receptionist steeled herself, somehow regaining her stiff composure from before and she offered the pair of them a gentle shake of her head.
"You shouldn't be here…Juno's going to be…"
"Mad? Well, that's nothing compared to how we're feeling." Lydia spoke up, a burst of defiance giving her energy. She fixed the surprised woman with an irritated glare. "You all forced me to bind myself to one of the most unruly, demonic ghosts probably in all of existence and yes, though you did send us back home, you refused to let us bargain for our friend…"
"Not my friend, mind you." Beetlejuice cut in sharply. Lydia looked up at him unsurely, abruptly losing her fierceness with his interruption. Beetlejuice waved a hand at her and nodded apologetically. "Keep going, sorry."
"I…I…I mean, we would…like…" Lydia faltered under both Beetlejuice and the waiting receptionist. Beetlejuice puffed out his chest and discreetly pushed the girl behind him as he stepped forward to confront the red-haired woman in her place.
"We're not gonna ask ya again, babe. Now where is he?" He demanded in a low voice, keeping his taunting smirk on his face. The poor receptionist seemed to turn an even sicklier shade of green under his simple expression, somehow more frightening than his meant-to-be-frightening expressions.
"I…I can't tell you. She didn't tell me…" She said quickly. Beetlejuice shook his head and began to walk menacingly towards her and she nearly tripped over her ridiculously high heels and sparkly cloak as she tried to avoid his advance. "Please! I promise you, I don't know where she's taken him!"
Lydia winced at the dead woman's screeching pleas, hearing them echo down the now silent hallway. She stood a few steps behind Beetlejuice, peering past him at the receptionist's terrified eyes. She sought out the girl's gaze warily, then eyed Lydia up and down a few times as if in question before she fixed her attention on Beetlejuice's sudden movement. He turned over his shoulder to look back at Lydia expectantly.
"Wanna go take a look?" He asked her courteously. Lydia blinked, thinking she had missed something.
"…W-where?"
"The Waiting Room. To see if Red here is telling us the truth." Beetlejuice said simply, eyeing Lydia with a condescending look. Lydia cleared her throat and looked back at the receptionist, a forced steely look in her eye as she turned her gaze back to her, trying to uphold the threatening image that Beetlejuice had started.
"Of course." Lydia said, steadying her voice. Beetlejuice gave her a theatrical bow, and gestured for Lydia to lead the way. The red-haired woman stood up to her full height once more as if trying to bar their way but under a murderous glare from the ghost trailing after Lydia, she sheepishly pressed herself against the wall as flat as she could go in order to get out of their way. As they passed her, Lydia threw her a secretive apologetic wince. "You'd better hope we find him…unscathed."
Beetlejuice snorted at Lydia's attempt to sound intimidating and at the end of the hallway, he moved past her to open the lone door to the admitting office. A door slammed, causing Lydia to glance over her shoulder before stepping through the door, noticing that the receptionist had retreated through one of the numerous doors randomly lining the winding hallway. Beetlejuice followed her gaze and narrowed his dark eyes, winking in that direction. A high pitched scream emitted from a closed door about halfway down and there was a grinding sound that steadily built to a roar before the door crashed open and a sea of beetles spilt out into the hallway. The red-haired receptionist was still screaming, as was the dozen other workers that had previously occupied the room she had tried to find refuge in. Lydia tried to stifle an amused laugh and Beetlejuice gently shoved her the rest of the way into the main office, a wicked smirk on his own face.
"Keep it professional, kid." He murmured as he shut the door behind them both before the bugs could wander their way into the room after them. A handful of dead staff rose from their desks as they welcomed their new guests with curses and screeches of alarm before retreating through the Waiting Room itself and another door on the other side of the room. In roughly three seconds, the large front office was empty.
"Well…that was easy." Lydia commented in baffled awe. She turned a wary stare to the eccentric ghost as he sat at the desk just in front of a large sliding window. Lydia watched him as he struggled for several seconds with the small lock holding the window in place. He finally gave up and punched a fist-sized hole through the thin material of the window and Lydia was startled to hear a few surprised shouts and cries from the other side of the wall. Beetlejuice peered through the hole in the window as the muttering voices picked up from the almost solemn silence that had been present before. After a second, Lydia prodded at the ghost's shoulder and motioned him out of the way so that she could take a look.
Through the small hole Lydia could see a vast array of figures seated and even some standing throughout what looked to be an eerily normal waiting room. There had been a definite undertone each time the room had been mentioned in her presence but looking at the room in front of her in this moment, Lydia found it hard to believe that this place was the one mentioned. She recognized the sweet teacher-lady that she had bumped into upon her first few moments in the Netherworld. The blonde woman was sitting on the arm of an ancient looking armchair, in which sat the man who had also been wandering the hallway when she had. His briefcase was set across his lap and his fingers shook as he fidgeted with its clasps, clicking them open and then closed again after throwing a hesitant look at the window. The bespectacled teacher murmured something unintelligible and the man shrugged, still clearly on edge. Lydia turned her gaze past a rotting coffee table scattered with yellowed magazines and various copies of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. She noticed an elderly woman seated on the far end of a very worn couch, a crocheted blanket laid across her lap and of the room's other inhabitants she seemed to be the most unbothered of them all. The trio of unfortunate teenagers Lydia had encountered in the hallway took up the rest of the couch, the girl squished in between the two boys as if they were still trying to protect and reassure her.
"…Is he there or what?" Beetlejuice interrupted Lydia's examination of the room. Lydia inched back from the fist sized hole and looked back up at the ghost sadly. She shook her head and Beetlejuice groaned loudly. He rose from his stolen chair and swept a hand through the paperwork on the desk in his frustration. Lydia lifted her gaze once more through the hole in the window and felt a surge of pity for each of the people crowded into the small room.
"He's not in there. He won't be for at least another ten minutes or so. It's not over quite yet, but almost."
Lydia nearly fell backward at the sudden other voice in the room. Beetlejuice stood in front of her, blocking the other person from view. A waft of putrid grey smoke floated through the air over Beetlejuice's shoulder and Lydia sighed, not needing to see the woman confronting them to know who she was.