Souls That Need Each Other
By: Kichara
Chapter Two: Getting to Know You
Qwik note here: I noticed that a Beetlejuice section was put up in the Cartoons, so I put this there, although it's more based off of the movie (which will be more obvious later on, as I plan on bringing in Barbara, Adam and eventually Lydia into the picture). ^^ And don't worry, it can only get better from here on. ^^ ***
Beetlejuice sat at the kitchen table, reading over the paper and drinking his black coffee, so intent on doing both that he didn't notice when someone slipped into the room.
"Hi!" A little voice peeped behind him, causing him to yelp in surprise, nearly falling out of the chair. He swiveled around to see Nicky standing behind, giggling. "I finished sleeping." She stated simply, clambering up onto the rickety chair next to him. "What's that?" She reached out, tiny fingers resting on the rim of his coffee mug and tapping it.
"Coffee, you want some?"
"Okay!" She cried in exuberance, always ready to attempt something new. With the fastidious precision that only a child has, she carefully pulled the cup towards her, not lifting it from the table. She sniffed it, examined the contents of the mug and thoughtfully nibbled on her lips. Finally she lifted it up, took a sip, then another, where she downed half the cup. Carefully setting it back on the table, she meticulously slid it back to her companion, wide eyes never cutting off eye contact with his. He looked down at the mug's lack of content, eyebrows raised, then over at her. "Hey, you're not really some thirty-year old trapped in a kid's body, are ya?"
"Huh?" Bright green eyes blinked in perplexity.
"Never mind." He finished off the rest of the coffee, tossed the paper into the kitchen corner, the wad neatly falling on the top of the mountain of papers that had been built there from the same act.
She climbed off her chair, bouncing from one foot to the other. "Can I look around?"
"Yeah, fine. I gotta go get dressed; just stay in the house, alright?"
"Okay!" She said, sprinting past him into the garage, squeals of joy spread in her wake.
***
Half an hour later, once he'd finished getting dressed, Beetlejuice found Nicky still in the garage. She had obviously been looking thorough the mounds of junk that had been piled up in the room and was now sprawled out on the floor, having a merry conversation with an ugly little voodoo doll. She heard the ghost come up from behind her and she turned, sitting up and looking at him. "Does she have a name?" The little girl held up the disfigured doll.
"Uh, not really."
"Okay, then I'm naming her Sally." Nicky proclaimed, then got to her feet, looking him over. He'd changed into a black and white striped suit with a pair of black boots. "I like your clothes." She said, almost wistfully as she tapped her toe, which was peeking out of a hole in her sock, against the garage floor.
Beetlejuice looked her over thoughtfully. She was dressed simply, in a dirty, over-sized white T-shirt that draped past her elbows and a pair of blue shorts that fell past her knees, with only a pair of holey, grass- stained and mud-splattered socks on her feet. "Well, we could go get you some clothes later, but for now, I've got something around here." He began digging through the mountains of clutter, pitching them everywhere and making new piles. Nicky carefully moved out of the way of the flying debris, watching the snow of junk with wide, thoughtful eyes. Finally an oversized suitcase landed at her feet, and he walked over, opening it up. "Here ya go." He said, dumping out the contents into a big mound of cloth. The girl carefully put down Sally, then excitedly pawed through the cloth, which was actually a variety of clothes that were her basic size. "Oo, lookit this! And this is neat too!" She babbled to herself, holding up one article of clothing after another and tossing them into a new pile at a rapid, overly-energetic speed. Once she'd gone through the clothes, her gaze floated up to meet Beetlejuice's with a look that was definitely shy. "Um, BJ, can I have a second so I can get dressed?"
Beetlejuice, who'd been watching the enthusiastic proceedings with an entertained half-smile, blinked as if coming out of a dream, "Huh? Yeah, okay. I'll, uh, be in the other room." He backed up, retreating into the kitchen, closing the door behind him. Leaning leisurely against the counter, the ghost amused himself by picking at his broken nails for a couple of minutes until Nicky reentered the room. She was wearing a pair of black pants with a simple button-up black shirt that was a bit big for her size; the ends of it fell just above her knees, and she'd rolled up to sleeves to her wrists so that the sleeves didn't drape over her hands. She grinned, striking a pose, "How do I look?" She tapped a white-shoed foot for extra drama, spinning around in a circle. The other was in a gray sneaker, the only left shoe she'd been able to find out of about 10 pieces of right footgear.
"Lookin' good." BJ smirked a little. "You wanna go get some other clothes now?"
"Okay!" That whole 'boundless energy' was going to take some getting used to, although he had to admit it was.cute. Or something like that. One of her hands was preoccupied, still holding the voodoo doll, and her other reached up to take his somewhat dirty hand, seemingly not bothered at all by the dirt caked underneath the chipped black fingernails. Maybe it was because her own had just as much dirt under them. "Let's go!"
***
Beetlejuice's run-down house was on the far outskirts of the city, so it was quite a walk. Actually, he would have flown, but Nicky was too spellbound by their surroundings for him to even want to make the suggestion, too amused by her enthusiasm. Still keeping a firm grip on his hand (which was a surprise in itself), she let him lead the way, but asked constant questions all the way there about what everything was, and why it was there, and what it did, and what did he think about it, and so on and so forth. Once they reached the broken sidewalks of the city, however, the little girl fell silent, only turning her head in every direction to take in all the people, what they were doing, the crooked buildings, what was in them, and everything in between with inquisitive green eyes.
She was so excited, she was having trouble keeping still. This place was so.cool! "Where're we going?" She averted her eyes from a man that was buying new feathers for the arrows sticking out of his chest to her companion.
"Right here." His gruff voice announced, stopping and turning her into a huge purple store with the name "Melinda's" hung above the door in big, elegant letters. The inside of the store was dark, lit only by lanterns on the walls and several candles on the register counter. "Hey, anyone here?" He was unsure as to what he should do; shopping wasn't exactly something he had scheduled often into his agenda.
His problems were solved, however, when a tiny little woman suddenly appeared next to them, a cigarette trailing smoke from her heavy-jeweled hand. "Welcome to Melinda's!" She rasped in a deep, smoker's voice, ruby red lips lifted in a smile. "I'm Melinda, how can I help you two?"
Beetlejuice let go of Nicky's hand, giving her a little shove. "She needs clothes. Help her out." He explained briefly. Nicky nodded in agreement.
"Well, let's get you set up, then. Come with me, hon. You can stay up here, if you'd like." Melinda said over her shoulder as she ushered the little girl towards the back of the store.
"Yeah, yeah, that's fine." He made himself at home in one of the chairs by the counter, watching the two of them disappear into the back.
"So, what would you like, dear?" Melinda asked, floating up and twirling around Nicky.
"Um, clothes?" She countered, somewhat unsure.
The ghost laughed, running a well-manicured hand through her mane of red hair. "Alright, that's a start. Let's go on with what your favorite colors are, okay?"
"Oh, I love black and purple." Nicky said, spinning around in place to keep her eyes on the saleswoman as she absent-mindedly drifted around the room.
The ghost smiled, landing by a rack and pulling off several items, then walked over and handed them to the child. "Here, go try these on and let's see how they look."
***
-An Hour and 15 minutes later- Beetlejuice rolled over on his side, kicking his legs that were hanging off the armrest, bored. He cut off his elaborate yawn when he heard footsteps and looked up to see Nicky and Melinda returning, the former looking triumphant, arms full with clothes and a pair of black boots, while the latter looked a bit haggard.
"Hi, BJ!" Nicky exclaimed, grinning at him widely, bouncing along despite her load.
"I've never seen a child with such a select mind in clothes!" Melinda gasped, staring down at the chipper girl with wide eyes.
"I had to pick out stuff I like." Nicky said, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. She looked over at BJ, giving him a small, private smile. "I'm stubborn." She mouthed, eyes twinkling in merriment.
The female ghost stopped, looking down at the little girl in amazement, then chuckled as she drifted over to the cash register, taking the items from Nicky to ring them up.
She and Beetlejuice walked out, each holding a bag (one of which had Sally neatly nestled in it), with Nicky holding his hand. "How the hell did you manage to get all that stuff for only $34 dollars?" He asked, incredulously, lifting up the heavy bag he was holding to help prove his point.
"Cause I looked through everything. The problem with people is that they don't take the time to really look through everything. If they did, their lives would prolly be lot easier." She smiled at up his incredulous face. "See?"
"Yeah, I think so." He blinked. "How old are you, kid?"
"Six."
"You're sure?"
"Uh-huuuhhh.How old are you?" She tilted her head to the side, reminding him somewhat of a curious puppy in the action.
"Six hundred and thirty eight years."
Her eyes grew wide. "Woooooow, really?" A loud rumbling coming from Nicky's stomach cut off his response. "Whoops, guess I'm hungry." She said, a bit sheepish as she looked down at her complaining tummy.
The ghost's stomach obviously decided that it needed to be heard too, as an even louder grumbling came from his. She giggled. "Guess we both are. Let's get some food. It's about dinner time, anyway." He suggested, turning into a small restaurant called The Bird House that they'd just passed.
They seated themselves at a table, taking up the menus and looking them over. Nicky murmured to herself as she did so, her brow furrowed in concentration. Beetlejuice noticed this and remembered that six-year-old usually couldn't read. "You need help?"
She looked up at him, laying the menu down on the tabletop, shaking her head. "No, I can do it. I taught myself how to read." She proclaimed proudly, grinning at him. She looked down at the menu. "It's just a little hard, that's all." A waiter walked up to the table then, a squat little man with tire marks imprinted on his torso.
"Can I take your order?"
"The special." Beetlejuice said, looking over at Nicky.
"Same thing." She announced, looking over the menu and then watched thoughtfully as the man walk-limped off. She picked up the menus, carefully putting them back behind the salt and pepper shakers, humming to herself.
"How the hell do you do this?" His gruff tone wasn't sarcastic and didn't hold any contempt, only amazement as he asked the question.
"Huh?" She looked up into her older companion's eyes, her own blinking quizzically.
"C'mon, you're still alive, and you aren't getting freaked out at all, being in the Netherworld." He paused thoughtfully, then grunted to her, eyes thoughtfully searching her face, "S'matter of fact, you're enjoying it, aren't ya?"
"Is that bad?"
"What do you think?" There wasn't any sarcasm to the question, just solid thoughtfulness.
Nicky shrugged, tossing her ragged hair over her shoulder. "No, not really. Everything's too cool here, why shouldn't I like it? The 'Netherworld'.right? It's full of stuff I've never seen before, never done, never tried." She nibbled on her lip, obviously thinking over the present situation carefully. "Maybe. It's cuz I'm, uh, alive, so I take stuff in differently than someone here would."
"Maybe. You're also a kid, and kids are usually a hell of a lot more ready to accept stuff than older people."
She smiled brilliantly. "Okay, that sounds good enough!"
"Not everything, but it's a start." He sat back in his chair, studying her open face and bright eyes. The waiter came back with their food, pigeon and vulture stew, and conversation ceased as Nicky took extreme interest in the soup.
After they'd finished and had walked outside, Beetlejuice shifted the shopping bag he was holding and looked down expectantly at the girl who had his hand. "So we bought some clothes and ate some birds; You ready to go back?"
She smiled a little sluggishly, then yawned. "Yeah, which way do we go?"
"Hey, if you're tired, I could fly us home."
She perked up, eyebrows raising in surprise. "Really? You can do that?!"
"That's what I said, right?" He neatly scooped her up, standing up straight again.
She carefully placed the bag she was holding on her lap, holding it there with her hands. He lifted up into the air easily, rising up above the buildings and then started moving at a moderate speed toward the house's direction. Nicky watched the green sun sink below the horizon that she was facing with half-lidded eyes and snuggled against the ghost's chest, content.
She was somewhat disappointed when they touched ground in the front lawn a few minutes later, but forgot about it when a realization came to mind. "Ummm, BJ. Can I take a bath? I feel kinda.icky." She said, for lack of a better word, shaking her hand back and forth as if it helped illustrate her point.
"Yeah, that's fine." He remarked as they walked inside and dumped the bags on the floor, and he pointed her in the direction of the bathroom.
With a quick thanks, she scampered off. Feeling the need to take a break from the day's unfamiliar events, Beetlejuice flopped onto the worn couch, lighting up a cigarette and relaxing into the beaten cushions.
In the bathroom, Nicky had started filling up the tub and was painstakingly unbuttoning her long-sleeved shirt. She let it slide off her thin torso and caught sight of her half-naked body in the mirror with wide eyes. Bruises and cuts covered the pale skin of her chest, back, arms and neck and she grimaced, looking away. Making sure not to let her gaze wander back to the mirror, she instead slipped off her shoes and unbuttoned her pants. She'd been careful that morning in picking out her clothes to make sure they covered herself, a habit that had turned essential. Whenever people saw her body, they asked questions, and mother and father always said she couldn't talk about what happened in the house. The girl shook her head, shaking away the thoughts for the moment as she climbed into the tub, turning off the water and happily slipping into the soothing hot water.
She relaxed into the water, holding her breath for a moment and sliding all the way into the water. She came back up after a moment, shaking her wet head and pushing her dripping bangs back, then began looking for the soap. It was the only bath product she actually COULD find, so after she quickly scrubbed her skin, she lathered it up and cleaned her hair with it. Not exactly shampoo, but oh well. 'Whatever works.' She thought to herself, dunking back into the water to rinse off her hair. She might have stayed in the bath longer, but her insatiable curiosity got the better of her,, and Nicky wanted to go see what BJ was doing. She had just carefully climbed out of the tub when a knock on the door sounded. She stopped in shock, not moving as the door opened after a second.
"Hey, I thought you might need a towel, so I." Beetlejuice stopped, eyes wide as he saw Nicky standing on the bathroom rug, her slender body covered in ugly bruises and lacerations. Her own eyes were wide and the two stood in shock for several seconds before he realized that she was naked and that he was holding a towel for her. He walked over, draping it around her and kneeling down to look into her still-wide eyes. "Nicky?" His voice, usually so bold and full of confidence and was quiet and gentle and sounded a little hurt.
Nicky blinked finally, looking into his eyes. "I." She faltered, not knowing what to say.
"What happened to you?" He almost whispered after she didn't say anything.
"It. It's from 'there'." She blurted out after a long moment of trying to force it out. His eyes widened. 'There.' She'd never say more than that.
"What.?"
Some dam had broken inside of her from saying those words and the child began crying in earnest, tears spilling onto her cheeks. " 'There'. my father, he, he hit me.. and said bad stuff. And mother doesn't care, but I'm not supposed ta tell 'nyone and I dun wanna go back. She suddenly flung herself against him, sobbing so hard her body shook. "Please.I don't want to." The words were choked out between sobs.
He put his arms around her in a gesture that was completely unfamiliar to him, letting her lay her head against his shoulder as he gently rubbed her back. "Hey, hey, it's all right. You ain't going anywhere, I promise." Her tiny hands gripped his shirt and she managed to pull back a little to look into his eyes.
"Promise?" Her voice was tiny and fragile and he blinked rapidly, pushing away his own beginnings of tears, pulling her into a fierce hug.
"Yeah." He said, holding her until her sobs had quieted down and she'd relaxed. The girl looked at him, smiling softly and he smiled back.
"I'm gonna go get dressed now, okay?"
"Alright. There's a spare room at that end a' the hall." He waved in a general direction past the open door and her tired smile didn't fade as she nodded, heading out of the bathroom to go get her clothes, the towel clutched at her neck like a cape. He stood up after a long moment, letting the water out of the tub and was shutting of the bathroom light when she walked past, a little bundle of clothes in her arms, and into the spare room. He headed for his own, feeling exhausted and, though he usually went to bed a LOT later, tired as hell and ready to hit the rack.
He tossed on a pair of PJ's, then headed down to Nicky's room, knocking on the closed door.
"Come in." She answered, sounding a lot better, although the tone was quiet and still held a certain measure of sadness. He did so and found her sitting at the edge of the bed, wearing a pair of purple pajamas.
"Hey, you tired?" He asked, walking over to stand at the foot of the bed. She nodded, a bit sheepish, and yawned as if emphasizing her point.
'Okay, there's something I can do. What the hell was it?' This whole 'acting as a mature parental-type-unit thing' was still something he had no idea how to approach, although he was willing to try it out. The kid sure looked like she could use it. He surmised, looking at her quiet eyes.
"Uh, you want me ta tuck ya in?" He asked, brushing away some cobwebs in his mind and remembering about that sort of thing. She nodded happily and pushed back the covers, sliding underneath them.
He had no idea to do, but instinct drove him to brush back her bangs and take her tiny hand. She snuggled into the pillow, squeezing his hand gently.
"Night." She half-whispered and he let go, stepping over to the doorway and turning off the light.
"I'm right at the other end of the hallway, alright?" She nodded slowly, closing her eyes and he breathed a sigh of relief, heading for his room.
He lay in bed for a long time, unable to sleep despite his weariness. 'What now?' Well, she sure as hell wasn't going back 'there', and she could stay with him. After all, he'd promised. Although he wasn't she what he was actually going to do. Being any sort of parental unit wasn't anything he was used to, but he could deal with that. Or make some attempt to.
At the moment, the ghost was running over everything in his mind and trying to sort it all out. Nicky, her peculiar nature, her past and how he was going to take care of her, when he didn't have any idea as to how he was going to do it.
The tiniest rapping on the door caught his attention and he sat up in surprise, going to open the door and finding the little girl he'd been thinking about standing there, Sally in her arms, looking up at him quietly. "I. can I sleep with you?" The question was quiet, hesitant and he smiled softly, picking her up.
"Sure, no problem." He settled back into the bed and she curled up against him, head nestled against his chest.
"Why's your smile so sad?" She asked suddenly, looking up at him.
"Huh?"
Her tiny fingers reached up to touch his mouth. "Sometimes, you've got a real happy smile there, but sometimes, it's sad, even though it doesn't look like it at first. Like just now."
He blinked slowly, thinking. "I guess. I'm just a little sad then."
"You don't seem like it, though." She pointed out, sounding a bit sad herself as she snuggled against him.
"Guess I'm just good at hiding it then."
"That shouldn't be something you're good at." She almost admonished, forehead creasing in a thoughtful frown.
"And you're right, like you always are." He chuckled, brushing back her bangs with his fingertips. "Little child prodigy."
"What's a prodigy?" Her eyes closed, almost of their own accord, as she relaxed to the gentle motion of her hair being pushed back.
"You." She giggled softly, the laugh laden down with drowsiness and Nicky rested her forehead against his chest. Beetlejuice waited for several minutes, waiting for her to say something else, when he registered her even breathing and realized she had to be sleeping.
He settled against the pillows. 'Smile's sad. And I didn't even realize it until Nicky pointed it out.'
It all made a lot more sense now, when he thought about it. What had happened to her 'there' had matured her mind, making her more thoughtful and quiet than a normal kid would be, not to mention more apt to notice things no one else would. But she was still just a kid, and the rest of the time you could see that in her wide curious eyes, hear it in her childish giggle, understand it as she jumped around restlessly, running or skipping from place to place with a child's nature of not being able to stay still long.
Still, Nicky was an exceptional kid. Fearless, and curious beyond all belief, she showed nothing but curiosity instead of fear when she'd woken up in some place that didn't look like anything she'd ever seen before, and had shown nothing but trust in a person she didn't know, only because she 'knew he was alright.', as she'd told him earlier that day. Maybe it was just the instinctive pull that humans have that told her that, although he didn't know why that pull would have told her to trust him. Trust from another person was something he hadn't felt in a long time, but there it was, sleeping securely in his arms, one tiny hand clutching the lapel of his pajama top in a death grip.
Her face was peaceful, the tiniest hint of a smile on her lips, and he found the corners of his mouth lifting up. Once you hit the afterlife, and especially if you'd been there as long as he had been, you started to lose purpose in everything. That horrible gnawing feeling that came with that had haunted him for years now, but now fate had dumped a lost little girl into his lap.
A girl that would unintentionally force him into laughter, who would take his hand and pull him after her to look at something new; a girl who trusted him blindly- enough to tell him her darkest secrets and cry her pain out onto his shirt. And then, come to him at night with the simple request to sleep with him, one hand clutching a doll that most children would have found repulsive, the other reaching out for someone that most people found repulsive. For comfort. Maybe he could find purpose in with life. or whatever his going on meant. It was hard to define when you were dead, he mused, brushing back Nicky's ragged bangs and closing his eyes, content.
*~*~*~*~ Whoo, done with the second chapter! Took me long enough. Not that my lack of reviews was helping much (HINT HINT). ^_^ Tell me whatcha think, that's all I ask!
Qwik note here: I noticed that a Beetlejuice section was put up in the Cartoons, so I put this there, although it's more based off of the movie (which will be more obvious later on, as I plan on bringing in Barbara, Adam and eventually Lydia into the picture). ^^ And don't worry, it can only get better from here on. ^^ ***
Beetlejuice sat at the kitchen table, reading over the paper and drinking his black coffee, so intent on doing both that he didn't notice when someone slipped into the room.
"Hi!" A little voice peeped behind him, causing him to yelp in surprise, nearly falling out of the chair. He swiveled around to see Nicky standing behind, giggling. "I finished sleeping." She stated simply, clambering up onto the rickety chair next to him. "What's that?" She reached out, tiny fingers resting on the rim of his coffee mug and tapping it.
"Coffee, you want some?"
"Okay!" She cried in exuberance, always ready to attempt something new. With the fastidious precision that only a child has, she carefully pulled the cup towards her, not lifting it from the table. She sniffed it, examined the contents of the mug and thoughtfully nibbled on her lips. Finally she lifted it up, took a sip, then another, where she downed half the cup. Carefully setting it back on the table, she meticulously slid it back to her companion, wide eyes never cutting off eye contact with his. He looked down at the mug's lack of content, eyebrows raised, then over at her. "Hey, you're not really some thirty-year old trapped in a kid's body, are ya?"
"Huh?" Bright green eyes blinked in perplexity.
"Never mind." He finished off the rest of the coffee, tossed the paper into the kitchen corner, the wad neatly falling on the top of the mountain of papers that had been built there from the same act.
She climbed off her chair, bouncing from one foot to the other. "Can I look around?"
"Yeah, fine. I gotta go get dressed; just stay in the house, alright?"
"Okay!" She said, sprinting past him into the garage, squeals of joy spread in her wake.
***
Half an hour later, once he'd finished getting dressed, Beetlejuice found Nicky still in the garage. She had obviously been looking thorough the mounds of junk that had been piled up in the room and was now sprawled out on the floor, having a merry conversation with an ugly little voodoo doll. She heard the ghost come up from behind her and she turned, sitting up and looking at him. "Does she have a name?" The little girl held up the disfigured doll.
"Uh, not really."
"Okay, then I'm naming her Sally." Nicky proclaimed, then got to her feet, looking him over. He'd changed into a black and white striped suit with a pair of black boots. "I like your clothes." She said, almost wistfully as she tapped her toe, which was peeking out of a hole in her sock, against the garage floor.
Beetlejuice looked her over thoughtfully. She was dressed simply, in a dirty, over-sized white T-shirt that draped past her elbows and a pair of blue shorts that fell past her knees, with only a pair of holey, grass- stained and mud-splattered socks on her feet. "Well, we could go get you some clothes later, but for now, I've got something around here." He began digging through the mountains of clutter, pitching them everywhere and making new piles. Nicky carefully moved out of the way of the flying debris, watching the snow of junk with wide, thoughtful eyes. Finally an oversized suitcase landed at her feet, and he walked over, opening it up. "Here ya go." He said, dumping out the contents into a big mound of cloth. The girl carefully put down Sally, then excitedly pawed through the cloth, which was actually a variety of clothes that were her basic size. "Oo, lookit this! And this is neat too!" She babbled to herself, holding up one article of clothing after another and tossing them into a new pile at a rapid, overly-energetic speed. Once she'd gone through the clothes, her gaze floated up to meet Beetlejuice's with a look that was definitely shy. "Um, BJ, can I have a second so I can get dressed?"
Beetlejuice, who'd been watching the enthusiastic proceedings with an entertained half-smile, blinked as if coming out of a dream, "Huh? Yeah, okay. I'll, uh, be in the other room." He backed up, retreating into the kitchen, closing the door behind him. Leaning leisurely against the counter, the ghost amused himself by picking at his broken nails for a couple of minutes until Nicky reentered the room. She was wearing a pair of black pants with a simple button-up black shirt that was a bit big for her size; the ends of it fell just above her knees, and she'd rolled up to sleeves to her wrists so that the sleeves didn't drape over her hands. She grinned, striking a pose, "How do I look?" She tapped a white-shoed foot for extra drama, spinning around in a circle. The other was in a gray sneaker, the only left shoe she'd been able to find out of about 10 pieces of right footgear.
"Lookin' good." BJ smirked a little. "You wanna go get some other clothes now?"
"Okay!" That whole 'boundless energy' was going to take some getting used to, although he had to admit it was.cute. Or something like that. One of her hands was preoccupied, still holding the voodoo doll, and her other reached up to take his somewhat dirty hand, seemingly not bothered at all by the dirt caked underneath the chipped black fingernails. Maybe it was because her own had just as much dirt under them. "Let's go!"
***
Beetlejuice's run-down house was on the far outskirts of the city, so it was quite a walk. Actually, he would have flown, but Nicky was too spellbound by their surroundings for him to even want to make the suggestion, too amused by her enthusiasm. Still keeping a firm grip on his hand (which was a surprise in itself), she let him lead the way, but asked constant questions all the way there about what everything was, and why it was there, and what it did, and what did he think about it, and so on and so forth. Once they reached the broken sidewalks of the city, however, the little girl fell silent, only turning her head in every direction to take in all the people, what they were doing, the crooked buildings, what was in them, and everything in between with inquisitive green eyes.
She was so excited, she was having trouble keeping still. This place was so.cool! "Where're we going?" She averted her eyes from a man that was buying new feathers for the arrows sticking out of his chest to her companion.
"Right here." His gruff voice announced, stopping and turning her into a huge purple store with the name "Melinda's" hung above the door in big, elegant letters. The inside of the store was dark, lit only by lanterns on the walls and several candles on the register counter. "Hey, anyone here?" He was unsure as to what he should do; shopping wasn't exactly something he had scheduled often into his agenda.
His problems were solved, however, when a tiny little woman suddenly appeared next to them, a cigarette trailing smoke from her heavy-jeweled hand. "Welcome to Melinda's!" She rasped in a deep, smoker's voice, ruby red lips lifted in a smile. "I'm Melinda, how can I help you two?"
Beetlejuice let go of Nicky's hand, giving her a little shove. "She needs clothes. Help her out." He explained briefly. Nicky nodded in agreement.
"Well, let's get you set up, then. Come with me, hon. You can stay up here, if you'd like." Melinda said over her shoulder as she ushered the little girl towards the back of the store.
"Yeah, yeah, that's fine." He made himself at home in one of the chairs by the counter, watching the two of them disappear into the back.
"So, what would you like, dear?" Melinda asked, floating up and twirling around Nicky.
"Um, clothes?" She countered, somewhat unsure.
The ghost laughed, running a well-manicured hand through her mane of red hair. "Alright, that's a start. Let's go on with what your favorite colors are, okay?"
"Oh, I love black and purple." Nicky said, spinning around in place to keep her eyes on the saleswoman as she absent-mindedly drifted around the room.
The ghost smiled, landing by a rack and pulling off several items, then walked over and handed them to the child. "Here, go try these on and let's see how they look."
***
-An Hour and 15 minutes later- Beetlejuice rolled over on his side, kicking his legs that were hanging off the armrest, bored. He cut off his elaborate yawn when he heard footsteps and looked up to see Nicky and Melinda returning, the former looking triumphant, arms full with clothes and a pair of black boots, while the latter looked a bit haggard.
"Hi, BJ!" Nicky exclaimed, grinning at him widely, bouncing along despite her load.
"I've never seen a child with such a select mind in clothes!" Melinda gasped, staring down at the chipper girl with wide eyes.
"I had to pick out stuff I like." Nicky said, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. She looked over at BJ, giving him a small, private smile. "I'm stubborn." She mouthed, eyes twinkling in merriment.
The female ghost stopped, looking down at the little girl in amazement, then chuckled as she drifted over to the cash register, taking the items from Nicky to ring them up.
She and Beetlejuice walked out, each holding a bag (one of which had Sally neatly nestled in it), with Nicky holding his hand. "How the hell did you manage to get all that stuff for only $34 dollars?" He asked, incredulously, lifting up the heavy bag he was holding to help prove his point.
"Cause I looked through everything. The problem with people is that they don't take the time to really look through everything. If they did, their lives would prolly be lot easier." She smiled at up his incredulous face. "See?"
"Yeah, I think so." He blinked. "How old are you, kid?"
"Six."
"You're sure?"
"Uh-huuuhhh.How old are you?" She tilted her head to the side, reminding him somewhat of a curious puppy in the action.
"Six hundred and thirty eight years."
Her eyes grew wide. "Woooooow, really?" A loud rumbling coming from Nicky's stomach cut off his response. "Whoops, guess I'm hungry." She said, a bit sheepish as she looked down at her complaining tummy.
The ghost's stomach obviously decided that it needed to be heard too, as an even louder grumbling came from his. She giggled. "Guess we both are. Let's get some food. It's about dinner time, anyway." He suggested, turning into a small restaurant called The Bird House that they'd just passed.
They seated themselves at a table, taking up the menus and looking them over. Nicky murmured to herself as she did so, her brow furrowed in concentration. Beetlejuice noticed this and remembered that six-year-old usually couldn't read. "You need help?"
She looked up at him, laying the menu down on the tabletop, shaking her head. "No, I can do it. I taught myself how to read." She proclaimed proudly, grinning at him. She looked down at the menu. "It's just a little hard, that's all." A waiter walked up to the table then, a squat little man with tire marks imprinted on his torso.
"Can I take your order?"
"The special." Beetlejuice said, looking over at Nicky.
"Same thing." She announced, looking over the menu and then watched thoughtfully as the man walk-limped off. She picked up the menus, carefully putting them back behind the salt and pepper shakers, humming to herself.
"How the hell do you do this?" His gruff tone wasn't sarcastic and didn't hold any contempt, only amazement as he asked the question.
"Huh?" She looked up into her older companion's eyes, her own blinking quizzically.
"C'mon, you're still alive, and you aren't getting freaked out at all, being in the Netherworld." He paused thoughtfully, then grunted to her, eyes thoughtfully searching her face, "S'matter of fact, you're enjoying it, aren't ya?"
"Is that bad?"
"What do you think?" There wasn't any sarcasm to the question, just solid thoughtfulness.
Nicky shrugged, tossing her ragged hair over her shoulder. "No, not really. Everything's too cool here, why shouldn't I like it? The 'Netherworld'.right? It's full of stuff I've never seen before, never done, never tried." She nibbled on her lip, obviously thinking over the present situation carefully. "Maybe. It's cuz I'm, uh, alive, so I take stuff in differently than someone here would."
"Maybe. You're also a kid, and kids are usually a hell of a lot more ready to accept stuff than older people."
She smiled brilliantly. "Okay, that sounds good enough!"
"Not everything, but it's a start." He sat back in his chair, studying her open face and bright eyes. The waiter came back with their food, pigeon and vulture stew, and conversation ceased as Nicky took extreme interest in the soup.
After they'd finished and had walked outside, Beetlejuice shifted the shopping bag he was holding and looked down expectantly at the girl who had his hand. "So we bought some clothes and ate some birds; You ready to go back?"
She smiled a little sluggishly, then yawned. "Yeah, which way do we go?"
"Hey, if you're tired, I could fly us home."
She perked up, eyebrows raising in surprise. "Really? You can do that?!"
"That's what I said, right?" He neatly scooped her up, standing up straight again.
She carefully placed the bag she was holding on her lap, holding it there with her hands. He lifted up into the air easily, rising up above the buildings and then started moving at a moderate speed toward the house's direction. Nicky watched the green sun sink below the horizon that she was facing with half-lidded eyes and snuggled against the ghost's chest, content.
She was somewhat disappointed when they touched ground in the front lawn a few minutes later, but forgot about it when a realization came to mind. "Ummm, BJ. Can I take a bath? I feel kinda.icky." She said, for lack of a better word, shaking her hand back and forth as if it helped illustrate her point.
"Yeah, that's fine." He remarked as they walked inside and dumped the bags on the floor, and he pointed her in the direction of the bathroom.
With a quick thanks, she scampered off. Feeling the need to take a break from the day's unfamiliar events, Beetlejuice flopped onto the worn couch, lighting up a cigarette and relaxing into the beaten cushions.
In the bathroom, Nicky had started filling up the tub and was painstakingly unbuttoning her long-sleeved shirt. She let it slide off her thin torso and caught sight of her half-naked body in the mirror with wide eyes. Bruises and cuts covered the pale skin of her chest, back, arms and neck and she grimaced, looking away. Making sure not to let her gaze wander back to the mirror, she instead slipped off her shoes and unbuttoned her pants. She'd been careful that morning in picking out her clothes to make sure they covered herself, a habit that had turned essential. Whenever people saw her body, they asked questions, and mother and father always said she couldn't talk about what happened in the house. The girl shook her head, shaking away the thoughts for the moment as she climbed into the tub, turning off the water and happily slipping into the soothing hot water.
She relaxed into the water, holding her breath for a moment and sliding all the way into the water. She came back up after a moment, shaking her wet head and pushing her dripping bangs back, then began looking for the soap. It was the only bath product she actually COULD find, so after she quickly scrubbed her skin, she lathered it up and cleaned her hair with it. Not exactly shampoo, but oh well. 'Whatever works.' She thought to herself, dunking back into the water to rinse off her hair. She might have stayed in the bath longer, but her insatiable curiosity got the better of her,, and Nicky wanted to go see what BJ was doing. She had just carefully climbed out of the tub when a knock on the door sounded. She stopped in shock, not moving as the door opened after a second.
"Hey, I thought you might need a towel, so I." Beetlejuice stopped, eyes wide as he saw Nicky standing on the bathroom rug, her slender body covered in ugly bruises and lacerations. Her own eyes were wide and the two stood in shock for several seconds before he realized that she was naked and that he was holding a towel for her. He walked over, draping it around her and kneeling down to look into her still-wide eyes. "Nicky?" His voice, usually so bold and full of confidence and was quiet and gentle and sounded a little hurt.
Nicky blinked finally, looking into his eyes. "I." She faltered, not knowing what to say.
"What happened to you?" He almost whispered after she didn't say anything.
"It. It's from 'there'." She blurted out after a long moment of trying to force it out. His eyes widened. 'There.' She'd never say more than that.
"What.?"
Some dam had broken inside of her from saying those words and the child began crying in earnest, tears spilling onto her cheeks. " 'There'. my father, he, he hit me.. and said bad stuff. And mother doesn't care, but I'm not supposed ta tell 'nyone and I dun wanna go back. She suddenly flung herself against him, sobbing so hard her body shook. "Please.I don't want to." The words were choked out between sobs.
He put his arms around her in a gesture that was completely unfamiliar to him, letting her lay her head against his shoulder as he gently rubbed her back. "Hey, hey, it's all right. You ain't going anywhere, I promise." Her tiny hands gripped his shirt and she managed to pull back a little to look into his eyes.
"Promise?" Her voice was tiny and fragile and he blinked rapidly, pushing away his own beginnings of tears, pulling her into a fierce hug.
"Yeah." He said, holding her until her sobs had quieted down and she'd relaxed. The girl looked at him, smiling softly and he smiled back.
"I'm gonna go get dressed now, okay?"
"Alright. There's a spare room at that end a' the hall." He waved in a general direction past the open door and her tired smile didn't fade as she nodded, heading out of the bathroom to go get her clothes, the towel clutched at her neck like a cape. He stood up after a long moment, letting the water out of the tub and was shutting of the bathroom light when she walked past, a little bundle of clothes in her arms, and into the spare room. He headed for his own, feeling exhausted and, though he usually went to bed a LOT later, tired as hell and ready to hit the rack.
He tossed on a pair of PJ's, then headed down to Nicky's room, knocking on the closed door.
"Come in." She answered, sounding a lot better, although the tone was quiet and still held a certain measure of sadness. He did so and found her sitting at the edge of the bed, wearing a pair of purple pajamas.
"Hey, you tired?" He asked, walking over to stand at the foot of the bed. She nodded, a bit sheepish, and yawned as if emphasizing her point.
'Okay, there's something I can do. What the hell was it?' This whole 'acting as a mature parental-type-unit thing' was still something he had no idea how to approach, although he was willing to try it out. The kid sure looked like she could use it. He surmised, looking at her quiet eyes.
"Uh, you want me ta tuck ya in?" He asked, brushing away some cobwebs in his mind and remembering about that sort of thing. She nodded happily and pushed back the covers, sliding underneath them.
He had no idea to do, but instinct drove him to brush back her bangs and take her tiny hand. She snuggled into the pillow, squeezing his hand gently.
"Night." She half-whispered and he let go, stepping over to the doorway and turning off the light.
"I'm right at the other end of the hallway, alright?" She nodded slowly, closing her eyes and he breathed a sigh of relief, heading for his room.
He lay in bed for a long time, unable to sleep despite his weariness. 'What now?' Well, she sure as hell wasn't going back 'there', and she could stay with him. After all, he'd promised. Although he wasn't she what he was actually going to do. Being any sort of parental unit wasn't anything he was used to, but he could deal with that. Or make some attempt to.
At the moment, the ghost was running over everything in his mind and trying to sort it all out. Nicky, her peculiar nature, her past and how he was going to take care of her, when he didn't have any idea as to how he was going to do it.
The tiniest rapping on the door caught his attention and he sat up in surprise, going to open the door and finding the little girl he'd been thinking about standing there, Sally in her arms, looking up at him quietly. "I. can I sleep with you?" The question was quiet, hesitant and he smiled softly, picking her up.
"Sure, no problem." He settled back into the bed and she curled up against him, head nestled against his chest.
"Why's your smile so sad?" She asked suddenly, looking up at him.
"Huh?"
Her tiny fingers reached up to touch his mouth. "Sometimes, you've got a real happy smile there, but sometimes, it's sad, even though it doesn't look like it at first. Like just now."
He blinked slowly, thinking. "I guess. I'm just a little sad then."
"You don't seem like it, though." She pointed out, sounding a bit sad herself as she snuggled against him.
"Guess I'm just good at hiding it then."
"That shouldn't be something you're good at." She almost admonished, forehead creasing in a thoughtful frown.
"And you're right, like you always are." He chuckled, brushing back her bangs with his fingertips. "Little child prodigy."
"What's a prodigy?" Her eyes closed, almost of their own accord, as she relaxed to the gentle motion of her hair being pushed back.
"You." She giggled softly, the laugh laden down with drowsiness and Nicky rested her forehead against his chest. Beetlejuice waited for several minutes, waiting for her to say something else, when he registered her even breathing and realized she had to be sleeping.
He settled against the pillows. 'Smile's sad. And I didn't even realize it until Nicky pointed it out.'
It all made a lot more sense now, when he thought about it. What had happened to her 'there' had matured her mind, making her more thoughtful and quiet than a normal kid would be, not to mention more apt to notice things no one else would. But she was still just a kid, and the rest of the time you could see that in her wide curious eyes, hear it in her childish giggle, understand it as she jumped around restlessly, running or skipping from place to place with a child's nature of not being able to stay still long.
Still, Nicky was an exceptional kid. Fearless, and curious beyond all belief, she showed nothing but curiosity instead of fear when she'd woken up in some place that didn't look like anything she'd ever seen before, and had shown nothing but trust in a person she didn't know, only because she 'knew he was alright.', as she'd told him earlier that day. Maybe it was just the instinctive pull that humans have that told her that, although he didn't know why that pull would have told her to trust him. Trust from another person was something he hadn't felt in a long time, but there it was, sleeping securely in his arms, one tiny hand clutching the lapel of his pajama top in a death grip.
Her face was peaceful, the tiniest hint of a smile on her lips, and he found the corners of his mouth lifting up. Once you hit the afterlife, and especially if you'd been there as long as he had been, you started to lose purpose in everything. That horrible gnawing feeling that came with that had haunted him for years now, but now fate had dumped a lost little girl into his lap.
A girl that would unintentionally force him into laughter, who would take his hand and pull him after her to look at something new; a girl who trusted him blindly- enough to tell him her darkest secrets and cry her pain out onto his shirt. And then, come to him at night with the simple request to sleep with him, one hand clutching a doll that most children would have found repulsive, the other reaching out for someone that most people found repulsive. For comfort. Maybe he could find purpose in with life. or whatever his going on meant. It was hard to define when you were dead, he mused, brushing back Nicky's ragged bangs and closing his eyes, content.
*~*~*~*~ Whoo, done with the second chapter! Took me long enough. Not that my lack of reviews was helping much (HINT HINT). ^_^ Tell me whatcha think, that's all I ask!
