Silent Serenade Chapter 8: So Far Away, a beetlejuice fanfic

A/N: "So Far Away" is copyright Staind. BJ belongs to Tim Burton. This story works better if you listen to the track on loop while reading.

This is my life,
Its not what it was before.
All these feelings I've shared,
And these are my dreams,
That I'd never lived before.
Somebody shake me
'Cause I,
I must be sleeping…

"Rachel!"

His voice echoed in the small attic room. Beetlejuice ground his fists into the floorboards, trying to keep back a new wave of tears. He remembered now…all that talk about a lock! Rachel had flung herself into the hellhole and blocked it up, becoming the new key to Purgatory.

He gasped, a spasm of pain enveloping his chest. He clawed at the brown sweater he wore and tore it off, looking in horror at the white burn mark he had always remembered having on his chest. In the past, it never really resembled any shape. But now it looked vaguely like a keyhole!

He looked down in horror as his alter ego explained.

"Oh, so you never noticed that the scar just happened to appear after the last Reckoning? Lord God, but you're inept. I could throw up, had I a material body." He leaned against the wall, looking Beetlejuice over with a disgusted expression.

"But why didn't you want me to remember?"

"Because we'd have an episode, just like we're having right now. You're really pathetic when you cry, Beetlejuice. Like a little child. And I can't stand that. If you want to blubber like an adolescent, that's fine. But do it on the inside."

Beetlejuice was angered at this remark, but couldn't stop his heavy sighs. After all, what good would it do to fight himself? Rachel was gone and Lydia was gone and there was nothing he could do. He sent Lydia back himself! As a matter of fact, he put her there in the first place when he looked at it in a certain light.

Now that we're here,
It's so far away,
All the struggle we thought was in vain.
All in the mistakes,
One life contained,
They all finally start to go away.
Now that we're here its so far away,
And I feel like I can face the day
I can forgive,
And I'm not ashamed to be the person that I am today…

He let out a small sob and was startled when his other side let out a sickened noise and walked over. Before Beetlejuice could react, the other man had slapped him, backhanded, across the face.

"If you can't stop crying like a heartbroken woman, then I'm going to have to do something about it. There's too much on the line for you to be slacking off in your duties."

Beetlejuice's head had cracked to the side, his neck almost popping from his head from the impact. His face held an astounded expression and he hadn't even turned his head back when he felt a yanking pain in him.

These are my words
That I've never said before.
I think I'm doing okay.
And this is the smile
That I've never shown before,
Somebody shake me 'cause I,
I must be sleeping…

Suddenly it felt like he was being compressed, shoved into himself. And before he could respond, he suddenly felt like he was on the inside of something, looking out.

Why does it feel so strange? He asked himself. What…?

He saw himself look in a mirror and was instantly answered. His body no longer had the middle-aged build and messy hair that he knew he retained. Instead, he looked like the younger alter ego of his! He had, in fact, been possessed by himself!

"Surprised, you whining little child?" he heard the other side's voice speaking with an air of superiority. "You used to claim you could do this! Remember? In the old days?"

But even though Beetlejuice wanted to shake his head – No, no! I didn't mean it! It was just a marketing trick! – he couldn't, because he no longer had control over what his body did. His other side had it.

"This is only temporary; don't worry. But I'm going to have to get rid of Lydia once and for all. If she could climb out of Purgatory once, she might not survive it again. But where there's a will, there's a way, and I can't leave it up to chance.

"I was always your better judgement, but for once you're going to let me act on it."

He took them out of the house and through the air. Beetlejuice went blind for a moment and when he could see again, they were standing in front of those horrible black gates that blocked off the only Hell he knew.

The ghost on the outside laughed. "Guess where we're going? And guess what I'm going to do to ensure that she'll never interfere with our eternity ever again?"

Beetlejuice drew into himself. No, even this other side of him wouldn't risk it! He wouldn't walk willingly into Purgatory! That was damnation, to the extreme! Before Lydia, no one had ever gone into that pit and had ever risen out!

I'm so afraid of waking…
Please don't shake me…
Afraid of waking…
Please don't shake me…

But here he was, walking steadily towards the gates! He felt his arm stretching out to push open the heavy door and could see the infinite black void beyond. And for the first time in his memory, Beetlejuice felt true fear.

Beyond this point lay nothing. Utter vacuum. Take one more step, and they'd be lost forever in planes of emptiness and darkness. No light could touch this place, and all the inhabitants could hope for was unconsciousness that didn't differ at all from being awake.

And here he was, stepping out into infinity.