The world was a blur. Two figures came from the bedroom door; two people that were not there before. Suddenly, she heard voices.

"Oh dear, Adam, I think you overdid it. The poor girl's gone and gotten hurt."

"I think so, honey. Here, give me a hand."

Claudia felt herself being lifted up and placed down on her bed. Her eyes were still blurred, but she noticed that the woman had long, brown, curly hair and wore a pink country dress, while the man had sandy brown hair and wore a black and white checkered shirt.

"Wh-what…ow!" Her head began to pound and a small lump was forming in the hair above her left eye.

"Are you ok?" the woman asked her. "Let me go get you some ice for that."

"Wait, Barbara. Let me. You watch her." The man quickly left the room.

As Claudia's head cleared, she focused on the young woman now taking care of her wound.

"Who are you?"

The man returned and put a chilled cloth over her lump. "There. That ought to help. What did you ask?"

"Who are you people? Why are you in my house?" Claudia tried to stand, but as she did, her head ached with a dizzy attack and she had to lie back down.

"Well…we used to…well, that's not true. We still do live here, although we don't really live, persay…" the man began.

"You see," the woman knelt down to get at eye-level with the girl. "We're the Maitlands, and we used to live here. But we-…"

"Got into a car accident and died! Adam and Barbara Maitland!" Claudia interrupted and finished for her. "What are you?!"

"Um…we're…ghosts." Adam shrugged.

"We hope we didn't scare you too much, dear. Adam was just going to unlock that closet when he dropped the key. We didn't know you'd be so upset when you saw it fall all on its own like that. What's your name, by the way?"

"Claudia." She was in astonishment. Ghosts? Real ghosts? Sweet!

"But it wasn't the key that scared me. What is that…corpse doing in the closet? Was that you guys? Why would you put that in there?"

Barbara looked confused. "What corpse, Claudia? We didn't put anything in there…"

Adam opened the door, and Claudia hid her eyes.

"Look, Claudia. Nothing in here but my model. I was about to ask you if it would be OK if I set it back up in here. Ever since the designers came, I had to put it away for safekeeping."

"Um, sure. But, I saw it! It had nasty blond-white hair, and this striped suit, and he was hanging from a rope! In the closet! And then I slammed the door shut, but it just flew open and that's how I got this lump! And I heard someone laughing when I was on the floor!"

The Maitlands froze.

"Striped suit?"

"Nasty hair?"

"Evil laugh?"

Claudia nodded for each question. "Yeah! Why was he in there? And how come he isn't in there now?"

The couple looked at each other in horror.

"Oh my god, Adam, we never put him back!" Barbara gasped. "That means that he's still loose!"

Adam held her still. "Relax, Barb. We can handle this. He can't hurt anyone, can he? Do you remember if he ever did?"

"I…I can't remember! It was ages ago! Back when Lydia still lived here…"

"Hold on a minute!" Claudia yelled to get their attention. "Who is this mystery guy?"

Adam looked at her and heaved a great sigh. "His name is…well…we shouldn't say his name, because it would bring him here and we don't want that just yet."

Barbara started in on him. "His name is Beetlejuice. He's a terrible ghost who once almost killed a family who lived here. Not to mention his lechery, perversion, horrible language, unbalanced temper…"

Adam cut her off. "But he can only come if you say his name three times. So never, ever say his name three times in the same day at least. If you do, you're asking for trouble that we wouldn't be able to help you get out of."

Claudia thought out loud. "But he was already here, without me calling him. How come?"

"Because right now, he isn't working for anyone and no one's put him back. Putting him back means saying his name three times again."

"And that means…he's been loose for…" Barbara counted on her fingers. "Ten years!"

"Not true."

The new voice startled all of them. The three turned to see an elderly woman smoking a cigarette.