We sat silent for a minute.
"You…you're going there? You'd take me?" I asked to clarify.
"Not in your present state. They won't allow you in alive just to see some fellow who ran into your mother," he declared coldly.
I sighed and stood up. Going to lean against the wall, I faced a tough decision. On the one hand, I could see the man and talk to him, and possibly even see my mom! I could say goodbye again…but on the other hand, I wouldn't be able to come back since I'd already be dead and I wouldn't have to say goodbye at all.
They let me think for awhile before interrupting my thoughts. Finally, Chris put his hand on my shoulder. "Lira, you don't have to do it at all. It's not a done deal…you can stay here…"
I spun around and hit his hand away from me. "And do what? Rot away in this place, surrounded by death, with nothing but memories of a deceased mother and some anonymous guy who ran her over? I don't think so."
He jumped back, startled.
I yelled to the rest of the room. "It's a big joke, isn't it? My wanting to go to the Neitherworld. Tell you what, highest bidder gets to knock me off!"
Lydia, Chris and Briana couldn't tell if I was joking or not. Beetlejuice looked like he was considering making a bid, and Andrew was about to leap at the chance, his eyes twinkling and a fiendish smirk across his face.
Before Andrew could say a word, though, Beetlejuice spoke up. "Kid, from what I've heard, Andrew here wants the chance. How could he hate you so much in the few days you've known each other? What'd you do to him?"
"He doesn't hate me. He thinks if I kick the bucket, I'll be able to devote my time to writing instead of breathing."
"Oh. And does he want it particularly painful?"
"I don't know."
Andrew put his two cents in by claiming that the more pain there was, the less I was likely to regret being alive. This contradicted his earlier view on "falling asleep", and when I confronted him about it, he shrugged and claimed he had time to think about it and discover the truth.
I looked skeptically and hopefully at Beetlejuice and he sighed. "Are you sure about this?" he asked in a final-warning type of voice.
"Hell, I don't have much to lose, do I?" I claimed, looking at Briana who was grinning devilishly.
He looked like a flash of insight hit him and he grabbed my hand. "Come with me. I think I know how to get you back in your body if you get back from the afterlife, babes!"
Before I could stop him, he had back us both transparent and he flew us through the walls and outside, over hills and forests and into town, where we set down outside a dilapidated brick building.
