In an unnamed town in Northern New York lived a small, yet happy family: The Deetz family. Charles and Emily were a young couple who resided in a quaint neighborhood just 7 miles west of Catskill. Their daughter, Lydia, had just celebrated her 6-month birthday — a normal family would render half birthdays pointless, but not Emily. Surprisingly though, the only present she gave Lydia was a small black teddy bear; there were no cakes, balloons, streamers, or any other presents as one would expect. After all, babies that age were more concerned about when they were going to get their next bottle, not an expensive party they likely wouldn't remember.
Alright! Enough with the rambling! Let's get on with the story!
It was an unusually warm afternoon in the finicky month of March. Emily had just finished feeding Lydia her one-hundredth bottle of the day; she had attempted to feed her daughter solid food in the past, but due to her underdeveloped digestive system, Lydia would often spit out the food right after it went into her mouth. That didn't matter anyway as Lydia's stomach was satisfied with the usual pumped breast milk. She was now being put down for her daily afternoon nap by her mother, Emily Deetz.
"You sleep tight, pumpkin," Lydia's mother whispered to her daughter as she gently tucked her into her crib. "Mommy's going to make a friend! An invisible friend!"
She kissed Lydia on the cheek before slowly walking out of the nursery like a zombie who needed coffee with decaf. Although it wasn't nighttime, signs of sleep deprivation were apparent in the young woman. Her daughter still wasn't sleeping through the night, so it was evident why she felt exhausted. Only people with the patience of saints could juggle the duties of a middle school teacher and a mother of a baby at the same time. Now that she had successfully put Lydia down for her nap with no fuss, she was able to do what she wanted. She had plans — and big plans at that. Her husband, Charles, seemed to be rather curious about her plans; he was worried that she would plot a genocide or something like that.
"Honey, are you looking for something?" Charles asked as he sipped a cup of orange juice.
"Uh, I was… just finding a book to read!" stuttered Emily, trying not to reveal her secret to Charles.
"Very well then! Tell me about your favorite part when you're done!" chirped Charles.
Emily simply nodded her head as Charles walked to the kitchen to grab something to eat. Once she made sure that Charles was out of her sight, she snuck downstairs to the basement and quietly shut the door behind her. In the basement was where all of her dark magic supplies resided; there was a small patio table draped in a spider-web cloth, an assortment of books focusing on supernatural creatures and spirits, and a purple lamp sitting on top of the spider-cloth covered table. This was her secret lab; nobody knew she was hiding all this stuff in the basement. Not even her husband knew she had a love for supernatural creatures and dark magic. Granted, the lab was located on the dark side of the basement, but Charles was too much of a scaredy-cat to venture down there anyway.
"Time to summon some ghosts," Emily whispered to herself as she walked toward the table.
She cracked her knuckles and began waving her hands like she was trying to summon a magical creature. It was as if she was an ugly witch trapped inside the body of a 28-year-old Asian-American woman.
"Though I know I should be wary… Still, I venture someplace scary," Emily chanted as she waved her hands around the lamp. "Ghostly hauntings I turn loose… Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, BEETLEJUICE!"
Much to her disappointment, nothing happened. No ghost or creature showed up through the lamp. People had always made fun of her for believing in the supernatural and now she was starting to realize that those people were right all along. There was no such thing as ghosts.
"Perhaps he's just shy," Emily stated. "Maybe he'll come out if we try one last time, only a little louder!"
Emily grabbed one of the many books to help aid in the summoning of a ghost. She opened the page to one of the many important chants vital for summoning to work. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath.
"Though I know I should be wary… Still, I venture someplace scary!" Emily chanted in a slightly louder tone. "Ghostly hauntings I turn loose! Beetlejuice, BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE!"
Although she said the chant correctly, nothing happened. Reaching her boiling point, she exasperatedly shouted the chant over and over until her lungs forced her to catch her breath. She had screamed "Beetlejuice" so many times, it was as if it was the only word she could say. She was comparable to the sadistic teacher who believed that fairies existed. She may as well have been placed in a looney bin for her strong obsession with the supernatural.
"Oh, whatever! They'll never understand! All I wanted was a friend to talk to!" grumbled Emily before glaring at the book in her hands.
After getting into a staring contest with the book, she tossed it against the wall while yelling in rage. The sheer impact of the book caused the purple curtain to fall down to the floor. The normally laid-back woman was seething with rage and disappointment. Not wanting to look like a bigger baby than her daughter, she took three deep breaths to calm herself down and walked away from the mess of dark magic supplies. She took some time to recuperate by lying down on the plaid sofa in the corner of the basement to take a catnap.
Meanwhile, Lydia was having trouble falling asleep thanks to her newly-acquired separation anxiety. She had been lying in her crib wide-eyed ever since Emily left the room. Even with her black teddy bear beside her, she still felt like she was the only baby girl in the world. Peering around the room with her slightly blurred vision, she saw the mirror above her changing table light up. A deep disturbing sound that sounded like a cross between a person moaning and a train horn blared throughout the room as the mirror flashed in bright shades of white and purple, so bright that it could have caused a seizure. Lydia was pretty darn lucky to not get affected by this, but the weirdness got even better! Inside the mirror appeared a lavender-colored ghost with blonde hair, sporting a black-and-white striped pin suit and a sinister smile.
"Hello there, little one…" the ghost whispered to Lydia in a rather intimidating crazy voice. " I've come to suck the souls out of your parents…"
It wasn't long before the strange ghost threw his head back and proceeded to cackle maniacally. Poor little Lydia wasn't sure whether she should stare blankly or scream for her parents.
"Now you sit still and LEMME HAVE AT IT!" the ghost abruptly popped out of the mirror like a Jack-In-The-Box toward Lydia's crib. The sheer quickness and timing of the ghost's scare were too much for Lydia to handle, so she had no choice but to just cry and scream for her mother.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
Lydia bawling her eyes out was part of the ghost's initial plan; he wanted to scare her, after all. Just as he began to silently brag about his achievement, he suddenly heard footsteps nearing the room. Charles had heard the loud crying all the way from the kitchen and dropped the bagel he was eating to rush to her aid. The paternal instincts were strong in Charles and his daughter's intense cries did not help in the slightest.
"Lydia, Lydia! What's wrong, sweetie?!" Charles asked worriedly as he rushed into the nursery to pick his daughter up.
He began to rock and sway Lydia in his arms as she bawled her eyes out. The ghost, worried that Charles would freak out at the sight of him, vanished back into the mirror. It was a known fact that ghosts could not conceal themselves from humans. Without a proper disguise or quick reflexes, an exorcism was likely. When an exorcism happens, 90% of the time, the ghost never comes back.
"Shhh… Daddy's here… What do you need, hm?" crooned Charles as he rocked Lydia.
Lydia squinted her eyes at the mirror while belching out occasional screechy cries. She just wouldn't let up; she was way too terrified to even stop crying. She knew that the ghost was still in the room, even though he vanished the second her father came in.
"Oh, you're afraid of the mirror?" Charles asked puzzlingly as he glanced at the mirror. "Well, that's new…"
He walked toward the mirror and held Lydia in front of it, causing her to cry harder and louder. It was admittedly distressing to watch Lydia cry at the sight of her reflection, but Charles couldn't help but chuckle because of how strange it was. He never knew that Lydia had just seen a ghost try to kidnap her — maybe if her primitive baby brain allowed speaking intelligible words instead of crying and screaming, he would've got an answer by now.
"Heh, heh! The baby in the mirror must be scary! Aw, silly pumpkin, it's just you! You're not scary, you're adorable," Charles giggled as he cuddled Lydia against his chest.
Lydia softened her cries as Charles held her close to his chest. The reason why she briefly stopped full-on crying in the first place was because of the warmth and familiarity that came with her father. Charles had been there for her since the day she was born in the hospital, so it was obvious she would recognize him as an object of protection.
"There, there…" comforted Charles as he walked toward the crib to put Lydia down. "I sometimes get scared of things, a lot more than you do, actually!"
Lydia uttered a soft coo at Charles as he tucked her into her crib.
"That's right, sweetie! You're gonna grow up to be a trooper! I just know you are!" Charles chirped before giving Lydia a kiss on the forehead.
Lydia immediately resumed her crying fit as she watched Charles leave the nursery. It was as if he left her to starve to death in some deep torture chamber or something. As previously stated, she hated being alone. Well, nobody could blame her for that one. Excuse the present tense, but Mr. Self Aware Sammy here still gets all wary of his surroundings, like someone is always watching him when he sleeps… Oh, the horror.
When Charles left the room, the mirror lit up again. The creepy train noises echoed and the ghost showed up in the mirror in a rather scary and abrupt manner. He was in that mirror like some invisible person's reflection in the moonlight — hopefully, there was no invisible person at all. Since he couldn't fully get out of the mirror, he decided to do what no other ghosts could do: use his ghostly possession powers! As Lydia continued to bawl her eyes out, she suddenly began levitating about 5 feet from her crib. She felt like some leaf floating in the air and that wasn't a good thing. Generally, a young child would cry even harder if something like that were to happen to them, but not Lydia; she was too appalled and confused to even continue crying. She showed no signs of a typical possession — no screaming, no limpness, no stiffness, no nothing. She did act possessed when she was crying though.
"Yes, my child… Come to me… Yeesss…" the ghost whispered to himself as he used his powers to bring a levitating Lydia over to the mirror, making scooping hand gestures as he did so.
And yes, that ghost's name was Beetlejuice. It was unknown why he was named that though one could assume that it was because he liked to eat beetles.
The ghost's eerie grin grew larger as Lydia floated closer and closer to the mirror. The success of kidnapping a baby was like winning the lottery to him. The potential of owning a little minion came with endless ideas; he could teach her how to be a criminal, how to laugh an evil laugh, and then steal their candy.
"YES! THAT KID IS FINALLY IN MY HANDS! I will now teach her how to be one of us …" the ghost cheered maniacally before stretching his arms out of the mirror and catching Lydia midair with his dirty red-fingernailed hands.
"Any last words before you and I venture out INTO THE LAND OF DARKNESS?!" the ghost asked Lydia.
Lydia didn't say or do anything. She just simply stared at the ghost like he was some creepy thing, all while drooling a bit.
"I'll take it as a yes!" the ghost beamed.
And at that, Lydia and the ghost vanished into the deep land of darkness — whatever it was called. The process wasn't too complicated. Heck, it was pretty quick; it only took about 90 seconds for the ghost to bring Lydia over to him with the help of his magical powers. As for the vanishing part? Yeah, just imagine a fairy or a wizard disappearing. There, that should give you readers an idea of how the ghost disappeared.