One Hour after Beetlejuice was Eaten by a Sandworm
Lydia sat on her bed somehow surprised that she wasn't hyperventilating. Certainly she knew her family was still downstairs discussing the evening's events and taking turns having hysterics. Lydia was fairly sure her father was taking the most turns, but that hardly mattered in a house like theirs. Not wanting to deal with them shrieking at her or each other, Lydia had snuck back up to the relatively peaceful haven of her bedroom.
Barbara and Adam had popped their heads briefly through her door to make sure she wasn't sick with fear, but quickly realized she needed her own time to deal with the events. Supposedly, they'd gone back downstairs to try and explain everything to her parents.
Lydia was scared. She hadn't been nearly as scared when it was happening as she was now. Then she had been confused and disgusted.
Lydia was also mortified. Somehow, she'd always expected herself to be brave if something happened and she needed to defend herself. All those times she'd been read fairy tales, Lydia had always firmly claimed that she would save herself if something happened to her. She'd been wrong and it hurt to realize what a coward she was.
Well, at least she hadn't panicked or cried. And she had tried to say his name.
Somehow, that didn't make her feel better. Oddly, it made her feel guilty. Lydia didn't like lying or breaking promises, so she hoped it was just that. After some serious internal debate, she convinced herself that her feelings of guilt were actually a good thing. If she felt guilt about breaking a promise, she was still a good kid and wouldn't go to hell.
Sighing lightly, Lydia tried to lie back on her bed. She was stopped by all the layers of red tulle pressing painfully into her back and against the hoop skirt. Lydia could feel the mesh of the fabric leaving marks on her skin. It had been hard enough managing to sit down in the hoop skirt.
Lydia finally decided she was done ignoring the dress. She stood and observed it in her vanity mirror. It was more than a little over the top, but that had never bothered Lydia. However, she wasn't sure what she thought of the color. Lydia hadn't liked red since she'd left her home in Peaceful Pines.
The longer Lydia stared at it, the more she thought she liked it. Right up until she started feeling for the zipper. There simply wasn't one. Whatever magic had gotten her into the dress would be needed to get her back out of it intact.
Setting her lips into a grim little line, Lydia took a pair of scissors she hardly ever used and began to cut along the seam on her right side. At least there was a seam, she was pleased to note, because now she could sew a zipper onto the new cut.
Hold on, why was she thinking about keeping it?
Lydia thought about that even as she continued with her shimmying to get it off. After a few minutes of struggling and a cutting the seam a couple more inches, the dress was pooled in front of her vanity and she was heading into her closet to find something more her. No answer came to her as she pulled on a pair of black leggings and a long-sleeved black shirt. However, she had not changed her mind.
Regarding the mass of crinoline on her floor, Lydia finally got a hanger and stuck the thing in her closet for the moment. If anyone asked, she'd just tell them it was a reminder of what not to do. It wouldn't even completely be lying.
As Lydia finally crawled into bed, feeling a whole lot better about the whole mess than the rest of her newly extended family, she had a sudden thought that changed her dreams to nightmares. She wished he'd left the ring.
About Two Years after Beetlejuice was Eaten by a Sandworm
Lydia is approximately seventeen and a half
The sound of cicadas outside her window was slightly soothing and Lydia was pleased to be able to leave it open. There were some good things about living on the second story even if it was harder to sneak out.
Lydia gritted her teeth. Not like she needed to sneak out now. She and her most recent boyfriend had broken up the week before and Lydia was still upset. Justin had been fine, it was all her. And Lydia was starting to feel like there was something wrong with her. Even her friends seemed surprised at this latest breakup.
But the guys were boring. There was always something missing. Maybe Lydia's childhood had been too exciting.
Then again, aside from her encounter with a poltergeist, Lydia didn't think she'd done too many exciting things. So why did it feel like she had?
She thought about that for a long time. Finally, she got up and peeked into her closet as if its contents could answer her questions.
The dress was anything but a secret. One of her parents, ghost or living, still came in at least once a month to look at it or touch it. They treated it with some twisted reverence that disturbed Lydia. They never said anything and the visits got less frequent every year, but it seemed that they all needed reminders sometimes. Lydia looked at it at least once a week, sometimes even pulled it out.
She almost regretted sewing the zipper on it. There were nights when she couldn't resist putting the monstrosity on and twirling around her room with the door locked. Those nights Lydia was careful to pull her curtains tightly closed.
Not like today.
Lydia firmly closed her closet doors so that she wouldn't be tempted. Somewhere in the back of her mind a thought niggled at her.
That dress was the reason she couldn't hold a boyfriend. Even when she didn't break up with the boy herself, the relationships ended pretty quickly. There would always be some excuse about how she seemed miles away. One had even asked if it was him she thought about when they were making out. Lydia didn't want to admit, even to herself, that he definitely wasn't.
So, here she was, once again alone on a Friday night. Her whole summer stretched ahead of her looking sadly empty. Most of her friends were going on extensive vacations this summer or at least going to look at colleges. That was one of the drawbacks to going to private school; everyone had money to do whatever they wanted in their time off. Her parents were too comfortable in the house to go anywhere else. And if they weren't leaving, neither was Lydia.
Briefly, Lydia thought about getting a job, just for something to do. The thought passed as quickly as it had come. She knew she'd spend her summer working on her photography.
With all these thoughts rolling through her head, Lydia turned to her bed and flopped down on it. The thick comforter was surprisingly cool and felt good after the heat of the day. It wouldn't for long, but now that she was lying down, Lydia couldn't be bothered to get back up and close her window.
As she lay there, a sudden thought caused her chest to restrict. Her fingers curled into the sheet hard enough to cause the stuffing to bunch and pucker.
That stupid poltergeist, her mind spat the word like it was a curse, was in her head again. If she didn't think about him so much she would swear the thoughts were planted there by the villain himself.
But Lydia knew better. She couldn't blame the poltergeist for this. Even her dreams seemed haunted.
Right after the almost marriage, Lydia had started dreaming about being a kid again in Peaceful Pines. She was in her middle school uniform for the Miss Shannon's there and she was so mad she was on the verge of tears. A cool arm was draped across her shoulders and Lydia buried her face in a coat smelling a bit of mildew, dirt, and body odor. Somehow the smell seemed familiar. Instead of being disgusted, Lydia felt immediately comforted.
The dream was always the same though. As soon as she felt calm enough to pull back from the comforting figure with a grateful smile, she woke up. Lydia worried what they meant. She didn't remember anyone like that. Only Prudence and Bertha. Neither of whom smelled like that dirty coat did.
Those left her feeling wistful for a while, but now she dreaded them. After having them several times a week for a year, Lydia had begun to have an inkling of who that coat, smell, and arm belonged to. Now when she had the dream she woke up in a cold sweat, panting like she'd run a mile.
It had only gotten worse.
Around her sixteenth birthday, Lydia began having dreams that were far more vivid even if she didn't fully remember them in the morning. All she remembered was a deep red tint to her surroundings and the feeling that there had been someone else with her in that red tinted world.
Like the dream of her childhood, this got clearer the older she got. Lydia still couldn't call the dream to mind with any detail, but she knew who was with her and she knew what they were doing.
Those dreams made her wake up in a much warmer sweat and Lydia often had problems falling back asleep because she was so frustrated.
The very worst part of it was that Lydia looked forward to them. To both dreams. It had gotten to the point where if she wasn't working on a project, out with a boyfriend, or with her friends, then she was sleeping. She could barely close her eyes without feeling like she was about to be sucked into a dream.
Like right now. The cool of her comforter as she pressed her cheek against it made her eyes close involuntarily. The dream world seemed to dance in front of her eyes. Lydia knew this would be one of the red dreams. She smiled.