Please read! It is essential to the story.

1. World is mixed-media (so that being said I'll be taking aspects from the Movie, Cartoon and Musical)

2. Beetlejuice here will not be related to Juno

For now that's all you need to know. Maybe in the future I'll be adding on to that list (or not), depends on how well this story goes. So anyway – again I am no where near being a professional, and I have never written anything mature/explicit rated, please bare with me.

Anyway, on with the story! Enjoy!

It was late in the sleepy town of Peaceful Pines. The moon was high up in the sky beaming softly at its residence as they slept quietly into the night.

There was one person though who wasn't asleep.

Lydia sat by her window looking out at the dark hills that stretched over the horizon. The trees were swaying lazily in the midnight summer breeze, seemingly tranquil and calm. But the peaceful evening did nothing to help the storm that was raging inside her.

It had been 4 years since that eventful day at the Maitland-Deetz household.

4 years since she met Adam and Barbara. 4 years since she met 'him'. 4 years since the forced marriage, and 4 years since she technically killed someone to save her family.

The girl looked up at the sky and sighed.

4 years since she met the one person who truly understood her. 4 years since he saved her and her family from the clutches of death itself. What would've it been like if he had stayed?

It wasn't an unfamiliar question to the goth beauty. She had pondered and fantasized about it every day since he left.

The summer after the move she was enrolled into her new school, "Miss Shanon's School for Girls". It was going to be her last year this year. She was turning 18 in just a few months, and after graduation next spring she would be a fully fledged young adult. Honestly she should be excited. Her parents had brought her in to visit many colleges over the course of the summer, and all the art majors she came across sparked an excitement deep inside her. Lydia was grateful to have an amazing and supportive family — but, amazing and supportive didn't mean they understood her.

She would always catch their confused looks when she would show off her newest pictures of rotting gravestones, and the nervousness when she would bring up anything to do with the paranormal. The young woman scoffed at the memory.

It was like any other day in her house when she asked her ghostly god-parents about death and the afterlife. It was all a blur to her when she went in years ago, but from what she could remember there was a sense of government (with all those rules). It had piqued her interest to know more about the Neitherworld, and to that she had been told not to dabble on things beyond her understanding.

"It's dangerous." Adam had told her that day.

"Honey, why would you need to know anyway?" Barbara was sitting next to her with her hand firmly clasping Lydia's paler one's.

The girl had shrugged then. "Just curious about it, I guess."

After a few more exchanges and useless warnings they had let her go about her day. Still, that never really satisfied Lydia. So she did what any other person would do when they needed to learn about something — she researched.

After school she would stay back at the library and dig up as many books about the afterlife as she could. And when she ran out of books she researched on the internet. Unfortunately things spiraled down from there, everything was contradicting the other. Since no one alive had ever been into the Neitherworld, no one could suffice the information she needed. Bits and pieces were there though that held some sort of resemblance to the world she had visited briefly, but other than that it was all lose information. So she did the next best thing — which was to borrow the Book for the Recently Deceased. Lydia had snuck up the attic one evening and softly crept to the night stand that they had brought in for the Maitlands. She knew Barbara would keep the book in the bedside table. Using her god-parents fingers, she managed to flip the book open without waking them up.

That book was devoured by her that summer. She had read and reread from cover to cover. It was fascinating to say the least. But now she was out of things to do.

Years went by after that, and the longer time went by the more she itched to see the place again for herself. Call her strange and unusual because that was exactly what she was.

And that brought her back to why she was up in the first place. Looking down she found the object of all her troubles.

The ring adorned with silver skulls and roses gleamed under the pale light of the moon.

The skulls had carefully placed black diamonds for eyes and the roses were coated with a matte silver varnish. In the middle held by the two tiny skulls was a good sized deep red diamond — the rarest, most valuable and most expensive of all the gems in the world. Even her family couldn't deny the beauty of the ring that rested comfortably on her ring finger. Why hasn't she taken it off since the marriage one might wonder, well, the truth was that she had — multiple times in fact.

But no matter how she did it, or what technique she used, it wouldn't come off.

She had cursed his name that night when she found out.

As time went by though, her feelings for it had changed. Lydia had grown to like the ring, even if it reminded her of memories she'd rather put to rest. And as more time passed the more curious she got about everything it stood for. Her marriage to a dead man, the Neitherworld, her understanding of the whole concept of life and death.

The more curious she became, the more the urge to call him back returned to her. When she researched all those years ago she had to stomp down her temptation leaving her frustrated to no end.

Little did she know all of that was about to change on that faithful day. Her 18th birthday.

I hope you liked it! Please rate and review – I swear it really does make a difference to us authors when you do. Comments help encourage us to keep creating because it makes us feel less invisible (yes I'm quoting the musical).

Anyway, please stay tuned for the next part - because things are about to get more complicated!

Until next time!