Beetlejuice

Season 2: The Sleeper Saga

Episode 26: The Dragon's Ring

Another ordinary day in the life of Claire Brewster. She was awakened by the maid opening up the curtains of her room located on the right wall from her bed. "Good morning Miss Brewster" she announced in such a happy tone. Claire fluttered her eyes open and perked a smile as she stretched out the sleep. "Good morning Marry." Claire responded while exhaling and looked around her cheery, sunlit room. From her plush king sized bed, Claire could look around freely to examine her surroundings. The covers of her bed were shining gold colored with bits of silver and pearl. Her pillows were also the same three colors decorated mostly around the pearl color. Her room was similar to that, golden colored furniture arranged around the room extravagantly like in a home and décor magazine. A pearl white vanity and stool was located within feet from her bed against the same enormous wall. Her room was approximately the double the size of Lydia's room and was painted with a pale gold interior paint to offset the pearl colored Elizabethan furniture. Her bed was placed at the opposite end of the door and a desk was located opposite of the window. She had a complete furniture set, from the vanity to a matching end table and even a chest of drawers located close to her walk-in closet roughly half the size of her room. The closet was chalk full of outfits that most likely cost a fortune to purchase. Shoes of various shapes, sizes and colors, blouses varying in color and design, pants, skirts, dresses and other various accessories she could use to doll herself up on a casual day or even after school. But today was a school day, and she simply needed her uniform for right now.

Claire hopped out of bed and made her way to the shower to get cleaned up for school. As she began to dry off her hair, she began to think of her friend that had gotten on an airplane just two day s ago. "I can't believe how much things seem off without Bertha. We certainly have become close friends throughout the time Lydia showed up." She reflected upon her first impression of the gothic girl and how weird she thought that she was. She then reflected upon the events that took place that past year. Recalling when she found out that Ben was actually someone named Beetlejuice, how he was able to help her get in touch with her parents once again. She then thought about that fateful day when the war came. The warm water and steam from the shower then couldn't protect her from the shivers. Remembering what she felt when Aldar was struck down by his own sister and left to die. Watching his body fade from sight in Sierra's arms, leaving behind only his famous demon sword, the Soul Eater. A single tear fell from her eye and mixed in with the water from the shower that rested upon her face. She patted her face dry and pushed out the sad memories before continuing to freshen herself up.

After she took care of her hygiene, she proceeded to her closet and looked to her vanity where one of the house servants stood, ready to place on Claire's makeup, and another ready to fix her hair. Claire chuckled slightly and stated, "What would I do without you guys?" "Thank you for the compliment Miss Brewster." They both said at the same time. Claire couldn't help but chuckle once again as she found the synchronized speech amusing. She then fitted herself into her school uniform and proceeded to the vanity to let the two ladies do what they were paid to do. Her hair and makeup were done exactly as it usually was done, to allow her to look more modest and have her baby blue eyes accented.

Suddenly, there was a gentle knock at her bedroom door and Claire's mother poked her head in. "Breakfast is downstairs, dear." She said in her sweet gentle voice. Claire chuckled lightly once more and answered, "I'll be down mom." She then gathered her books and followed her mother out the door. However, she suddenly remembered that she had forgotten something important and poked her head back in her room and thanked the two servants that made her up. "Thanks Holly. Thanks Susan." She then turned to the servant that woke her up. She was now making the bed. "Thanks again Marry." She said and then continued to follow her mother downstairs to the dining hall.

After a breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese and green peppers mixed in with breakfast sausages, ham and hash browns on the side accompanies by a glass of ice cold two percent milk and a talk about family plans for the afternoon, Claire packed her backpack and sat in the back seat of her parents' Rolls Royce Phantom for the trip to school.

When she made it to school she greeted her friends and her old posse as friends. They all made their way to their lockers and began to start their school day. Claire noticed José and Michael walk by them without so much as giving them a hard time now that Adrian was in prison. Claire turned the dial of her locker as the combination burned into her mind indicated and she opened the door only to notice a tiny silver dragon statue with tiny ruby eyes greeting her from the top shelf. Claire gasped in shock as she never noticed it there before and quickly calmed down with mild confusion as to who could possibly have placed it in her locker, thinking that it could have been any of the nerdy boys that play similar games to Bertha's "Drakenfield". She reached to take it from the shelf with the intention of examining it until it literally jumped onto the back of her hand. Claire then began to shriek with fright flinging her hand wildly to attempt to shake the tiny dragon off of her. The little silver piece clung skillfully while it crawled to her wrist and wrapped itself around it and fused itself into place like a bracelet.

As strong sense of power began to flow through Claire's body as she grasped the bracelet tugging and leading herself into the girl's restroom, staggering fighting for control of her mental state. Students stared on in disbelief thinking that a mouse must have jumped out of her locker at her as she stumbled into the restroom and held onto her wrist as if it were burning. An intense power began showing itself from behind her eyes, causing them to glow bright blinding white. Her consciousness still fighting to maintain herself as power began to take hold and corrupt from within. Suddenly, Lydia entered into the restroom and called out to her friend. "Claire!" she shouted and placed her right hand on Claire's left shoulder. Claire could feel the power welling up within her begin to subside until it suddenly burst forth for control once again. Worried for her friend, Lydia embraced Claire in a tight bear hug and hoped that whatever it was would go away like that.

Claire began feeling like herself again as the power subsided like Lydia hoped. The two friends fell to their knees as Clair began to lose consciousness the more the power within her waned. Lydia propped Claire's arm over her shoulder and then began to carry the blond girl to the school nurse's office. There she was placed on a bed until she regained consciousness. Lydia was hesitant to leave but eventually was made to leave and was glad when Claire didn't go on a rampage when Lydia broke contact with her.

Once Claire awoke, at first she couldn't remember much, but once her mind began to focus, her memories began to flood back and she shot up and looked to her wrist. Indeed the little statue had wrapped itself around her wrist so that it now looked like a silver bracelet rather than a statue. The bracelet looked like a cross between a Chinese dragon and a European dragon in design. The dragon had its chin and belly resting against Claire's flesh focusing the tiny ruby eyes outward. The horns looked similar to that of a young white tail deer. The shout seemed like a cross between a snake and a dog. The rest of the body was sleek with its wings pressed against its body like two capes shaped like bat wings. The dragon's legs were also pressed against its body while the tail wrapped once around Claire's wrist completely.

Remembering the feeling of overwhelming power that came from the strange object, Claire freaked out and once again attempted to remove the object from her wrist to no avail. No matter how much she struggled, the bracelet wouldn't budge and she soon found herself giving up and resorting to simply crying. The nurse ended up calming her down and sending her back to class after a few cognitive and health tests. However, Claire found herself unable to concentrate in class as well as made two more attempts to hold back power bursts in between classes.

When the bell sounded to signify that school was out, Claire approached Ben. "Do you mind if I ask Merlin about this bracelet?" She asked. She had already explained how she had gotten the silver trinket during lunch and Prudence had made a comment on how Merlin may know something about it. "Sure. Would it be alright with yer folks?" He asked in his Australian accent. Rather than answering him outright, she dug into her backpack for her cell phone and dialed her parents' phone number. Her dad answered the phone and she explained, "Dad, there's something I need at Ben's house... Yes, the boy that goes to school with me... Yes, the Australian one with the nice old man for his grandfather..." The rest of the conversation was mostly Claire simply agreeing to her father's terms. "Thanks dad, I'll see you in about an hour or so. Love ya." She then hung up her phone and explained her situation to Ben, "I have about an hour to ask that old relic, Merlin, what in the world this thing is and figure out how to take it off before my dad arrives and drives me home."

It took about half of that time for them to walk to Ben's cottage in the forest and find Merlin resting in the rocking chair. The old man was startled awake the moment Claire shook his shoulder. "You know, for a fortune teller, you sure don't act like you've seen the future." Beetlejuice stated sarcastically to him, teasing Merlin about being surprised. "The wind speaks in riddles and parables so don't make fun of me for not understanding the immediate future. Now what did you two..." Merlin's sentence trailed off when one of the ruby eyes of Claire's silver bracelet sparkled and caught his attention. The old man suddenly gasped and scrambled to hide himself behind the rocking chair he was sitting in. "Where did you get that?" He shouted to Claire. She lifted up her wrist and glanced at the trinket with great worry as it isn't often you see The Seer afraid of an object. "It began as a statue in my locker, but when I tried to touch it, it jumped and latched onto my wrist. What is this thing?" She responded. Dead silence filled the room as Merlin gathered his wits. "It jumped onto your wrist? Did you feel an immense power flow through your body?" He asked her. She nodded her head nervously to confirm his question. "Did you feel your very essence begin to change, almost like you began to like the rush of power?" He asked even more nervous than she. Claire lowered her head and solemnly answered, "To be honest, I was afraid of the power that I felt. I had been pretending to be something else for so long, I actually didn't want to do that again. Merlin slowly lifted himself from behind the chair and moved in to place his right hand on Clair's forehead as if he was checking for a fever. "Most human beings would grow mad and insane from the power coming from that ring." Merlin stated. "But, you didn't. You fought back to keep a hold of yourself?" "Yes..." Claire answered nervously. Then the term he used finally caught up to her. "Wait, this is a ring?" "The Dragon's Ring to be exact." Merlin responded. Claire's expression was of confusion and disbelief. "What? Did you think that we dragons always look like humans? Dragon's only use our human forms to blend in and keep us from being hunted. That thing on your wrist would fit my first finger in my true form." Claire took a shallow gulp from the thought of what he could possibly look like outside of what she already knew.

"So why don't you ever revert back to your true form?" Beetlejuice asked. "That's a story for another time. I believe that your father is on his way to pick Claire up. I'm pretty sure that he'll have a lot of questions if he sees Beetlejuice instead of Ben." Merlin said flatly. He then turned to Claire and said to her, "That ring is dangerous. Once in a while, you will feel it attempt to take over and use you. All it knows is power, it has no concept of the things you know." "The ring is alive?" Claire gasped. "In a way, yes. Don't let the ring control you. If your heart and spirit remain strong, it will eventually stop and be yours to command. But with all power comes a terrible price. Just Remember not to lose yourself to anything."

For the remainder of the time, Merlin taught Claire to focus on her breathing and that the majority of the Dragon Ring's power relies on her emotional fluctuations. The stronger the emotion, the more power she discharges. It wasn't long until there was a knock on the door of the cabin and Claire opened the door to greet her father. By that time, The Seer had vanished and Beetlejuice reverted back into Ben. Laurence escorted Claire to the door and shook Mr. Brewster's hand thanking him for allowing Claire to visit. Claire then proceeded out of the forest and into her father's car for the drive home. During the drive back home, she was given a kind lecture from her father. "You know I don't like it when you go over to his house alone." He said to her. His voice had become less arrogant and pompous and more knowledgeable and caring in the past months that Claire had told her parents that she wished to have them more in her life. "I know daddy, but this was really important. Thanks for letting me go." Claire responded kindly. "Ok, honey. Just don't make a habit out of this alright?" He responded understandingly. There was a moment of silence until Mr. Brewster asked, "How was school?" Claire giggled lightly and began answering him while keeping the fact that she has adventures in another world a secret. "It was good." She answered. "The nurse called me earlier and said you had some kind of panic attack." He blurted out. Claire was surprised slightly and then lowered her head to think about an excuse. "Oh, that." She began, "It wasn't anything serious." "It was serious enough to give you a panic attack." He stated with concern in his voice. Clair's mind now began spinning with excuses. She needed to come up with something and quick. "It... was... just a mouse dad. I'll be fine. I just hate mice, is all." Was her answer at last. She could see her father glaring back at her for a short time until he relented and bought the white lie. "Alright honey. But the next time it happens we'll come and pick you up from school to head to the doctor." He said. Claire could feel her anxiety fade as he continued driving on believing her blatant lie. "Thanks daddy." She finally said.

The car pulled into the driveway and came to a stop in an enormous garage in a particular spot in with about six other imported luxury vehicles that only rich people could possibly afford. Claire exited the Rolls Royce just in time for the ring to attempt to take over her consciousness one again. She felt her wrist begin to burn intensely and another rush of power and strength fill her up and begin to push its way to the surface. She quickly snagged her backpack and rushed to get inside the house without her father seeing her run away. With a successful escape, she made her way as best as she could, staggering and struggling to stay conscious, to the small archery range in her backyard which was about seven acres long and three acres wide. The archery range was only one hundred and fifty yards long with a concrete patio and steel fence separating around six range booths that were each around seven feet wide. The patio itself was around forty five feet long and six feet wide. Each booth was equipped with various items to safely practice and store archery equipment. Along the backside of the patio, chairs were set for bystanders to safely watch. It was there that Claire collapsed to rest her body as the last the remains of her physical strength fled from her. She sat down in one of the chairs close by and leaned back her head. She silently cried to herself in pain as the bracelet ceased to relent on its onslaught of corrupting power. Claire began to feel her soul twist and warp under its unceasing pressure until she finally blacked out.

Lydia and Ben met Prudence on the way to Claire's house to see just how she was doing. The three of them agreed that it would better if they all went together, that way any of them who didn't faint from gawking at the house hold could snap the others back to reality and remind them of why they went to Clair's house in the first place.

They all momentarily made it to the front gates of the house only to notice that the entire house was surrounded by tree hedges with a great brass gate serving as the front entrance. Lydia felt in between two of the trees only to have her hand stopped by a brick wall. Prudence and Ben were in amazement at the mere sight of the front gate however, Lydia didn't let the awesomeness of the sight distract her from her friend. She looked around for something to communicate with the household and found a speaker box with two buttons. She promptly pressed the button with the word buzzer beside it and heard a low buzzing noise come from it. Moments later, they heard a suave and well mannered man's voice come from the speaker asking, "Yes, who is this?" "We're here to see Claire, sir. We're friends of hers and are worried about her from school. May we please come in?" Lydia answered the voice as politely as she could. "One moment, please." The voice said. Moments of silence later, the voice came back answering, "I've spoken with the mistress. Yes, you may enter." The moment the voice had finished talking the brass gates began to swing open by themselves and Prudence, Ben and Lydia all gasped in awe at the sight of the house. An enormous house in a great distance as the front yard was almost as large as the back. In mere moments, a man in a tuxedo uniform drove up in an eight seated tour shuttle. "Please climb aboard." The man said. His voice exactly like the voice they heard on the intercom. As the three of them boarded onto the shuttle, the man began to introduce himself, "Good evening and welcome to the Brewster residence. I am Edward Julian. It is so nice to see Miss. Claire make such wonderful friends." And before any one of them could answer, the lengthened golf cart was off, following the path that it originally came from.

Once the cart neared close enough to the incredibly large mansion, Lydia began to feel something in the back of her mind. She looked over to Ben, noticing that he was glaring at her with his own worry, as if he felt the same thing buzzing in the back of his own skull. Ben nodded at Lydia to confirm her suspicions and she turned to Edward. "The backyard." "Excuse me?" He asked, indicating that he needed her to repeat her request. "I think Claire might be in the backyard. She told us that she likes to shoot arrows sometimes as a hobby. Could you take us there first please?" Lydia elaborated. Edward gazed into Lydia's eyes through the rear-view mirror for a moment to gage her response through his own half laden eyes. When he could see the genuine worry in her expression he responded to her, "As you wish Miss..." "Lydia. I'm Lydia Deetz" She quickly introduced herself. "As you wish Miss. Deetz." Edward then repeated and continued on, heading for the expansive mansion's backyard.

It took some time to make it around the house utilizing the many stone paths that separated the various flower gardens. If you looked at it from an eagle's point of view, the design would look Victorian in nature. In time, they made it to the backyard, the feeling in the back of Lydia's head buzzing more intensively the closer they got. The butler stopped the cart alongside the path as it ended to the left side of the house and Lydia was the first one off and rushing to help her friend. 'This feeling in my head. Could it be Beetlejuice? Are these kinds of things a result of the pact?' These questions ran through her mind over the buzzing mildly distracting her from the worry over her friend and in some cases made it worse. She turned the corner just in time to see Claire laying on the concrete patio of her little archery range with a brilliant aura of light surrounding her body and her eyes glowing in the same manner. Lydia quickly ran up to her friend and immediately noticed the bracelet glowing red as if it was molten hot. Lydia reached to attempt to remove the trinket from her friend's arm but was met with an electric shock as resistance.

End of Season 2 Episode 6