Queen of the Sandworms

Chapter 14: The Graveyard

...

Beetlejuice slept soundly on Lydia's bed. He had no nightmares of Sandworms or the perolayx. It made him very happy. He smiled as he turned over. His hand flopped down, somewhat hoping to brush up against Lydia, but all he felt were a bunch of leaves sewn together as the blanket. Beetlejuice blinked his eyes open and noticed Lydia's side of the bed was empty.

He quickly rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he sat upright in a panic and looked around the room. "Lydia?" he called out. No answer. Lydia was gone? Where did she go? He needed to know! He got up and looked out over the Nest. He squinted his eyes to see if there was that strange looking Sandworm with arms and legs. He had no luck.

Beetlejuice sighed as he moved away from the edge of the entrance. "Why would she leave without telling me?" he asked him self in a low voice as he looked around the room. He started to feel worried. Maybe one of the Sandworms-! Beetlejuice shook his head violently. "No! They wouldn't have done that..." he said to himself angrily. He thought for a minute.

"Maybe she left a note around or something," Beetlejuice said to himself. His emerald green eyes flickered to the right when he noticed something in the corner of his eye. Sure enough, on a handmade lopsided table with multiple legs with strange wood the color of blood red mixed with plum purple, was a small, folded leaf with a couple words scribbled on it.

Laying next to it was a cracked clay plate with a couple of dead beetle creatures Beetlejuice hated. The striped clad ghost reached down and picked up the envelope from the table and began to read:

"BJ-

Gone Hunting

-Lydia

P.S. Eat"

Beetlejuice made a face as he looked down at the upside-down lifeless...What were they called again? Jui...?...jeblibl?...Beetlejuice stuck his striped tongue out in the process of trying to say the strange word. Then he shook his head in frustration. "I can't keep track of all this mumbo jumbo that goes on in this crazy planet!" he sighed angrily and sat down on a handmade chair that was out of the same material as the table.

Beetlejuice picked up the first beetle on top of the small pile. Its glossy underside reflected against the green rocks in the corners of the room. It's filmy, lifeless eyes bulged out from its small, fist-sized head. Beetlejuice turned his head away and stuck his long, sharp tongue out. His beak-like nose wrinkled from the horrible, sick smell wafting from it.

He finally shook his head and placed the dead beetle back on the plate. "No...I can't eat anymore of those beetle things! They aren't like the beetles back home!" he cried angrily as he got up, knocking the chair over. The chair made a clattering sound against the hard packed sandy ground.

Beetlejuice froze and looked out to the Sandworm Nest. None of the Sandworms bothered to come and see where the noise came from. Most of the female and baby Sandworms were still sleeping. Beetlejuice exhaled. He sighed sadly, his shoulders sagging as he turned around and placed the chair back onto its feet.

He sat back down and forced himself to eat the beetles until the plate was clean. Beetlejuice rubbed his upset stomach as it made strange, unsettling gurgling noises. "I'm sorry, but Lydia wanted me to..." he said, then quickly placed his hand over his mouth to keep it from coming back up.

After waiting for his stomach to settle, Beetlejuice went out at the edge of the carved out room and looked out over the vast tunnel system of the Nest. So many tunnels were used over and over, or new ones were created when an old one decided to cave in on itself. Only the Sandworms knew which tunnels lead up or down, and where they even ended up at. Beetlejuice sighed as he rested his hand along the side.

He was not going to be able to get out of the Nest by himself. Beetlejuice felt sick again as he watched the massive striped, spiked backed beasts intertwine and lace through each -other, like living rose thorns. None of the Sandworms liked him, and he didn't think they would give him a ride up to the surface to get to Lydia.

Beetlejuice looked down at his pale hands again. He had a horrible feeling that he completely lost all of his powers forever. He used his right index finger to lightly trace the lines inside the palm of his hand. Nothing. He sighed as he let his limbs go limp against his sides. Gradually, his eyes focused on the side of the sand wall. He followed it up, past the top of the entrance hole of Lydia's room to another hole above it. A tunnel!

Beetlejuice stared at the opening of the tunnel above his head, just out of reach. He turned around and looked in Lydia's dug out room to see if he could find anything to use to reach the tunnel above. He spotted the chair. Perfect. He ran over to it and grabbed it, then came back over to the edge. He placed it down, then stood on it.

His arms instantly went out to his sides as he slowly stood up straight and stared up at the tunnel. The edge of it was inches from him. The chair wobbled a bit underneath him. He was going to have to work fast. He reached up and placed his hands down and started to climb.

Suddenly, the hard packed sands underneath the chair gave in and crumbled, making the chair start to slide over. Beetlejuice yelped and quickly held on to the side of the sand wall. His fingers digging deep into the hard soil. The chair skidded from the striped clad ghost's feet and fell over the edge through the air. Beetlejuice flinched when it crashed down below onto one of the Sandworm's heads and bouncing off onto two more. They screeched angrily, thus creating a domino effect and waking the whole Nest up.

Beetlejuice stared down at them with a nervous look on his face. The Sandworms gradually lifted their heads and noticed him clinging to dear life on the side of the rock-wall.

They hissed angrily as their eyes glowed in the dim Nest. They revealed their sharp teeth, then their second heads came out and revealed their sharp teeth. Beetlejuice screamed and quickly found extra strength stored inside him as he climbed up onto the edge of the tunnel, got up and bolted into the pitch black darkness of it.

Instantly all of the Sandworms rose up like a tsunami wave of black and white and tried all going into the tunnel at once. Their eyes glowed in the darkness as they violently thrashed and shook their heads, trying to wiggle through, but was wedged between all the other Sandworms.

Beetlejuice could hear their angry cries as he continued through the dark tunnel, placing his hands in front of him just in case he ran into anything. Wind crashed against his body and teased his flowing disheveled blonde hair as he continued through. Gradually, it started to curve, and ascend higher upward toward the surface. Beetlejuice's legs pumped furiously faster and faster till he found himself nearly running straight upward and saw the outside! Beetlejuice grinned.

"Freedom!" he cried and ran toward the light. He leaped forward when the opening of the tunnel got bigger and bigger. He landed on his arms and legs in the hot sands but he didn't care. He was out of the Nest! He grinned as he panted heavily from all the running. His mouth still was tainted with the nasty taste of the alien Saturn beetles but he ignored it. His legs were burning not only from the sun and sands. His head was down sweat trickled down his face.

After he got his breath back. He lifted his head up and looked around. He wasn't in a familiar place near any type of small oasis. Around him looked like a graveyard. Beetlejuice slowly got up as the sands blew across the dreadful place. Scattered for miles all over, were Sandworm bones. The sands smacked up against the pearly ivory, giving them an amber tint.

The place felt surreal, and unwelcoming as Beetlejuice began to walk through it. Ribs loomed over him like frozen waves. Sandworms skulls grinned at him as if thinking of attacking him, but never moved. Some looked like the Sandworm froze in mid attack in a stance that stayed stuck in time. Its coiled skeletal body ascending to the blue skies with its mouth open in a silent scream and its empty, socket eyes wide in terror.

Beetlejuice instantly felt a pain slice through his heart, making it jolt inside him. When did this happen?! The bones look like they haven't been here for a long time! What if this lost battle was recent! What if Lydia was part of it?!

Beetlejuice cupped his hands around his mouth and started to call Lydia's name. "Lydia! Lydia!" he cried. Silence. He began to to walk faster through the huge graveyard. "Lydia!" he cried as his eyes darted left and right for her. "Lydia!" he shouted again, tears started to fill his eyes.

Then he gradually slowed to a stop when he came to a drop off over a dune and looked out over it. The graveyard went on for miles and miles as the morning sunlight glinted off of the alabaster bones scattered through the sands. Beetlejuice's eyes widened in horror. His hair flapping behind him in the winds.

What happened?

Just then, a strange sound was heard. It didn't sound like a Sandworms cry. It sounded like high pitch gurgling noises, with a couple high pitch screams in the mix. Beetlejuice squinted his eyes and placed his hand horizontally over his eyes and looked out across the dead plains. A black sea of squirming creatures were seen coming across the graveyard straight toward him. Beetlejuice's eyes widened and he took a step back. It was an army of those leech creatures! Perolayx!

Beetlejuice gasped in horror and quickly turned around and ran back through the graveyard. The perolayx were heard wriggling across the sands at top speed. Their millions of teeth scraping against each other as they sniffed out their small prey.

Beetlejuice continued running, then quickly hid behind a huge Sandworm rib that was thicker then his body and squatted behind it, breathing heavily. He held his breath when he heard the leeches come like a black wave over the bones they might have picked clean.

Beetlejuice watched them go through the grave yard like spilled oil. Their small teeth gleamed in the morning light, making Beetlejuice cringe. There were so many of them! How were the Sandworms going to fight them? How was Lydia going to help the Sandworms find a safer place away from the perolayx?!

Just then, one of the black slimy creatures stopped and sniffed out something. It turned its head around and sniffed in the air around it. Then, it sensed the foul, but familiar smell of Beetlejuice.

*screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecccccchhhh!* it shrilled loudly, making Beetlejuice groan and place his two index fingers in his pointy ears. The whole wave of perolayx stopped and looked over toward Beetlejuice's hiding spot. Beetlejuice's eyes widened in horror when he noticed they found him.

He screamed as the whole army began to come toward him. In a panic, he quickly shimmied up the tall, curved rib bone he was pressed up against and held on at the tip top. His arms and legs wrapped around it. The leech creatures screeched and snapped their needle-like teeth at him. Their insides glowing empty stomachs, waiting to be filled with his ghost flesh.

Beetlejuice held on tightly as he looked down at the hungry sea of leeches and screamed in terror. "HEEEELLLLPPP!" he cried desperately, hoping someone would help him.