Queen of the Sandworms

Chapter 16: The Sandworm Apocalypse

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Beetlejuice gripped Edgar tightly as they flew toward the gap that led into the other side. Edgar flew through the gap, thus rising up and looming above the twisting roads and deceased plants of the Neitherworld.

Beetlejuice peered over Edgar's head and gazed out over the undead realm. His home. The other Sandworms screeched and tossed their heads right and left. The citizens of the Neitherworld saw the Sandworms.

They screamed in terror at the sight of the beasts coming out from the ground as if they were demons from hell. The Sandworms twisted and writhed as they came through the gap to the world of the undead. They screamed in a high pitch shrill before slithering out across the roads.

Edgar lowered his head. Lydia pointed to Beetlejuice's roadhouse that stood a good distance away from them. "I promised I would take you back home," Lydia said. Beetlejuice stared at her. Her eyes were still cold and dark. They looked as through they were shrouded by a dark cloud. As if they weren't her eyes at all...

"Lydia...I know you care about the Sandworms...but you are making a big mistake...The Sandworms don't belong here with the undead! As much as I love chaos and destruction, I don't like the idea of Sandworms being the main cause of it..."

Lydia narrowed her eyes in rage and pointed to the ground. "Get off," she snarled. Beetlejuice stared at her. His heart filled with hurt from her bitterness. This was not Lydia. This was a savage queen to her beasts; The Sandworms. He didn't know how to stop her. She wouldn't listen to him...it was all his fault. He created her. The monster that she has become..

Beetlejuice averted his eyes away from the female he thought he once knew. He slid off Edgar. Edgar screeched a pathetic screech as he looked at Beetlejuice with concern in his red eyes. Beetlejuice stared at him sadly before turning away. Lydia screeched for Edgar to go, but Edgar wouldnt move. He only stared at Beetlejuice.

"Let's go Edgar!" Lydia shouted again.= impatiently. Edgar looked away from Beetlejuice and lunged forward toward the city where all the other Sandworms were heading. Te winds teased Beetlejuice's blonde hair and striped attire as he turned his head and watched Lydia in her Sandworm disguise ride the striped beast called Edgar head toward the Neitherworld city with tears in his eyes...

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Lydia made it to the city. The Sandworms were already slithering through the streets, chasing screaming skeletons, and terrified ghosts. Edgar rested his head on top of a poorly constructed, crooked building. Lydia jumped off and stared down at the chaos that was unfolding before her. Dark clouds swirled overhead, with possible chances of rain about to fall down upon the destruction.

Lydia kept her dead Sandworm hood over her head, peering through the teeth in the slightly gapping mouth. She smelled the dry blood inside, but assumed it was hers. In her mind she hand no hands or arms, just a powerful long snake like body. She was the ruler of her kind. The Sandworms as the Neitherwolrd people called them. She didn't mind. They would all soon learn who was on top of the food chain...

Fires began to erupt in some parts of the buildings in the city. Sandworms rubbed up against the corners of the structures, causing them to buckle and crumble. Glass was heard being shattered and street lights being crushed. A couple fire hydrants went off and shot up straight into the black sky like geysers.

A small smile formed on Lydia's mouth within the dark inside of the deceased Sandworm hood. She instantly felt right at home in their new environment...This was the perfect place for her kind to live. No perolayx, no struggle for food...it was all here...In the Neitherworld...their new home...

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Beetlejuice slumped facedown on the crusty, worn out couch when he came in. He sighed as he breathed in the rotten smells of it. He was home...but he didnt feel like he was...it almost felt foreign to him...like something was missing...Beetlejuice's mind brought up endless images of Lydia. He missed her so much...why couldnt he have just accepted the punishment instead of being an idiot?!

Beetlejuice gritted his teeth when he felt the excruciating pain once again enter through his body to his heart like a powerful lightning strike. It hurt so much, making him groan. His body tensed up. Tears filled his eyes and stained his vomit green couch. He cried silently as he laid there alone...

Just then, Jacques and Ginger came in from the sound and gasped. "Be-etlejuice!" the skeleton cried happily as he picked up the crestfallen Ghost with the Most and hugged him happily. Beetlejuice didn't fight the overly excited skeleton and let him embrace him in a hug. Ginger crawled up Beetlejuice's leg up to his shoulder and hugged the side of his head.

"Beetlejuice where have you been?! Its been six months since we last saw you!" Ginger cried as she buried her lavender purple head into his dirty blonde hair. Beetlejuice blinked his emerald green eyes open a little. Six months? that's how long he was gone? but it felt like only a week when he was in Sandwormland...

Jacques let Beetlejuice go, but Ginger continued to hug the side of his head. She lifted her head back up and looked at him. Beetlejuice looked at her from the corners of his eyes. "We were so worried for you, we thought you got eaten..." Ginger's voice faltered as she looked down. Beetlejuice took her off his shoulder and stared at her in the palm of his hands sadly.

"You thought I got eaten by a Sandworm..." he finished for her. Gingers big eyes filled up with tears as she wiped them with the back of her black hand. She nodded. "Yes," Jacques pulled out a handkerchief for her. "'ere you go mademoiselle," he said in his thick French accent. Ginger smiled a small smile as she accepted it and blew her nose.

Beetlejuice put her down on the couch and sat down next to her. "So, what happened in Sandwormland? Did you find Lydia?" asked the skeleton to the striped clad ghost. Beetlejuice sniffed as he silently nodded his head. Jacques and Ginger exchanged surprised glances. "Well? where is she? is she allright?" he asked. Beetlejuice sighed sadly and pointed out the window.

Jacques and Ginger moved away from the couch with confused looks on their faces and looked out the window. Out, across the zig- zagging roads, toward the city, Sandworms were seen coiling around buildings and rising their heads upwards to the skies, letting out their high pitch cries to the dark clouds swirling above.

Jacques and Ginger gasped in horror. Jacques quickly turned away and scrambled for the remote. He picked it up from the ground and turned the T.V. on. Beetlejuice slumped on the couch with a somber look on his face as the screen came on and showed the news reporter out in the middle of the chaos.

"That's right folks! Sandworms in the Neitherworld! There are about a hundred of them slithering through main street, disturbing the residents of the city!" cried the reporter into the microphone as he stared at the camera with a look of dread on his face. Behind him a Sandworm was seen chasing Scuzzo and Fuzzo, and further back two baby Sandworms attacking a cart full of shrunken heads, which were screaming as they scattered away from the beasts.

Then the camera zoomed in on Lydia who stood on top of the building. The winds whipping around her disguise as she screeched loudly to her Sandworms with her arms up toward the skies like a crazed lunatic. Beetlejuice pointed to the screen that showed Lydia, barely recognizable in her disturbing attire. "There's Lydia..." he said in a sad, melancholy voice. Jacques and Ginger's jaws dropped open in total shock. Lydia...the sweet living human girl from Earth...now a savage maniac that thought she was a Sandworm herself.

"Wh-What...what happened to her?!" cried Ginger. Beetlejuice's shoulders slumped as he lowered his head. "I did this to her...if I wasn't so stupid...she would have never ended up in Sandwormland..." Beetlejuice said. Jacques turned his dark, sunken eyes away from the screen and to Beetlejuice. "Oh...Be-etlejuice...don't beat yourself up over this...this is not your fault..."

Beetlejuice didn't look up at him. He didn't believe Jacques's words. He was wrong, it was his fault. He caused this mess...and Lydia wasn't there to tell him so...He missed her so much. The screams from the citizens rang in Beetlejuice's ears from the TV. "S-stay inside folks! Lock your doors and windows...The Sandworm Apocalypse has finally come..." the reporter announced to the Neitherworld.

Suddenly, a different noise was heard. A rumbling noise; which was also being heard from outside. Suddenly the whole roadhouse began to shake. Beetlejuice looked up from his lap as personal belongings from the shelves and tables began to fall and crash to the floor.

Ginger jumped into Jacques's arms. "What's happening?!" she shouted over the sound as it got louder and louder. Beetlejuice got to his feet and looked outside. The gap, it was getting bigger! On the television screen, the reporter turned his head to the gap outside of the city as well. "Hold on folks! Looks like something is happening-"

Suddenly, a geyser of black came erupting out, complete with teeth and an endless appetite. Beetlejuice's eyes widened in horror. "No!" he shouted. Ginger screamed. "What are those things?! she screeched in terror. Beetlejuice stared in horror as the leech-like creatures came raining down from the gap. "Perolayx..." Beetlejuice was able to choke out.

Jacques moved his sunken eyes to Beetlejuice's back. "Pardon?" he asked. Beetlejuice ignored them and watched the perolayx come by the billions. The sounds of their bodies rubbing against each other, making squeak noises with their teeth gnashing in the air. The whole thing made Beetlejuice sick. Bile rose in his throat as he watched the whole thing.

"Everyone, stay inside! I t looks like a new terror has come...and its heading our way!" the reporter cried on the TV and instantly ran off screen away from the wave of black that was heading straight for the city. Beetlejuice gasped. "Lydia!" he shouted. Instantly, he bolted toward the door and out of the roadhouse.

"Beetlejuice!" Jacques and Ginger screamed; but Beetlejuice ignored them as he sprinted across the uneven streets toward the city as fast as he could. His eyes set on the one building where the crazy, Sandworm girl was...

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