Chapter 1

Lydia Deetz was riding her bike on the main street of Winter River after having acquired a few pieces of photographic equipment and some film for a new project she was working at school. It was the middle of October and it had ben almost four years since the wedding incident with Beetlejuice.

A few clouds were obscuring the evening sky and she was approaching her house in the hill. When she reached the garage, Lydia secured her bike and took the equipment with her. She went to the porch and opened the door. Once inside the house, she looked around to see whether anyone was there, and to her surprise, neither her parents, nor the Maitlands were to be found.

She became more relieved, as she recalled both Charles and Delia telling her a few days ago that they won't be home until tomorrow, as they had to go downtown for a important business deal, and the Maitlands had left yesterday to meet with Juno and figure out a few ways to manoeuver through the necessary paperwork that may eventually grant them an early release from their haunting requirements.

She settled the film and equipment on the table where she usually put the paints for Adam's model and thought that she needed a few hours sleep after all she had been through this last week, with exams and all.

She went up to her bedroom and took off her school jacket and shoes, leaving only her white shirt and the rest of her attire on. She placed her jacket on an empty chair and the shoes near it.

She decided that a short visit to the attic wasn't a bad idea, even if it get her dark blue shocks dirty by stepping on the dust-covered floor of the room. She went up the stairs towards the attic door and found it slightly opened. Without any second thought about it or whether the door was already left open for a few days, Lydia entered the room and she couldn't help the fact that the model town was improving by the time and patience Adam showed in the last years, as he took it upon himself to finish this with many of the new additions that were made to the area during this period.

She only wished they could have been here for today, instead of being in that caseworker's office, and talk about any of the plans they were arranging for the next week.


His predicament went on for a few more minutes, after which he felt he could stand up and try to explain to himself how could all of this happen to him. Before he could say something, Beetlejuice turn around and to his surprise, in the place of the door stood a bright red orb. It was getting closer and closer by the minute, but he didn't move from his place and shield himself with both arms from the impending impact with the glowing sphere.

Strangely enough, the red orb went through him like smoke and it quickly vanished into nothingness in a matter of seconds, leaving him once again in the darkened enviroment. When he saw that the danger was over, he went to touch his head and he quickly noticed that his head was restored to its original state. After ensuring himself that it wasn't an illusion, Beetlejuice tried not to show his excitement or relief in a more obvious way than it was, lest the force that provoked these strange events try to taunt him even further. He wasn't sure who or what was causing it, but he knew that Juno couldn't be behind all this.

He had learned a lot from Juno during his time as her assistant, and one of them was the fact that she could never pull off something as elaborate and weird for effect like this one. She was never one to pass the time taunting her enemies with cheap parlour tricks, or even toy them with shape-shifting rooms without leaving some hints or clues that will give away any sign of her power or involvement into these kinds of traps.

Still, he had to give credit to the one who was able to lure him into this trap in the first place. It wouldn't help him, of course, to find a way out of here real quick, but he was grateful for the fact that he was spared from all the fuss and lunacy that filled the waiting room for quite some time.

He tried to figure out which direction he should be headed, and it didn't take him another minute or two to know that there was no wait out, all right, and he would never get out of this new hell hole. And that's when he heard a noise.

And not just any noises, but the noise of a ball being thrown to the ground again and again, followed by a childish giggle. He turned his head to the right and spotted the source of the disturbance. A person who appeared to be a young female, covered head to toe in a white robe, completed with white boots and white hood, was playing with a ball that was also white. She didn't seem to mind any of his movements, but Beetlejuice tried his best to strike a conversation with her.

''Hey, kid. Yeah, yeah, I mean you kiddo. Would you tell me what the hell is going on?'', Beetlejuice exclaimed, with a sense of wariness in his voice.

The girl then stopped its giggling and playing with the ball and turn herself to face him. What Beetlejuice saw took him by surprise, as if a wall of bricks was thrown right to him and didn't know how he could react in a moment like this one. She didn't remove the hood, but her face was more visible and a few strands of brown hair were cascading her chest. The most striking feature of this person was a cut in her throat. She looked up at him with her blue eyes, as if she was judging for some unspeakable crime that she could never forgive him for.

''Your time has come. Wait until you see my sister.'' And with that, she vanished into thin air, leaving to fall to the floor and roll a little towards his direction. Beetlejuice picked it up, and he immediately felt like it was getting heated up for some reason. It even changed to an orange color and he couldn't hold any longer.

After giving out a loud scream of pain, he let it fall and it roll again. It went on and on into the until he couldn't see the damn thing, and it was gone. He was about to turn to his left and walk away, and then the same bright red orb appeared in front of him.

He stood dead on his tracks, and waited what this damn thing that was floating in mid air was up to now. He was thinking about it as if it was alive and willing to baffle and torture him even more than before.

His eyes were locked on the glowing sphere and he felt as if he was about to lose himself in the mesmerizing sight, and that's when he he heard another voice, the voice of an elderly woman.

''Well, well, you really think you could get way from me, do you?''

The poltergeist turn his head in all directions and he still couldn't pin down the source of that voice. Without showing any signs of panic, he retorted, ''Whoever the hell you are, lady, you won't get anything from me. I don't know what kind of shit you wanna pull with me, but it ain't working. And I am really not in the mood to play with you. So you either go to the room you came from, or I'll...''

''You think I came from one of those dreaded rooms and places, or that I am working for your former employer, the caseworker known as Juno?'', the voice asked, sending a bit of shiver in Beetlejuice's gut, sort to speak. How this thing could know about his ties and history with the caseworker, unless she was somebody from his past, someone he had forgotten about a long time ago?

After pondering on this thought for a few seconds, he decided it was best to keep talking with it until he knew what sort of being he was dealing with.

''What I have with the old hag is none of your damn business. Show yourself and get the hell on with it, because I am not gonna spill my fucking guts to you, or any of your friends and relatives you send to me for your own sick and demented idea of pleaus...''

''I am making it my business as of now, and what you will hear may even ruin any kind of belief you ever had in your life, or afterlife for that matter. But don't worry, I won't bother you with this tonight. I came here to warn you and, in a way, teach you a lesson regarding the nature of your antics and revenge schemes that fill your mind and poison your thoughts.'', the voice continued.

He noticed that the ball was starting to glow into the same bright shade or red he saw earlier and he was about to say to this other old hag that she could go stuff her advice up her ass and leave him alone, for all that he cared. If he would spend the rest of the afterlife inside the darkness of this prison, the one thing he would have appreciated at the very least was not sit here and listen to some voice smiting his face with all the mistakes of his time as a living, breathing person. He could get without pretending to go to sleep with the life he led recited to him as a bedtime story.

Unturned by his intentions or what he was ready to say, the voice carried on what seemed to be more of a inner monologue than a real conversation, ''I suppose it won't make matters that different, but something inside of me tells me that you are not a hopeless case as my sisters tell me, after all. Neither you, nor the little girl you tried to marry, that is.''

Now things were getting more complicated than they were before. How she knew about Lydia, or what happened during that night? He needed some straight answers, and there was only one way to get them. He had to cooperate and play along with the entity's little game of charades if there was a slim chance of getting some information on her and the family of wackos that surrounded her.

''All right, how did you know all this? Wh-who are you, and what do you want with me?'', the poltergeist said. ''Okay, look. If you could show me your face and talk to me in person, because I have a problem with just hearing disembodied voices, then, and only then, will I be more open and less hostile like I am now. If you are not up to it, you better take a hike and never try to bother me again, 'cause I won't break my fucking hide for you or anyone in this place. You understand?''

No reply came, and the room was filled with a rather uncomfortable silence, as the sphere was the only thing that illuminated the room. It was glowing for one time to red and then to orange, and then back to red, with the whole being repeated for what seemed to be five minutes, but for Beetlejuice it felt like an eternity where time and life itself stood still and the place was devoid of any color, emotion or activity that could brighten it up.

He noticed that the sphere was starting to fade out a bit as time went on and it looked as if it was shrinking to the size of a ball. And the voice that wouldn't be silenced for a minute took a heavy sigh and after some instants it carried on for one final time.

''I suppose it's only right if I indulge that little wish of yours and tell you a bit of my history as well. However, the picture that I am about to paint it's not going to be that easy to swallow, Beetlejuice, but you have to believe what I am about to show you. Things like the course your afterlife might take if you leave this room tonight, the impact your choices will have on the lives of certain people you want to avenge, the deaths you may cause and the futility of your actions, but I will expand on this issue in a few minutes if you can wait. I wanted to take a good look at you and see if it was safe for me to take on my actual form. I am really sorry I had to put you through this, but I had to be sure it was you all right, and not some other hot-shot bio-excorcist who wouldn't know how to react in these kinds of situations like you did. All right now, enough fooling around and more action.''

And with that last sentence, the ball was reduced to the size of a baseball one, and the person behind that voice slowly came into view.

She was a redhead woman dressed in a black coat, a black skirt, and only a white shirt was what stood out from this ensemble. Her ginger hair were reaching her shoulders and when she came closer, she picked the floating ball and put it in her coat's left pocket. She had a lighted cigarette in her other hand, and physically she was more attractive and slightly younger, though still an older woman. She also had a sliced throat where puffs of smoke came through, but she didn't put her cigarette back to her mouth until her blue eyes met his. After exhaling some smoke, she came a little closer to his direction and stopped, with a smile on her face. If this was Juno, he would have told her to get the hell out and leave him alone, but he felt that he should better keep his mouth shut and try to learn more about this lady if he wanted to get this over with.

''Hello, Beetlejuice.'', said the older woman. ''I'm Clotho, and I am more than happy to meet you in person as well, after all this time. I have an offer that you may be interested to hear and perhaps you won't refuse to take it. But before I get to it, I have to tell you some of the most bizarre and outlandish things you may have heard in all of your days in the afterlife. Give me your undivided attention, your audience, or whatever you want to call it and I won't bother you again. Deal?''

She placed her left hand out and waited for his response. It took some seconds to register in his mind what could this mean to him, and without giving more time to himself for second thoughts or a doubt, he reached his right hand out and shook hers. He rolled his eyes and after breathing heavily, he responded.

''Deal.''