Sorry it took a little longer than I expected, school got started and I've been trying to find my grove. But I will keep updating as soon as I can.

What should have taken only a few hours ended up taking me a whole day. Evidently people in the city got really freaked out about the sky changing colors and thought it would be safer in the country where the sky was also orange. The seemingly endless hours in traffic watching the adults rant and rave like it's the end of the world was better than any television show I've ever seen. About half way through the ordeal, I got a new taste about how the world had changed. While I was stretching my legs it started to rain. In truth, I don't even think I can call it rain. It was more like a hail of concentrated light or dark matter. It was black with glowing purple around the edges. As they fell on me I didn't feel anything, but where ever they fell it covered over the color. All the cars, grass, and roads were dyed in the black energy and glowed tinted purple. Then a moment later everything was back to normal, like it never happened. I must say, it did cause people to shut up and focus on their driving and to get the hell out of the way.

After hours of dealing with that crap, I made it back to Peaceful Pines only to find that the small town was practically disserted. I found it hard to believe that was the case. The town's people probably boarded everything up. Not really caring about what was going on in town, I made my way to my old house. It was night by the time I made it to the driveway. I grabbed my things and headed for the front door. I rang the bell and knew Delia was going to answer it. As I predicted, the door opened, and Delia was there. She spotted me, and started her normal monologue for when I came around.

"Lydia dear, it's been far too long." Giggling with glee, she wrapped her arms around me. Her over-powering perfume almost made me gag, but I restrained myself until she let go.

"Yes, it's been almost a year hasn't it. How is everything here?"

"Same old, same old. I have to emit though, with the Maitlands and you gone, the house does feel pretty empty." Yes, thank you Delia for bringing up a sore subject.

"Where's dad?"

"Oh he's in the living room trying to relax. Have you noticed the sky deary. It looks so much more colorful now." I knew she would say something like that. After she started taking medication everything was okay with her.

After politely moving past Delia, I made my way to the living room where my dad was relaxing. If you mean laying on the couch in the fetal position relaxing, than yeah, relaxing. I made my way over, and he shot up and hugged me so hard I couldn't breathe.

"Lydia, did you see the sky? Did you see it? It changed to orange, that not normal. It's the end of the world. I know it." Ok, he's hysterical. I wiggled my way out of death hug and guided him to the chair and tried my best to calm him.

"Dad relax. Yes, the sky changed to orange, but that doesn't mean the world is going to end. Even if the world was going to end, there is nothing you or me can do about it; so let's just calm down and deal with the situation at hand and not let our imaginations get the better of us." I know its lame, but appealing to his logical side normally worked.

"You're right. You're right. Thanks, pumpkin, I needed that." He took a minute to look me over before talking again. "Are you feeling alright, Lydia? You look a bit ragged."

"I've been driving for hours. I guess I'm pretty tired." The truth was that I was very tired. I had spent almost twenty hours on the road dealing in traffic and angry screaming idiots.

"Why don't you go to sleep? I kept your room exactly as you left it."

"Thanks and please don't wake me for dinner." The last thing I need right now was Delia's cooking.

I dragged my things up the stairs and into my room. It was exactly like I left it. I didn't bother to unpack. I just grabbed my doll and dropped on my bed. I knew being here was going to bring up old memories of him, but I didn't think much about it. The memories of how he comforted me after disastrous days at school, getting revenge of Claire, and the adventures we had in the Neitherworld, but all of them led to the fact that he wasn't here. I felt silent tears rolling down my cheeks at the thought of it. I missed him and if he was out there I wanted to see him. Part of me knew that he didn't mean any real harm to me, so even if I called him I would be ok. Another part, told me to follow what Vince said and lay low, just in case. At some point in this mental war of mine, I fell asleep and again dreamed of happier days.

I was jolted awake by the one thing I never expected at home, an earthquake. I should be freaking out. It was my first earthquake. Yet all I could muster was the same growl I give to my alarm clock. I just stayed in bed until it stopped. It didn't last long but by that time I was awake and made my way down stairs to find the house was a mess. Dad and Delia seemed to rummaging and packing things up.

"All I'm saying Charles is that if we're going to leave at least we should put them away."

"Morning Dad; Delia. What are you doing?"

"Oh Lydia, did you feel the earthquake? Wasn't it exciting?" OK, I really need to find out what medication she's taking because it works. "Well since all these weird things are happening, everyone is going to the community gym which is standard emergency protocol or something like that. So we are packing up everything that can be destroyed by another earthquake away."

Amazing the world gets flipped upside down and people believe that a giant concrete and steel structure can protect them. Well, I guess they have to put their faith in something in order to keep their sanity. I, on the other hand, just want to get back to bed, but I knew dad's going to make me go with them. I turned and made my way back up the stairs and stop to stare at the attic door. How long has it been since Barbara and Adam left? I couldn't help but sigh at the memories of when we first moved into this house. Barbara, Adam, and I becoming friends; Beetlejuice almost marrying me at the age of 12; and then seeing him get eaten by that sandworm. I still had the ring from the wedding on a chain around my neck. I never really understood why I kept it but I did. Not long after that, Beetlejuice came back and somehow we became friends, but we kept that a secret from the Maitlands and Juno. After he found out about me keeping the ring, he never brought up the getting married thing again. I like to think that he cared more about our friendship than his obsession with his freedom. Then one year after the incident, Juno explained that she applied the Maitlands for early release for helping to prevent Beetlejuice from escaping. I had mixed feeling about it and confided in Beej. Eventually I decided I wanted them to be free, I mean it wasn't like they couldn't come and visit. It was a shock to all of us, especially Juno, that the application got approved. Apparently, it was the first approval ever. I later found out that the only reason it got approved was because Beej had pulled some strings; called in some favors; and even blackmail most of the higher-ups to get it through. I never did find out what you use to blackmail a ghost, but did I really want to know?

"I hope they are doing ok." I then continued to my room, picked up my things, and preceded down the stairs. Once there, I did one final sweep of the house for anything I wanted to take. Then I started helping my parents with the packing and we were on our way.

Damn it! Everywhere I go in this town brings back more memories of the past. The ones with the gymnasium weren't exactly the nicest. All of them were related to those god awful years in high school. In summary, it's what you would expect for a goth girl living in a sunny town filled with perfect perky people, I was the target of everything. Every opportunity someone got, they always had some lame joke to make or pull some prank. This was when my time with Beej came in handy. I mean why be around a ghost that loved pranks and paybacks and who was commonly hated for it, if you don't learn a trick or two. I went through all of high school without showing any sign of embarrassment, sadness, or anger; even though I was all of those things. But I always got them back with one prank or another. At that point, I understood why Beej kept pulling them. Hearing people scream and run away was so hilarious, and the best part was they never found out it was me.

Even when we had prom, Claire had this plan were she 'convinced' one of the jocks, didn't care what he played, to ask me out and then make some grand show about dumping me at the dance. First mistake she made was picking a boy who was afraid of my reputation, all thanks to Claire and her rumors. Secondly, nobody ever talked to me so when some boy starts that meant something was up. So I played along with it until the part I was supposed to get dumped, needless to say I struck first. I told that idiot so many scary things that I could do to make his life miserable that he was speechless and even pissed himself as I left him on the dance floor. That wasn't the end of it though. I still needed to get back at Claire. I already knew that her friends fixed the votes so she would be prom queen, so I took a scene from an old movie and rigged the stage. When she went up to claim her tiara, a bathtubs worth of gelatinous blue dye dropped on her. It would have been easy enough to get the dye out of her hair, but the dye on her skin took months. Oh, the 'best days of my life', thankfully I was dragged out of my memory storm by the blast of children screaming and adults yelling at one another.

I remembered that the gymnasium at the community center wasn't that big but evidentially it was big enough to house everyone in our small town. I'll admit that I was pretty disheartened when I couldn't find Prudence or Bertha. Hell, I couldn't even find their families. Did they move? I didn't have time to think as my dad pulled me to three vacant cots. After making sure he had everything, he went over to see whoever was in charge. Delia went to go chat with some of the gossiping women in the corner. I just lay on the cot staring at the ceiling.

I couldn't stop thinking of my high school years and my current social life. I mean I was 21 and I hadn't done anything that was considered fun to people my age. I didn't crash parties; go to concerts; hell, I've never even kissed a boy. Or a girl. Did I even like girls in that way? Fuck, I never even bothered to figure out what my sexual preferences were. It just never seemed important to me. But now that I started thinking about these things, I couldn't stop questioning myself.

I started coming back to the waking reality when someone started pushing me on the side, and not in the friendly waking way. I moaned, opening my eyes to see Claire Brewster, her parents, the mayor, and her groupies staring at me. At least the groupies were more afraid of me than normal for whatever reason.

"Alright Ms. Deetz, let's have it." The major said in a hollow commanding tone.

"Have what?"

"Ms. Brewster says that you know why all these strange things are happening."

"And exactly how would a college student majoring in photography know why the sky turned orange, or why we are having earthquakes for the first time in recorded history?"

That seemed to end the conversation seeing as the mayor couldn't come up with a reasonable response. I was just about to go back to sleep when that annoying harpy decided to squawk up.

"Like stop with all the crap, Lydia. Just admit that it's like all your fault." She screamed so loud that even my dad across the gym heard it, and in the span of a heartbeat, he was there.

"What seems to be the problem here mayor?"

"Well Mr. Deetz, Ms. Brewster believes that you daughter knows something about why all these strange things are happening." With that, my dad joined the gawkers.

"Is that true Lydia? Do you know something about this?" I know I should lie to cover up the truth, but I felt that I could get by because I really didn't know anything outside the obvious.

"It's true, just after that green guy came out of the mirrors and like disappeared, the sky turned orange. Like that's not normal and neither is she." That comment got everyone to turn away from me and stare at Claire. Hello opportunity.

"Wait. . ., green guy? Are you sure you weren't high? I mean it's no secret you've been doing drugs and all." That caught her parents of guard.

"Try to deny it all you want witch, but I recorded the whole thing." Oh shit. She was in the room? I thought she ran out with everyone else. I mean I thought the room was empty when I left. So she played the video for everyone to see, seeing as how our conversation was now the center of attention in the gymnasium. I was really relieved when I was able to get a glimpse at the video. Vince didn't show clearly on the video and his words came as static. After all, it took a lot of focus and energy for even Beetlejuice to appear in my photos and Vince was pretty out of it. All they could hear was my half of the conversation. After the video was over, everyone looked at Claire, who was trying to justify it. Everyone but my dad who seemed to be muttering something under his breath, then he started to get louder.

"Beetle… Did you mean Mr. Beetlemen?" The mention of the odd handyman that went missing got everyone's attention. Then Delia started in.

"That can't be it Charles, he's been missing for years. Why would he be back now?"

"Lydia do you know anything about that?" My dad had that look in his eye that meant I wouldn't be able to change the subject, and everyone else seems to have it also. I was about to answer with some spur-of-the-moment story when another earthquake hit. This one was much bigger than the previous, and it was partnered with another unexplainable phenomenon. The walls started to liquefy; the hard concrete became as soft and flexible as the inside of someone's mouth. Suddenly, I felt something hit me on the head. It was a piece of the ceiling steel support beam. I looked up and saw that the steel wasn't even bending, it was shattering like glass. As larger pieces started to fall on the crowd, they started to scream and run for the doors but the doors seemed to be a part of the wall and wouldn't open. I didn't bother to worry about the door. I was too preoccupied with the multiple tons of steel starting to fall on our heads. All of a sudden, I was pushed to the ground by a hysterical woman. It stunned me only for a second. Then I heard a loud crack. All of the major supports shattered and the bulk of the ceiling started to fall in on us. At this point, in my despair, I threw my arms over face and head, not knowing what else I could do. I wasn't really conscious with what I did next. Maybe it was being in this town. Maybe it was because of all the memories that came back to me. All I knew is that by the time I realized what I was doing, I couldn't stop myself.

"BEETLEJUICE!"

Yeah I know. I brought characters from the movie over, give me a break. I don't know if I'll have them making a show in later. But hey, Bettlejuice makes his appearance. I'm still trying to finish my character design for Beetlejuice though, so it may be a while until the next update. I hope to have at least ten reviews by then. Also I have to ask, did Claire's character match the previous chapters?