Chapter 1
The young girl just stood for a moment longer in silence as she eyed at the wolfdog in front of her. The canine returned the gaze of her own as she tilted her head slightly in attempt to pull off the confused puppy look. Delia's daughter then took a couple steps closer, kneeling before the big wolfdog as she spoke. "Looks like mother got excited over finding you outside. I could hear her squealing shrieks from up here. Almost gave me a fright to be honest." She gave a soft smile before continuing. "Well, I guess since you're here. You'll be stuck for awhile." She chuckled a little as if to remember something that made her place a hand lightly upon her mouth. Katie just blinked at the girl, still holding the confused look for a brief second before giving a canid equivalent of a smile herself. The young girl then acquired a look of uncertainty, seeming to realize a thought in her head. "There's just someone who may not be so welcoming of you." She shook her head in attempt to shake away the thought, adding. "Anyway, my name is Lydia Deetz and I'm sure we'll get along fine." Her smile had returned to its place upon her face as she moved to look closely at the tag upon the canine's collar, much like her mother had done previously. "And of course, you are Katie. Hm, rather strange to name a dog that, but it's your name, right?" Lydia said as if to joke light heartedly at the new furry companion.
Katie only panted calmly in response as she swayed her tail slowly from left to right, looking quite content and delighted even at the light joking. Lydia laughed with what seemed to be joy as she moved to pat the wolfdog upon the head, between her ears. "You know, it's odd to say, but you seem to understand what I say." She said with a snicker as she smiled pleasantly at the animal. Katie let out a couple barks in reply as she nodded her head. Lydia raised a brow to this as she saw the wolfdog nod at her. "Deadly-vu, you do understand!" She exclaimed in what was intrigued fascination. "It's quite amazing to have a dog that understands me in this manner." She giggled, continuing. "Almost as if you were a human in canine clothing." Katie kind of looked to the side a bit, possibly contemplating an answer. The canine looked as though she were about to open her own mouth to speak, but was interrupted by another voice that sounded as if it were in the room with her and Lydia. "Hey Lyds, what's with big the ball of fluff out on your carpet? Shouldn't that be kept under your bed, pfffft?" The wolfdog jumped a bit at hearing this new voice as she looked every which way to determine where it came from and who it had belonged to. Only to soon spot the upper torso of a man in the vanity mirror, wearing a suit of white with black stripes and black tie with a magenta undershirt. His appearance certainly was not something to be found in the usual sort of modeling magazine, but it also wasn't half bad either.
Lydia gave her head another shake as she turned her direction and attention to said mirror. "Beej, now, you know that this isn't some large dust bunny." She couldn't help, but giggle even more at the man's questions. "I know, babes, but you know how I can't resist sometimes. You know what I mean?" The man said with a crooked grin of green teeth as he seemed to poof out of the mirror and hover over the young girl. "So, Lyds, what's really with the dog? You know dogs always tend to put a thorn in my side." He added. Along with in cue of what was said, a comically large thorn appeared in the man's side, which caused him to cackle a bit like a maniac. Lydia let out a laugh this time at the man's antics as she replied. "Beetlejuice, this is my new family pet. At least that's what I can assume since mom went nuts over her. The dog's name is Katie." Said canine only looked at the man known as Beetlejuice with a rather unsure and intrigued look. She raised a brow of her own to him as if in slight disbelief. "Hey Pooch, got any traveling flea circuses upon your back?" Beetlejuice asked with another cackle. Much like with the thorn bit, a literal flea circus or two ended up on Katie's back, causing her to let out a yelp as she began scratching and biting at herself. "Whoa, guess I caused a flea buffet." He added with a low chuckle at what the canine's reaction was.
"Beetlejuice!" Lydia shouted in a scolding manner as she gave him a rather stern glare. The man himself only sighed and pointed a finger at Katie, using some sort of energy to have the fleas be removed from the wolfdog's hide and body. "Sorry, babes. Guess I got a little carried away." Beetlejuice said in a not all that apologetic tone, giving another crooked smile as if to look innocent and amused at the same time. The canine, however, gave a rather annoyed low growl in his direction, baring her own set of fangs. "BJ, you really should watch who or what you mess with. You'll end up worse off one of the days, if you don't" Lydia scolded with a raised brow. "Are you kidding me, Lyds? What could be worse than death?" He paused for a moment as he shifted his eyes to and fro slightly, looking as though to address an audience. "Well, maybe sandworms could be or maybe even..." He gasped before finishing. "...a bath!" A look of fear came upon his face as he screamed, causing his head to spin rapidly before he grabbed it with his hands in a halt. "Whoa, almost lost my head for a second." He said lastly.
A sigh escaped the young girl as she shook of her previous emotion toward Beetlejuice, moving to speak again. "Anyway, Beej, you do remember our plans for today, right?" He then smiled and gave a nod. "Sure I do, babes. We were going to go see that new flick in the Neitherworld, weren't we?" Beetlejuice's mentioning of the Neitherworld brought about a surprise in the canine as her ears went straight up and her jaw seemed to comically drop for a moment. A thought soon crossed her mind. 'This is them? The two I've heard quite a lot about from eavesdroping, newspapers, and from the agency that sent me? It can't be. Can it?' Katie blinked a couple times, looking frozen in place. This eventually caught Lydia's attention as she looked to her new companion. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked as she waved a hand in front of the wolfdog's eyes and face. Beetlejuice just rolled his eyes to the side a bit, smirking slightly as he chose this moment to make another joke. "Looks like she's a bit stiff there, Lyds." He cackled yet again as he descended sown to nudge the canine with his finger. This causing Katie to be stiff as a board as no movements were made when she was nudged by the man.
"Beej, that's certainly not funny." Lydia said in denial, holding back a snicker. Beetlejuice held a crooked grin as he chuckled, replying. "If you say so, babes." Within a couple seconds, Katie could move again, getting back up on all fours as she shook her entire body briefly. The wolfdog could not help, but let out a human sigh, which caught both the attention of Lydia and Beetlejuice as they looked rather shocked at what they heard. "Did, did you just sigh?" Lydia asked with a look a surprise on her face as she seemed to back away a little, bumping into Beetlejuice in the process. The canine in question just gave a sheepish expression as she let out an exhale and open her own mouth, intending to actually and literally speak. "Yeah, you did." She replied with a nervous laugh of her own. Her speaking, however, surprised Lydia more and made Beetlejuice actually want to say something this time. "Wait, you talk too?" Katie simply nodded and held her prior expression as she answered again in human speech. "Yes, I do, sir Beetlejuice. I believe I should properly introduce myself and give an explanation to, well, all this." The wolfdog laughed in slight embarrassment as she took a seat on her hindquarters, while Lydia and Beetlejuice took their own seats upon the bed in the room.
"That would be a great place to start for sure." Lydia said finally in a more relaxed manner once she and BJ were seated upon her bed. Katie let out a soft sigh as she looked at the two, holding a rather pleasant smile as she spoke. "Well, as my collar has proven to you, I'm Katie and as to refer to what you said earlier, I actually am a human in canine clothing. And yes, obviously very literal too." She laughed a little, continuing on. "You see, I'm what you'd call a special case human. Meaning, that I have some rather unique abilities or powers. I was assigned to come here by a rather exclusive agency. What this agency deals in is the living world, as well as, many other various worlds, including your own world, Beetlejuice. Anyway, I was assigned or to be more accurate, asked to go through some information on you two to see if there was anything that I could sense about your futures, so to speak. Allow me to tell you that I saw practically the good, bad, ugly for the both of you. The only problem with my sixth sense, if you care to call it that, is that I may be able to sense or even see these events, but I can not determine an exact time frame for when or which shall occur first. I hope this is making sense to you because I can't really explain all this any better than as I'm saying." Lydia seemed to nod as if she understood and got what the wolfdog had said. Beetlejuice, on the other hand, was looking a bit lost at sea and this became quite literal too like before as he said. "I feel as if I'm lost in the tides of the rueful sea."
Katie gave somewhat of a flat look as she shook her head. "Look, the point is that the agency that sent me here advised for me to be made an extra ally of sorts for the two of you based upon what I could sense and in being an honest hound, I must say that I accepted the task or job, if you will to be more aid for you two whenever the bad and ugly show their heads." She stated with a look of seriousness on her wolfdog face. "It's better to be safe than sorry, wouldn't you think?" She asked in addition. Lydia nodded once again as she answered. "I definitely would agree to it." She paused for a moment before asking. "But Katie, might I ask why you're not in your human form?" The canine chuckled a bit as she gave a smile and said. "Well, let's just say I prefer to be canid because it seems to be easier than being a human." Lydia could not help, but snicker at that answer too as she returned the smile to the wolfdog. Beetlejuice did not seem too keen about the whole idea of there being a dog running along with him and Lydia as he said. "Pffft, we don't need a mutt like you. I mean, I'm the ghost with the most and Lyds is a tough kid on her own." The wolfdog just sighed and responded with. "I'm well aware that you are 'the ghost with the most', but from what I had seen and sensed on your futures, you'll both be in more than you bargained for if left without my aid."
Beetlejuice took this as an insult as he gritted his crooked teeth a bit, groaning a little. Lydia took this moment to tug on his sleeve, which appeared to calm down the ghost or at least keep him in his place on the bed. Katie gave a mental sigh as another thought crossed her canid mind. 'Well, this certainly won't be easy, but it surely will be intriguingly fun, as well as, insane.' The three just seemed to carry on with conversing until the prior plans that had been mentioned earlier took place. The wolfdog chose to stay in the living world while the duo of BJ and Lydia went off on what could clearly be called a date. Although, there was a downside to being there and that was having to play the new dog to Lydia's rather 'excitable' mother. When Katie had heard that woman return home, she decided it best to hide under the bed instead of instantly run down to her mother. She let out a sigh of relief as she whispered to herself. "As I had thought, definitely not going to be easy, but surely fun and insane." Delia's rather excited voice soon echoed from downstairs. "Where's my doggy woggy? I have some gifts for her!" The canine sighed once more and said lastly to herself while hiding. "Well, guess it'll be more insane than fun with that nut of a woman."