Chapter 5
A time span of three months had gone by as the wolfdog grew quite comfortable with being a family pet, as well as, a best friend to Lydia and maybe even Beetlejuice too. Granted, the canine continued to see the task as a job, but it was becoming a fun one at least. The day was a Saturday afternoon with Lydia having 'volunteered' to take Katie out for a walk toward the park where she would meet up with the ghost with the most. Beetlejuice had chose to make himself be in his Betty Juice disguise as he or she, in this case, joined alongside the two when summoned. The canid lifted a brow to the poltergeist as she held a flat look and made a quick remark lowly. "You make a terrible girl, you know that?" 'Betty' simply grinned and replied in a mock girly voice. "Awww, thanks." Lydia couldn't help, but giggle at her best friend's usual response. The young girl then said to the canid. "He, er, I mean, 'she' takes insults as compliments." A laugh soon escaped her after that as the wolfdog just smiled in response, going back into pet mode, so to speak. The trio kept walking for a good while until they reached an open area of the park with intent to have a bit of fun. The space was pretty much empty aside for the trio, themselves. Hence, making it the perfect place for great fun with Beetlejuice and his juicing abilities.
Lydia looked to 'Betty' who had now returned back to Beetlejuice in his striped suit and asked. "Can you get the ball I gave you out of your pocket?" The ghost blinked for a few moments before he started digging in both of his pockets, throwing and pulling out various things from snakes to insects until finally he found the item that was asked for. "Here ya go, Lyds. Why'd ya bring that anyway?" He asked as he handed the ball to the girl, which she took with a smile. "Because I thought maybe Katie would love a game of fetch." She answered with a giggle. Said canine lifted her ears and looked to Lydia intently, looking quite interested as she spoke. "Fetch?" She panted briefly as her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth and she got into that generic playful position all dogs do when they get excited for something, wagging her tail happily. Beetlejuice just snickered under his breath at how the canine looked while Lydia just laughed and prepared to throw the ball. "Ready?" Katie couldn't resist letting out a bark of joy as she jumped up in a prancing manner. "Yes, yes!" She exclaimed as she panted more energetically. Within seconds, the ball was thrown a good distance off as Lydia released it, smiling and laughing happily.
Katie's ears perked upright as she instantly ran after said ball on instinct, barking and panting in great fun as her tail swayed about. She sniffed around a bit until she came upon the round object, chuckling as she moved to pick it up in her mouth before heading back. Meanwhile, as the canine had scampered after the ball, Beetlejuice was starting to show off as he used his juice to make a nearby tree start dancing around as it also moved to pick up some decent sized stones to start juggling them. The ghost then said as if looking into a camera. "Now there's some fancy wood work, pfft." Lydia watched the tree as she smiled and laughed even more than she had been. "Beej, you're so ridiculous." She said between her giggles. The poltergeist puffed out his chest a bit in pride as he replied, feeling full of himself. "Aww, babes, you know me so well." He then cackled loudly in his own delight as he then juiced a couple more trees to be a bigger show off, which is what he enjoyed doing. After all, Beetlejuice was Beetlejuice. A couple minutes passed as the wolfdog returned to the scene with the ball and seemed to stop in her pace as she got back to her friends. It wasn't the sight of the juiced trees that got her to stop, but something else.
The ball was soon dropped to the ground as the canid's fur stood up on her neck, hackles going up slightly as a low growl escaped her throat. Lydia was snapped out of her enjoyment at hearing the growl as she asked in worry. "Hey, what's wrong?" BJ had a raised brow in confusion and hint of worry to his eyes at seeing how the canine was now acting as his prior show had come to a halt. He too soon began to feel uneasy in sensing something that Katie had. "Babes, I think we need to get out of here." He said in a fearful sounding tone. Lydia became more concerned as she looked back to her friend. "What's going on Beej?" She asked in her own fear, which was starting to bubble up inside her. The wolfdog soon let out a fierce and shrill bark, snarling rather viciously and protectively as her attention was turned to where she had just come from. The forested area beyond the open space let out the sound of snapping trees and faint groaning roars, which led to causing the ground to vibrate underneath the trio. The vibration made Lydia fall backwards into Beetlejuice as he caught her in his arms since he had been currently floating in the air instead of standing. The cause of all this chaos was slowly slinking out of the woods, it was an all too familiar creature and mainly one that BJ and Lydia knew too well.
The poltergeist let out a screechy scream as his eyes seemed to pop from his sockets for a moment before instantly pulling back in. Lydia's jaw hung open in not only fear, but shock and even slight surprise at seeing a gigantic size sandworm before them. "A s-s-sandworm?" She questioned with her fear intact as she stuttered in sheer disbelief. "How is th-this e-even possible?" She added. Beetlejuice was now trembling and kind of subconsciously pulling her closer to him as he made noises similar to a whining dog, go figure. Katie bore her fangs as she moved to stand in front of the two. The sandworm just seemed to stare the wolfdog down as it too growled and let its massive mouth hang slightly open. Lydia looked up at BJ while in his hold and tried to wave a hand in front of him. "Beej, you've got to do something!" She exclaimed, fear growing more prominent in her voice. The ghost seemed to jerk out of his own terror as he looked to the girl in his arms. "Wh-what do you expect me to do, Lyds?" He asked shakily as his trembling regressed down to shivering. Before she could even say another word to him, her attention was grasped by a glowing light in front of them. A gasp escaped her as she witnessed the canid holding the position she made before, but now had feathered wings that were sprouting from upon her shoulders.
The wolfdog outstretched her wings as they appeared and the length of them was clearly twelve feet in total from wing tip to wing tip. Each wing was half black and half ruby red with the black coating the top and ruby red coating the bottom. The ruby red feathers were even tipped with the black. She let out another fierce bark as she flapped her wings forward in aggression, snarling all the more as she opened her muzzle much more. Both Lydia and even Beetlejuice were awestruck at the sight of the wings and previous glow. In that moment, neither of them could recall even being afraid of the sandworm. "Hey, Beetlejuice!" Katie's voice called out to him. "You going to puss out or are you up for a fun fight?" She asked as a smirk grew along the canine's muzzle, during her snarling and growling. The poltergeist seemed to smirk back at the presented question, as well as, challenge. He moved to gently set Lydia down before heading to stand beside the canid, his grin growing rather creepy as he said. "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's SHOWTIME!" He let out his signature maniacal laughter as he let the juice flow to his hands. Katie simply gave him a cocky glance and added. "Indeed it is."
Lydia just made sure to stay behind the two as they began to go after the sandworm with Katie leaping upward with a good amount of speed and latching onto the neck of the beast, digging her fangs in what could be assumed to be the jugular. Beetlejuice, on the other hand, was blasting some juice at the worm, causing numerous things to occur to it. Namely, some trees falling onto its body or large stones conking it on the head and making lumps appear. The sandworm, itself, let out ferocious roars of pain and anguish from being bombarded and made a chew toy. The wolfdog was drawing quite a bit of blood from this creature as she jerked from side to side in flying left and right. Said attack made the worm groan out in pain and gasped for a breath even, but to no avail. Lydia was a little queasy at the sight of the sandworm's oozing blood as she covered her eyes with her hands in disgust. Beetlejuice awaited to make a final hit to the beast as he moved to juice another stone upon its head. However, this stone was actually a boulder, which at the sight of made the wolfdog release her grip on the worm and get out of the way moments before the rock completely smashed its head. She landed on the ground, panting and pawing at her muzzle to wipe away the blood or attempt to. The wings upon her shoulders had vanished once she landed.
BJ had moved to check on Lydia as he returned to the ground. "You okay, babes?" He asked with worry in his tone as he began to lightly pull her hands away. The young girl looked to her friend as her hands had been moved away and simply hugged him in response. She then looked over to her canine companion who had managed to get the blood off her muzzle and sighed with relief at seeing that the wolfdog was okay. As for the sandworm, in its demise, its body had dissipated in miniscule orbs of light, which was kind of a beautiful sight in a morbid way one could say. Lydia and Beetlejuice watched as the deceased sandworm vanished completely. The two then headed over to the canid companion and said canine stood as they reached her. "Follow me." She said softly as she jerked her head forward from whence the defeated beast had come. The duo blinked for a second, but nodded finally as they both trailed after the wolfdog. Along the way, Lydia spoke to break the silence caused from the event. "Uh, may I ask how that sandworm got here exactly?" She asked with a rather worried expression. Katie glanced back at her before coming to a complete stop in lieu of walking the good distance. "Take a look in front of me and you'll have your answer." She answered as she turned her own focus ahead.
Both Beetlejuice and Lydia moved up and were left without words as they saw the sight before them all. In the ground below, down a slope, there was a massive crack or crater in the earth. "This..." Katie started with apologetic eyes before continuing. "...is one of many things I had a sense about or essentially foresaw." A sigh escaped her. "This is the result of something or maybe even someone who is trying to break the barriers of the Neitherworld and this world. It is something that should not be buried and forgotten, so to speak. This is a deadly fate that must be resolved right away. For if not dealt with, then let's just say that both worlds will be put off worse than a living or burning hell hole. Pardon my language, but it'll be some deep shit for all to where no one will survive in life or the afterlife." She paused for a moment as she took in a breath. "This is something that I had seen coming with the job as I had told you when we first met. This will be the beginning of a horrifying future for you two if nothing is done." She looked to Beetlejuice. "You, ghost with the most are far more worthy than you may wish to believe because I can only tell you that you will gain a great reward in this given crusade." Her eyes then turned to Lydia. "And you, Lydia are much stronger than you may know. You too will even have a lot to earn in all this." She held a determined smile upon her muzzle.
"I ask you both this simple question. Do you think that you're up for this task with me and are you prepared for the biggest adventure of your lives?" The canine held her smile as she looked to both of them, awaiting an answer. Both Lydia and Beetlejuice stood in silence as thoughts raced through their minds. A good amount of time goes by before the two look to one another and then back to the canine. "I'm ready and am willing to make myself prepared for this." The young girl answered with a rather righteous smirk on her face and a determined look in her eyes. The ghost, himself, let out a sigh as if annoyed or maybe bored. "Well, if Lyds is up for it, then I guess I have no choice, but to join in." He said smoothly, a smirk growing on his own face as he green teeth became exposed in it. Katie held her smile to them both as she also held a rather excited expression. "Well, glad to hear it. Now, let's all just make ourselves prepared for any other beasts or incidents that are thrown our way." She said with a confident laugh, which caused them all to laugh out in excitement more than anything. After the laughter, Lydia then got the urge to ask the wolfdog about the little transformation she and BJ had witnessed. "Hey, why is it that you have wings?" Katie looked to the girl and simply smiled brightly at her as she replied. "Well, as I had told you before, I am a special human with nifty powers and those wings you saw are just another one of those said powers." She gave a teasing sort of slight smirk. "There's a lot of surprises I have up my sleeves, figuratively speaking of course." She added with a giggle.
Lydia laughed a little too and nodded in understanding. "Hey, babes, you know that I have plenty up my sleeves too." Beetlejuice chimed in as he wiggled his brows and grinned in a goofy sort of manner, lifting both sleeves to expose all sorts of creepy crawlies under them. This caused Lydia to laugh even more as she smiled at him and began walking with him and her canine companion. "Yeah, I know Beej." She said with a giggle as she looked at him happily. Katie simply smiled at the two of them as she thought. 'Well, our journey is now going to begin and this job is going to become much tougher for all. However, even in all the chaos that is to come, there still can be fun to have when the chance allows it that is.' The trio soon made their way back home with a tiny Beetlejuice hidden in the wolfdog's fur. It had become dinner time and Delia was busy making a hopefully edible one in the kitchen. Lydia just made her way to her room with the wolfdog and ghost upon her, following behind. Once all were in her bedroom, BJ had gone back to his usual size and began to hover in mid air while Lydia moved to lay down on her bed for a bit. The canid, herself, did the same, except she chose the floor to lay on. The trio all looked to one another with small smiles and confident eyes as if to be sharing a mental message of some sort.
They all seemed to relax like this for a good half hour until they all were snapped back to reality from Delia's voice calling up the stairs. "Lyyyydiiiiaaaaa, dinner's ready. Come down with the doggy woggy and eat!" Lydia called back to her as she sat up in bed. "Coming Mother!" Beetlejuice let out a yawn and said. "Babes, I'm going to head back to the Neitherworld and hit the hay early." As soon as he said 'hit the hay', he had a haystack floating in front of him while he turned into his boxer get up and socked a punch to it. Both the wolfdog and girl giggled at this briefly before Lydia replied. "Okay then, see you tomorrow, Beetlejuice...Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice." With the say of his name three times, he was sent back to the Roadhouse and more importantly, his coffin bed. Once he was gone, the young girl and her canid companion headed down to dinner, which was again edible, but just didn't look it. The usual routine went on during dinner, the same old family discussion came and went as the meal was over. Thus, leading into bedtime as both Lydia and Katie carried on in going to sleep, wondering just what the next day would bring their way.