Sorry, this chapter is late, it's been a very busy holiday season. I have got sick while writing this so, I apologise if this chapter isn't up to my usual standard. I will be updating but probably slowly until I get over this bug. Anyway, enjoy this new chapter, please review and tell me what you think.
Lydia awoke in a complete state; she was all hot and horribly clammy all over as if her temperature had spiked. To make things worse, her clothes were soaked in sweat which made her feel like an old wet flannel. She wanted to strip herself of the disgustingly moist clothes, so she could sleep in comfort. She felt so fatigued and raw from last night's exchange, that she just wanted nothing more than to feel the numbness of sleep. If she was asleep then as far as she was concerned she was safe.
On autopilot, she sleepily reached for the hem of her top. Exposing a little bit of pale midriff before she faltered. She eyed the mirror on the dressing table anxiously. Though its surface was still clouded with silver like any other mirror she didn't think she could take that kind of risk. It wasn't safe for her to get changed in her room anymore, not when she had a pervert living in her mirror. She lowered the corner of her shirt back down as she decided that having a shower would be her best bet. It would make her feel better and hopefully put her in a better mood. Even if she went straight back to bed after it would make a difference. She wasn't sure why but she got some of her best ideas while in the shower and perhaps her soapy musing, would lead to a way out of her current situation. Juno's words still echoed through her brain, 'He basically owns you now'. She couldn't help but shudder at that, the thought of him having any sort of claim on her was just too creepy.
She got up and passed the mirror, muttering obscenities under her breath at its new resident, before she made her way over to the stereo. She put on the first CD that was to hand, which turned out to be an album of monster metal. It seemed oddly fitting for her situation and she made sure to turn the volume up past 11 before she made her way to the shower. That way the music would be loud enough that even with the door closed and the water on full blast, she could still hear the music. But more importantly, HE wouldn't be able to hear her. If she started crying in the echoey confines of the bathroom he would be none the wiser. Then for the second consecutive day in a row, Lydia changed out of previous day's old and crumpled clothing. "I really need to stop doing this" she muttered to herself before she slipped into the stream of water.
She turned up the pressure until waves of soothing warmth massaged away the aches she wasn't aware that she had. The nasty clammy feeling quickly left her skin as she stood under the falling water. It felt like she was in a safe bubble here in the bathroom. In the isolation of the shower, it felt a thousand miles away from the antics of her disturbed, deceased roommate. For the first time in what seemed like ages, she felt calm and content as she listened to the strange echoing mixture of the water and music mix together. She was enjoying the track playing and she wasn't sure if it was just because she was more relaxed but the music seemed to get softer and softer. It made her jump as it stopped altogether as all she could hear was the sound of the water hitting the bathroom times. She stopped, frozen for a second as foam dripped from the wet sponge in her hand. The unmistakable sound of static emanated from the stereo for a few moment almost as if someone was flicking through radio stations. There was a very loud buzzing sound before a track called "Monster is my Name" began to play. It wasn't a track on the CD so she wasn't quite sure what was going on but she shrugged and decided to go with it. Questioning things at this stage would only make things more confusing and the less time she spent focusing on weird goings on in the house the better. If she questioned and paid attention to everything she figured she would go insane within the first few weeks. So she decided that the mysterious change of playlist wasn't worth worrying about. Any investigation would mean leaving the cosiness of the shower and she couldn't quite bring herself to leave quite yet. She leant forward so the water cascaded down the back of her neck so she could listen to the lyrics of the song. She had heard it a hundred times before but there had to be a reason he had changed the track. She almost held her breath as she listened to the obscure and vulgar lyrics for that particular track.
"You know me, my name is monster. Now, don't you call my name in vain? You know my name and what it stands for… for monster is my name. You know me, my name is monster. I'll never let you get away, you know my name and where it comes from MONSTER is my NAME!" the music bellowed from the other room.
"Yeah real subtle" Lydia muttered to herself before she screamed from the bathroom "Hey Monster, you mess with my tunes again and I'm going to drop that mirror of yours off the winter river bridge," Lydia shouted threateningly. In reality, it was something she would never actually do as the mirror was too precious to her; it being one of her mother's last worldly possessions. Beetlejuice however, didn't know about the special place the mirror had in Lydia's heart so he faltered his tampering. There was a moment of audible silence before the static returned and the original song Hard Rock Hallelujah began to play.
"Thank you" Lydia shouted almost musically as her tunes returned to normal again. "So he does have manors after all, who would have guessed" Lydia murmured as she got back to showering herself. It was then that a thought hit her like a lead weigh, she hadn't even noticed how many mirrors were in the small room. Three by all account, the medicine cabinet mirror, one makeup mirror and a small mirror in the actual shower itself. She quickly covered the shower mirror with a wet flannel in the hopes of obscuring it. She stood there for a few seconds, heart in her throat as she looked desperately around at the other mirrors. Luckily the glass sides of the shower was so steamed up that even someone standing in the bathroom doorway would have trouble seeing her. That meant the other two mirrors were safe, for now. She quickly peeled a corner of the flannel away from the shower mirror as she stared intently into its depths. She let out a sigh of relieve when she noticed there was no trace of a supernatural glow anywhere. She even knocked on the mirror several times to try to aggravate any inhabitants. Yet the mirror stayed silent and still like any other ordinary mirror.
"He can't travel," Lydia thought to herself as she peeled the rest of the flannel away from the shower mirror and threw it over her shoulder. "If he could he would be in here like a shot. As he isn't I guess that means he's stuck in there" Lydia thought to herself with a sense of relief washing over her. It would explain why he messed with the stereo. It was sitting next to the dresser after all and she presumed it was his attempt to see her naked or in a towel. She wouldn't underestimate the power of Beetlejuice's perverted nature. From what she had heard (through the netherworld grapevine), Beetlejuice was the biggest sleazeball this side of the known universe. She had heard a lot of things about him, some she was sure was just pure conjecture but seeing that she was going to be stuck with him for god knows how long she decided she was going to see if the man lived up to the myth.
She turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around herself. She spent a while in the bathroom, towel drying and brushing her hair. Then she decided to kill some time by reorganising the medicine cabinet. Anything that would keep her in there for just a little bit longer. She already changed into today's clothes which consisted of a v neck black camisole, which had lace along the edges, making the plunging neckline look a bit more conservative. Lydia looked at it in the mirror and had doubts about it, you couldn't see anything more than her bra straps but she hoped the plunging neckline wouldn't make her a target for the ghost's perverted attention. Anyway, it was too late to change it now, if she went to get something else to wear he would know she was thinking of him. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction and she wanted to come off as if he wasn't even a blip on her radar. So the top stayed and it was paired with a pair of tartan trousers which were one of her favourite pieces. An online Goth and Punk clothing store had let her raid a catalogue of items from them after she had done a particularly good piece of art including their clothing. It was a post-apocalyptic, neo-Victorian shoot, which was both well received and ended up giving the store a lot more business hence the goody bag Lydia received as an extra thank you. Lydia wished she had another shoot like that she could run off too but she didn't have anything booked for the next week which means she would have to actually talk to the thing living in her mirror. She wanted an excuse but it would just be finding small things to avoid the storm up ahead, it was better to just get things over and done with.
She took a deep breath, enjoying the humid warmth of the room for a second more before she opened the door into the bedroom. The change in temperature hit her like a wall of ice, it made her feel a little uneasy but she had to do this now or she would never do it. She quickly left the bathroom, her long hair leaving tiny droplets of water across the floor as she walked back into the cooler of the two rooms "Just do it quickly like ripping off a Band-Aid" she thought to herself as she sat down at the dresser and waited for the eerie green glow to take up the silver image. She didn't quite know what to say or even how to broach the whole 'he owns you' subject so she waited for him to speak.
"Hey babes," Beetlejuice said as the silver smoke dissipated and his image took up the cream gilded frame. He took a second or two to look the woman up and down. She looked, incredibly sexy with the fluffy and somewhat messy black hair, it reminded him of 'sex hair' and he hoped she would never brush it out. As his eyes raked down her form he couldn't help but appreciate the low cut top she was wearing. Her ample bosom was undeniable and her hair dripped little beads of water which trickled down her cleavage making it glisten enticingly. He could practically feel the heat emanating from her body thanks to the shower and he couldn't help but notice the slight pink tinge to hepaleil skin. He couldn't keep his mind from wondering what she would look like when she was hot, bothered and wet in a very different way. He would love nothing more than to lick the beads of sweat from her cleavage before investigating what exactly lay underneath her bra in incredible detail.
"Damn you look fine all hot and wet like that" Beetlejuice said hoping it would get a rise out of Lydia. He chuckled to himself as he noticed a blush blooming on Lydia's cheeks at his comment.
"I was hoping to see you in a towel but this will do nicely" he added as Lydia's blush deepened giving a delightful rosiness to her cheeks.
"Er than,ks" Lydia said shakily. She had mentally prepared herself for any insult he could through at her and she had been psyched up to get into an all-out verbal sparring match with him. But she hadn't been prepared for a compliment and it completely flawed her for a few minutes. She hated how it had completely blindsided her and how her body betrayed her by blushing. He had leverage over her now and she felt more than uncomfortable. She tried her best to ignore his comment and the fact that he was staring down her top and instead decided to broach the subject head-on.
"Alright then 'monster is my name'. According to Juno you and me are stuck together" Lydia stated hoping that he would correct her even though she knew he wouldn't.
"So that old pile of ash isn't as useless as I though," he said before an unsettling smile formed on his face "yeah babes you and me are stuck together like glue. Even if you off yourself right now your still mine so don't get any ideas. Anyway, I prefer my girls to be in the land of the living, let's just say that it makes transportation easier" The unsettling smile never faltered and it reminded Lydia of the Joker from Batman.
"Ok I will ignore that, sinister sentence" Lydia said with a slight shudder. She wasn't exactly sure why he thought she was suicidal as it was the second time he had mentioned her killing herself. That pared with the whole transportation thing bought fourth images of her waking up in an ice bath only to find her kidneys having been removed. She was disturbed to say the least.
"What is your obsession with me wanting to kill myself? I'm perfectly happy and I'm not that dark cloud of a person I was all those years ago so quit saying shit like that" Lydia said defensively, she hated the fact that he called her one his girls. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she remembered the severed finger that had held her wedding ring. She remembered how he had discarded the severed digit before roughly shoving the ring on her finger.
"Well why else would you be adamant to go to the netherworld. I know you begged the Maitland's to take you with them". Beetlejuice said with a wicked smile before adding "I know you still feel the same way, you can't wait to visit the other side" he said with a slight sneer.
"I have my reasons alright! Why does anyone do anything?" Lydia snapped.
"Woah alright, alright I get it jeez" Beetlejuice replied and what followed was several minutes of very uncomfortable silence.
"So," Lydia said trying to cut the ice so they could have a proper talk. "As we are apparently going to have to get along for quite some time, I need something I can call you. I'm not saying the B word because I'm not letting you out of that mirror" Lydia said sternly, she noticed his gaze was on her cleavage so she self-consciously folded her arms over her chest.
"Why not say my name babes? You frightened I might grow on you if you let me loose" Beetlejuice said in an entrancing growl. It made a shiver Run down Lydia's spine and she felt that strange pull again. It was as if something was whispering sweet nothings to her which resonated somewhere deep inside her. It was so very tempting and she felt like taking him up on the offer. She knew what she was experiencing probably was a side effect to the blood tie but it didn't stop her from feeling deeply confused about it.
"The only way you grow on people is like a cancer" Lydia snapped back, trying to hide the strange mix of feelings from him. If he didn't know how mixed up and confused she was feeling then things would work a lot better.
"I'm not saying your name and I'm not letting you out. So unless you want to be called 'hey you' or 'monster' for the next few years then I suggest we come up with something to call you that's on neural ground. No magic, no spells and nothing that can let you out, just a normal nickname" Lydia said sharply and it felt good putting her foot down. She didn't have to like the fact she was stuck with him but she could do a few things to make it slightly more bearable. Realistically she would have to talk to him. She couldn't ignore him for the rest of time so a nickname would make things a lot easier. After all constantly letting him loose just to ask a simple question would become exhausting and she was determined that she would do everything in her power to avoid letting him out.
"Oooh babes harsh words, I would be wounded if I had a heart. But alright I will play your little game after all we are going to be spending a lot of time with each other so you're going to need a name you can really moan that won't send me back here." With that here he knocked on the glass of the mirror. Yes he was amazingly cocky, he was pretty sure he would be able to get into Lydia's pants the first time she decided to properly summon him. But he would play along with her little game of cat and mouse.
"You could always call me BJ, I've had a few girls call me that in my time. Mainly Dante's girls because there is nothing I love better than…"
He was quickly interrupted by Lydia who shouted "Ben Johnson" as she blushed and tried to remove the dirty mental image that was stuck like tar in her brain.
"Who the fuck is Ben Johnson?" Beetlejuice asked annoyed, he was enjoying how uncomfortable his candid talk about sex made Lydia. It made him wonder about her sex life, he figured that she was a frigid virgin judging by her reaction. He made a mental note to investigate her love life, though he liked the idea of converting a shy little virgin. He also loved the idea that Lydia was hiding an incredibly kinky side from him and she would turn out to be a dominatrix or something.
"He was a guy I went to college with," Lydia said glad that her outburst had been enough to change the topic.
"Because his initials were B and J we all called him Beej" Lydia explained. "I think it would be quite a fitting name for you as, he was a massive pervert as well," Lydia said with a half-smile.
"Glad you noticed babes," Beetlejuice said with a predatory smile as he flicked the collar to his shirt cockily. The smile really made Lydia regret the pervert comment. "Yeah I kind of like it" he said with a nod as if to cement the idea more firmly "Yeah that's going to work nicely, thanks babes," he said with a genuinely pleasant smile. Well it would be pleasant if you ignored the horror show that was his teeth.
"Er you're welcome Beej," Lydia said with a small smile of her own. "Considering that you're getting a new name and everything I think it's only fair that I let you choose one for me," she said hoping that he wouldn't cotton on to the fact that she hated it when he called her babes. There was just something in his voice when he said it that reminded her of the way he had looked at her all those years ago when they first met. He had been a snake at the time and she remembered how vulnerable and uncomfortable it made her feel.
"Well I'm pretty fond of calling you Babes, seeing the effect it has on you," Beej said with a grin.
"And what effect would that be?" Lydia snapped indignantly, refusing to admit he could do anything to her.
"That, right there," He said triumphantly "You act all tough to compensate. You like to think you're untouched by anything I say or do but we both know the tough act is just that an act. When I call you Babes it make you blush like crazy and you're mind wonder to a place you would never admit too. You don't want me to know that you feel anything at all. You want me to think your some sort of ice queen but you're not. You don't want me to call you babes anymore because it makes you question things you don't want to think about. It makes you feel something other than disdain for me. Am I on the right track?" Beej asked with a predatory grin. Lydia had no idea how he could pick up on all that. She took her eyes off the mirror and instead focused on the window behind and the beams of sun shining through. She felt so odd, so mixed up, confused and hurt that she didn't know what to do. Beej was right by all accounts and that scared her. How could he get so much right when she didn't even have a clue herself? Lydia felt like she was on the edge of tears and she was about to get up from the dressing table when she was address by a voice she had never heard before.
It was familiar as It came from her new companion but it was in a tone she had never heard before. Everything he had said to her before was all harsh, obnoxious and loud; tThis on the other hand was soft and almost soothing.
"Look I can call you Lyds if it makes you feel any better?" Beej said in an oddly reassuring murmur. It took Lydia by surprise and as she looked back at him she saw not a sneer or his usual perverted smirk but a look of genuine concern in his eyes.
"That would be fantastic thank you," she said with a warm smile.
"Right," Beej said cracking his knuckles "Now we have names sorted out why don't we put down a few ground rules. After all we will be living together for quite a long time".