Disclaimer: I own NONE of Beetlejuice and am gaining no profit from it.

Chapter 6: Broken Connections

The room was filled with the dull orange light of the setting sun. The light starkly contrasted the gloom of the room's decor, especially as everything was in shades of grey or plain black. Lydia sat at a desk writing and re-writing what was to be her suicide note. The trash can next to her was half filled with ill-conceived writings of letters that didn't fit what she wanted to convey. She sniffed softly as she finally found her ground and was able to complete the note, letting a few tears spill over to gently land on the piece of paper. Lydia set her pencil aside and sniffed once more before getting up. She adjusted the small veil over her face, making sure the mesh was still secured in her hair before getting up and going to the attic.

Beetlejuice was sitting in a chair on the balcony of The Inferno. A cigarette loosely hung from his dry lips as a bottle of whiskey sat on the table beside him, top gone. He was lost in his thoughts, some from the pleasure he had just gotten from the broads downstairs and some, not-so-happy ones. It was indeed the Deetzes. That was his Lydia…well, she used to be. Rage started building in the pit of his stomach again. No wonder everyone said "Don't trust the living" A simple crash changed her into a completely different person. No. That was wrong. She was still very much the Lydia he had known back then, just more sad and pathetic. He grabbed the bottle and took a messy swig, letting the numb burning sensation quell the anger he had. The Deetez themselves hadn't changed at all. Perfect. The dip-shits were still dip-shits. Once again, he got screwed. Beetlejuice looked around the room and then sat up, putting his head in his hands. A small, tiny, minuscule part of his subconscious told him that his plan wouldn't work. That he shouldn't WANT it to work. He would be screwing over his best friend, and she wouldn't know in the least. He scoffed, the burn of anger coming back.

"She's not the same Lydia. That Lydia is dead…She ain't coming back" Another long swig and his thoughts were completely shattered by the attic door creaking open.

As if on cue Lydia walked into the room, looking as gloomy as always, maybe a little bit more so. She quickly scanned the room to find the Maitlands were missing.

"Mr and Mrs Maitland?" She walked farther into the room, paper still clutched in her hands. She gently placed the letter on the top of an old dresser before completely looking around the empty attic.

"Hello?" Lydia instinctively went towards Adam's model. "How are you?"

Her question was answered by a different voice than expected.

"Dead. Dead, Dead, Deadski" Beetlejuice was sitting in a reclined chair with a pair of spa shades over his eyes. Lydia looked at him with annoyance and slight intrigue.

"Of course they're dead. They're ghosts." She wanted to roll her eyes, but she didn't know who this strange man was. A lump formed in her throat as small trickles of emotion came over her. She quickly squashed them down.

"No, I mean they're gone, split, out of here, afterlife kids, deceased." He didn't move, but could tell he caught Lydia's attention.

Gently lifting the mesh from her face, she moved the veil back over her hair.

"Are you a ghost too?" Beetlejuice inwardly scoffed.

"I'm the ghost with the most, babe". Suddenly snatching the eyewear off he sat up, resting his hands on his knees.

"Y'know, you look like somebody I can relate to. Maybe you could help me get out of here, y'know? Because I gotta tell ya, this dead thing-" Beetlejuice got up, the red light of the inferno suddenly turning to a cold white. He made his way over to the balcony where he found a beetle, and inevitably smashed it with his grimy hands, stuffing the poor creature in his mouth before chewing.

"It's just too creepy" He swallowed then continued working. "I got these friends I said I'd meet, I have to be there in person, so could you help me get out of here?" He propped his leg up on the bottom of the railing. They stared at each other for a minute. A spark flashed between them that they both didn't seem to want to acknowledge. Lydia looked down breaking eye contact.

"I want to get in." Beej looked around the room, desperately confused at her response. Lydia as much as she hated her life was never suicidal. Jokes maybe, but for real, nah.

"Why?" He shook his head lightly. He couldn't start getting attached again, not now. "Well' y'know, hey, you probably got your reasons but the thing is I can't do anything from here. If you could get me out y'know THERE then maybe we could talk or something but in order to do that, you gotta say my name three times." He stared at Lydia as she watched him talk and wave his hands around, never looking away from the mystical brown orbs that were her eyes.

"What's your name?" Lydia asked softly. A pang rang through his chest and he stopped. He took a deep breath before continuing his facade.

"Well…i can't tell you." Lydia scrunched up her face.

"Why not?"

"Well, because if I tell you, you'll tell your friends, then I gotta appear at shopping centers for openings, sign autographs, and shit like that, and it makes my life a living hell. Okay? A living HELL. But if you have a pen? Or I KNOW! Do you play charades?". Beetlejuice was now pulling shit out of his ass.

"Yeah," Lydias' eyes looked around the room. She was getting a bunch of strange emotions from this specter and she didn't really have the time or the patience to try to untangle them.

"Ah! Good, Good. Here we go, then. Ready?"

The next couple minutes went by with them playing charades. The beetle he conjured up after getting agitated scared her, but also excited her. For the second word she had to guess she tried to be a little more specific, but obviously that went in the opposite direction as the first word.

"Beetlejuice?"

He flung his hands and pointed at her.

"Ah that's it!" Beej couldn't believe that this was actually working.

"Your name's Beetlejuice?" He slapped his knees at the second time she uttered his name.

"You said it twice! Just say it once more, c'mon!" A quick look at Lydia's face made him realize her demeanor changed and his face almost fell.

"It was you wasn't it?" She raised an eyebrow, looking down at him with displaced recognition. He felt the lump come back to his throat, if only for the gaze she was giving him. "The snake…"

He quickly fumbled on his words, trying to gain his composure and lead on this deal.

"No. What snake? You kids and your imagination! Just say it!" Beetlejuice could feel his upper body going rigid with agitation. Lydia shook her head, something in her desperately was telling her to trust him, for god knows what reason, but the her in the here and now knew better.

"No. I want to talk to Barbera." She turned her head slightly to the side to look down on him. The condescending look made him both excited and frustrated.

"You don't need to talk to Barbera! Just say it!" He flailed his arms across his chest to try to get the point across. He was losing it.

Unbeknownst to the both of them, a green light gently cascaded into the back of the room as Adam and Barbera came back in from seeing Juno. They looked up in surprise at the exorcists yelling.

"Come on! Just say it!" He felt like he had her by a thread. In reality, he did. Lydia didn't know why her whole body wanted to trust this ghost, but she was giving in to her unfiltered thoughts. She leaned forward and he smiled, seeing his name forming on her lips before they even parted. Unfortunately, she didn't give them a sound as two resounding yells from the back of the room stopped her.

"No!"

"No! Lydia don't say it!"

Barbera and Adam rushed to the confused girl. Their strange appearance with the oversized crocodile-like mouth with eyes perched at the back of the tongue. Adam's oddly bird-like head with sunken sockets and eyes on the tips of all of his fingers scared Lydia. First, she screamed and backed from Barbera, then into Adam, screaming each time. Beetlejuice watched leaning heavily on the railing.

"Fuck you! Say it!" His mad flailing jerked the wood so hard, that it broke and he fell with the splintered pieces of wood into some small bushes in front of The Inferno.

Lydia sighed in relief as she turned to see Barbera looking like herself. She immediately tried to speak.

"Beetle-" The woman put her hand up to Lydia's mouth to stop the name from slipping out for a third time. "He said if I let him out he'd take me to find you". Barbera's look softened at Lydia's plight.

"No…Lydia, we're dead." She rubbed her hand over the girls hair. Lydia looked down.

"I want to be dead too." Something flashed in her eyes and the woman grabbed her shoulders.

"No! Lydia…No. Being dead really doesn't make things any easier." Lydia eyed Barbera for a minute before looking down. The things Barbera was saying were meant well, but they didn't resonate with her. She really believed that she would be better off as a ghost. At least then she'd have some form of happiness…right? She looked down at the model and found The Inferno once more. The railing was still broken, but Beetlejuice was nowhere in sight. She sighed and looked up only to hear the footfalls of her parents and Otho coming up the attic stairs. Adam and Barbera pulled her into a dark corner to hide. The three of them watched on with morbid curiosity as Otho and Charles turned off the model and started disconnecting it to move it downstairs. Once it was all moved Lydia looked at the Maitlands.

"Don't worry, I'll go find out what's going on." Barbera rubbed her back as she got up and made her way to the door.

"Be careful." The couple shared a look after Lydia was gone. Something was coming, and it was wicked.