Hi, I hope folks like this chapter, It's actually part two of what was originally all chapter 15. But I realised quickly that it was way, way too long. So I hope people like this chapter.
I will continue to update this with new chapters in the following weeks.
Lydia walked out of the living room and when she knew he couldn't see her she stopped in the hall. She took a few moments to still herself and take a few calming breaths to quell the rising tide of her panic. As she smoothed the material of her top down she began to feel a little bit better. She could still feel the chilled imprint of his fingertips, lingering along her spine. But, as she placed her hand on the spot, the feeling of delicious cold quickly vanished as her body began to return to its normal temperature. She quickly fumbled through her pockets for some cash and produced a few crumpled-up notes. She inhaled deeply, steeling herself a little before she opened the door to pay for their take-out.
"Oh hey, Danny," Lydia said, still feeling a little flustered as she opened the door. She instantly recognised the delivery guy. He had been at one of her parties a while ago and he always wanted to know when she was having another one, yet he never attended after that one time.
"Hey Lydia, dinner for two, you're not having a party without me are you?" He asked flirting with her slightly. It was reassuring to see a friendly face, a friendly human face at that. Somehow just knowing that the person she was looking at wasn't a ghost and couldn't/wouldn't drift through the wall at any moment. It helped ground her even more and she felt back to her old self again.
"No, just having an old friend for dinner," Lydia retorted with a grin.
"Alright then Hannibal, have fun ok. It's $20.50.
"Thanks," Lydia slated handing him the crumpled notes and a few coins that added up the tip as well.
"Have a good night" Lydia stated politely as she took the bags of food and shut the door. The smell of the food wafted from the bags causing her stomach to grumble with need. She could feel the eyes of her ethereal guest following her, as she strolled through the living room and into the kitchen. The sensation did not end as she readied the plates for each of them. Her back was turned and she could feel his eyes boring deep into her. Yet as soon as she turned around, he was just sitting there, reclined in one of the chairs around the table. He seemed to be busy examining the lack of dirt under his blood-red fingernails.
"I hope you're hungry," Lydia charmed, sliding the cartons of his noodles and rice across the table towards him. A set of chopsticks stuck haphazardly out of the container of noodles, though she also slid a fork to him across the table as she wasn't sure if he could or would find a use for the chopsticks. The food was a peace offering, they both knew it. She wanted to just tell Beetlejuice what had happened but she couldn't even begin to figure out her jumbled thoughts enough to find a coherent thought she could follow in an attempt to explain. It was too private and he wouldn't understand. No doubt he would find her reasoning pathetically human and he would mock her mercilessly for it and she couldn't handle that right now. Besides, she didn't know where or how to even begin to talk about it. So, instead, she just slid the bottle of Ghost Chilli sauce over to him.
Beetlejuice grunted non-committally and then began to dish out some of his dinner onto his plate. With a tiny click of his fingers bugs, some alive, some dead appeared in with his noodles. He eagerly mixed them in with his fork before he added the chilli cause and tucked in. He didn't really say much, Lydia pretty much expected that and the kitchen was eerily silent. The only sounds came from the slurping of noodles and the crunching of beetles. Lydia looked down at her own meal and moved some of her noodles around her place with a chopstick. Somehow after what happened in the living room, she wasn't exactly hungry anymore. So she sat there in silence, picking at the different vegetables in her meal. She tried to eat some, though her heart just wasn't in it. It was Beetlejuice who eventually broke the silence and she was glad to gauge him in any sort of conversation, as the silence had been deafening.
"You were right about this sauce Babes, it's good" Beetlejuice muttered before crunching down on another beetle.
"Oh, I'm glad you like it," Lydia rejoiced, she knew it was just small talk but it was a start. She tried not to think too much into him calling her Babes again. He had called her that even before they had kissed, so, she doubted it was a sign of affection on his part, he probably called all girls that.
"How's your meal?" she asked as she began to wonder what food on the other side would be like.
"Not too bad actually, but I added a little something extra to the mix," he stated just as a grasshopper tried to escape from the spicy noodle swamp it had been tangled in. "Oh no you don't you little…" he slammed his hand down on the table, partially squishing the bug before bringing it to his lips with an unnervingly loud crunch.
"Well isn't that just lovely," Lydia retorted dryly as she raised an eyebrow. As she took in the scene of the ghost happily chomping away at the now ex-bug. She smiled slightly but the expression seemed off as the smile never quite reached her eyes. At least he was happy with his meal, though she didn't really know how to get the conversation going again. The air between them was stale and she just wished it would turn back to the comfortable chatting of a few hours ago.
"What's wrong Babes, you're not squeamish are you?" Beej teased before he noisily slurped up a large mouth full, of his bug-laden noodles and savoured in the unholy crunching sound of the beetle shells that followed.
"I'm sorry, have you not met me? They used to call me 'Squeam Queen' in college for a reason" Lydia said with a cocky smile. Before adding under her breath, "along with a few other choice names".
Beej's eyes seemed to glow slightly brighter after that comment, he would definitely have to test her upon this. If she didn't like the bug being squished against her table then she would hate what he had in store for her. He could do with a good laugh after all that pent-up energy and this would no doubt provide the relief he needed. Ok, it was a different type of relief, not the type that would prefer. Generally, he would prefer to have the relief that would come from having Lydia beneath him; earning the new title of 'SCREAM queen'. But, it was at least something, that would take his mind off the damned Itch. He took the bottle of Ghost sauce and added a little to his meal while he shot a little juice towards Lydia. He looked over as nonchalantly as he could and he pretended that he was interested in the way she was holding her chopsticks instead of the surprise he had planted in her meal.
Lydia captured some of her dinner with the chopsticks and she wasn't in the least bit surprised when bugs began to manifest in with the mixed vegetables as the chopsticks were halfway to her mouth. She paused for a moment to take in the cicada and mealworm combo that had taken the place of some of her chow mein. She glanced over at her companion who was waiting eagerly for her to react in disgust. Yet she simply smirked at the ghost and continued to eat her meal as if nothing was amiss. She couldn't help but chuckle at the look of disappointment that Beetlejuice sported for a few moments before he quickly composed himself.
He hadn't expected her to actually go through with his little prank. He had expected a little squeal or at least a slight jump at the crawling chaos he had added to her meal. Yet she acted as if it was the most mundane thing in the world. He wanted to be disappointed but he couldn't help but feel oddly impressed by the woman. He had played this particular prank on many of the living over the centuries, so much so that it had become a staple of many horror movies. He always felt a sense of pride when a film came on which featured a character's noodles turning into worms or some other type of crawling creature. He hadn't known a single breather that didn't freak out at the new addition to their meal, then again Lydia was no ordinary breather. She intrigued him as much as she frustrated and confused him. There was just something about her that he couldn't quite place and that made him want her even more. His thoughts wandered back to the kiss, the sweetness of her lips as they worked against his. The taste of her skin as he caressed her and the tiny shudders of pleasure he received in response. Then there was that moan of hers, he could honestly listen to her moan like that all day. To say that the sound she made was arousing was an understatement and he found Lydia intoxicating. He wanted more of her, hell he wanted all of her. If he had his way he would explore every single inch of her skin and find all the delightful ways he could make her scream. He couldn't help but want more of her. His eyes traced her cherry-stained lips as she happily chewed away at his insect-laced trickery.
"I might have forgotten to tell you," Lydia said as she noticed that Beetlejuice seemed to be staring at her mouth. She hoped it was because he was surprised that she had actually gone through with it and eaten the bugs. "I'm rather fond of eating bugs. Delia put us all on a bug-based diet after her trip to Thailand. She says it's going to be the newest fad pretty soon and admittedly I was a little…" She paused as she looked for the right word.
She didn't want to tell him that she had been freaked out at the thought of eating insects and it was Delia's constant passive-aggressive nagging that had worn her down until she gave in and tried it. "Apprehensive when I first tried it. But, hey, it's good protein and they can't feel pain in the way that most vertebrates do. The way they harvest them is very humane so it's guilt-free in my book" Lydia admitted though it had taken her a while to get over the initial ick factor she still preferred them being an amorphous, unidentifiable and finely milled powder to add to dishes. Rather than distinct and identifiable of the chitin exoskeleton.
"Delia was the one that wanted to bring Entomophagy fully into the states. She tried to create a league of bug eaters, though it fell through for obvious unpalatable reasons when meat and also vegetarian alternatives are accessible even here" Lydia explained.
"She still maintains that mosquito and midge burgers were too sophisticated for the Western palette, despite the fact that they tasted strongly of coal and old chicken parts. It's certainly a unique flavour but not one I would like to try again any time soon" she detailed, quickly adding to the thought.
"Actually now that I think about it, you might actually like that particular dish, considering you have a whole Renfield thing going on" She couldn't keep the smirk from her lips with that one.
"I will say that the deep-fried tarantula and the chocolate-coated scorpions were certainly...er interesting, not unpleasant but a unique experience for the crunch factor," she said with a smile.
"But, you do have to shave the tarantula or at least pluck it before you deep fry it. Otherwise, you just end up with a mouth full of prickly hairs covered in batter" She stopped for a second and she couldn't keep the smile from her lips as she added.
"That's not a sentence I ever thought I would ever say out loud" she chuckled before taking another mouthful of noodles. She was happy that the bugs he had juiced into her meal were already dead. She couldn't quite stomach the thought of eating something that was still alive and wriggling. He had initially made the bugs squirm around in the bowl but under closer inspection, they were in fact dead.
"You know what I actually think I have a packet of the chocolate scorpions somewhere, fancy having them for dessert?" she asked knowing that the ghost would probably love them. "There is just something about the crunch, I haven't found anything like it. The way the venom makes your lips and tongue tingle is kind of unusual but in a good way. Plus the chocolate they use is really good" Lydia explained to the ghost with the most who looked thoroughly intrigued.
"You honestly like this kind of thing? You're not trying to get me back for putting crawlers in your dinner are you?" he asked suspiciously. There was no way in hell that she actually liked eating deep-fried tarantulas shaved or unshaven. He had never found another person who actually enjoyed eating bugs like he did. Even in the netherworld with its downright bizarre idea of cuisine he still seemed to be the only one that enjoyed that particular delicacy. He thought he was the only person who genuinely enjoyed the creepy delights, but Lydia had made him feel oddly welcome. The more he found out about the woman the more she intrigued him. She was so much more than the morbid little gothic girl, he had first met. He wondered just what other surprising things he would uncover about her. All he knew, for now, was that he was eager to see her chowing down on a scorpion.
"Believe me Beej if I was trying to get back at you for something, you would know it," Lydia said in a soft purr of a voice as she fixed him with a smirk. She was happy that he seemed to have put the whole 'touching' incident behind them. She knew she would have to explain to him at some point, but today was not that day. Her mind just drew a blank, she didn't know where to begin, or even how to broach the subject.
"Hey, do you reckon you could juice the lid back on the coffin for me? The hinges are super fiddly and last time I ended up cutting my hand. I need it in perfect working order for the photo shoot tomorrow" Lydia asked nervously, hoping that he would help and that he wouldn't see through her clumsy ruse.
"The last thing I need is the thing collapsing again. It did that when I first tried to use it on my own. I ended up being trapped there for about 3 hours before someone found me. But, on the plus side, I did get some amazing close-up pictures of a few beetles" Lydia rambled. It was pointless small talk, they both knew it. Though Lydia felt she should try and fill the empty space between them. It felt like a chiasm of dead, flat air that just seethed with complicated emotions. Ones she didn't quite know how to address. She wanted to talk to him about something substantial but she didn't want to get herself into any more situations where they would be in close physical contact. Yes, she had enjoyed the kiss but the emotional baggage that had unfurled with it was more than she could face this evening. She desperately needed to think it over, but she also knew she had to be in top form tomorrow.
"With your help, I'll have time to do some decorating before bed. The fake blood stains, for example, needs to be set overnight to get the right saturation levels. The same thing with the organ harvesting station, the blood needs to be left to soak so everything is nice and bloody in the morning" She rambled in the hopes that she had piqued his curiosity at least a little bit. if not then the appeal of hot models would certainly do the trick
"Sure thing babes, but what's with the organ harvesting?" he asked, fixing her with a look of confusion and intrigue. His eyes sparkled almost mischievously as he eagerly waited for Lydia's reply.
"I'm basically recreating different pieces from that film I mentioned earlier the one about organ repossession. So there will be blood guts, gore, drugs…" she paused for a moment to clarify. "Not real drugs, of course, it's not that kind of shoot," She grinned, happy with the unintentional wordplay. "In the film's universe, there is this wonder drug which is like Morphine if that morphine was addicted to steroids" She chuckled slightly.
"So it's like an extreme, liquid euphoria. It just takes away all the pain and it's supposed to be a fantastic high. So, it's obviously highly addictive and as you would expect, there is a booming black market for the stuff. But, not in the way you would expect. It's not as simple as just some blow or a few pills. The process is far more refined than the usual street drugs we have here. Yet at the same time, it's also very, very crude. The whole process of retrieving the black market stuff is unique to say the least" Lydia said with a manic grin. "Memorable too" she added to her flurry of words.
She could see that she had reached her goal, in igniting a tiny ember of intrigue in the Ghost. He had begun to lean a little closer. One elbow rested lazily upon the table as he watched her intently. She couldn't quite read whatever emotion that was swirling around his radiant green eyes. He had something of a smirk playing about his features, which calmed the worry bubbling away in her stomach.
"The drug, Zydrate" she clarified. "Comes in two versions, Squeaky clean and the "Pre-loved" kind if you get what I mean". She took a cleansing breath as she bridged the gap of eye contact. Hopefully, he wouldn't mind the incoming bomb of fanatical fan knowledge that was about to explode.
"You can get the pure stuff from a Surgeon or doctor. Or you can get the black market stuff and thats the one I am really interested in. You see the "preloved" version is actually extract the drug from the brain of dead junkies. I think it's syphoned from the pituitary gland. Basically, grave robbers use a kind of syringe gun to puncture the brain from inside the nasal cavity." Lydia enthused as she tapped the bridge of her nose for emphasis.
"It taps into any Zydrate that the deceased had in their system. My best guess is that it has a build-up effect in the body. It doesn't dissolve into the bloodstream in the way most drugs do. It doesn't diffuse as much, but it stays whole and so the excess liquid has to collect somewhere. My bet is that it pools in the pituitary gland which then enlarges it". She was getting more and more excited by the moment and it was a delight to watch.
"That's the beauty of this drug. That's what makes it so addictive. Just by being there it kind of hotwires the hormone control centre of your brain which is why it gives you such a huge high. But, your body slowly begins to flush it out. So, it makes it really difficult to kick because it stays in your system for a long time physically but the high doesn't last all that long among heavy users. Because their brain becomes permanently used to being in this hyperfluid-filled state. Which is where the handy Z gun comes into play" Lydia speculated excitedly, practically bouncing in her seat thanks to her frenzied delivery.
" It's quite clever if you think about it. The long needle of the Zydrate gun means you don't damage the body externally. So a corpse could easily be lightened from its heavy load of Z and no one would be the wiser. It's much less mess than cracking open a skull to harvest some of the drug and it's definitely the more elegant approach. Lydia happily theorised. She knew she probably didn't make much sense, but she couldn't hide her obsession with the film - or it's enchantingly desolate, musical macrocosm. She hadn't even covered any of the characters or explained anything substantial about the strange sex, drugs & rock 'n roll world that was Repo! The Genetic Opera.
Beetlejuice watched Lydia talk eagerly. That beautiful spark was there in her eyes again and he realised just how much he had missed it. It wasn't quite the blazing fire that had been evident when they kissed. But, there was something almost magical about watching her speak like this. Her speech was rapid and manic. Her excitement was undeniable as she fired out information about the strange film in quick sensation. It was almost like she was afraid, if she slowed down for even a moment she would never get to say her piece on it. The more she revealed about the film the more animated her body language became.
She was always expressive when she talked but she was practically humming with energy and he loved the fact that she seemed so passionate about something. The premise of the film certainly sounded unique and he couldn't help but be intrigued. But, It was the way Lydia talked about it that convinced him more than anything. If she was this jazzed about the film then it must be worth a watch. Even if he didn't end up actually liking it. Hell, he would happily watch the damned, screeching in a static screaming lullaby. If that was what got her motor going. He suspected he would end up spending the majority of any movie watching her instead and that sounded very entertaining to him. It would be a worthwhile waste of time just to observe Lydia and all her eccentricities.
"One of the main reasons i like the drug is because it glows the most amazing bright blue. It's aesthetically beautiful to capture on film. It's a beam of concentrated neon, in an intoxicating blue form" She explained her eagerness finally slowing but only a little as she was coming to the end of her fanatical tirade.
"It works as a fantastic contrast because the rest of the world is so grimy and bleak. I actually imagine you would rather like it there, you would feel right at home." Lydia chuckled before adding "I feel like you would be all over the necro merchant business" Lydia confessed. The mental image of Beetlejuice as a graverobber and purveyor of black-market, body goods just fit way too well.
"Is that so? And who says I haven't already been hands-deep in that particular business?" Beej quipped smugly. His eyes sparkled roguishly as he studied Lydia eagerly.
"So you're telling me you used to be a grave robber?" Lydia asked a little naively.
"To put it into its most basic, black-and-white form then yes. I dealt in the dead and all the voodoo bullshit that comes with it. Care to find out more?" He purred dangerously.
It was obvious that the gauntlet had been set down. They both knew he was trying to goad her into asking another question. The challenge was undeniable as it sat sizzling in the air between them.
She wanted to ask it. The question was burning on the tip of her tongue and her mind raced as she began to think of all the things he could have done. Was it his profession? Was it while he was still breathing? Or had it happened in the innumerable years since his death? It would certainly be easy to dabble in some sort of organised racket targeting those who had only recently begun pushing up daisies. After all what better way to know where to find fresh bodies than to hang around the gates of the neither world. The fledgling ghosts would be easy pickings as even with the hand guide they were still easy marks for someone like Beetlejuice.
"I really think you're going to like the set tomorrow. I have been working on the prosthetic pieces for a while now" Lydia said happily steering the question back to safe ground. Beetlejuice let out something of an annoyed sigh as she got up from the table. He felt a little bit let down she didn't fall for the bait but perhaps he had been a little too obvious about it. He wanted her to ask questions as he felt the urge to gauge her interest in some of the more devious things he had done over the centuries. His previous professions before becoming a self-confessed Bio-Exorsist had been colourful, to say the least. He figured he could while away some time by telling Lydia a few choice tales. But it was obvious her interests lay elsewhere for now as she began to rummage through one of the kitchen cupboards. She retrieved a few plastic bags that looked a little unseemly. She set them on the tabletop and went to take her seat again.
"This, for example, has taken me a good few months. I couldn't quite get the curve right at first" Lydia clarified, pulling out an articulated spinal column from one of the larger bags. The vertebrate moved and flexed as she handed it to Beetlejuice.
"The disks were the most difficult part to sculpt, I wanted them to be legitimately rubbery so that the whole thing would move," Lydia affirms proudly. The disks were comprised mainly out of a silicone product but had a few extra ingredients added to the mix to give the spine its realistic spongy elasticity. While the bone parts were made from a hard almost bone-feeling material that he figured must be plaster of some sort of sculpted plastic.
Beetlejuice turned the spine over in his hands and the malleable silicone material flopped against the table with a wet-sounding slap while the 'bone' portions of it made a hard knocking noise. He was surprised to see a barcode etched into the bone of the first vertebrate.
"Well babes, I am thoroughly impressed. It actually looks like a real spine, it feels like one too" he said flexing it as he bowed and then concaved the vertebrate in his hand.
"You even got the bone detail right" he touted. There was a slight pitting to the bone pieces which were made out of plastic and then covered with a few light layers of silicone to give it more of an organic feel.
"The density is pretty accurate for a fully grown adult". He divulged as he gave her a well-meaning grin. A motion that seemed more than a little unseemly given his last statement.
"Do I?..." Lydia faltered, pausing for a moment to gnaw on her bottom lip nervously as she took a second tried to decide how to phrase her question.
"Do I want to know how you know the weight of an adult spine so well?" Lydia inquired, feeling more than a little uneasy about his reply.
Beej sighed as he ran his lightly stained fingernails through his newly cleaned hair. The faded, chlorine-green algae that had stubbornly stuck fast at his roots during his bath. It had, for whatever reason, decided to crumble away into flakes which streaked dirty green through the rest of his hair.
He knew he knew he should probably tell Lydia the truth behind his innate knowledge of human body parts and their tensile strength. In a way, she had been quite on the button with the grave robber comment. But, it was so much more complicated than that. The things he knew, would blow her mind, some of them literally. There was a reason he had amassed a majority of this erudition of esoterica while he was deceased. There were things that mortals were never meant to know. Admittedly the fact that Lydia could see even the greenest-gilled ghost and all things strange and unusual without flinching was a positive sign. She wasn't like other humans, that was easy to see. But, there had been numerous fleshies he had met throughout the centuries that also possessed a knowledge of the arcane afterlife.
Usually, these people were deemed to be witches or seers and because of this, they tended to stand out of the crowd. Their intrinsic grasp of the cosmos and its innermost workings were always decidedly more fluid than that of "normal" humans. But as with all power, there are always stipulations that tag along in the fine print. These individuals, whether they were aware of their gift or not. Exude an ominous energy which made them stand out from the crowd even among gifted individuals. It was almost as if they gave off an intoxicating scent drawing the crawling chaos towards them. Especially once they managed to connect the spattering of random instances into something that could be conceived as being the gateway between the human realm and the Netherworld. Despite it being crystalline chaos that didn't align itself into any kind of logical pattern. This new information never aligned itself into any kind of logical pattern. So, usually, those who had the gift of sight were driven unequivocally mad in their attempts to interpret their glimpses behind the vale. Instead, muttering half whispered uttering of the well-worn yet forgotten languages of the dead. Languages, full of whispers, hisses and pops that the human tongue couldn't possibly grasp in their entirety. Languages, more akin to the noises of a beast than that of a human. These unintelligible sounds were often mimicked, uttered in a mumbled stream of nonsense that bubbled up from a broken mind. That or the unfortunate soul found themselves drawing repeated symbols over and over again. The reflection of the razor's edge, painting the fractile shards in a warped version of radial symmetry in some vain attempt to make the chaos make sense. The increasingly warped and unstable sigils carved into rock, into flesh and bone becoming further and further from the initial snapshot that the secret could never be pieced together. As the human mind was not meant to capture it's true form or the invisible vectors spiralling from the chaotic core.
But he didn't think she would like where it would lead or the stories he would have to tell to stitch it all together in a conceivable way that would register in the mortal mind. In fact, he was almost positive that she would be disgusted with him if not worse. The last thing he wanted was for Lydia to fear for her life. He had done a lot of shady things over the centuries. Some of them reached so far beyond a moral grey area that they could be described as downright evil. He had felt a spine snap between his hands and he had crushed several beating hearts with his fingers. But, that had been a very different time in his afterlife. He had been a different ghost back then, an angry ghost who hated anyone and anything living. It was little wonder he had found his work as a bio-exorcist so damn easy. But, was it really something he could tell Lydia? How could he explain his death and all the cosmic shit that both preceded and followed it? The answer was simple, he couldn't. At least not without having to get into all the things he hadn't told anyone, living or dead.
"Honestly babes I don't think you want to know," Beej warned as he reclined in his chair. Before he moved the subject to something still ghoulish but decidedly more fun.
"So what's in those ones? more spines or have you actually got some kidneys in there? You know I will be impressed if you do" He fawned with a warm smile as he gestured to the other packages on the table.
Lydia pulled out a small stack of kidneys 5 in total, 3 livers and what looked like 2 bladders and a single heart, that squished slightly as she placed it on the table.
"All right colour me impressed" Beej chuckled as Lydia began to put the multitude of organs back into their container.
"I have to be careful how I transport these, If I get pulled over by the cops on the way to the shoot, no way are they believing that I didn't dig these up for real" Lydia laughed.
"I could always juice them for you if they give you any trouble" Beej offered with a devious smile.
"er...No" Lydia turned down the offer as all she could imagine was the chaos of a slightly trigger-happy cop in the aftermath of being juiced or even possessed by Beetlejuice. It was not a pretty picture so she needed to nip that kind of thinking in the mud.
"You have no idea what you're missing out on Babes" Beej chuckled, his eyes burning brightly in their sockets as he regarded Lydia with amusement.
"So, tomorrow we will be doing a few scenes here before moving on to the old cemetery in town, are you good with that?" Lydia asked as she worried her bottom lip just a little.
"Do you reckon you could restrain yourself around my girls? Especially around Raven?" Lydia asked as she watched Beetlejuice carefully, trying to see if he was lying or not when he replied.
"Babes your words wound me," He said a gaping wound opening up on his chest over his heart as he put his head up to his forehead and pretended to swoon.
"I mean it Beej, keep your hands and other appendages away from my girls or you're going back into that mirror, you hear me!" She insisted to which he nodded.
"Yah killing me here babes, Models on my doorstep just waiting to..." he trailed off and his face creased into a frown.
"Fine, fine! Your girls are safe I won't lay a hand or any other body part on them. Especially not that Raven girl you seem so caught up about. Why especially her? You hate her or something or got some simmering rivalry going on?" He asked intrigued.
"Quite the opposite actually she's my best friend and she doesn't like men touching her or leering over her so just stay clear of her. She's tomorrow's Grave Robber so it will be easy to figure out who she is" She hoped that telling him about Raven wouldn't end up blowing up in her face later.
"Oh and no juicing anyone. As far as everyone there is concerned you are human. So for god sake just act normal..." She paused as she realised that Beej acting normal was an impossibility. So she added
"Or rather as normal as this" She gestured towards his whole body
"can get. I don't want to have to lock you back in the mirror" She admitted without really realising. She wasn't sure why she didn't really want to lock him away back in the mirror. Perhaps because the house would once again seem empty and hollow without the larger-than-life presence of the ghost. She would never admit it but she was quickly growing fond of the Ghost With The Most and his stolen kisses had thoroughly muddied the waters for Lydia. She wanted to hate him, hell she wanted to just dislike him and call it a day. But, there was just something about him that drew her in. Though what that mystery element was she had no clue. Though the more time she spent with the titular Ghost, she found herself growing more fond of him.