Beetlejuice and Lydia

The next day was harder than the first day back. I kept on feeling disconnected, like a part of me had been left back in the afterlife. Swell. In class I kept falling asleep, and my mind drifted off to other places. One of the times I was in the afterlife again, running in the forest as big bats chased me. That time I jerked in my sleep and let out a scream right in the middle of Biology. My chest was heaving and I felt as if I had run the entire distance. All of my classmates and my teacher was staring at me.

"Miss. Deetz? Do you need to see the nurse?" Mrs. Montgomery asked, peering at me over her Buddy Holly glasses. I shook my head and picked up my pencil, trying to look okay.

"No, I'm fine." I said, looking down at my paper and pulling hair into my face.

The dreams didn't stop, and it was Friday when I had fallen asleep for the sixth time that week in class. I was suddenly dropped in my dream. Do you know those dreams where you're falling and you wake up immedeately as you hit the ground? That didn't happen to me. I hit the ground with a thud and felt sand crystals underneath my hands as I pulled myself up on my knees. It was yellow sand I had landed on. Gasping, I noticed everywhere I looked was piles of sand dunes, with red rocks looming around in the distance. I felt a shift in the sand beneath me, a distant quake that alerted me to movement. I jumped on my feet just in time to see a massive worm-like dinosaur rising from underneath the sand.

I screamed as I ran across the sand, barely avoiding the thing's teeth. Beetlejuice had told me about these things once before. What were they called? Sand uh...something. Sand...

Sandworms of Saturn?

Was I in Saturn? I tripped and landed on the ground. Just as the sandworm loomed overtop of me, ready to make me into it's snack, I woke up in English class. My chest was breathing heavily but no one payed much attention to me anymore in the back of the class. The teacher continued to talk about Emily Dickenson as I sat up a bit straighter, trying to get my composure. I pulled my arms closer to my chest and my heart nearly stopped as I noticed the sand on my clothes. There wasn't any explanation for it. I was in English class. I hadn't been remotely near a beach. Except in those dreams.

These weren't dreams I was having, were they? There was something more going on here. If I had to guess, I would say I was going into the afterlife while I was dozing off. Maybe when I had come back, I had left a part of me behind in the afterlife. That could be a valid idea. I made a note to myself to talk with Beetlejuice when I got home from school.

On the bus ride home I was beginning to feel sick to my stomach. The tuna sub from lunch sounded like a good idea at the time but hot lunches from the school cafeteria was never a good idea. Suzie Hartwell last year had food posioning for a week after she ate our school lunches daily. As soon as I got home I rushed upstairs to the bathroom, ignoring Dad's greetings of "Hey Pumpkin," as I ran. I barely made it to the toilet when I began to throw up.

It wasn't the tuna sub coming out though. Grayish fog-like stuff came pouring out of my mouth, as silky as a cloud. It was glowing. I leaned back on my heels, staring as the toilet flushed.

"Oh god." Something was wrong here. I had to talk to Beetlejuice. I stood up shakily on my legs and marched up the stairs to the attic. I locked the door behind me as I loomed over Adam's model of the town.

"Beetlejuice, I know you're around up here." I said. "Beetlejuice this is really important. Beetlejuice I need you."

The table shook momentarily and I scanned the room warily. He was somewhere in here with me. I tapped on my shoulder and let out a screech at the giant, leering black thing with sharp teeth pointing at angles and Beetlejuice's yellow eyes. Beetlejuice's laugh cackled from within it's jaws and I pushed him with my palms.

"That isn't funny!" I said, stomping over to the other side of the table.

"Oh come on, babe. That one's a classic." He transformed back into himself as he saw I wasn't in the mood to joke around. "What's the matter? You always liked my jokes before."

"Yeah well that was because I didn't have a problem on my hands." I said.

"What's the matter?" He repeated. He looked seriously concerned now, which was a shock coming from Beetlejuice. I thought he was only capable of caring about himself.

"I don't know what's the matter! I keep on having these dreams where I'm in the afterlife and then today I was in Saturn getting chased by giant sandworms! Don't tell me it didn't happen either because I had the sand on my clothes to prove it. Then on my way home I began to get sick to my stomach and throw up white ectoplasm in the toilet." I felt like crying. "Something is wrong with me. I just don't know what it is."

Beetlejuice walked through the table and put his arms around me, telling me that everything was going to be fine.

"How is it going to be fine?" I demanded.

"Well, we'll just go back in the afterlife and find someone in town who may be able to help us." He said.

"And how are we...going to do that?" I was beginning to feel drowsy again.

"When you pass out again we'll go." That was the last thing I heard before I passed out, landing on the floor.


"Is she going to be alright, Doc?" I heard Beetlejuice's voice as I opened my eyes. I was laying in a metal hospital bed, white curtains drawn around me. Despite how I had been feeling, I now was feeling fine. I was in the afterlife, I knew that much.

"Yes, they're going to be just fine. Just make sure she comes into the afterlife every now and again," I heard the stranger's voice sigh. "It's nice to have a patient around again. I don't see that many patients in the afterlife."

"Betel?" I called out. The voices stopped and the curtain was thrown back. Beetlejuice walked in and threw his arms around me.

"The Doc wasn't kidding! You really are alive! Well...dead alive. Living Dead? Dead Living?" He was confusing himself. A man with a clipboard stood in front of us, his hands over a clipboard, an old doctor's headband around his head. He was smiling down at us.

"Ah, it's refreshing to see a couple so in love." I pushed Beetlejuice off of me.

"We are not in love." I objected. The doctor picked up his clipboard.

"Mild irritability upon waking. That is to be expected." I glanced at Beetlejuice nervously again. He was looking sheepish at me.

"What is to be expected? What's wrong with me?"

"Here we go..." Beetlejuice breathes. The doctor's grin broadened.

"Dearest Lydia. You're going to have a spirit baby. They used to be very common over a century ago. My, with all of the rumors of incubi and spirt lovers it wasn't uncommon at all..." I wasn't listening to the doctor anymore. I had my eyes set on Beetlejuice. He was backing away very slowly off the bed. I was going to send him to his grave once more. This was his fault I was pregnant.