Dead Shadow: A Beetlejuice Fanfiction (Complete)

Neitherworld

It wasn't the greatest time. Beetlejuice yawned unapologetically. He'd been summoned by the Mayor Maynot. Whenever that happened it wasn't good, and especially at 6:00 am in the morning. Who woke up at that time that wasn't lame? Nobody he knew. Beside the mayor was somebody he didn't know. Probably one of the mayor's new lackeys or something. "Hey!" He yelled turning into a rooster holding an old fashioned alarm clock. "I haven't even crowed yet! What gives?"

"Beetlejuice, get dressed!" The mayor demanded. "You have a very important visitor."

Beetlejuice grumbled. Bad enough they got him up so early, he was having to get dressed too for a nice impression? Why give a nice impression. He wasn't nice. Still, he snapped his fingers, turned on his juice, and fixed his tie now in his usual black and white striped wear. "There. Happy?" He scoffed with a snort. "I'm not."

"Beetlejuice." The person next to the mayor spoke. "My name is Miss Second Chance."

"Yeah, like that isn't an obvious enough name," he said. "You friends with Goody Twoshoes?" She wasn't laughing, nor did she look upset.

"There is no easy way to approach this," she said. "You might want to sit down."

"I might want to not," he rebelled. Still, he went ahead and juiced a chair for behind him. He fell down into it, slouching more than sitting. Still, she didn't seem bothered.

"I am afraid that I have some terrible news considering your friend Lydia Deetz," she said.

Just like that he stood up and juiced the chair back away. No way was he slouching or sitting for news about that. "What about Lyds? Spill it!"

"You are going to need to stay reasonably calm for us to get through this," she said. "It's okay. I will wait." She looked at the watch on her arm. "I have all the time in the world. Go ahead and curse and juice as much as you need to."

Someone was giving him permission to juice them? No, no one would do that unless . . . "Fine. I'm calm." He wasn't calm, but he wanted to know. "I need to know what's going on with Lyds."

"We must talk about some painful facts. The living world is just that, pain."

Okay. He really didn't like where that conversation was going. "Did somebody hurt Lydia?" That was impossible. Day or night, she just had to say his name. Just had to say his name! It was impossible someone could hurt Lydia.

"The Deetzes," she said. "Charles Deetz. Delia Deetz. Lydia Deetz. None of them are among the living anymore."

Beetlejuice lifted a finger. He paused. He opened his mouth. He didn't say anything. He looked at the uniform she was wearing, finally taking notice of the tiny patch on the left of it. Two silhouettes of souls.

"Take your time." Miss Second Chance. That's why she'd been so good at handling him. She could probably handle a lot more. She was trained too. She was a counselor. A counselor to the recently deceased. "Tell me when you are ready."

"People." He finally spoke. "Don't naturally die as a family at once. Not unless they ate something? Poisonous mushrooms? A deadly disease?" They were already gone, he had to give himself hope in something else.

"No. Their lives were ended by other humans." She was quiet again.

"Oh." He felt. He didn't know how he felt. "Other humans, huh? Other humans. Otherrrrrr, why didn't she call for me?!" He turned into an old fashioned phone but quickly changed back. His juice was not going to make a mockery of this situation. "Why didn't she call? Why didn't she call!" Damn it, he needed to know. Damn counselor wasn't going to tell him right away. Not for about a minute of being silent. It was standard. Why didn't she call me? Why didn't she call me?! He didn't care what time it was, day or night, night or day, in the middle of a mud bath, who cared?

It felt like forever for the minute to be up. "She was restrained first while she was sleeping. You may call it fate if you wish, or don't if you wish. Her mouth was gagged."

Another minute. If he didn't respond, it would be thirty seconds. If he did respond, it would take longer.

"Later on, if you feel strong enough to look at the detailed report, I can get you a copy," she said. "For now, here are the most basic facts you need to understand for us to proceed. All three of the family members were bound, gagged, and taken downstairs. Charles Deetz and Delia Deetz were shot and killed by Lydia Deetz. Lydia Deetz turned the gun on herself afterward. The people who killed them are wanting it to make it look like Lydia killed them so they get away with the murder. What we've received from Charles Deetz is that his daughter was forced to choose their manner of death, and shooting was easier."

Another thirty seconds. Just don't speak. Just hang on. Just.

"Charles is haunting their home. For now, he is the only one who has been talked to." She paused.

He didn't say a word. Didn't breathe. Didn't blink. He didn't want to hear it, but he needed to hear it at the same time.

"Normally, we simply process through, however it's a well known fact that the infamous Beetlejuice knew them. To avoid an overbearing sense of revenge upon the Neitherworld for the unfairness of rules that did not permit you to reach her, we are reinstating the Lex Talionis Clause for you only. You don't have to take it. It's up to you if-"

"Mine."

"-you want to use it." Miss Second Chance nodded. "There will be some paper work, and some strict rules and regulations if you do this." Paper that had appeared in her hand floated toward Beetlejuice. "If you mess anything up, it's terminated."

Beetlejuice juiced a pencil for each paper, signing each one. He himself didn't move, only the pencils. He already knew the damn rules by now.

Miss Second Chance took the papers back. "Don't let yourself be seen by anyone else. Only one at a time. No proof that you exist. They can only hurt or harm themselves. You can use weapons, but you cannot hit them. You can bother them in their sleep, but you can't kill them in it. The only traces you can leave are bruises and scratches up to a point. Nothing life threatening." She tucked her papers back away. "She will be haunting her former residence with her parents for 125 years. She is not able to see you until after your work is complete." She handed him a few sheets of paper. He curled them up and juiced them away. "Your information. Once it's processed, you are free to go."

Then, she disappeared.

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University  of  Bridgeport : Mirror of a Dorm Room

Information. It was only the barest on purpose. Address, names, and the part they played. Giving him everything would have made it a lot easier, but they wanted him to dig his own information up. It gave a ghost using the Lex Talionis Clause both time to settle down as well as let them feel like they had more control. Lex Talionis was the Neitherworld's Eye for an Eye.

Until the Lex Talionis clause was done, he wouldn't get to see Lyds. Right now, he probably wouldn't get to see her for another few years on top of that. Getting to see the unprocessed while they were still in the haunting stage would take time. He had to let the Neitherworld and her family handle her for now, while he handled the ones who killed them.

And he would. He'd fill his arsenal knowledge with their worst fears, and they'd be crawling for razorblades to end their very lives as they were slowly driven insane. After they were killed correctly, for once if he followed the rules, they would be doomed to an eternal sentence of haunting their own residences until passing passed the Neitherworld.

Beetlejuice never fully explained the Neitherworld to Lydia. He didn't need to, it was obviously where the dead came after they were done living. But, it wasn't the end all. First, the recently deceased would haunt their homes or similar personal structures for 125 years to learn about patience, accepting death, and the many things that came with it.

Afterward, one of two things happened. One. They would disappear and pass onto the next phase. He had no idea what the next phase had been. Vaporization, reincarnation, no one ever knew. These individuals were never heard from again through any of the worlds he knew of.

Or two, which happened more often. For young deaths, violent deaths, or for the soul who hungered for more 'life'. There was the Neitherworld. People kept love, family, friends, and many similar things the living world offered. When they came, sometimes they were changed dramatically in their appearance, and sometimes not, but they would live out their death in the Neitherworld for thousands of years.

Some never even made it out of the Neitherworld, being born into it instead. Their souls never making it to a living transition, simply living out their existence there before moving into the next phase themselves. Not a bad thing. That was him. That was his whole family. Born and raised there. Ghost with the Most.

But there was no time for comedic gags or jokes for the Ghost with the Most today. He was going to take care of this and by the rules. If he screwed up the rules this time, these criminals wouldn't just bypass the Neitherworld after their haunting. 

They would come out to the Neitherworld the same time as Lydia and her family.

Never. She'd never be forced to see them again.

It didn't matter which one he picked. They were all guilty, and they'd all get the same punishment. He didn't care if they all happily did it, if there was peer pressure, money involved, they needed a kidney for their dying relative, it didn't matter. They would all die being scared to death or by their own hands.

He watched the one in front of him through a mirror. Carter Adler. He was a long distance away from the Deetz'. He had no idea what caused him to go Peaceful Pines, but he would soon. He'd find out everything, and turn it all against him. For now, the less than confident human was trying to work on some kind of homework. He already looked unsettled, like he was scared he'd get caught. Good. It was rare to actually get the living to be scared to death, but getting at least one of them to go passed their fight/flight ticker mode would be fitting.

He juiced out of there to see the next one.

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Bridgeport Bar

Scumbag number two. Beetlejuice just walked into the place. People stared for a second, but he didn't care. He didn't bother changing his Neitherworld appearance. There was no saying his name three times rule anymore. If he wanted to, he could start taking these two on right now, but it wouldn't be smart. He'd be caught and he didn't know their weaknesses yet.

He just wanted to walk in there to see them, face-to-face. They'd learn it soon.

"Halloween was some time ago, man," the woman said on his right. Rebecca Beckett. Not involved in the killing, but she knew about it, and she was giving the guy beside her his alibi. Technically, he didn't have to take her on, but sending her down to a mental ward for the rest of her life might do some good.

Beetlejuice looked straight at the one next to her. Brady Copeland. No remorse from him as he took a drink of his beer. Of course not. He'd regret that. He'd feel something before it was over. "You got a problem?" he asked Beetlejuice.

"You took something," Beetlejuice managed to speak. "It wasn't yours."

"Man, just get out of here." He waved Beetlejuice away. "It's an open area. Go away."

For now. Neither of them looked nervous or sorry about what happened. They would be in the end. Even if it was just screamed out of fear.

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University  of  Bridgeport : Mirror in the bathroom of a Dormitory.

Duncan Gibbs didn't have a mirror in his room, nor anything Beetlejuice could easily use yet to get to him. He kept it quite bare. That would change though. Changing into Betty Juice, he exited the woman's bathroom. Betty moved down the hall, up another flight of stairs, to the guys' dorm rooms. She walked partway, and knocked on the door of Duncan Gibbs.

He answered it and looked at her. Complacent. "Yeah?"

"Sorry," Betty said. "Wrong dorm room." Still, he took a chance to glance behind him. At some point, he'd get in there. "I was looking for my friend Lydia's dorm room."

Lydia was a common name, but he saw it strike a small nerve in him. "Well. This is the guys floor. Try another floor."

"Okay. Thanks," Betty said. "If you see her, let me know. She's got deep black hair." Betty lingered on him a second before walking off. He closed the door, but she went back to his door. For now. Betty looked around carefully. The slightest person coming out could screw up his rule. Betty took the dry erase marker on his door and wrote on his board. LYDIA. Then he knocked as hard as he could and disappeared to the other side of the dorm, right beside the stairs. It was too far for someone to run and make it there. Betty waited for Duncan Gibbs to open his door. He looked down the hallway first, noticing her, before noticing his dry erase board.

As predicted, he tried to come after her. Betty calmly walked down the stairs and disappeared from view. By the time he got there, she'd be long gone with no explanation, and no one on campus ever having heard of her. 

Eventually, after Beetlejuice starting doing his thing and he got desperate, he'd look into Lydia's friends in Peaceful Pines. Find pictures of her. Betty Juice.

But he'd find out she didn't have a house or exist there either. Seen but not found. The first seed of insanity to fill his mind. Just a tiny seed that wouldn't go too far yet.

But that seed would grow.

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A home near the College Campus

Well. Beetlejuice was picking up on a connection now. Finley Jennings was in his kitchen eating something he pulled out of a microwave. Around him though, in several rooms, were paintings. Copies of famous paintings. Continuing to look around, Beetlejuice moved around inspecting them until he found some sculptures and art that could only be done by Delia Deetz. He'd never seen them before. They must have been part of the work she was working on at the moment, or released to an interested buyer. Either way, he knew that style.

No one else had that kind of style in the Land of the Living but Delia Deetz. Did he take them after murdering her, or is it a reason for their deaths? Did they kill for her art or because of it? Either way, it gave him plenty of spaces to hide when he was ready to. He would need to as well because he had two roommates who had no connection or knowledge of what he did. They were roommates to afford a house together for college. Liberty Mason and Wilson "Will" Addison. He'd have to work around them, never scaring them directly, or lending any credence that Finley Jennings actually saw anything. To them, he'd just be losing it.

And he would be losing it. Soon. Before Beetlejuice could investigate anymore though, he felt himself summoned back to the Neitherworld.

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Neitherworld

He was in the same spot as before he left. Miss Second Chance was in front of him again. This couldn't be good. He didn't break any rules, he knew that.

"It's okay, you didn't break any rules," she said just to ease his mind. "You are doing well, but your friend is not. She was on the verge of becoming a dead shadow. We intercepted." She waited thirty seconds. "A dead shadow is-"

"I know what a dead shadow is." Deadpanned. Lydia's mind was free, as free as his, but if she couldn't get over what happened, her mind would go back to the moment of her death, and continually circle it. Never escaping. Life was over. Now her form of her forever existence was on the line.

"If we hadn't been ready, she would be stuck as a dead shadow. Fortunately, we had a feeling it would happen. We pulled her out of the situation." She paused thirty seconds. "The Neitherworld is letting you speak on her behalf. Decisions on progression must be made."

"Was she with her family?"

Miss Second Chance nodded. "Delia Deetz is getting through it now. Charles Deetz reached her emotionally. His wife seems okay for the moment, and her progress seems steady. Charles Deetz was trying to help Lydia as well, but she almost became a dead shadow. A second chance may prove helpful, with her memory of the night erased, burning to a slower remembering instead. Maybe." She adjusted herself. "Charles Deetz would like to speak with you. It is up to you whether you want to take on his request."

Beetlejuice nodded. He watched Mister Deetz suddenly appear in front of him. He looked all around, clearly not zapping himself there. He didn't know any magic yet, that would take some time.

Charles looked ahead at Beetlejuice. "Mister Beetleman. Betty Juice. So many others." He shook his head. "I always knew it wasn't in my head."

Beetlejuice didn't say much. "Mister Deetz." There wasn't much he could say. Sorry you died? Sorry Lydia was forced to kill you? Sorry your daughter is struggling to save her mind? Nah. He just stood there. Charles didn't come all that way just to scold him about interacting with his daughter.

"You let her visit before. Several occasions I've heard. People in this 'Neitherworld' know her."

Beetlejuice nodded. Belle of the ball here. Never mistreated. He had to think it. He could not risk accidentally juicing. He had to watch every word. Mister Deetz wouldn't understand how his magic worked and he did not want to offend him right now.

"I want her to stay with me and Delia," he said. "I want it so much. I reached Delia, in what happened, but . . . they say Lydia's going to be some kind of trapped spirit forever on Earth. Eternally living the torment over again."

Ah. Clarification. Neitherworld was terrible on that kind of thing. That's what he wanted. "Not yet," Beetlejuice said. "She's at risk. It means you've gotta be careful, Mister Deetz. Really, really careful." Did he even understand how careful? "If the Neitherworld is intercepting in this, she's real close. You can't let her fall, you just can't."

"The Neitherworld?" Charles continued. "They want to move her onto the next phase after it. Is that heaven?"

After the Neitherworld. "Nobody knows," he settled on. "It's anything but here. You'll never see her again. Talk to her again. Walk with her again." Ah! He just wanted to see her already! Even if she was unconscious, he just wanted to see her. He watched Charles hand him a handkerchief. Had he been crying? Normally when he did he was screaming and yelling and blowing his own nose with his own handkerchief. He rubbed his eye. Yeah. He'd been crying.

"125 years is a long time," Charles said to him. "Holding onto Delia is hard enough, and I. I really hope I get this one right." He gestured to Beetlejuice. "How much do you care for her?"

The world. The universe! He care for Lydia more than any words could ever convey! "Lot."

"They said you're um, doing some kind of . . . revenge thing?" Charles asked him. "I-I should be an upstanding person and say it's wrong, but I don't care. I hope they pay for everything they did and then some."

"They will." They would be clawing for their own deaths now.

"You know this world. You know the rules and the way it works. You've been gone for some time." Charles hesitated. "Since Lydia knew about the Neitherworld, visited it and her mind is open to it? They've suggested that, maybe she should stay with you instead."

Beetlejuice paused. Him? They were recommending . . . him? Miss Second Chance said the Neitherworld was letting him speak on her behalf. It must have been because of Lex Talionis.

"But can you keep her any better?" Charles asked. "Or is it better to let her move on? I don't know. You're the one that gets the choice. Being separated 125 years sounds hard. Being separated for even longer is hard too, but at least she'd be at peace." He looked back to him. "Then again, it's supposed to be about happiness. That's how you don't fall? Lydia was always the happiest when her 'best friend' was there." He sighed. "Oh man. Do I keep trying and keep my family together? Or do I trust her with someone who's lied to me for years on end? I'd say no in a heartbeat, but you were said to be not only her best friend, but one of the most powerful ghosts out here." He shook his head. "I don't get to make the call though. Just be careful in what you decide."

Beetlejuice watched him get zapped away. It was up to him.

She would either live with her folks for 125 years, haunting their old house. Hopefully staying okay with her memory only slowly being processed. Hopefully over years or months.

If she fell she would become a dead shadow though, forced to live through all the pain at the end of her life. Over and over and over.

He could let her go onto the next phase. Protect her from becoming a dead shadow, but letting her go forever? Him, her family, her friends there. No one would ever see her again.

Or. For 125 years, she could be with him instead. I don't have anyone else to watch like Mister Deetz does, and I could absolutely make sure she never fell! I'd put everything on it. I know how to keep her happy. Happiness. Renewed vigor. Me and Lyds, that was us! He could do it. He could save her, but he was putting her becoming a dead shadow on the line if he couldn't. And. That wasn't right.

Miss Second Chance stared at him. "Well?"

Lyds. He closed his eyes, making his decision. "If she falls into it, put me in her place, and send her to the next phase." Replacing. It could be done, but never had been. No one wanted to replace a dead shadow. No one wanted to spend eternity wrapped in a nightmare. But he would for her. Meanwhile? "In the meantime, she can go to . . ." Charles. Him. Her dad. Him. She should go to her family. He was risking everything for her, and he was the better pick. Her family was her family, Delia and Charles together could help her. But. He. Couldn't.

Trust her to them. "Me."