Deep Breath, Lydia

Neitherworld

"Okay, deep breath, Lydia," Lydia tried to convince herself as she waited at the Roadhouse. She got a pretty black rose she figured she could use in place of the ring just in case she did fall back down as a dead shadow. "You are just going to take your fun friendship to a new level. Not dating. Just, marriage. You know, just that little thing called marriage!" She basically yelled at herself.

This was so bad. "Beej doesn't even like the L word. He even calls it the L word." That didn't help convince her she was making the right action. "He doesn't do mushy or romantic or even polite. He does . . . . himself." And that's what he had been. Himself. He didn't put on a show for people, unless he was deceiving them, which was also a part of himself.

"Okay, straighten up." Lydia looked at the time. Impossible to tell with nothing but a seven and three, but a good guess was 4:35. Still didn't mean anything. She didn't know when he'd come.

Miss Second Chance was right, Mayor Maynot brought her straight up there to wait. He even gave her some advice, trying to make her believe she could escape as a dead shadow and a fate with Beetlejuice, if she just let him kill the last person on his own. What a cruel man.

Lydia swung the rose around. "Even if he cares, this is so fast. And what if he doesn't? Because that's so much more likely." She walked around the Roadhouse. Pacing. "I've known him when I was just reaching an age to even want to like boys. Stuck between child and woman." She groaned. "At 18, I still feel that way. I was his human friend, so how am I supposed to go from that, to . . ." Mrs. Beetle Juice. Or, Mrs. Beetlejuice Juice? "His mom didn't call him Beetle, she called him Beetlejuice too. See?!" It's like she was trying to make a point to herself. "I don't even know the right name."

She bent down and rubbed the black rose against the ground. "I want to save him from hell, I don't want him to ever go, and I don't want to become a dead shadow either. If he doesn't feel the same way, then we are doomed." She looked toward the door. "I mean he's doomed. He'll take out the last one freeing me." She closed her eyes. "That's so much worse."

She stood up again. "I don't have a choice, Miss Second Chance is right. I have to ask. If he doesn't want it, then I can't change that, but I have to ask." She had to ask.

She had to ask for her best friend in the world to marry her and spend his afterlife with her. "But it's such a greater chance that he isn't going to feel anything back! He doesn't like me like that. So then what? He goes to hell? We figure out something else?"

Ooh, Miss Second Chance just appeared! "Miss Second Chance!" Lydia immediately went over to her. "Is there something else that we could try? I just. He can't even say the L word, so . . .?"

"Marriage without consummation?" Miss Second Chance took the words right out of her mouth.

"Look, there isn't a law that says love has to be physical. It could be chaste?" Lydia tried. "Anything?"

"It is literally an eternity of hell or an afterlife of marriage," Miss Second Chance said. "Consummation brings the children of the Neitherworld."

Um? "Okay, but when I was alive, they had a thing where people helped without the actual act. Like, the guy didn't have to be around, just the stuff to have a baby." Really stretching but I have to try! "We could do that, couldn't we?"

"Invitro. You didn't even need to be married to do that." Miss Second Chance sounded like she knew a lot of the world Lydia came from.

"Then, I mean, that's similar!"

"You want to marry Beetlejuice, and have a baby with him instead of just telling him your feelings?"

She just didn't get it. "Beetlejuice is trying to save me from my eternity. He tried to help me from becoming a dead shadow. I have to save him from an eternity of hell but . . . but I can't force anything on him. If he doesn't love me, in that kind of way, then this will never work."

Miss Second Chance groaned and disappeared. She reappeared soon after holding a rattle. "Let's put this in perspective a moment." She pushed her glasses up and shook the rattle. "You want to marry Beetlejuice and prove it's real by having a Neitherworld baby with a more 'scientific approach', instead of just explaining your real feelings?"

"I have to save him!" Didn't she get it? "I know him. I know Beej really well, better than he knows himself," she claimed. "He gets in over his head, and he asks for my help. We always get things sorted out. This time, we are both in over our heads. I can't help him, unless he has real love for me but . . ." Oh. "He likes the more . . .voluptous disgusting kind. He even got in over his head for a headhunter." Yeah. "Using his juice to impress her. I'm just still the same." She looked at her hands. "Lighter complexion, but I had a light complexion. I was even tricked into believing I was still alive." Oh man. I'm really starting to cry? She wiped away a tear. She really did care so much. "I can't wrap him into something he doesn't want, but I can't let him go to hell."

She took a few steps back, feeling the full weight of what she just said. I am madly in love with my best friend, aren't I?

"I can see your point," Miss Second Chance said. "Perhaps you are right, but do you think he is really risking hell for his eternity, and he went through Lex Talionis, just to save a mere friend from becoming a dead shadow?"

"You don't know him like I do," Lydia told her. "And yes, he would, and he did." She choked at that last part.

Miss Second Chance just stared at her like she was an absolute idiot. "Your ridiculous, but yes, it's an option. There's no invitro but sadly sometimes there are unwanted children born in the Neitherworld. They stay in a state of eternal youth, unmoving, until someone comes to collect them. You could technically adopt one of those."

Oh, that would be even better!

"Although with someone like him, I don't know if fatherhood or hell would be worse to him."

Lydia didn't acknowledge the joke. All I have to do is slow him down long enough to discuss it. "Just, marriage brings me back up. Should I even try with him, or should I try? Prince Vince belongs to the Neitherworld." He was ready after a second date to make her his princess. They were younger, but maybe? "I wouldn't ruin his life."

"Oh, recently deceased sometimes," Miss Second Chance groaned. "Don't share with him who it will be, let him start putting his own pieces together and see how he reacts. He might prefer to have his 'friend' with him no matter what, instead of her sheltering his future by sacrificing herself to a prince."

"Oh. Yeah." That was true, Lydia didn't even think about it. He loved spending time with her. Would marrying the prince feel like a betrayal against everything he'd already done?

"The most important thing is to tell him as soon as possible there is a possibility of saving you without him killing the last one for Lex Talionis."

—————————————

"There we go, Doomie," BJ put him back where he belonged. "Thanks." Doomie didn't look very well, but he was used to that. Involving others always screwed everyone over. But, it was worth it. Lydia was freed.

Lydia should be freed. But? "Mister Jennings was involved. He was the one who started the whole thing." Four teens couldn't have made it through everything without him.

"Forget Mister Jennings, forget all of them, Beetlejuice!"

He turned and saw Lydia. She had a black rose in her hand. "You're back now." But he should really take out Mister Jennings.

"You took Doomie," Lydia said to him. "You're still there." She came closer. "Beetlejuice. I'm sorry, that I never actually said that you shouldn't do this."

"It's done." All but Mister Jennings.

"It's not, and you can't hide it." She grabbed his hand and put in the black rose. It withered. "I was selfish. I should have been way more concerned about you."

"This isn't what she is supposed to be saying!" Mayor Maynot yelled for some reason. "Get her away, she isn't helping!"

Huh? No way, not again! "You aren't taking her away again!" Beetlejuice grabbed her and pulled her close.

"Revenge isn't what I really needed," Lydia said to him. "You were what I needed. You were always the only thing I needed." She hugged him tighter. "Please don't leave me, Beetlejuice."

"I'm not going anywhere. Just to kill one more person," he insisted.

"No, no more! If you do more, you'll lose yourself," she insisted. She looked at the black withered rose he had in his left hand. "Sorry, it took me so long to figure it out."

Figure it out? He looked at the black withered rose and then watched her get sucked under again. Back to a dead shadow. Of course. Until I finish this.

"Oh, Beetlejuice, I forgot to tell you something," Mayor Maynot said as he patted his arm. "You see, there is still one more that has to die to free Lydia from her eternity as a dead shadow. Once he's gone, she will instantly be risen and belong to the Neitherworld. Nothing will hold her down anymore. No matter what."

"Mister Jennings." He had to kill Finley Jenning's father. "Then she'll be freed." Kill him.

"But not you." Miss Second Chance appeared and came toward him. "You will be sent to hell, your eternity sealed if you kill one more person."

He had to kill Mister Jennings. Hell was worth it to free Lydia. He'd be the last one, they couldn't hold her down there anymore.

"Don't interrupt!" Mayor Maynot demanded of her. "Do not interrupt, or you will regret it."

Miss Second Chance adjusted her glasses. At least, he thought she did. He saw in weird shades of red in one eye, while the other was seeing normally. "I didn't get where I am because I stayed in the background." She glanced at Beetlejuice. "If you go after him, you cannot come back."

He didn't care. He had to kill Mister Jennings.

"You might as well just go after Lydia. At least you'd have a chance of making it through?"

Kill Jennings. Huh? Go after Lydia? That wasn't supposed to be allowed. He wasn't supposed to be able to take her place.

"Free her by killing Jennings!" Mayor Maynot commanded. "What kind of friend are you to quit now? The others, they'll be let go if you don't take out the last one. Forgotten or not, he is the last one!" He patted both of his shoulders. "I can see that twinkle in your right eye, you want this. You need this. If you don't, they already skipped the haunting. Break Lex Talionis, and they'll come back, whether you can have her or not!"

Whether he can have her or not? He tried to close his burning right eye. That didn't make sense. Gotta use the Beetlebrain.

"Funny words, Mayor Maynot," Miss Second Chance smiled. "What do you think, Beetlejuice? If you can bring her here, maybe there's a way you can go to her too?"

It wouldn't be easy, but even Mayor Maynot slipped that it was possible without Lex Talionis. How?

He wanted to see Mister Jennings suffer.

He wanted Lydia to never have to see any of them again for the rest of her afterlife. "She deserves never to see any of it again."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather have a hand in that? You could keep her from seeing them, and watch them suffer too?" Miss Second Chance asked. "That seems more like your style."

Make them suffer if they get too close. Hmm.

"That's quite morbid, Miss Second Chance. I can't believe you have been saying such things, I am making a note of your behavior," Mayor Maynot told her.

"You have the flower you withered," Miss Second Chance continued. "Why don't you see what she meant?"

Beetlejuice looked at the flower. Black. Cold. Withered. He crushed it.

Inside, he saw a ring. Not just any ring. As the crushed pieces of the flower flew down from his hand, he picked up the ring. He seized the ring and the burning in his right eye ceased. Well, obviously that would be a way, but how would Lydia get around the obstacles? How did she even get the ring? Miss Second Chance. "You got any idea how a little ring could keep us safe?" She looked at him like it was an annoying question, but it had to be one that could be answered. "Come on, come on! I don't have all day, could this thing work?!"

"Only if it's genuine, which it wouldn't be," Mayor Maynot told Beetlejuice. "There's no way it would happen."

"All you need is to plan out a life for a Neitherworld child to raise. It trumps everything, and that does include adoption of the tragic unmoving."

Huh. A kid? Hmm. "Eternity of hell. A Kid. Tough call," he joked. "Why didn't you say something sooner?!" He could have had all this licked a long time ago. Stupid officials being stupid about what they share.

Miss Second Chance looked impressed at him. "You've got a satanic echo in your voice, yet you've retained your humor quite well. I'm glad you found more help. Even with help again, you cannot win the last murder and stay out of hell."

Yeah, he noticed he had a bit of a difference in his voice. Vision. Hands. Thoughts.

"Just kill Mister Jennings, you can't handle a kid," Mayor Maynot said to him. "Just one more and she'll be safe."

"Keep Lydia and yourself safe," Miss Second Chance said. "Right now she is probably just about to kill her parents again. No way out. One annoying child over the sanity and life of someone you care for?"

Right. Right! "Oh, fine. Mom's been bugging me for one of those things for about a thousand years."

"But Mister Jennings!"

"Off the menu. Visiting's over, Mayor Maynot." He held up the ring, and with a wide, goofy smile he hadn't shown off in a long time? "I'm going to get my bride. Know what I mean?"