For the last several weeks, I have been fixated on Beetlejuice the musical, and I have finally gotten my main story started. Apparently third time really was the charm because I definitely went through that many starting points before I reached this one.

I hope you all like this and I'd love to know what you think! I'll start working on the next section tomorrow and will hopefully have that up soon! Enjoy

Shadowmoon2430

Chapter 1

Time seemed to be moving in the strangest of paces in Connecticut for the Deetzs. At least, that is what it felt like to the brunette who was staring out the kitchen window as she ignored the cup in her hand. Life had been so normal a week ago before Larissa had packed up and moved. She always found herself debating if she was truly ok with this decision. She was still in the middle of her college career. At twenty years old, she was certain college was supposed to be the best years of her life, but instead, that past year seemed like some version of hell.

A sigh left her mouth as she thought over all the changes that had happened, whether they were out of her control or her own choices. A new house, with a new family dynamic. A new normal. She was just late to the party. It was hard to wrap her head around everything. She could still remember the phone calls early on in the move. Lydia had called her, desperate for some help after learning that Dad had planned on staying out here permanently. Of course, there wasn't much she could do while still stuck in her college town in New York.

That was the main reason why she got rid of her apartment, get set up for online courses next semester, and moved back in with the family. She had been seriously worried about her sister and whatever had possessed her to come up with such a crazy story. It had started off with just an annoying life coach, which she could admit herself after talking to Delia, she could be a lot of take in. But then came the permanent move, followed by Dad's engagement to Delia. Larissa could understand how Lydia was upset. Hell, she was having her own troubles with processing everything after losing Mom and then being stuck hours away from the rest of the family, but she didn't make up outlandish stories for attention.

Well, that's what she originally thought. After all, her words had to be made up stories. A haunted house with friendly ghosts, a psychotic demon, and a trip to the afterlife. It was more than she could believe. Yet here she was, in the strangest situation she thought impossible. Four humans and two ghosts, living simultaneously. And she had to admit, while it was one hell of a shock when she met Barbara and Adam for the first time, they were very sweet. Almost too sweet if she was being honest, but she would take nice over having ghosts that were trying to kill them every second of the day.

Larissa couldn't help but shudder as she thought over that possibility. Adam and Barbara were real enough, in a sense, so she had to assume that demon, Beetlejuice, was as well. She had to admit that she didn't quite understand what happened while she was still at college, but she did know that he was gone. She just didn't know if that would be a permanent thing or if she should be on guard to meet who she imagined was a maniac.

Enough time with her thoughts, Larissa threw her cup into the sink and walked out to the living room. The mass amount of free time to her was jarring, which lead to her actually working through her book collection that had been piling up due to her class work and what she referred to as a social life of some form. Here though, she had very little to do. School was out for summer break and all of her friends were back in New York.

Debating between reading a book and finding her sister, she decided to head up towards the attic. While Lydia was in the house, she was nowhere to be found which meant she was most likely up there with the Maitlands. Larissa paused at the top of the attic stairs and pushed the door open slowly, hoping she wasn't interrupting much. "Hey," she spoke up as she peered her head into the room. "Mind some extra company?" she asked as she realized her guess was correct. All three were up there.

"Nope!" Lydia said with a grin as she looked at her sister from her seat. "They were giving me some places to go take some more photographs. I want to go find some other places where I could get some cool shots."

Larissa nodded her head, happy to stick around even if she wouldn't be much help. She was lucky to know her way to the store from the house let alone any interesting places to visit. "Did you think of anything in particular?" he asked as she looked at the ghostly pair.

"Well," Barbara started as she looked at Adam with a look of hesitation in her eyes, "I thought Lydia would probably want to see the old abandoned factory."

"But," Adam continued, "she shouldn't really being going inside. Just because it's not being used doesn't mean it's safe. Who knows what kind of things were left there!"

Lydia rolled her eyes at their worry. "That's exactly why it would be great! A creepy old factory, left behind in time." Her eyes shifted towards Larissa then with a stubborn look. "You know there would be some great pictures there."

The look she was getting is a look Larissa knew well. Lydia wanted something from her and she had a pretty good idea what it was. "And you want me to take you. So we can both get in trouble then for trespassing. Sounds thrilling. I've always wanted a criminal record," she finished sarcastically.

"Really, Lydia," Barbara spoke up in reassuring voice, "I'm sure you could get something nice just from the outside. And we have other ideas! Right?" she pleaded towards Adam.

He looked at his wife startled before quickly nodding his head. "Of course! You could go take pictures at the… the church! And even go to the cemetery by it. Or the park."

Barbara cut in with a happy jump. "Oh, nothing like a lovely nature photo! Or even take some pictures around town."

The idea of Lydia going to either of those places was hilarious. Larissa couldn't stop the laugh that came out while Lydia scoffed at the idea.

"There is no way that is happening," both sisters spoke, though Larissa's amused tone was quite different to Lydia's exasperated words.

Larissa grinned before she slung an arm around Lydia's shoulder. "Sorry, Barbara, Adam, but you'll just need to accept defeat. There is no way she'll give up on that factory now. She's too stubborn."

At her words, Lydia's eyes lit up as she looked up at the brunette. "So you'll come with me?"

"It'll be just like old times," she paused, "sort of. At least at home I knew what I was walking us into when I took you places. This is… a little different."

"Yes!" Lydia laughed as she hugged her sister quickly. "Can we go now while Dad and Delia are still out?"

Larissa nodded and gestured towards the door. "Why not? Go get your stuff." She looked at the Maitlands as they began following the girls out of the attic. "Anything that I should know before we go and possibly cause trouble?"

Adam rubbed the back of his neck as they thought over her question. "Not that I can think of. Just be safe."

"And don't get into trouble." Barbara warned.

As she left the pair, Larissa couldn't help but smile softly to herself. It really was sweet how much they seemed to care about Lydia, and even herself even though they've only known her for a week.

With only her car keys to grab, Larissa didn't have much else to do but wait for Lydia as she grabbed her camera. Waiting by the door, she looked in the direction of Lydia's room with a downhearted look she would never dare show in front of her. The Maitlands have helped Lydia so much and Larissa couldn't help but feel like she had failed as a big sister. She knew Lydia was struggling after their mother had died and Dad didn't seem to be responding to it very well either, but instead of at least staying in touch and talking when she could, she shut the world out.

Larissa was dealing with it all in her own way, though terribly she had to admit, and she refused to share any sort of feelings with anyone. That's what lead to her having quite a break down in the middle of her semester. At the house though, everything seemed to have moved forward into a much healthier state. Pictures of Mom were out, Dad would even bring her up, and Lydia was taken care of by more people than she thought possible.

It was silly, but she almost felt jealous of Lydia despite everything that she had to go through to get to the point she was at. And she was jealous of the Maitlands for taking better care of Lydia than she did. She was just a mess.

Luckily, Lydia was bounding back down the hall, camera in hand and looking eager to get out of the house. With no more time to dwell on pessimistic thoughts, Larissa grinned as she spun her keys on her finger. "Ready to go?"

"You betcha."

"Now do you happen to know where this is exactly or will we be wandering the streets. I have an idea, but I couldn't say for sure."

Lydia nodded as she climbed into the car. "Yeah, I can show you where it is. It's just outside of town down past one of the farms."

And with destination in hand, the girls set out to find their destination.

The Deetz sisters stood outside of the old factory as they studied the outside of the building, figuring out if they would be able to get inside somehow without breaking anything, whether it was a lock, window, or one of their bones through a potential fall. The building itself looked like it hadn't been touched in decades. The previously used tin factory's sign was well worn and barely legible on the front of the building.

Lydia had already hiked around the whole front, catching plenty of angles on camera with little effort. Now came the hard part though.

"Stay here for a bit, I'm going to see if there's a better way in from the side," Larissa spoke as she already started to climb over the perimeter fence that shot out from the wall to the edge of the property. There was no way she was letting Lydia climb the damn rusted fence if there was another way in. With careful placements of her hands and feet, Larissa lowered herself down on the other side and sprinted off towards the back end before Lydia could protest.

Once she reached the back, slow, deliberate steps took her towards a first-floor roof that she may just be able to climb up to thanks to the a conveniently placed ladder, assuming it would still hold her. With a deep breath, Larissa began her assent, testing each ladder ring before she placed her full weight on to it. It was times like this when she was thrilled to be on the petite side at a meager 5'3 and barely bigger than Lydia.

Reaching the roof, Larissa grinned as she spotted a service door and hoped towards any power that may be that she would be able to open it and everything would go smoothly after that. With a fair amount of force, she eventually was able to tug the door open with a loud clang.

"What the hell was that?!" Lydia shouted, scaring Larissa as she spun around quickly, wide-eyed as she peered over the edge of the roof to see Lydia down on the ground still.

"What happened to staying there?" she hissed.

Lydia just shrugged and smirked up at her. "I never agreed to that." She started climbing up the ladder then. "I take it you found something."

Larissa huffed as she glared at the teenager. "Yes."

"Awesome! Let's go in!" Lydia exclaimed as she spotted the now open door and wasted no time climbing in.

Throwing her arms up, Larissa gave up on trying to do anything at that point. Lydia was going to do her own thing no matter what. Following behind Lydia, she eyed everything and was glad to see nothing that looked like it might kill them. So, a positive. "Make sure you don't touch anything," she warned half-heartedly. "I don't feel like taking you to the hospital and getting an arm cut off cause you get infected with who knows what."

Lydia rolled her eyes at the rather obvious statement. "Noted."

After that, Larissa let Lydia wander on her own, making sure she could still see her in the room but giving her enough space to do her thing. And she didn't mind taking her own time to look around the place. She felt like she had wanted into history, and a horror movie, so it was amazing as far as she was concerned. It wasn't often that she would do these kinds of things. She preferred to stay on the safe side. Lydia was always the risk taker. But Larissa also had no qualms against taking risks with the right push, or any push really. She was up for almost anything as long as it didn't sound like it would kill her. She loved the rush of excitement, if she only had the guts to do things without prompting.

With the factory behind them and even a quick stop at the store for snacks, the sisters managed to be back at the house before any other breathing humans. In which case, they would never have to say where they went until the photographs were seen. Overall, they would say the trip was very successful.

Larissa was still grabbing her bag of snacks from the car as Lydia had jumped out of the car in record time to go inside, leaving her with the bags. She had just locked the car when she heard both Adam and Barbara yelling Lydia's name in hysterics and she had to wonder what craziness could possibly be happening now. As long as the house wasn't on fire or something.

As she walked closer to the house, Larissa furrowed her brows as she picked up on multiple voices nearly speaking over each other. She sped up slightly when she noticed the annoyance in Lydia's voice.

Just as she reached the still open door, Larissa dropped her bag on the floor. "What the hell is-" she cut herself off as she stared at the scene in front of her. Adam and Barbara were shifting nervously as they looked between Lydia and the strange man in the middle of the room. With everyone's attention focused elsewhere, Larissa stayed silent as she took in the peculiar clothing of this green-haired guy who seemed to be bursting with energy. As far as she could tell, he may as well have been a zombie because he sure looked like hell.

The contrasting black and white striped suit was muted by the dirty undertone to all the colors, as if it had been sitting in the dirt for a year. And it looked worn. Not worn like her favorite band shirts. Worn like he hadn't changed out of that… ever.

It was him… Larissa could barely believe her eyes.

"I don't think so!" Lydia snapped at him, cutting off whatever was being said.

"But, babes! We can have so much fun again. We're BFFFFs, how could you possibly tell me no?" he cried as he threw his arm over her shoulder, pulling her towards him.

Lydia shrugged him off and spun back to face him directly with a stern look. "Because you nearly killed us all."

Just as Beetlejuice went to open his mouth, his eyes landed on the latest addition to the room and grinned wickedly. "Well now… Seems you have company, Lydia," he laughed as he spun her around to face the doorway and leaned on her shoulder, speaking into her ear. "Think she's gonna run? Mad woman yelling at air!" he cackled before he started to walk towards Larissa.

"Leave her alone!" Lydia raced forward as she put herself in front of him.

Meanwhile, Larissa wasn't sure what to do. A panic slightly set in as he turned to focus on her. She really didn't want to deal with this guy. She gulped before she tried to calm her nerves. "Actually," she said quietly, drawing everyone's attention. "I won't run."

Beetlejuice blinked at her dumbfounded. He was not expecting that. "You can see me?" he asked skeptically as he pointed to himself.

She nodded slightly and looked between Lydia and Beetlejuice, unsure what to do in this unknown territory.

"No way!" he shouted as he practically sprinted towards her, ignoring Lydia now as he got right in her face. "Best day ever! Nice to meet ya, doll. Now, not sure what brought you here but it must be fate. Now would you do a guy a favor?" he asked animatedly, taking no time at all to breath.

"Probably not." At the invasion of space, Larissa took a step back and stared at him in a mix of wonder and weary. "I'm Lydia's sister and I'm assuming you're Beetlejuice."

Beetlejuice's grin grew as he looked between the sisters, a devious look settling on his face. "Now that's not something I expected." His attention shifted to Lydia then as he continued. "I didn't even realize you had a sister. Were you trying to hide her away from me? Or hide her from yourself?" he finished cruelly.

"Why would I have needed to bring her up," she said defensively. "I was trying to get away the family, not bring more in. And she wasn't around anyway."

Larissa couldn't help but flinch slightly. Regardless of what was going on before, she knew Lydia may have been pissed at her when they first moved. She wouldn't have been surprised if she purposely didn't mention her. But it hardly mattered now, she tried to remind herself. Things were better.

"Listen," Larissa cut in, stepping between the two. "Whatever you're trying to do, forget it. You don't need to be dragging up the past. It hardly matters now."

"You're absolutely right," he suddenly agreed. "Who needs the past when the future is looking so much brighter! So, Lydia's sister, I know there's gotta be a name to go with that sexy body of yours." As he winked, Larissa stared as she failed to keep from blushing.

"Hold on!" Adam cut in, finally having watched enough of it. "Beetlejuice, I must insist that you stop." Despite an attempted firm voice, it didn't have much effect.

"Don't be jealous!" Beetlejuice laughed as he turned and slapped Adam's ass. "You're still the sexiest one here."

"Enough!" Cried Barbara as she grabbed Adam, pulling him away from him. "Lydia and Larissa are sweet girls. They don't need any of your… your… trickery in their life. Not again!"

With a wounded look, Beetlejuice stepped back and placed his hand dramatically over his heart. "I thought we were all pals. And this is the greeting I get? I've been gone for ages and I just wanted to spend some time with my best pals. And I even have the chance to make a new friend. You're all so cruel!" he yelled with false hurt. "I see how it is. Fine then. I'll go spend eternity alone. Abandoned. On my own. I hope you all are happy!" he shouted before he vanished.

With his sudden dramatic departure, a stifling silence fell over the room. Larissa was feeling overwhelmed as everything started to sink in and she was sure her heart was going to explode. "What just happened?" she said breathily.

"That was the general craziness that always happens when he is around." Lydia said with a flourish of her arm. "Congratulations, you've now met BJ. And I'm sure we'll see a lot more of him."

"Why?" Larissa asked lamely. She had a feeling that she knew the answer.

"He's dead again and wants his powers back. There's no way he's giving up that easily."

Larissa nodded slowly. "I'm… going to go process all this." And without another word, she grabbed her deserted bag and walked to her room, ignoring the looks being passed between Lydia, Barbara, and Adam. What just happened to having a normal day? She doubted that would ever happen again. Her life was beyond strange and what was she supposed to do?