CHAPTER SEVEN

Lydia's Demise

Night was falling quickly. B.J. and Lydia were still hanging out in her bedroom. Delia knocked on the door.

"Lydia, dear." Delia called. B.J. disappeared and reappeared as a vase on Lydia's nightstand. "Time for bed, dear." Delia called from out in the hall.

"Okay mother." Lydia called to her. She walked over to the door listening for Delia's fading footsteps indicating that Delia was leaving.

"I guess I'll see you in the morning, then." Beetlejuice said as he started floating toward the vanity mirror.

"Don't go." B.J. heard Lydia say. He stopped. BJ was floating where he stopped. He turned around.

"What's wrong, babes?" He asked.

"Will you stay the night?" Lydia asked. B.J. thought the reason she was asking him to stay was because she was thinking about the dream she had about her mom banishing him form her.

"Babes. No one can keep us apart. I promise." Lydia walked over to her bed and got under the covers. She looked back over at B.J. hopping he'd change his mind. B.J. was heading toward the mirror again. Lydia turned her head so she was facing the wall. She wiped her eyes and sniffed.

"Lyds." BJ said.

"Just go." Lydia said and sniffed again. B.J. lowered his head. He floated to the mirror and was about to go in when he looked over his shoulder at Lydia. After a couple minutes it appeared Lydia cried herself to sleep. B.J. sighed heavily. He turned around and headed toward the bed. He hovered over her for a moment and whispered in her ear,

"I'm sorry babes." He floated back to the floor and walked over to the other side of the bed. He laid on the bed. He wrapped his arm around Lydia and kissed her softly on the head.

"I promise I'll always be with you." B.J. whispered to Lydia before falling asleep himself.

Jacques and Ginger were sound asleep when they were awaken by a disturbance not far from the Roadhouse. They went to go warn Beetlejuice about it, but found he wasn't there.

"Where is he?" Ginger asked.

"Hmm. Per'aps eh is at Lydia's." Jacques said. They looked around for an oval shape in BJ's wall that connected him to Lydia. Jacques walked over to the mirror. He saw that Beetlejuice was asleep.

"Beeatlejuice." Jacques called quietly to him. No answer. "Pssst." Came a noise. Bj.s. ears perked up. He opened one eye and looked over toward Lydia's mirror to find Jacques standing on the other side. B.J. yawned then floated out of bed.

"What's going on?" B.J. said quietly as not to wake Lydia.

"There eez something going on over 'ere and we need you 'elp." Jacques said. B.J. looked over his shoulder.

"Alright I'll be right there." He said. B.J. walked over to Lydia's bed and put the covers on her. He walked back to the mirror and disappeared with a bat, eyeball, and a tin can left in his wake He reappeared back in the Neitherworld at the Roadhouse.

The sun was rising. Lydia was awaken by her Dracula alarm clock. Lydia sat up in bed and looked around.

"B.J.?" she said to herself. He wasn't there. She didn't have time to go looking for him due to the fact she had school to tend to. Lydia looked at the mirror hopping Beetlejuice would be there. She sighed heavily then got dressed and headed down stairs for breakfast.

"Bye mother, bye father." Lydia said as she left out the door. She got on her bike and rode to school. The whole way to school she wondered if she should call him.

"Maybe he got caught up in doing something." Lydia thought. Once she got to school, she parked her bike at the bike rack and walked inside.

"So what's the disturbance?" Beetlejuice asked.

"We're not sure." Ginger said. "We were asleep when we heard this loud rumbling." She added.

"Earthquake?" Beetlejuice asked. Before either of them could answer, the ground shook and trembled. The three of them looked behind them and saw in the distance a cloud of dust coming their way. They stood there for a moment waiting to see what was causing the dust cloud. What came next was a horrible beast. B.J.'s eyes bugged.

"Sandworms!" He screamed. But the worst part was there weren't just one sandworm, but three.

"This must be what the disturbance was!" Jacques yelled in his French accent.

"No kidding!" BJ yelled. They took off running as the sandworms were gaining speed.

The whole time Lydia was in school, she didn't see one sign of Beetlejuice anywhere. When school let out Lydia didn't waste any time getting home. She raced to her room and looked into her vanity mirror. Still no B.J.

"Something is seriously wrong." Lydia said to herself. "I better go see what's up." She closed her eyes and chanted Beetlejuice's name three times. She disappeared from her bedroom and reappeared at the Roadhouse. No one was there, or so she thought. She walked outside and looked around. The place was a wreck, more so than usual.

"Beetlejuice." Lydia called.

"Lydia is that you?" Lydia heard a familiar voice call.

"Jacques? Where are you?" She called.

"Over here. Behind the dirt pile." Jacques called. When Lydia walked over to the dirt pile she gasped. All that was there was Jacques's head.

"What happened? Where's the rest of you? Where's Beeje?" Lydia asked Jacques as she picked up his head.

"We got attacked by a group of sandworms." Jacques said. Lydia gasped again."

"Is Beetlejuice okay?"

"I'm not sure." Jacques said sounding concerned.

"We gotta find him!" Lydia said loudly. She took off at a sprint still holding Jacques head like a football. About a block up the road, they saw the three sandworms huddled in a corner.

"Well do something." Ginger told Beetlejuice. B.J. turned into a block of ice. "A fine time to freeze up!" Ginger snapped at him.

Lydia gasped.

"Beetlejuice!" She took off running. Jacques could have told Lydia to stay put had she not had her hand over his mouth. Ginger caught sight of Lydia.

"Lydia!" she called out. One of the sandworms looked behind itself and whipped its tail stopping Lydia and sending her air born. Jacques head flying from her hands.

The sandworm's drool was dripping from its mouth landing on the frozen block of ice that Beetlejuice contained himself in.

"Come on Beetlejuice." Ginger said almost in tears now. "You gotta save us. You're out only hope. Beetlejuice couldn't move, but saw Lydia lying motionless on the ground. Ginger noticed water by her eight feet and looked over to see the ice block was melting. As soon as Beetlejuice's head was free he said,

"Alright you guys asked for it! Iiiiiit's show time!" He shouted warningly at the sandworms. They made a high pitch roaring sound. BJ made his body grow to the size of the sandworms. He made them flee. After defeating the sandworms, BJ ran towards Lydia. She hadn't moved a muscle. There was a small stream of blood coming from Lydia's head. After finding his head, Jacques glued it back on using his Bone Bond glue. Ginger caught up with them a couple minutes later. BJ kneeled by Lydia lifeless body.

"Babes." He said softly. No answer.

"She needs to be taken to the hospital." Ginger said.

"Right." BJ said. "To the Neitherworld's Hospital."

"No." Ginger said. "She needs to go to the one in her world.

"How am I supposed to do that if she's unconscious?" BJ said. He picked Lydia up gingerly. Blood leaking onto his sleeve. "I can only imagine how her parents would react to a ghost bringing her to the hospital." He looked down at Lydia. "Come on Lyds. Speak to me." Beetlejuice said.

"If she doesn't get medical attention quick, she could die because of zee massive head injury." Jacques said.

For one quick moment Beetlejuice thought to himself,

"Well what if she did die? Then we would truly be happy together for all eternity." BJ shook the thought from his mind. That would be selfish.

"We'll head to the Roadhouse and if we're lucky, the doorway to the other side will still be there." BJ said. He gave Lydia to Jacques to hold. He ripped his sleeve off and wrapped it around Lydia's head and took Lydia back into his arms. The three of them hurried back to the Roadhouse. They were in luck. The door was still there.

"Good luck Beeatlejuice." Jacques said. BJ stepped into the doorway and found himself in Lydia's bedroom. He disguised himself as Mr. Beetle man. He floated Lydia and himself out of Lydia's bedroom window. He walked over and pounded on the Deetz's door. Delia opened the door.

"Mr. Beetle man." She said. She looked down at the lifeless body of her daughter. "Oh my God! What happened?" Delia said frantically.

"She needs to get to the hospital." BJ said. Delia called Charles and they rushed to the E.R. After Lydia was admitted, Delia and Charles sat in the waiting room.

Back at the Deetz's BJ was floating back and forth. He looked around and disappeared.

"This is all my fault." BJ said when he got back to the Roadhouse.

"It's not your fault." Ginger said. Just then BJ fell apart.

"Zis is not Zee time to go to pieces, Beeattlejuice." Jacques said. Beetlejuice pulled himself back together. He walked back over at sat on his couch and out his head in his hands.

The doctor came into the waiting room.

"Mr. And Mrs. Deetz?" He asked.

"That's us." Delia said standing up. She walked up to the doctor.

"What happened to our daughter?" Delia asked.

"It appears that she had suffered some brain trauma.

"From what?" Charles asked nervously.

"We're not sure." The doctor told Delia and Charles.

Back at the Roadhouse, Beetlejuice was still grieving. After a moment he stood up.

"I gotta go." BJ said.

"Go where?" Jacques asked.

"To see Lydia." BJ said and vanished. He reappeared blending in looking like a different object listening to hear what room number Lydia was in. Once cleared, BJ popped out of view and appeared as a vase on a table by Lydia's bedside. Lydia's head was wrapped in a bandage and hooked up to various machines. There weren't any doctors in site so BJ turned into his real form. He knelt down by the bed.

"I'm so sorry babes. I feel like this is all my fault." He said softly. He took her hand into his. A tear fell down his cheek. He leaned over and kissed her forehead. Just then Delia and Charles walked into the room.

"Mr. Beetle man. What are you doing here?" Delia asked. Beetlejuice quickly wiped his eyes.

"I uh, just came to see Lyds." He said.

"Do you know how she got hurt?" Charles asked him. Of course he knew, but he also knew they'd never believe a stampede of sandworms caused her injury. He had to think of something and quick.

"Lyds was at school when it happened. Her and that Clair Brewster girl got into a fight and Lyds fell and hit her head on a rock." BJ explained.

"I never did like that girl." Delia said.

"I'm really sorry." BJ said. He wouldn't look them in the eye. "I feel this is my fault." BJ half wished it him in this state and not her.

"But it's not your fault, Mr. Beetle man." Delia reassured him. "Why don't you go home and get some rest?" Delia told him. BJ sighed, took one last look at Lydia before leaving. He walked out into the hall then disappeared.

Doomie was waiting for Beetlejuice by the entrance of the Roadhouse. There was a low beeping, almost sad sounding.

"Lyds is still in the hospital." BJ told Doomie. Doomie sighed heavily.

"She'll be okay, Beeattlejuice." Jacques told BJ as he out a bony hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks, Jacques." BJ said.

"You should get some rest." Jacques said.

"Yeah, maybe." BJ told him. He walked into his bedroom and lay down in his coffin bed. He adjusted the picture he had of Lydia that was on his nightstand. Beetlejuice sighed and closed his eyes.