How…

How did I get here?

I was supposed to get off the schoolbus...Is it night already? Mom's gonna have a heart attack...Where even am I?

Is this the Neitherworld? It doesn't feel like Earth, but I don't know anymore. Moth said there were a lot of places in the Neitherworld she hasn't been...Maybe this is one of them?

I should hope so…

Jacob Deetz's feet crunched as dry leaves and fallen twigs snapped with every footfall. He had gotten off the schoolbus what seemed like a forever ago, his backpack accidentally swiped by the rushing student next to him. He would have to ask for it back when he got back on Monday...Assuming there even was school on Monday.

God, where was he?

The forest seemed to go on forever in all directions. The trees had very few leaves (though some had a dead one or two), and the night sky only provided a full moon to see by. He didn't know how long he'd been walking-Did he dare take a guess? He rubbed his arms, his red coat with the spiderweb markings not exactly providing good protection against the sudden damp cold.

Not that Jake hadn't been to the Neitherworld before, assuming that was where this place was. Actually, he'd been there plenty of times. Moth, a strange poltergeist who bared more than a passing similarity to a certain ghost with the most (if he were female and significantly younger), had taken him on so many tours it almost made him dizzy. She would always gush about some new place, or even an old place, and would drag Jake to this place and generally cause trouble. But it was all in good fun, of course. Moth was just so spirited, how could he say no?

But this didn't look much like the bright, goofy Neitherworld he knew. This was dark and damp and...Bleak. He had never heard of a place like this, not from Moth nor from his mother, who would sometimes tell of her own experiences in the Neitherworld if he persisted enough. Had they never been here? That seemed so very unlikely, but still…

There was suddenly light. Not a lot of it, but directly forward, there was two little spots of flickering light. Excited by this, Jake began rushing, tearing his way toward the flickering light spots just to see something else then this bland, damp woodland.

When he was close enough to see where the light was from, he stopped.

It was a manor, so it seemed, a dark wood. High on either side of the door were two candles-Obviously that light source from earlier-Which illuminated two very big yellow words over the door: 'GREGORY HOUSE'. Jake blinked at the manor for a moment-Moth hadn't mentioned a place called Gregory House before, and it sounded like just the kind of thing she'd be into. Slowly he approached it, pushing the door open slightly.

The lobby was empty. More candles lit the surrounding area, and Jake blinked a bit, looking around for anyone within this place. The door was unlocked, so someone had to be expecting him, right? "Uh, hello? Anyone there?" He asked to nobody in particular.

"Would you like a room?"

Jake spun around, startled. Behind him was what appeared to be a rat the size of a six-year-old, grey and old, with fading blond hair, purple eyes that never seemed to be looking directly at him, and wearing a black-and-red striped shirt with a long pink coat over it. He held a candle and a ring of keys and was not there when Jake was looking beforehand.

"Uh...Um, yes." Jake said hesitantly. "I mean, I'm...I'm just lost, and I guess I don't want to sleep in the woods…"

"Lost?" The rat inquired. "Yes, I suppose anyone could lose their way out there...But some may lose even more, if they're not careful." This last remark was not dwelt upon as the rat walked past Jake and began going off. "I have an open room for you, my friend...Just write your name in the book while I get it ready."

As it left, Jake blinked in confusion, but not for too long. He'd seen some pretty weird things in his travels around the Neitherworld, an overly-large rat shouldn't phase him. He looked back to the counter and now took notice to a guestbook, a pen atop the cover. Was that there earlier? No matter. He picked up the pen and opened the book, his eyes skimming over previous names. None he knew, of course, though a few stood out as not exactly being names, more, meaningful descriptions-'Cactus Gunman', 'Bonsai Kabuki', 'Lost Doll'. Interesting...He went to the last line on the page, where there was a neat little space for him, and he wrote in Jacob 'Jake' Deetz, like how he signed everything ever, and closed the book again. The rat hadn't returned just yet, and Jake was left alone, listening. He drummed his fingers on the desk, when suddenly there was a crack of thunder from nowhere, then a pained meow, then the voice of someone shouting "WOULD YOU BE QUIET!? Horrible cat…!" The stairs creaked, and suddenly, the rat was back. "I am dreadfully sorry, my friend...You must excuse your neighbor, he is a...Dreadful creature. Now. Come with me…"

It began walking off again, but this time Jake followed, and the two hopped up a flight of stairs. "So...Where am I?" Jake eventually ventured to ask.

"Hm? You're in Gregory House, my friend. Just an old hotel for those lost souls." He chuckled a bit at this, though Jake couldn't quite see why. "I am Gregory, the caretaker of this establishment. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance tonight…"

"Jake." He filled again, assuming that's what Gregory's voice trailed off for. "Jake Deetz."

"What an unusual surname. It's fitting. You yourself must be strange and unusual." He took a glance over his shoulder at Jake. "I can see it." He looked back and paused in front of a door, numbered 205. "Ah, yes, this would be your room." He said, pushing open the door. "Do make yourself comfortable."

He took a step or two into the room. It was small, bordering on claustrophobically so but still a few steps away from that. A bed was to his right, with a picture of a cat right above it. To his left, a wardrobe, a desk, and a small shelf with a few books if he found the time to read. There was a window, but it was boarded up. Of course, the only light came from a candle atop the desk.

"It's...Nice." He lied.

"I'm glad it's to your liking. Now, do get some rest, it is awfully late. I hope you enjoy your time here…" Slowly, Gregory shut the door, leaving Jake alone in the room. He couldn't be sure, but he could have sworn the rat had added something to that sentence, something like, "For all eternity…" but he couldn't be sure because the door muffled it. Whatever, he did feel a little tired. How long had it been since he got off the bus…? It wasn't dark out when he got on, but that woods back there was dark, and this little room was only brighter because of the candle…

Well, no matter, he'd go home tomorrow. He unzipped his jacket, took it off, and placed it on the back of the chair before crawling into the bed, curling up, and drifting off to sleep.

Mothjuice had been waiting in Jake's mirror for what seemed like eons.

The poltergeist never liked the notion of schooling (her own education in the public school system being rather...Lacking), being away from Jake for seven straight hours with nobody to pester and nobody to explore with and poke fun of. Okay, she always had the Donnyjuice kids, but they got boring after a while, and no way was she about to go to Spider begging for fun. So, after spending seven hours occupying herself in various mundane ways, she had teleported herself to Jake's mirror, the full-length one on the inside of his closet door, and had waited there. Usually he'd be back in a matter of minutes, but maybe it was Moth's bad gauge of time, but it felt like so much longer.

"Ugh, if this is a joke, it ain't funny." She grumbled, pressing her nose to the glass. "Jake! Jakey! JayJay-Ugh, no, that one's dumb. Where are 'yah?"

No answer. Not that she exactly expected one. With a heaving and dramatic sigh, she stepped out of the mirror and into Jake's room, looking high and low for him, just in case he was hiding or something. He was not. Frowning harder, she floated through his door and began searching the rest of the house, careful to turn into innocuous looking (if inexplicably striped black-and-white) objects when his mother passed by, since she would probably disapprove of Moth seeing as she warned Jake against getting himself caught up in ghostly affairs.

When her search of the Deetz household was complete, she came to the obvious conclusion that Jake was, indeed, missing.

"Huh, that ain't like him." She muttered, floating back into his room and sitting on his bed. "I mean, he's onna' those goody-gumdrop model students, right? So he oughta' be home by now!"

As though on cue, a bunch of gumdrops began swarming around her on the bed, popping up by magic. They began untangling her hair and polishing her boots and smoothing her dress, as goody-gumdrops were inclined to do. Annoyed, she shooed them all away, and while they were slightly miffed they all complied.

She snapped her fingers, an idea sparking in her own head. "Maybe I can summon him this time!" She sat up straight and crossed her fingers, quickly chanting, "Jake Deetz, Jake Deetz, Jake Deetz!" After a long while of nothing happened, Moth slumped her shoulders. "Oh, no duh, Moth. He ain't a poltergeist like you are…"

With a significantly flashier snap of the fingers, the scenery around her changed, and she was in her own home in the Neitherworld. Well, it was less of a 'home' and more 'the basement of an abandoned store, refurbished to look like a home', but that was the same thing in her book. She floated up to the window that separated the basement from the outside world and threw it open, shimmying through until she was up on the grass around the abandoned store. Shutting the window, she floated off into Neitherworld Plaza, crossing her arms and frowning hard.

"Jake, you may be the least of my problems, but right now you're worryin' me."

Author's notes:

Gregory Horror Show fanfic starring Beetlejuice OCs? Okay, sure, why not. I should clarify that this is based more on the cartoon continuity of Beetlejuice, but not like this matters, it's all OCs anyway. Written mostly for a pal on the Nightmare before Christmas fansite, put up here in case anyone else digs it.

Jake Deetz (son of Lydia) and Spider (full name Spiderjuice, daughter of BJ) owned by SkellingtonGirl on Pumpkin Patch.

Mothjuice (Not related to BJ in any way yet still is more then a little like him) and the Donnyjuice kids (Miles, Alec, and Daisy) owned by myself.

Neither Gregory Horror Show nor Beetlejuice is my property, just some dopey OCs.