Lydia heard Astrid come through the door. She smiled at her daughter. It was so nice to finally be able to connect with her. "How was school today?" Shortly after the funeral, she had taken Astrid from her other school, and gave her a chance at a new school that wouldn't know about her show.
"It was okay," Astrid answered as she put down her bag. "No one knows my secret yet."
"We'll try to keep it that way for as long as we can," Lydia answered her. She opened the stove and pulled out a casserole. She wouldn't ask if she made any friends yet, bothering her too much did set Astrid off. Their relationship was better, but not perfect.
"Thanksgiving is almost here." Astrid said as she sat down at the table. "We won't have grandma or grandpa this year.
"Mm-hm." Lydia served up the casserole onto plates. "I know, but we'll still have each other."
"For Christmas too," Astrid said. "New years. Valentine's. Anything, they won't be here."
"To be fair, we didn't spend New years or Valentine's day with them." Lydia knew what she meant though. It would be hard for some time. Losing her father was tough. She didn't even think she'd miss Dehlia that much at all, until she was gone.
"I thought grandma said her and grandpa would be haunting us all the time," Astrid pointed out. "Why didn't she ever come back?"
"Your dad never wanted us to see him," Lydia reminded her. "Maybe they decided they didn't want to come back. There's no telling what they are told in the afterlife, Astrid."
Astrid started to pick at her food. "I know."
Then? Their conversation went all to hell as knives flew across the room!
Astrid even got cut on the elbow. She held it as it bled. "Mom?"
Lydia tried to get her and her daughter out of the room. When she opened the door to get out to their living room, their large carpet was now dug out to be the size of a pool, holding some kind of alligator. "What?"
It had to be the work of Beetlejuice, but? It didn't feel right. This wasn't his playfulness. Especially that alligator that was coming right toward them! "Astrid, this way!" She guided her daughter out the side door.
Lydia checked her pocket for her keys. They needed to get away from there. Astrid got in the passenger seat while Lydia got in the driver seat. She started up the car and started to move away.
"What was that?" Astrid asked.
"I don't know," Lydia admitted to her. "It seems okay now." She saw the green light ahead. What was that? There shouldn't be anyone messing with them except maybe Beetlejuice.
As she crossed the light, she immediately regretted it. She moved very fast, trying to miss the cars coming in the opposite direction. She didn't run any red light, her light was green, but so was theirs. "There's nothing playful about that."
Beetlejuice did playful. Dangerous but playful. Circus show. Huge snake. Big and showy. He even just changed Otho the interior decorator's clothes.
"That could've killed us," Astrid said to her mom. "Beetlejuice doesn't want to kill you, he wants to marry you."
Eh. "He wants out," Lydia said to her. She was right though. "This isn't him."
"Then who is it?" Astrid asked, right before the car started to go off road.
Lydia tried to control the steering wheel. The doors locked themselves and the car drove itself. She started to fight against the door as the car picked up speed.
"If it's him, it'll stop if we call his name!" Astrid yelled at her, "and if it isn't, then he'll help!"
"For what, marriage?" Lydia asked. "You already discovered the flaw in the contracts, Astrid." There would be no ducking from him this time, he'd want it first to help them out of this jam.
"I want to try talking to him," Astrid said to her. "I think I might be able to get him to help without that."
What? "How? He's not a regular guy," Lydia warned her. "I've seen what he can do."
"I did too," Astrid reminded her.
"He could have killed your grandpa. He has no regard for human life," Lydia warned her. "You didn't see the real him. He's a demon." If she really married him? "If I marry him, he'll be let loose on the world. I had no choice before, you're life was in danger." She tried to hold onto the wheel again.
"Both of our lives are in danger," Astrid pointed out. "I don't know where this car is taking us, but it's not going to be anywhere good."
She was right. "I hate this." No control. Just like in the past. One minute she was talking plainly to the Maitlands, and the next she was willing to be a demon's wife to save them from the exorcism.
She thought she'd gained a good control of her life some years ago, but then, the ending of her love. The ending of her husband. The ending of being able to go without pills. She ended right back there at the model, begging for help again.
Even in a new place, and getting a new beginning with Astrid, she was still a pathetic little girl, begging for help. Offering anything in return if he just-
The car was smacked into on the back, sending them spinning.
The doors were ripped off, and Lydia reached for Astrid as she seemed to be blowing out the door.
It didn't matter. She'd give anything! "Betelgeuse Betelgeuse Betelgeuse!"
The car interior was starting to stick like glue to Astrid, keeping her in.
Beetlejuice showed up in the back of the car. "Well, here I am again." He was holding playing cards like there wasn't hurricane winds on the other side of the window trying to blow out Astrid.
"I need help!" Lydia yelled at him.
"Yeah." Still not moved. "Looks like it. Typical. Getting into trouble, expecting me to bust you out again, and then fold on the deal." He looked at his watch. "I'm kind of busy right now. I am on a real job with someone who actually pays for services rendered."
Ohh! "Look, I promise this time, I will do it!" Lydia said to him. "Just help us!"
"Well, there's nothing I can really do," he said bummed out as the car started to spin around again. "I'm just gonna save you and get nothing out of it."
Astrid moved in the glued seat enough to turn and look at him. "Yeah! You will because if you lose mom, then you lose everything you might gain in the future!"
Lydia looked toward Astrid. That wasn't going to help. She had ran away from marriage, twice. Even calling to him was a supreme act of desperation.
Beetlejuice started to shuffle his deck. "What do I gain in the future?"
"Nothing if you just let us die," Astrid said without yelling higher than she had to, to be heard over the winds. "There are other deals you can cut."
"Other deals." He kept shuffling as the car spun.
Then he disappeared.
The glue holding Astrid had disappeared. Lydia held onto her, feeling herself even losing her grip.
"Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse!" Astrid yelled.
This time, Beetlejuice showed up in a bigger way. He was no longer in the backseat playing with cards, he was on top of the car in fishing gear.
He had a fishing rod that hooked onto Astrid somehow. Lydia didn't want to know how, but her daughter didn't seem to be in extra pain. He pulled and she came over to her.
"Really big catch today," Beetlejuice said. "Perfect weather for fishing. Let's see what else I can snag." He threw out an even bigger fishing line, sailing into the distance farther than anyone could see.
He pulled back on it, and the winds disappeared. The car stopped spinning.
Lydia got out and checked on Astrid on the top. She looked over at Beetlejuice who seemed to have some kind of gremlin on a hook.
"Oh, one of you things," Beetlejuice said to him. "What are you up to?"
"I'm in the middle of business!" It yelled at him as it struggled to break free. "That's my catch!"
Catch? Lydia didn't understand but Beetlejuice disappeared with the little gremlin thing.
"Is it over?" Astrid asked. "Mom?"
"I think so?" She didn't really know. She had no idea what that was all about in the first place. Everything supernatural was now gone. The breeze was normal.
She looked at the car. "The car's totaled, but we're okay." That was all that mattered. She went over toward Astrid as she opened up her phone to pay for a ride.
It was an unsettling time. The house was back to normal too, no huge pool with an alligator in the middle of the carpet. Her and Astrid were both watching around themselves the whole evening and into the night. "Whatever that was, I think he stopped it," Lydia said. Maybe some gremlin creature had escaped into the living world, and it sensed her connection to the supernatural?
"I told you," Astrid said. "I told you I could get him to help without getting you married off."
"By gaining something in the future?" That didn't make any sense. "Astrid. He only wants to marry me to be free. So, what is he supposed to gain?"
"Mom." She looked at her as if she was stupid. "That guy is in love with you."
No, no. "Marrying me sets him free," she said.
"He had everyone sing and dance at the wedding," Astrid reminded her.
"Yeah. He's unpredictable and does weird things," Lydia said back. It had nothing to do with love. "He was in a wedding setting, so his juice wanted to play in wedding things."
"His juice?" Astrid never heard that term before.
"It's what he calls his magic," Lydia said. She should really explain this better. "Look? Before he tried to marry me, I met him once. Maybe five minutes. The next time afterward, he was already asking for marriage. Then he was eaten by a sandworm," she said. "There was no time to really start liking me, it's all a big showy trick."
"I don't know," Astrid still disagreed. "The Neitherworld is really different from our world. Maybe there, they can feel love faster?"
Feel love faster? "Astrid. His whole freedom rides on his name being called. The Maitlands, they were well aware of this. He's never done anything good that didn't have something in it for him. Marrying me is like winning the lottery."
"Then how come not me?" Astrid wouldn't let up. "If he didn't have problems with it the first time, then how come he never switched to me?"
"Ah?" Lydia didn't know what to say to that. She honestly didn't know. "Maybe there's some other reason he hasn't told anyone."
Astrid didn't buy it. Her daughter was as stubborn as she was at her age. "I don't know, but if anything tries to eat me in my bed, I'm calling him."
"It should be over." It had to be. "He isn't a solution. He's a desperate pit stop when you are at the end of your rope."
"If that is how you feel, then he was telling the truth," Astrid said surprisingly to her. "He's helped you, and then that's it."
Really? "You think I should marry him?"
"No," Astrid said. "If I did, I wouldn't have mentioned the contract thing. Although, he's probably not much worse than the last husband you almost had."
Whoah. "There's a difference between a scumbag that wants money and an actual demon." Lydia was fairly sure that husband would be much worse.
"If we have to call him again, I think you should do something," she told her. "You can probably get him to help a little bit more, but he won't be there to serve you forever. He was already really tired of helping for nothing. He just disappeared after helping with that gremlin thing."
"I don't want there to be a next time." Lydia looked toward Astrid. She was right though. If the supernatural bothered her again, she would need him. Besides marriage for his freedom though, what else could she give?