The Girl in the Mirror: a Beetlejuice fanfic

Startling Discoveries

Lydia plopped herself down on her bed with a quiet giggle, looking over towards her alternate self as the latter leaned herself against one of other her's chairs. Originally, alternate Lydia'd wanted to have fun and wanted to forget about the situation at hand for now. But Lydia didn't want to do that, instead figuring that it'd be easier to focus more on getting her alternate self used to things. She didn't need her family's help when it came to that, did she?

Not now, she didn't.

"So, alternate me... what do you want to do first now that I'm not going to go to school for who knows how long?" Lydia asked, brushing a hand through her shorter, black hair.

Alternate Lydia moved so that she was now sat in the chair that she'd originally leaned herself up against and looked off to the side as she thought quietly to herself. At first, nothing seemed to be coming to her mind but then it wasn't even a few seconds before something did come to her mind. Seeming to have since come to a decision of her own, alternate Lydia turned back to her other self.

"Hmmm... a walk around town might do me some good," alternate Lydia said, a hopeful smile crossing her face. "I'd actually like to see how different things are in your time period than to mine."

Lydia rested a hand under her chin, looking worriedly over at her alternate self. "I don't know about that, alternate me. I'd hate for my family to be mad at me... and for yours to be mad at you."

"Oh c'mon, other me. It's not like we're going to sneak out of your house." Alternate Lydia let out a quiet laugh and refocused her attention on her other self. "We can tell your universe's versions of my dad, Delia, and the Maitlands where we're going and see if they're okay with it before we head out."

"We can try," Lydia said, leaving it at that with a simple but firm nod.

"Right now?" alternate Lydia asked, both looking and sounding hopeful.

"No. Let's just give it some time," Lydia said, hiding the fact that she was shaking her head.

But alternate Lydia did not want to take that as an answer. She stood up from her seat and launched herself at other her and ended up knocking both her other self and herself off of other her's bed and onto the floor a few feet away from it. Although neither one of the two girls was hurt from that, they were both unaware that what'd happened had caused a loud crash noise to reverberate around the house.

And, unknowingly, to the two of them as they burst into equal bouts of laughter, all four adults had heard it - rushing downstairs to Lydia's bedroom almost immediately.

A few worried knocks sounded on this universe's Lydia's bedroom door, followed behind by Barbara's voice. "Lydia, alternate Lydia! Are you guys okay in there?"

Alternate Lydia, having landed on top of her other self when they'd crashed to the floor, stood up at the exact same time as her other self did, the both of them turning to look over at and focusing their attention over towards this universe's Lydia's bedroom door just as a few more concerned knocks sounded on the other side of it.

"Lydia, alternate Lydia?!" Barbara called out again.

"We're fine, Barbara! Honest! Alternate me just tackled me to the floor!" Lydia called back to her, reaching a hand up towards her left cheek as soon as a sharp pain shot up through it and feeling a sort of cut.

And it seemed like the same thing had happened to her alternate self despite her not getting injured herself when Lydia looked over towards her. And in the same location too.

"You want us to come in?" Adam asked, equally as worried as Barbara was.

"No! There's no need to, other Adam!" alternate Lydia shouted back, also reaching a hand up to touch the cut on her left cheek.

"Lydia, alternate Lydia, both of you could've gotten hurt from that crash!" Barbara spoke up again, even more concerned and worried than she had been previously. "We're coming in regardless to make sure both of you are okay!"

Both Lydias opened their mouths to speak, but couldn't get anything out before Adam and Barbara phased through Lydia's bedroom door and floated over towards both Lydia and her alternate self. Carefully and gently, Barbara sat Lydia down on the latter's bed and Adam did the same with alternate Lydia. Sitting down on the bed beside both of the girls, the Maitlands looked them over very carefully and gently.

"Well..." Barbara said as soon as she and Adam were done. "There are those cuts on your faces..."

"We know about those!" both Lydias groaned at the same time.

Barbara sighed, shaking her head. "I was going to say those look really serious. How much do they hurt?"

"Mine doesn't hurt as much," alternate Lydia said. "Mostly because I didn't get injured in the first place."

Adam looked at Barbara, then back at alternate Lydia. "What do you mean, you didn't get injured in the first place?"

"I dunno." Alternate Lydia shrugged. "It just randomly appeared on my left cheek at the exact same time other me got injured. I don't know why it happened, but that in itself is just plain weird. Just plain strange and unusual."

"Could it be something to do with the fact that there are two of you in one universe at the same time? That the multiverse itself is reacting to a possible imbalance?" Adam suggested as Barbara nodded in agreement. Both of the Lydias looked down, them thinking quietly to themselves for a few moments before looking back at Adam and Barbara respectively.

"Could be," Lydia said. "But, to make sure of that, do you guys mind if my alternate self and I head out into town and try a few things?"

Adam and Barbara turned to look at one another, both of them thinking things over for a brief moments before looking back at the Lydia sat beside them. Barbara, putting an arm around Lydia's shoulder, was the one who spoke up. Provided an answer.

"Of course you can. But let us take care of those cuts on your left cheeks before you do so."

Both Lydias glanced at one another briefly, then nodded in agreement at the same time as one before they turned to look at Adam and Barbara. Allowing both of the ghosts to summon and carefully place bandages over the cuts on both Lydias' left cheeks.

Of all the problems that had happened to the lot of them starting just a day prior, why did they have to add a startling possibility that this particular universe was going to collapse in on itself the longer alternate Lydia was in it and not in her own universe and time period to the mix?

Not one of them was sure, but knowing this meant that they really did need to act fast if they were going to get alternate Lydia back to her own universe and time period.