NOTHING TO LOSE • A Beetlejuice Fanfiction • ON HOLD • Previously Bug Beverage

1 • Side Effects May Include Green-Haired Demons

You glanced over at the man leaning in the corner of your hospital room. It was the third time you had seen him this week; he wore a striped suit, had green hair and a beard that looked like it hadn't been taken care of since the 1800s, despite being cut short.

To an average person, a man in that attire appearing repeatedly within your proximity, staring at you for a couple of hours and then vanishing might have caused a mild panic. But not you. No, you were the last person to be alarmed by these kind of things - after all, the doctors had told you that the new medications could result in hallucinations.

"They can't touch or harm you in any way" were their specific words if you remembered correctly (which you didn't count on; from what you had been told, the new meds could also affect your memory). "It is best to just ignore them."

That was exactly what you did. For you, the question wasn't as much how the man had gotten here, and more how your brain came up with him of all things.

You had experienced most and could now pretty much shrug off all kinds of side effects - as long as the medicine worked, they were just means to an end. Only, this medicine didn't seem to be working. Or any medicine, for that matter.

So the only question for you was, why did your brain not come up with more fun hallucinations. Why not a unicorn that wreaked havoc in your room, or the easter bunny, or a demented tooth fairy that wanted to steal all your teeth to make prostetics out of them?

No, you got a - albeit strange-looking - guy that looked at you from the corner of your room, and then disappeared after a few hours.

With the exception of one time, he had never even interacted with you. And even then, all he did was ask if you could see him. When you ignored him, as you were advised to do, he shrugged, looked at his wrist (on which there was no watch), and vanished into thin air.

You cocked your head to the side, attempting to closer inspect the man.

The suit he was wearing seemed to be moldy in a few places.

His nails - of which you could only see the thumbs, respectively, because he had shoved his hands into his pockets - looked as if he had dug his way out of a grave just minutes prior.

His hair was starting to show dark brown roots.

As you focused your eyes on the details of his person, he raised an eyebrow at you, quickly glancing down his body before looking back up at you.

"So you can see me."

You ignored him, managing to not roll your eyes. Of course you could see him, what kind of question was that? He was produced by your brain, obviously you were able to see him.

"And now you're checking me out, huh?"

He took his hands out of his pockets and crossed them in front of his chest. Your eyes met and you felt a strange twinge in your stomach area.

"Staring is rude, you know?" The man grinned - you scoffed and leaned back into your pillows.

Hallucinations, complete with lame flirting attemps. Didn't that mean you were flirting with yourself?

"Hey, sweet cheeks, why the long face?"

"Sweet cheeks?" You really couldn't hold back your sarcastic mimicking.

"What, you have preferences when it comes to nicknames? My bad." He grinned again, exposing very unclean teeth. "So what do you want me to call you, huh? Babes? Princess?"

You stared at him with growing disbelief as he listed more annoying pet names then you could have ever come up with. You didn't count, but you were pretty sure he got to at least 20 before you interrupted him.

"How about you just call me my name?"

So much to ignoring hallucinations. On the other hand, you had nothing else to do - sitting in a hospital bed all day long got very boring very quickly.

The man looked at you, putting a finger to his lips as if he was considering your offer.

"Your name?"

"Yes. You know my name, right?"

He nodded, gesturing towards the closed door to your room. "I checked at the front desk."

You rolled your eyes. As if something created by your brain needed confirmation for what your name was.

"So, just use that. You know, like normal people do?"

"But thats boring!" He re-crossed his arms in front of his chest in a sort of final, argument-ending fashion. "You need a nickname."

"You need a nickname" you shot back.

"I have one." The man grinned again. You really wished he would stop - you were pretty sure he had a spider leg stuck between his teeth.

"Well, I have one too. And it's not one of those terrible ones you listed."

He sighed, crossing his arms in front of his chest once more as his eyes wandered up and down your body.

You sat up straighter, feeling slightly uncomfortable under his observant gaze. Who was checking who out now?

You snapped your fingers in his direction, making him look up from your body to your eyes. "So what's your name?"