Back Home: A Beetlejuice Story

Chapter 18

Lydia

For living in a haunted house, I shouldn't be freaked out by anything in the house. Yet, the basement gives me the creeps. I think the back corner of it is too dark and damp, the musty smell is almost a kind to a grave. I tug on the string light switch to turn on the lightbulb to dig through the various storage bins, but no luck.

"Well," Betelgeuse stares up at the lightbulb. "What are you going to do about that?" He takes a swig from his bottle of beer. He's been drinking more frequently lately. He never gets drunk, but I still can't help but be nervous about it. He tries to hide it from me too, along with the fact that I see him staring off into space most of the time.

"You could give me a light," I suggest. I hear a clicking behind me and turn around. Betelgeuse is holding out a lighter that has a small flame coming out of it. I shake my head slowly while maintaining eye-contact with him. Realization slowly spreads over his face.

"You don't smoke. That's not what you meant by a light," He puts the lighter away and summons up a flashlight instead. He turns it on and floats up closer to the ceiling to hold the light at an angle that illuminates the most area.

"Thank you," I say, turning my attention back to the bins. I pull a few down and pop the lids on them, trying to find the Christmas ornaments. I find two out of the three bins we have and open another one. Inside is a bunch of VHS tapes, labeled with my name and various years.

"Holy shit, it's your life on tape," Betelgeuse mumbles.

"These would have my mom on them," I whisper. I can feel a slew of emotions hitting me and it takes a lot for me not to cry. I put the lid back on the bin and pick it up, almost running up the stairs. "Dad! Look what I found," I shout putting the bin down on a side table next to the stairs.

"One of the Christmas bins?" Dad asks, eyeing the bin.

"No. I mean I found two of those but those are still downstairs. I found some old home videos that Mom made. Can we watch them tonight?"

Dad stares at the bin. His face falls and he tiredly rubs a hand across his face. "Sure." I grin widely at him and thank him and head back downstairs to the basement. I find Betelgeuse making a guilty face at me, holding his hands up by his face.

"I did something stupid," he says. I stop and stare at him.

"Please tell me you didn't do what I think you did?" I plead walking over to him and moving his hands away. Two ornaments hang from holes in his ear lobes. "Oh, you did," I groan.

"My ears were already pierced," he begins to explain. "And, I'm a little more tipsy than usual and I can't get the ornaments out."

I cringe and place my head on his chest. I lift my head up. "Who pierced your ears when you've been dead for at least a hundred years?"

"Oh, you can get all kinds of shit done in the Netherworld," a wicked grin spreads across his face. I shake my head and put it back in the center of his chest. I take a deep breath and reach up, finagling the 'earring' out of his ear. I do the same with the other one and Betelgeuse rubs his ear lobes. He thanks me and apologizes. I tell him it's okay, but both of us can easily hear the annoyance in my voice.

"I get it, okay. You've been around some shitty drunks, and you don't like that I've been drinking more. I don't like thinkin' about the day I died and that's coming up soon," He trails off.

"And you're not doing too good," I finish for him. He nods, his face locked in a pissed off grimace. I offer a hug and he moves away from me.

"I'm going upstairs," He mumbles, his normally gruff voice even more gravely. He takes off up the stairs but after he gets about halfway he teleports away. I stare at the spot he disappeared from for a while. I sigh and look at the storage bins. He found the third one for me.