𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗜𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 ✘ 𝘉𝘌𝘌𝘛𝘓𝘌𝘑𝘜𝘐𝘊𝘌

Ꮯhᥲρtꫀɾ 𝟜: Life or Death

"GOD, Delia, I hate him." Lydia grumbled, concluding her lengthy rant to her step-mother about the previous night's occurrences — the demon's unexpected entrance into her room and the audacity he had to insult her mother. She tiredly collapsed into the striped, oddly-shaped couch in the center of their living room. "He's awful. I wish he'd leave me alone."

"I'm just glad he didn't hurt you, Lydia. That was dangerous," Delia responded, having intently listened to her whole, long vent.

The girl blew a blonde strand of hair out of her face with a sigh. "I'm not scared of that. BJ has never been the type to physically hurt the ones who he wants things from. When he wants something from someone, he hurts them mentally. Right now, he doesn't need to hurt anyone, so I'm not worried about it. He's already got me under his thumb."

"What do you mean?"

Lydia chuckled, clearly forced and frustrated. "Well, he's literally going to let me die if I don't do what he wants. He wants to control me like his goddamn puppet. I'm sure he'd just LOVE it if I surrendered easily and said his name three times." She breathed, "But I'm not going to let him have that satisfaction."

The ginger-haired woman silently reflected on everything that she'd been told. Although she could see where her step-daughter was coming from, she didn't quite understand what the big deal was if Beetlejuice's name was spoken thrice. Of course, she knew it would happen, and how it would allow him to be seen by all breathers and interact with the physical plane. She wasn't that out-of-the-loop. She just didn't get why Lydia would rather die than let that happen.

"Lydia, but why? I know you've always had a feisty soul, but are you sure you'd rather die? No matter what happens, he's going to win. If you do end dying then he'll get the satisfaction of all of this stress and fear he caused you before you died. If you end up saying his name and he saves you, he gets the satisfaction of forcing you to summon him. It's lose-lose, but wouldn't you rather keep your life?"

Lydia turned on her side, her arm dangling off the side of the couch. "I thought you'd back me up on this," she grumbled.

"What? No, I am! I am just making sure you've looked at it from a longer-term standing point first. They taught us all about that in my training. It's important."

She rolled her eyes. There was nothing inherently wrong with what Delia was saying, but she just really wanted everyone to be on her team, and being forced to reconsider was aggravating. "Well... I don't want him going around town and wreaking havoc. Look-- I don't know what he's getting at. For all I know, he's gonna go off and coerce some other vulnerable girl to be his bride, and I don't want to be responsible for that."

"So... would you rather die?" Asked Delia.

With her eyes barely beginning to fog up with tears, Lydia looked over to the ginger, who was seated on the other side of the room. She hesitated before she spoke, and when she did, she was quiet as a lamb. "I... I don't know..." She shook her head. "I'm only nineteen. I don't want to be making these huge, goddamn life-or-death decisions." She closed her eyes, confessing in an even softer voice, "I... I don't want to die, Delia. Yesterday, I had five days to live, and now, I only have four..."

The woman sympathetically listened to her step-daughter. "I know. Lydia, you're far too young to be forced to make this choice, but I just hope you make the right one." She continued, "Just... consider the possibility of summoning that demon with the dirty stripes. It would hurt your pride, no doubt about it, but a damaged ego might just be better than being dead. And... here is where I would quote my Guru Otho if he hadn't been a total, lying fraud," she bitterly added.

Lydia nodded, not opening her eyes. She softly exhaled, wishing that she could just disappear-- wishing that she simply hadn't been informed of her death. It would've saved her the stress, after all. She couldn't even believe the words coming out of her mouth as she agreed, "I'll... consider it."

She had a big decision to make.

. . .

Later that day, Lydia curled up in a ball against the wall in the corner of her dark bedroom. Beetlejuice, luckily, hadn't shown his face. If he did, the blonde girl swore that she was going to lose her mind, as she was still fairly pissed off at the demon for his comment on her mother. She just needed time to herself: time to think, and time to process. She had a lot weighing on her mind.

Death. What a gruesome concept: the idea of kissing everything you used to know and love goodbye. On one hand, if she died, her family would, fortunately, still be able to see her. Beetlejuice's original summoning had made her entire family strange and unusual, so they wouldn't ignore her. On the other, no one else would. There would be no going off to college, and there would be absolutely no pursuing careers. No traveling. No ability to take pictures of anything except things within the house. No exploring the outdoors. If she even tried that, she'd be viciously eaten by a hungry sandworm. All of her freedoms would be revoked if she entered the penitentiary of death.

'I don't want to die,' Lydia thought to herself, pressing the back of her head against her cool wall. She had stress written all over her face. 'I don't want to die, god damn it. I could take a major risk and just... say no to him. Try to take tons of precautions. See what happens.' She shook her head. 'No, that's not good enough. Lydia, you're doomed. Get yourself under control.'

She was slipping. She felt like she was losing control of everything as every passing second drew her nearer to the moment of her demise. She balled her hand into a fist, her knuckles white, and proceeded to punch the ground while releasing a frustrated yell. She growled, "GOD DAMN IT." The girl loudly exhaled, gently rubbing her now-aching hand to soothe it.

Quite literally, she was dealing with a life or death situation. All she had to do was say his name. That was all, and it'd be over. That demon could stop everything, and he was the only one who could. Was she prepared to be responsible for whatever he did?

Unfortunately for Lydia, she was oblivious to the fact that Beetlejuice could be returned to the Netherworld by saying his name another three times. To be fair, it wasn't something he went around sharing with everyone. As far as she knew, if she summoned him and allowed him to interact with the physical world in doing so, it stayed that way, and that was terrifying. But the situation was dire. She wasn't prepared to be claimed by death. Not yet.

If it was life or death, Lydia knew what choice she had to make.

. . .

A/N:
3/16/20
Thanks for reading! This was a comparatively short chapter, but I hit a writing block. By the way, if you see me going back and editing chapters, I'm sorry, lmao.

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