We all got comfortable, Larry and I on a crate, and Lydia and the other two people on the sofa across from us. 

"Okay," Lydia began, letting out a determined breath. "Well, first off, this is Adam and Barbara Maitland." They waved, and I waved back. "They are the previous owners of this house. Their house was put up on the market when they died due to some weak floorboards."

I held up a hand. "Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. You said died?? Just wanted to clarify."

Lydia simply nodded solemnly. "They're ghosts. They live in the attic because they're trapped in the house, until they get all of the 'paperwork'"-she inserted air quotes here-"taken care of in the Netherworld."

"Which could take ages," I heard Larry mutter under his breath. 

"So, you mean ghosts are real? And-"

"Look, (Y/N), I don't wanna be rude, but it'll be easier if you ask your questions after I finish," Lydia interrupted.

I nodded apologetically. "Sorry. Please continue."

"Anyway, my dad, Delia, and I moved in around two years ago. I was able to see Barbara and Adam because I'm strange and unusual, and we tried to work together to scare my father and Delia bad enough to get them to move us back to New York.

"It didn't work, which is where Beej comes in."

"Beej?"

"It's a nickname of mine," Larry explained to me quickly. 

Before I could ask him more about that, Lydia continued. 

"I summoned him, and he worked his magic and forced everyone but me and the Maitlands out of the house."

"Summoned?? Magic??" I arched an eyebrow and gave Larry a sideways glance. He groaned and sighed wearily. 

"Alright, lemme give you some of my backstory, babes.

"I'm well..... dead. The whole 'Lydia's uncle' thing was a cover-up, just a story we made up to tell you and your friends to avoid complications. I'm actually a demon. A ghost. A Spector. I lived..." He stuck out his forked tongue and squinted up at the ceiling in concentration. "....I guess it would be close to around 200 years ago, although my powers have allowed me to travel back farther than that. I er- died"-the way he put a certain emphasis on this word made me think that there was much more to it than that-"around the War of 1812."

I perked up at this information. "Do you remember exactly how you died??"

Lydia and the Maitlands all shared the same worried expression. 

"What?"

Lydia looked down at the floor. "He doesn't really like to talk about it. We've never really gotten anything out of him." 

I turned to Larry and saw she was right; he looked emotionally distressed. 

"Larry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" 

He held up a hand for me to stop, and gave me a sad smile. "Listen, Angel, why don't you let Lydia finish, and then I'll tell you about my past in a bit? Okay?"

I nodded. "Okay."

"Anyway," Lydia resumed, clearing her throat, "Beej and I scared a bunch of people after taking over the house,"-Ah. So that's what happened to the barista.-"I tried to find my mom in the Netherworld, Beej forced me to marry him, I stabbed him, Juno almost killed us all, and Beej ironically saved the day when he rode in on a sandworm which ate Juno."

She blurted the last part extremely quickly, so it took a few seconds for me to register everything. But when I finally did, oh boy was I both confused and concerned. Not to mentioned horrified. 

"You may ask questions, now," Lydia told me, reading my mind. 

I whipped around to Larry. "YOU MARRIED A 15-YEAR-OLD????" I asked, my voice going up both in octave and volume. 

"IT WAS A GREEN CARD THING!!!" he shouted back. 

"WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN??!?!?"

"Lyds, did you have to mention everything? You couldn't have skipped over that little hiccup??"

"Hiccup? Beej, I'm a widow now, because of you," she replied bluntly, crossing her arms and giving him a half-lidded stare. "Besides, didn't we all agree that (Y/N) deserves the truth?"

Larry sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Look, the only reason I married her is because if I marry someone, I become alive again, okay? There were no romantic feelings involved whatsoever."

"That's still pretty messed up, man."

"Hey! I'm different, now! I had a change of heart at the end of the musical, remember??"

"What."

"What."

Lydia sighed tiredly. 

"Ignore him. Anyway, when I went to the Netherworld to find my mom, Juno, the head hauncho there and Beej's mom, found me and said that I couldn't leave. I escaped, but Juno found me and my family and was going to kill us all when Beej popped up on Sandy and had her eat his mom."

"Well, then. That's not a lot to take in, at all," I said sarcastically, still staring off into space. I turned to Larry. "Do you wanna go talk, now?"

He nodded solemnly. 

We both stood and moved toward the attic door. 

"It was nice to meet you, Adam and Barbara," I told them, giving them a small wave. 

"You too!" they chorused back sweetly. 

As we walked back to my room, I noticed I had some sharp pains in my arm and my chest. I shrugged and ignored it. We finally reached my bedroom, and Larry shut the door behind us. 

I sat on my bed criss-cross applesauce while he paced back and forth. Larry's hair was a mishmash of all sorts of colors, signifying his conflicted distress.

"Lar, if you don't wanna talk about it, you don't have-"

"No, no, I want to. I need to get it off my chest," he replied somewhat resolutely. 

Speaking of chests, the pain in mine was getting increasingly worse. I massaged it idly.

"I uh... I committed suicide." I looked up at him. "I... I lost someone... someone that I l-loved...." his voice became uneven and tears spilled from the corners of his eyes. "I just... I couldn't bear the thought of l-losing her, so I... I-" He collapsed next to me on the bed, breaking down into racking sobs. His hair was the deepest purple I had ever seen. 

I hugged him close, my mind racing. "Larry, what does your nickname 'Beej' stand for?" I asked once he had calmed down a bit. 

"I can't s-say it," he replied in between sniffles. 

"What? Why?"

"It's p-part of my curse, babes."

"Oh. Well, gimme a hint."

"The l-last time I played charades, I got shoved o-off the roof."

"Lar, I swear I'm not gonna push you off of the roof."

"O-okay.... Are you familiar with astrology?"

"Um, a little, why?" My heart rate as steadily increasing, and so was the pain in my chest. 

"Well, my middle name is named after one of the stars in the Orion constellation. It's German."

"B-Betelgeuse," I gasped softly, my heart seeming to stop.

"Yup, you got it," he said, giving me a sad smile. 

I realized in a panic that my heart has not seemed to stop, it had stopped. I was going into cardiac arrest. 

I was having a heart attack. 

I had had a couple of heart attacks in the past, both fatal, of course, so I knew the drill. It only took about two hours for me to revive again. 

"L-Lawrence," I gasped, falling over and quickly losing consciousness.

"Did you just-" His face grew panicked when he looked back at me. "(Y-Y/N)?? (Y/N), what's wrong??? (Y/N)!!!" 

Larry's desperate cries became muffled and his tear-streaked face became blurry as death clouded my senses and I slipped away....

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Holy hooooooly holololyolyly crap you guys!!! 27k reads??? ARE YALL FRRRR???? BECAUSE IM STUNNED WOWWOWOWOWOW HOOOOOWWWWW

YALL IM LIKE ON A HAPPY HIGH RNNNNN AAAAYYYYYY

But anyway, on a side note lol, thank you guys so much for being so patient with me as I fleshed out this chapter lol. It was a doozy and I didn't really know where I wanted to go with it until today ha. I'm happy with how it went, though. I hope you guys like it. I'm in the process of writing the next one and have way too many ideasssssssss.

Also! The prizes for the contest are gonna be listed in the next part, so keep reading for that info. And in the part after that, I will list the winners, their pieces, the honorable mentions, and their pieces, as well. 

Thanks again, guys! 

Ciao, bellas!

~Smol Emo