Out of Sight, Out of Mind//A Beetlejuice Fanfiction

||Chapter Thirty Nine|| The Next Big Thing

Charles had been handed the Handbook for the Recently Deceased by Betelgeuse, the former of the two gazing down at the appearance of his first wife's name in the page that the demon had pointed out. The living male's eyes were widened with a mixed look of surprise and confusion, wondering why his first wife's name would even appear in the Handbook in the first place. He hadn't brought her up and/or talked about her at all.

Gazing around the room, he took notice that Delia, Adam, Barbara, and Betelgeuse were all looking at him with either worried or confused expressions on each of their faces. Over in the corner, he took immediate notice of his daughter waking up from her nap and sitting upright on the couch, the teenager blinking a few times before looking around the room. Her gaze eventually landed on her dad and she noted the look of confusion plastered on his face, it also appearing on her face.

"Dad, is something the matter?"

He held out the Handbook and Lydia stood up from the couch, walking over to where her dad was and looking down at the page he was pointing at. Her eyes immediately widened in the same surprise her dad experienced upon noticing her mother's name in the book.

"Dad, why is dead mom's name in the Handbook?"

"I was wondering that too. I don't really know," he said out of confusion, scratching at the back of his neck.

Delia, Adam, and Barbara had all since stood up and moved over to the opposite side of the living room, standing next to Betelgeuse and giving just about enough room for father and daughter to sit down together on the couch. The Handbook for the Recently Deceased lay open in Lydia's lap. She slowly turned the page, her eyes widening in even more confusion upon spotting two more words. Both of which must've just appeared in the Handbook.

Maitland-Deetz. Their combined family name.

'That must have some meaning,' Lydia thought to herself. 'Maybe have something to do with the prophecy itself. Maybe meaning that we have to reconnect the living and the dead. Have other breathers believe in the strange and unusual. Allow them all a chance to talk to their lost loved ones. It would certainly be a good feeling. Especially if all of this meant that I could actually see my mom again. Maybe that's the reason as to why her name appeared in the Handbook for the Recently Deceased.'

"Lydia," her dad spoke, snapping her out of her brief thought period. She shook her head a few times then turned to her dad.

"H-huh?" Lydia asked.

When her dad said nothing, Lydia's attention turned from him to the rest of the family before she once again looked down at the Handbook. Located directly underneath their family name was yet another sentence. One of which wasn't glowing as much as the rest of the words that they had found were. Which in itself was strange. Lydia looked up and around the living room, the rest of her family now having gathered around and watching to know exactly what that particular sentence was, then back down towards the sentence.

Did the prophecy have something to do with all of them and not just her?

"The link between the world of the living and the Netherworld may soon be broken but those alive and dead and together as one will work together and set things right," Lydia read out loud, the other five members of the family nodding along. Lydia's eyes continued to scan the page, her eventually coming across another two glowing sentences. This time, these two were faint and looked like hidden messages. And Lydia was unsure of how she could even see them. "Wait! There's more."

"What's it say?" asked Barbara when a silence fell over the room. Lydia turned to her then focused her attention on the Handbook again, continuing to read.

"Umm..." she said, the two hidden sentences now having become clear to her. "Everyone in the family at the moment, including those that have moved on, will all need to be together in order for this to work." The teenager scrunched her face in a look confusion, unsure of what that was supposed to mean. "Ummm... what?"

"I think that's supposed to mean that we all need to be together in order to keep the barrier between both this world and the Netherworld from fading and disappearing forever," her dad spoke up after a while and Lydia turned to look in his direction, still a little confused about all of this. "Keep reading on, Lydia. I'm sure that it'll explain into further detail what all of this is supposed to mean."

She nodded, turning to look at the Handbook and continuing to read. "For those that have moved on, a little chant to summon them is below." Lydia's eyes continued to scan the page she was on, still confused, eyebrows knit together. She turned her attention away from the Handbook and towards Betelgeuse. "Wait? I thought you told me that there was no way that I could summon my mom back here. That she was in the Netherworld for good. What's all this supposed to mean?"

A similar expression appeared on Betelgeuse's face and he tilted his head to the side. "Not sure. That may have just appeared there once you finished reading that sentence. It must have only got something to do with the prophecy. That and it could've just been a hidden message of the sort."

"So, you're basically saying that there has been a way that I could have summoned my mom this whole entire time and you never even bothered to tell me about it the same week we first met?"