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

||Chapter Forty|| Beliefs

"Well, if we'd known about that prophecy that same week, then I would have mentioned it to you!" retorted Betelgeuse, his hair constantly flicking between red and green as he slammed the Handbook for the Recently Deceased closed loudly and set it gently down on the coffee table.

Then an argument between living girl and demon started.

All four adults confusedly looked between the two best friends as their argument continued on, unsure of whether or not it was going to stop anytime soon. For now, it seemed that it wasn't going to come to a stop anytime soon. But still, they knew that they needed to do something about the argument before anything could happen. They turned to look at one another, having a silent conversation whilst also looking constantly over towards Lydia and Betelgeuse as their argument continued.

Barbara noticed that three pairs of eyes were now focused on her and she looked back at Lydia and Betelgeuse before she turned back to face Adam, Charles, and Delia with a slight confused look on her face. "You want me to try to break up their argument?"

"Yeah!" Her husband nodded. "Since you're like the only one who can get them to stop with their arguing."

Barbara thought about just that for a brief while, then nodded in response as she turned and teleported over to where Lydia and Betelgeuse were now. The suddenness of her teleporting was enough to get Lydia and Betelgeuse to stop arguing. But only briefly as the argument started up again soon afterwards.

Barbara knew she had to act fast. So she did the first thing that came to mind. "Okay, you two! Cut it out! We're not going to figure out what's going on if you two keep up with your arguing."

Immediately, both of them stopped and turned to Barbara with equal apologetic looks on their faces. They each muttered out a sorry - not only to each other but to the rest of the family as well. They sat back down where they had previously been sitting, Betelgeuse picking up the Handbook again and opening it and Lydia leaning backwards in her spot on the couch, now thinking about the possibility of her mom coming back to the living world (even if was only for her helping them out with the prophecy and everything that had to do with it - if summoning her was possible).

All four adults sat down as well - Charles and Delia over by where Lydia was sitting and Adam and Barbara on either side of Betelgeuse, all three deceased now looking down at the Handbook and seeing if they could find about summoning the dead. If there was any, which they hoped there would be.

Adam pointed out some spell in the Handbook he seemed to find interesting. "How about that?"

"Sexy, that's another spell for exorcising the dead. I don't think you'd like that," Betelgeuse had to point out.

Adam's face fell slightly upon hearing that. "Oh.... wait? Have you been exorcised before?"

"No. But I've come close to that as a form of punishment from my ma way too many times that I can't count exactly how many times it was."

Barbara flipped the page of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased a couple of times and pointed out a couple paragraphs of information that she found to be interesting. "What about that?"

Betelgeuse's attention flicked from Adam to the Handbook and he read over the information Barbara had pointed out before he turned to look over at Barbara. "That is some information about summoning dead people from the Netherworld. But it's information about summoning a demon from the Netherworld and we're looking for information about summoning ghosts, which is rarer. And I think I'm fine with being the only demon around here. I don't think you guys would want to accidentally summon another demon."

Adam and Barbara looked up at Betelgeuse in unison and nodded, humming in agreement to that. As were the Deetzes.

Before either Adam or Barbara could even ask him where they could find information on how to summon a ghost and not a demon, Betelgeuse had already flipped to the next page of the Handbook and was reading through it until he found the information he was looking for... with a little note (warning?) written underneath it.

"Wait? What's that say? I can't read it." Adam pointed at the little note underneath the writing.

Betelgeuse's attention focused on the note in question and he read it to himself a few times before his attention turned to Adam, who, like everyone else in the living room, was looking at them curiously. "It says that only those who're close to the ghost that is being summoned can summon them."

It was then that Lydia and her dad noticed that everyone else in the room was looking directly at them with surprised and stunned looks plastered on each of their faces. In unison, the two of them uttered out, "what?"

Barbara motioned for Lydia and her dad to come over and take a look at that particular bit of information in the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. Once they did, Lydia was the first to look up and focus her attention towards all three deceased, a particular thought, a question fresh in her mind. "So, my dad and I are the only ones who can summon my dead mom back here?"

Betelgeuse was the one who nodded in response, handing the Handbook for the Recently Deceased over towards Lydia who took it and looked at the information and the note written underneath it.

"So, my dad and I just need to read out the few words that are shown here and she'll be summoned? But what if it doesn't work?" A panicked, worrisome look appeared on Lydia's face, worried that the little note - the spell to summon a ghost - would fail and her dead mom wouldn't be summoned.

But there was also this little voice deep within her mind that was telling her that that particular spell was going to work. And she believed it.