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

||Chapter Forty One|| Figuring Things Out

Lydia read through the spell she now knew, and hoped, would work a few more times . Part of her was afraid that her mom would have to go back to the Netherworld after all of this was done, whilst the other part of her had hope that her mom would stay with her and her family in the living world for good. She was afraid that, with everything that was happening as of recent, with the fact that the barrier between the world of the living and the Netherworld was getting closer and closer to weakening and fading away completely that she and her dad would be unable to summon her mom.

She turned her attention away from both the spell and the Handbook and glanced around the living room at the rest of her family. Each and every one of them was looking back towards her with matching smiles on their faces - all of which made her even more confident (since when did she get nervous)?

She closed her eyes briefly, inhaling and exhaling before opening them again and looking back down towards the Handbook. For a moment, she could hear her heartbeat loudly in her ears and she started breathing heavily. Charles turned to his daughter, concerned, reaching out a hand and resting it on her shoulder. Delia was whispering to her and trying to calm her down. Adam and Barbara had stood up and moved to stand over near where the Deetzes and Betelgeuse were, doing the same as what Delia was doing.

And it was then that Lydia felt herself start to pass out again, Barbara acting fast and moving to steady the teenager to prevent such from happening.

The moment the teenager was calmer, she focused solely on Barbara as the latter of the two spoke. "Lydia, you okay?"

She nodded, adding, "I'm fine. Thanks for asking, Barbara."

"Did you have another vision?" Adam asked tentatively.

Turning her head and focusing her attention over towards Adam, Lydia thought quietly to herself for a brief moment. "Yeah... I think I saw the barrier between this world and the Netherworld weaken and fade away even more. Which means that it may or may not fade away completely soon."

"Then we still have a little time before then," Barbara spoke up with confidence. "Given we can keep that from happening."

"And if my dad and I go ahead and summon my mom back here to the house now, then we may prevent the barrier between both here and the Netherworld before much of anything can happen quicker," Lydia added, her attention now turned to Barbara, who nodded in response and agreement.

"Well, what are you two waiting for!" Delia said, exuberance in her tone. "Go ahead and do that now!"

Lydia and her dad turned their attention back down towards the Handbook, the two of them rereading the spell they were going to use to summon Emily. Upon Lydia noticing a set of confusing instructions on how to summon a ghost, she and her dad looked up and back over towards Betelgeuse with equal hesitant looks on their faces. Betelgeuse looked between the two of them then focused onto the set of instructions given.

"Ooh..." he said as he looked back up at the two of them. "That looks far more difficult than I thought it would be."

He paused, looking from Delia to Adam to Barbara before looking back over towards Lydia and her dad - both of whom were still as hesitant as they were before. As were Delia and the Maitlands.

"How difficult?" Charles spoke up, a slight uncertainty in his tone.

"There are certain items that you need to get from the Netherworld before you can summon her here," the demon responded slowly but thoughtfully.

"Like what?" Barbara asked warily, eyeing Betelgeuse with a look of apprehension.

"Like..." Betelgeuse paused, summoning a black and white striped bookmark out of thin air and placing it in the pages they were currently on before flipping the page and continuing to read.

When he said nothing for the next few minutes, the rest of the family, sans Barbara, looked at him with matching looks of apprehension as they waited for him to give an answer. But the longer he spent reading through the list of things that they needed to do the spell, the more annoyed the rest of the family was starting to become. And Betelgeuse wasn't even aware of how long it was taking him until Barbara stalked over to him and tapped him harshly on the shoulder.

He stopped immediately, focusing his attention away from the Handbook for the Recently Deceased and looking over towards Barbara, looking bewildered.

"Ow! Hey! What was that for, B-Town?"

She folded her arms in response, giving Betelgeuse a look that the latter was sure could kill him twice. "You were taking far too long with your reading and the rest of us were waiting to know just what items we needed from the Netherworld."

Betelgeuse turned his head, looking around the living room at the other members of the family - all of whom were looking pointedly over at him with matching expressions on their faces. Looking back down towards the Handbook, he reread through the list of items that they needed for the spell before refocusing his attention back up at the rest of the Maitland-Deetz family.

"But," he eventually spoke up after a brief few moments of silence, figuring out a way for them to have all of the required items that they needed without any of them having to go to the Netherworld. "Sexy, Babs, and I could just summon the items we needed here. Saves us having to go to the Netherworld to get them."

Barbara threw her hands out as she moved closer to Betelgeuse, an annoyed look still on her face. "Why didn't you tell us that at first? If we had known that to begin with, we would already have the items that we need!"

"Hey!" Betelgeuse retorted, his hair color briefly flashing red before reverting back to green as he stood up from the couch. "If you had asked me that to begin with, then I would have told you all that, wouldn't I?! It's not exactly entirely my fault that I forgot to mention that to you!"

"It is so your fault!" Barbara reprimanded.

"I just said that it wasn't, B-Town!"

Adam looked to Delia, the both of them moving to stand in between Barbara and Betelgeuse in hopes that they could prevent a further argument from happening. Especially after the one that Lydia and Betelgeuse had had earlier. Adam pulled Barbara away, Delia doing the same with Betelgeuse. But both ghost and demon were still intent on arguing.

Before anything else could happen, though, Adam took the opportunity to speak up in hopes that he could stop the argument. "Hey! Stop it, guys! We're not going to figure anything out or try to keep the barrier between here and the Netherworld if you just spend a while longer arguing. Let's just summon the items that we need to complete the spell and then go from there. Okay?"

Stopping their arguing, Barbara and Betelgeuse looked at one another in apology before turning and glancing over towards Adam.

Happier now, Adam chose the opportunity to continue on and speak up again. "So, what's the first of the items that we need for this spell, Betelgeuse? And exactly how many items do we need for it?"

The demon turned his attention back down towards the Handbook, doing a read through of the list of items required for the spell they needed to summon Emily before looking up and towards the rest of the family - all of whom were waiting for an answer. "Ummm... from the looks of it, not too many items are needed for this particular spell. Probably around five-ten of them. It won't even take that long for us to summon them."

"So, we could summon them all at once. Or should each of the three of us summon an equal amount of items?" Barbara inquired, eyeing Betelgeuse quizzically.

He thought for a brief minute, then looked back at Barbara. "Well... technically, there are a total of six items that we need for this. So, if we could each summon two items then that would make things a whole lot easier."

Barbara and Adam looked at one another, the both of them wary, then they turned their attention back over towards Betelgeuse. Moving to stand over near him, they also glanced down at the Handbook as they deduced which four of the six listed items they were going to summon. Eventually though, they both came to a decision as they turned their attention back up at Betelgeuse.

Noting the looks on both ghosts' faces, Betelgeuse nodded along as they pointed out which items they were going to summon.