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

||Chapter Forty Eight|| Stronger Together

Lydia, the first of the group of eleven to take immediate notice of the shadow person, turned around, backing up and away from the shadow as it creeped further towards her. And upon seeing this, her family, Betelgeuse, and Miss Argentina moved to stand in between her and the shadow. But the shadow passed sifted over them - continuing to move towards Lydia as if it was feeding off of her fear and stress and draining her of her energy. Lydia was backed up into a corner by the shadow, her hands held up in front of her face protectively.

Her dad, Delia, the Maitlands, Betelgeuse, and Miss Argentina turned - watching as the dark shadow cornered Lydia. They too were afraid - but they knew that something needed to be done. Barbara moved forwards as quick as she could, teleporting around the shadow person and protectively standing in front of Lydia, facing the shadow person. And it wasn't that much long before Adam, Charles, Delia, Betelgeuse, and Miss Argentina followed suit.

"Lydia!" Barbara turned her attention towards the teenager - who was still as frightened but also trying to (unsuccessfully) keep the shadow person away from her. "Don't let that shadow feed off your fear. Try to remain as calm as you possibly can. That should hopefully drive it away!"

"You think I'm not trying!" Lydia stressed, but that didn't do much to help. "I can barely keep myself calm as it is!"

Barbara turned to Delia. "Del, get Lydia upstairs to her room and try to at least keep her calm and less frightened. The rest of us will try to hold off this shadow person as best as we can and when it's hopefully gone, we'll join you. Okay?"

Delia nodded in affirmation, grabbing Lydia's hand and leading her upstairs to her bedroom and away from the living room.

Closing the door, Delia helped Lydia over towards her bed - the teenager sitting up on it. She was now breathing heavily - something that would definitely draw that shadow person up to Lydia's bedroom before the others even had the chance to hold it off. Which meant that Delia had to get Lydia as calm as possible before that even happened.

She sat herself down on Lydia's bed, putting a hand on the stressed teenager's back. Lydia turned her head, looking up at her. Delia saw the look of panic in Lydia's eyes and pulled out a crystal she knew would be of help to the teenager and relieve her of her fear. She rested it down in Lydia's lap and Lydia picked it up - looking it over with confusion. Then she turned her head and focused her attention on Delia.

"Uh... thanks, but what do I need this for?"

"It's to help you relax and calm down. And to try and keep that shadow person away from you," Delia explained, while also thinking to herself, 'I hope the others are having better luck with trying to hold off that shadow and keeping it from coming upstairs to continue feeding off of Lydia's fear.'

In reality, however, that wasn't what was happening. For now at least.

The shadow person now had Barbara pinned against a wall - and was currently feeding off of her. And Barbara was at a severe and great risk of fading away completely unless something was done. She was screaming in agony, the pain of what she was experiencing feeling a lot like her accidental almost-exorcism. Adam was trying to break the shadow person's hold on his wife. But nothing he was doing seemed to be working.

That's when he got a great idea in his mind.

Although he wasn't sure if it would even work as a result of what was currently going on at that exact moment, he knew he should still try. He moved over towards one of the far walls in the living room - summoning a piece of chalk and drawing a new door to the Netherworld on it. Then he knocked on it three times and stood off to the side as he turned his attention over to the shadow person that still had his wife in its hold.

"Hey, you! Dark Shadow person! Come and get me!" he shouted, hoping, in his mind, that that would work.

The shadow person released its hold on Barbara, her falling back down towards the ground and returning to normal as it turned and moved towards Adam. He smirked - moving to stand in front of the door to the Netherworld that he'd drawn.

"Adam!" Barbara called out to her husband, holding a hand out towards him with a look of confusion in her eyes.

"Relax, Barbara. I know exactly what I'm doing." As the dark shadow person closed in on him, Adam made to move out of the way. This, of course, caused the shadow person to go back through the door and it closed with a loud but low staticky noise before glitching and fading out of existence. Adam pumped his fists in the air in victory. "Yes!"

He moved over towards where his wife now was - reaching down and helping her up.

"Barbara, you okay?"

"I'm fine." Barbara leaned forward into her husband's hold as he embraced her. "Thanks for that, Ad. Perhaps we should all go up and make sure Lydia's less stressed. Let her and Delia know that we got rid of that shadow person?"

The others nodded in agreement, Miss Argentina and the help she'd brought with her opting to stay downstairs whilst Charles, the Maitlands, Betelgeuse, and Emily headed upstairs to Lydia's room. They came to a stop just outside of said room - peering in and spotting Lydia and Delia still sat on the former's bed - Delia still comforting Lydia. Turning her head, Delia spotted everyone standing outside and motioned for them to come in.

"Is Lydia okay? Did you manage to calm her down and less stressed out?" Barbara asked as she and the others entered and gathered around both living females. Delia turned her head to look solely at her.

"Lydia's doing fine," she replied with a nod. "I managed to help her feel both less frightened and less stressed out so hopefully no more dark shadow people come through any glitching doors to the Netherworld with the sole intention of feeding off her fear and the such. What exactly happened down there?"

"Well... after you led Lydia upstairs, the shadow person turned its attention to Barbara and started to feed off of her instead. Almost made her fade out of existence completely. I'm lucky I managed to figure out a way to get the attention of the shadow person away from Barbara long enough to get it back into the Netherworld," Adam said, Delia turning her head to look over at him. "Even if I had to turn its attention over towards me in order to pull that off."

Delia nodded, standing up as Barbara sat down where she previously had been sitting.

"Lydia, you okay?" Barbara asked, putting a hand on the teenager's back and causing the latter to look in her direction.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking, Barbara. That whole thing was so scary. I'm glad I was able to get away before anything of the sort could happen. Did you manage to figure out a way for us to fix the whole situation with the barrier between here and the Netherworld whilst you were at it?"

Barbara glanced off to the side before looking back at Lydia. "Not exactly. But we'll figure out something. And we better do so soon. The least we want is any more shadow people coming here into the living world. So, do any of you have any ideas as to what we should do?"