A New Life (Sequel to 'Beetlejuice: A Blast into The Past')

Chapter 6: Punishment

AN: Mentions of drugs (powdered caffeine)

Young Betelgeuse was sitting on the floor in the living room, playing Call of Duty on the PS5 with some friends. He had a headset on and was laughing and having an exciting time with them. Because of the new Corona virus pandemic, they had to settle on talking through headsets, but no one seemed to mind at all.

"John, go careful, there is a sniper on the roof." Betelgeuse warned. Delia walked into the room and heard 'where?' come through the headset. "I don't know, just saw them peering over the roof." Betelgeuse informed.

'Okay, I'll find him' came through the headset.

"Him? John, they could be a girl, gaming is for all genders." Betelgeuse kindly reminded, and another voice, a female voice, came through, taking Betelgeuse's side. It sounded like a girl to Delia, and this was confirmed when Delia heard Lawrence. "Let's bust their arse Sky!" he chuckled. Delia shook her head.

"Now where is this sniper?" came John's voice.

"They were on the roof!" Betelgeuse reminded and smirked as he shot John's game character "Oh wait. It was just me!"

"Oh, come on!" John complained and Sky cheered Betelgeuse for his prank. The laughter was cut short when Delia crept up to the demon and squirted some medicine in a syringe into Betelgeuse's mouth to help with his ADHD. She knew that the demon would pretend to swallow the medication so gently massaged his throat instantly to encourage him to swallow.

"Oh Ma!" he complained and the two people he was gaming with laughed as the demon retched multiple times. Suddenly a silence fell from the Beetle-Maitland-Deetz household and the television screen went fuzzy.

"Beej? You there?" Sky asked through the headphones.

"Beej?" John called. Betelgeuse strained and tried hard to speak but no words came out at all. His breath cut short, and he struggled to even breathe properly. Delia stared at him and then to the storm raging outside. She took the headphones from him and put them on herself.

"He will be okay; he is having another attack!" she spoke frantically.

"Oh my god!" / "Damn! I hope he is alright." Sky and John spoke in unison. Delia scooped him up in her arms and walked over to the sofa. She sat him on her knee and cuddled him close, giving him his noise cancelling headphones with his Spotify musical playlist blaring out on full volume. It still didn't help him, and he never calmed down. He held his hands firmly over his ears and tears poured out of him like a water fountain. Delia concluded this wasn't because of the storm.

"Why are you doing this? What do you want?" Delia yelled, tears streaming down her face. Juno emerged from the shadows, smirking holding a small medicine bottle labelled 'methylphenidate'. Betelgeuse's medication. "What did you do?"

"It's not what I did. It's what YOU did." Juno laughed.

"What did you swap his meds with?" Delia barked after stopping crying.

"That's no concern of yours!"

"Well, he is MY boy, so it is MY concern." Juno then snapped her fingers and the storm got worse, each bang came louder and faster, just like the stream of tears gushing down the demon's face. Betelgeuse couldn't breathe at all now and passed out from his lack of oxygen. "MOUSEY?!" Delia yelled and rapidly shook the demon in some hopes of waking him up. He laid there still unconscious. The rest of the family walked in, Adam and Barbara carrying two large bags filled with food, followed by Charles and Lydia carrying another two but in Lydia's spare hand, she held a brown box with the demon's name written on it.