Explaining Boundaries to a Demon is Hard | 👻 A Beetlelands story 👻

You're Invisible When You're Me

Adam and Barbara had tried looking all over the house for Beetlejuice, but their partner of a demon just wasn't anywhere in sight. And they retreated up to the attic that night feeling just as concerned as they had been.

Adam clambered onto the bed that they had been sharing with Beetlejuice over the last few months and glanced worriedly at Barbara.

"Do you think... he's okay?" Adam spurted out, breaking a silence just as soon as it'd made itself apparent. "Like, what if he went right back to the Netherworld and doesn't want to come back here again. We spent all this time helping him adjust to being a part of the family, a part of the household, and now he thinks we ended our relationship with him."

Barbara nodded, humming quietly to herself. "I'm sure he'll pop up soon. And we can explain things."

"I hope he does," Adam agreed, looking off to the side. He sighed, shaking his head.

The Maitlands didn't mind not going to sleep. Not that they didn't need to. Beetlejuice still hadn't popped up, bringing even more worry to them than they thought possible. Barbara now sat atop their bed, glancing at Adam as he paced the room. An alarm clock they had sitting on a bedside table flashed through time quickly. Going from one to six in the morning in the span of a few seconds.

From the second floor, they could hear the clear sounds of Charles and Delia starting to get themselves ready for the day. Adam stopped his pacing, turning to face Barbara as a similar look of worry to hers crossed his face. With a snap of his fingers, Adam turned some of their lights on, but left the rest of the attic dark and spooky. Just how they liked it.

Barbara clambered off of their bed and snapped her regular clothes onto her form before she teleported downstairs. Adam followed suit soon afterwards, and by the time he'd teleported downstairs, Barbara had already gotten started on making the Deetzes their breakfast and/or their coffee. As she usually did on a daily basis. Adam took his regular seat at the table and turned his attention to Charles and Delia. Delia's head snapped up in an instant, her giving Adam a worried look.

"Has he still not popped in? After what happened yesterday?" Delia questioned, as Barbara levitated two freshly made steaming cups of coffee for Charles and Delia, a bowl of vegan baked oatmeal for Delia, sausage and eggs for Charles, and a freshly made glass of orange juice and pancakes for Lydia and sat herself down at the table next to Adam.

"Yeah," Barbara said, after sharing a glance with Adam and nodding along with him. "And I must say, we're still just as worried. Since he misunderstood us yesterday, thought Adam and I didn't want to be in a relationship with him anymore, Im not sure he's going to show himself around here from now on. Unless we can clear things up with him, which I don't think is going to be possible..."

Charles glanced around, before his attention flicked to the other adults.

"Wait?" he spoke, a slight hint of confusion in his tone, "am I missing something here? What happened?"

"What we just said," Barbara replied, her attention flicking straight to the living male. "We had a bit of an issue with Beetlejuice yesterday. A slight misunderstanding. We're hoping to clear things up with him, but I'm not sure now—"

"And 'hopefully'," Adam continued, glancing over at Barbara for a moment before turning to look at Charles. "He'll come around soon for that to happen..."

"So, until then, whether or not he shows up again, let's try, at least, to figure out a way to do do," Barbara finished. "Try anything and everything we can to let him know."

The other members of the family nodded in unison. That seemed like a good idea. But how any of them were going to go about it, none of them were entirely sure. No matter how much any of them tried, nothing seemed to come to them. Lydia stood from the table and carried her now empty glass and plate over to the roof.

"Dad, Delia, Adam, Barbara, you guys can discuss that. I'm going up to the roof to take some photographs of the scenery around here. Not that it's supposed to be for a school project or assignment or anything. I just want to, that's all. Barbara, Adam, can you come up and let me know when it's time for lunch?"

"Sure thing, Lydia!" all four adults called after her as she, camera in hand, made her way up the stairs to the second floor.

Her footsteps faded away as she started making her way up the stairs to the attic. When the sounds of the attic door opening and closing were heard, all four adults turned back to one another, equally as confused. Equally as concerned.

Upstairs, Lydia carefully made her way through the attic and straightened her camera as she pushed open the window to the roof and clambered outside. Stepping closer, but far enough away for her to not end up falling and ultimately killing herself, to the edge of the roof, Lydia very carefully sat herself down and aimed her camera down towards the top of a forest at the base of the hill.

'One of these days,' Lydia thought to herself with a smile, snapping picture after picture of the forest, 'I'm going to have to snap some pictures of the forest from the hill itself—' Her thoughts were cut short when an all to familiar voice sounded from behind her.

"Oh, I didn't realize you were out here too!" Lydia lowered her camera, turning to face a now purple and blue haired, glum looking Beetlejuice and for a while, she forgot the reason why she was out there to begin with. Beetlejuice continued. "Are you up here to mope and think like I'm doing, scarecrow?"

"Have you been out here?!" Lydia shouted, ignoring the question. "The whole time?"

"Yeah..." Beetlejuice said, with a nod. "Where else?"

"Beej..." Lydia stood and moved to sit herself down next to Beetlejuice. "Adam and Barbara are worried about you—"

"If they were worried enough, they would have come out here by now," Beetlejuice replied glumly, his hair becoming even more purple and blue than it had been. "And they clearly haven't by now."

"Do you want to come back inside?" Lydia asked, looking worriedly at her best friend. "I'm pretty sure that Adam and Barbara will be more than happy to know that you've been out here the whole time. On the roof moping."

"I'd rather mope than go back inside right now," Beetlejuice grumbled, still just as glum as he had been. "I'd be out here for months if I wanted to..."

"I'm sure the Maitlands would be happy if you came back in—"

"I SAID I DIDN'T WANT TO!" Beetlejuice shouted, before calming down. His red hair faded back to the previous purple. "Sorry 'bout that, scarecrow."

Lydia nodded, then stood to make her way back inside. Suddenly deciding that she had taken enough pictures for now. Giving one last worried look at Beetlejuice, Lydia pushed open the window and climbed back through it into the attic.