Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

Chapter 10: A Reunion

Before I start I just want to say firstly thank you to everyone that's been reading and commenting, I'm glad you're enjoying the story :)
Secondly "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" was always intended as a working title and it's going to be changed very soon!

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Ten minutes later the little family were all awkwardly seated around the kitchen table. Katrina was looking frantically between her sister and the empty chair opposite, which had been pulled out  by unseen hands.
"I do believe you!" She protested when Beth challenged her faith. "It's just a lot to take in... I mean, mom was always talking about the ghosts in this house so it's not entirely unexpected that she should-"
"Mom says she thought you never believed her." Beth cut in, her eyes staring into Katrina's searching for any trace of insincerity. She found none.
"I wasn't sure..." Katrina replied with caution. She kept glancing at that empty chair.
"Mom says she's going to find a way for you to see her again."
The curiosity was growing rapidly and Katrina could no longer hold back. She stretched across the table with her right arm and waved it around the space above the chair.
"Oh my god it's freezing!" She squirmed and jerked her hand away like she'd touched a flame.
"Don't do that!" Beth scolded, slapping her sister's wrist. "She's still there, you know. Even if you can't see her."
"Alright."
They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Katrina piped up again.
"Good job I'm eighteen, they can't take us away from-" She stopped and watched as Beth leant towards their mother, arms folded underneath her, listening intently.
"Really?" The younger girl asked, "Are you sure?... Very well." She gave a little sigh and sat back up. "Mom says she's going to get Grandma to take care of us from now on."
"What!?"
"Oh don't worry, she says she'll still be around. She can't leave the house."
"Grandma Delia?" Katrina was disgusted at the very notion. "You can't be serious?" She yelled at the empty chair. "Grandma Delia? Mom she hates me."
Beth consulted Lydia once again before returning to her sister, "She says Grandma Delia doesn't hate you, she's just a funny kind of woman."
"Why do we need anyone at all? I'm eighteen, I can drop out of school, get a job-"
"She says if you drop out of school she'll kill you."
"I'd rather die than live under the same roof as Delia."
Beth looked at her mother, at her sister, and gave a hopeless little shrug. Katrina stood up angrily, almost knocking back her chair and stormed out of the room with a frustrated cry.
"I thought being dead would change the teenage tantrums." Lydia mused. "It's funny how quickly everything settles back down."
Beth smiled, "It's not the end of the world." She said, "You're dead but you're not gone."
Lydia settled back with a little wriggle. She was surprisingly content in death. Perhaps it was because it had been such a big part of her life, she always knew what came next because Barbara and Adam had shown her.
"Have you spoken to them yet?" Beth asked, as if reading her mother's mind.
"No not yet."
"Maybe you should."

"Hello? Barbara?" Beth knocked three times on the little wooden door of the attic before she pushed it open. Inside the two ghosts were sitting side by side on a dust sheet covered sofa, reading two old books. They looked up as Beth walked in.
"Hello dear." Barbara smiled, getting to her feet. It was then that she caught sight of Lydia, standing sheepishly behind her daughter. "You brought your mom? Can she... see us?"
"I think so." Beth nodded.
"Yes, I can see you." Lydia felt tears prickling in the backs of her eyes. "God, you haven't changed in thirty years!"
"You don't age when you're dead." Adam chuckled. He took a step back to admire Lydia, "You, on the other hand, have changed a great deal. What happened to that youthful twenty year old I used to see darting about the place?"
"She grew up. Married. Had kids." Lydia shrugged. "Life takes it's toll."
"So what did you do? How come you can see us now?"
Beth and Lydia looked at one another out of the corners of their eyes. They had hoped Barbara and Adam would come to the conclusion alone, but they could see they would have to explain after all.
"I'm dead." Lydia blurted out quite suddenly, half surprising even herself. "Sorry," she stammered, "that was very abrupt but I'm afraid it's true."
Barbara and Adam had been knocked for six and stood a moment with their mouths opening and closing like fish, neither knowing what to say.
"H-how..." Adam managed at last.
"I fell down the attic stairs, earlier today actually." Lydia replied. "It was our old man that did it."
"Our old man."
"Beetlejuice." She said through gritted teeth.
"He's here?" Barbara grabbed Adam's arm on instinct.
"Somewhere."
"How did he get here?"
Beth turned a deep crimson. The guilt and embarrassment were overwhelming.
"It was me." She admitted, shuffling on the dusty wooden floor. "I found your handbook and I.. I saw the business card in the back. I didn't know how to call on him so it was an accident but I shouldn't have been messing around with it anyway. And I had no right to take the book."
"Our book.. so that's where it went." Adam mused. "You can have that now, Lydia, though it might be a little out of date. They've discontinued the handbooks now, waste of paper apparently." 
"I was wondering why I didn't get one." She replied.
"Why did you want to see him at all?" Barbara pressed.
"I thought he could help mom see you and Adam again."
"He sure did that alright." Adam muttered before feeling a sharp pain as his wife's elbow dug into his ribs.
"It was him that pushed me down the stairs and now.. he could be anywhere." Lydia sighed. "But one thing I know is that we need to get rid of him before he causes any more damage.
"I know!" Barbara said brightly, "Adam and I have a lot of paperwork from Juno in the After Life that we've collected over the years. Perhaps there'll be something in there to help you..."
To Lydia's horror Barbara pulled open the cupboard door.
"No!" She cried, but it was too late. Everyone turned their heads just in time to see her lifeless body fall out and onto the rug with a little thud.
"How embarrassing." Said Adam, who didn't seem in the least bit phased. Lydia supposed he had seen far worse in his thirty years of death.
Barbara was a little taken aback but recovered quickly enough.
Little Beth let out a gasp and took a few stumbling steps backwards but could not take her eyes off the scene before her.
"I didn't know what to do with myself." Lydia frowned. "I just didn't want my girls to see me like that.. it's rather... traumatising."
"It's fine. I'm fine." Beth insisted, despite looking a little green.
"You know bodies rot, Lydia." Adam teased. "The smell after a few days would have foiled that plan."
"Delia's coming down soon to look after the girls." Lydia resolved. "She can deal with it. Organise a funeral, something like that. I'll even write a suicide note."
Barbara rolled her eyes and sat back down on the couch. "You're bringing Delia back?" She snorted.
"She liked you in the end." Lydia argued, though her point was a weak one and she knew exactly what Barbara would retaliate with.
"She still treated us like novelty toys though, didn't she."
"We were just tourist attractions." It was Adam's turn to pipe up.
"I need someone alive to take care of my girls!" Lydia said at last, putting her foot down. "Where's their father?" Adam probed, immediately sensing he'd gone too far.
"He's dead too." Chimed in Beth, cheerily. "We're not having much luck really."