A week passed without much activity...paranormal or otherwise. The girls kept attending school, Delia cooked and cleaned and annoyed everyone. And Lydia, Adam and Barbara made a plan. They spent hours up in the attic, putting ideas together, brainstorming. They read books on exorcisms and researched it on Lydia's old phone. The main question being, "Could ghosts exorcise other ghosts?"
Apparently yes, but it wasn't going to be easy.
"We could use witch bottles!" Suggested Lydia brightly. But Adam shook his head.
"Witch bottles just stop spirits coming into the building. That wouldn't exorcise him and it would get rid of all of us."
"I suppose we've got to be careful." Barbara said. "We could very easily end up exorcising ourselves. What if we got Beth to do it?"
"I don't want her involved." Lydia replied quickly. "Her or Katrina. And Delia would cock it up somehow. We have to do this." She flipped the pages of her book aggressively, searching for something, anything to help. "There's got to be one that's just for bad spirits... surely."
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"Katrina, did you get the milk?" Delia shrilled as her eldest granddaughter slammed the front door.
"Yes." Katrina came into the kitchen and dumped a large carrier bag on the work surface. "Another pasta bake?"
Delia nodded. It was the only thing she could cook that the girls didn't hate. She had attempted a roast a few days ago but it had gone horribly wrong; the word Beth had used to describe it was "soggy".
"You can help me cook it if you want." She suggested. Katrina rolled her eyes.
"Please don't try and mould me into your ideal of domesticity, Delia."
"You need to learn how to cook. What are you going to do when you get married?" She replied.
"I'm not getting married." Katrina swiped an apple from the fruit bowl and went off up to her room.
"Where are you going?" Her grandmother called.
"I've got homework."
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"Ah!" Adam shrieked, making everyone jump. "I've got it... look here-" He pointed to a page in the book he was reading. It was one Samuel had found for them on the other side. "How to Exorcise Malevolent Spirits. Exactly what we need, right?"
Lydia and Barbara craned their necks over Adam's shoulder to read the passage. They read in silence, eyes sweeping back and forth across the page.
"Who's Juniper?" Lydia asked when she had finished reading. Barbara and Adam shrugged. "You must call on Juniper, sometimes referred to as Brother Juniper, to help rid your home of a Malevolent Spirit." She read aloud. "Is he a psychic? When was this book published.. he could still be alive."
They checked the fly leaf and the back cover but there was no date regarding publishing.
"It's from the other side, isn't it." Barbara sighed, "They never make things easy."
"Maybe it's like Beetlejuice." Suggested Adam. "If we say his name three times, he might appear."
Lydia rolled her eyes but conceded with Barbara that it was worth a shot. Adam cleared his throat and took in a deep breath.
"Brother Juniper, Brother Juniper, Brother Juniper." They waited in silence, but nothing happened.
Lydia let out a frustrated cry and Barbara patted her on the back comfortingly.
"It's okay, dear." She said. "We'll work it out, I promise."
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Katrina slumped in her little desk chair, convinced her cause of death would be the essay she was struggling to write. Her brain felt like it was about to burst out of her skull.
"I don't care about the American Civil War!" She screamed, burying her head in her hands.
"I was there." A gruff voice replied. Katrina jumped and whirled around but the room was empty. She slowed her breathing and turned back to her computer, only to screech again at the sight of a tiny wild-eyed man in a black and white striped suit sitting on the top of her monitor.
"What the f-"
"Hi, you must be Katrina."
She didn't respond. Her mouth was dry.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." He chuckled, before getting to his feet and spreading his arms wide. "Well you have, it's me, Beetlejuice. I'm the ghost with the most, babe."
Katrina pinched her arm... just to be sure.
"Don't worry, you're not dreaming. Must be hard to believe I'm here, right? Well I am. It's your lucky day. I don't do autographs."
"Beetlejuice." Katrina said, regaining speech. "You... you killed mom."
"The one time." He replied. "You do one thing wrong and you're never allowed to forget it."
She reached out to grab him but he disappeared into a thin cloud of green smoke. Katrina frowned, staring at the spot he had been in just a second before.
"So here's the thing-" She spun round on her chair, leaping out of it and facing Beetlejuice. He was now normal sized and sat cross-legged on her bed. "You probably miss your mom."
"She's still around, Beth can see her."
"Ah Beth... yes... just like Lydia. Your mother was a real stunner when she was a kid, babe. But you... you're even better."
Katrina shuddered, she didn't like the way his wide eyes watched her.
"So we're going to make a deal. I can help you see your mom again, I can bring her back to life..."
"You can do that?"
"Of course I can!" Beetlejuice snapped. "I'm a bio-exorcist I can do anything. But there's a condition."
"What?"
"We er... you know... tie the knot, so to speak."
Katrina backed away in disgust, her face wrinkled, "Ew! No! Marry? Me marry you?"
"Wha'd'ya say? Elope? A Vegas Wedding?"
"No!"
He laughed and got to his feet. "Guess your mom's dead then." He made his way to the door but before he could turn the handle Katrina had stopped him.
"Wait!"
He turned back around.
"Can you really bring her back?" She asked, her eyes trusting... naive.
"I can do anything, babe."
She hesitated. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"
"Right okay, listen." He sat her down. "Before you came to this house, what did you think of your mom's ghost stories?"
"I thought they were made up."
"And now?"
"Well now I know they're true." She replied. "But why should I trust you when it's your fault she's dead in the first place?"
"Listen to me, kid. I can take a life away.. that's my choice. But I also have the power to give that life back. I'm not an ordinary ghost, I'm a sprite. So... if you want your mom back, living a nice happy life with you all then you're gonna have to trust me." He smiled and held out his hand. "Till death do us part, babe."
YOU ARE READING
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice
Fanfiction(Post Movie) Lydia Deetz returns to her childhood home, this time with daughters of her own. But she is upset to find Barbara and Adam, the ghosts she grew up with, completely gone. (This story is continuing)
