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

||Chapter Four|| My Reasons Why

"Tell us why you're here or go back to the Netherworld where you belong!" snapped Barbara out of rage, pulling away from Adam and stomping lightly and soundlessly over towards Betelgeuse with her fist raised and shaking. The anger on her face had become a lot more obvious than it had been previously and was showing more clearly. She jabbed a finger in the area where Betelgeuse's stomach would be and growled ferociously before taking a swing at and hitting him in the face. Adam, Charles, and Delia went to stand next to the female ghost, all proud of what she had just done.

"Good job, honey," said Adam, resting a hand on her back. His gaze flicked to Betelgeuse, who now lay on the floor pretending to be unconscious. "Now, Betelgeuse, tell us the reason why you're here!"

"I'm glad you asked, sexy!" Betelgeuse sprung up. "Like I said, I heard Lydia's wish three months ago that I would eventually return to this place and seek forgiveness from the lot of you. Speaking of scarecrow, where is she?"

"At school, not that she'd be thrilled to see you when she gets home!" snapped Barbara as she folded her arms. "I seriously doubt she would."

"And I seriously hope she will," replied Betelgeuse with a smirk. "Otherwise she wouldn't have wished for my return."

"Wait.... if she wished for you to return and seek forgiveness from us, which, I may add, is not happening until she gets home, three months ago, how come it took you that amount of time to show up here?" questioned Adam, looking suspicious.

"Adam, Adam, Adam," tsked Betelgeuse. "Three months ago here was practically three hours ago in the Netherworld. So I heard Lydia's wish made three months ago not too long before I got here. Have you and Babs seemed to have forgotten that time moves differently for the dead?"

"No... I, uh. We still remember that..." stammered Adam.

"But you seem to have forgotten that conversation with Lydia about how you promised her that you two would forgive me for my actions, again, three months ago?" teased Betelgeuse, raising an eyebrow and grinning wickedly.

"Your... what now?" demanded Charles, he and Delia looking astonishingly and confusedly at the Maitlands from where they were standing.

Ignoring Charles, Barbara spat, "how do you know about that? Have you been spying on us?"

"What? Nooo..." Betelgeuse's hair turned a mix of purple and blue as he adopted a sincere, innocent look on his face that the Maitland-Deetz adults were not buying. "Why would I?" he lied. "I spent a while in the Netherworld after I left you guys to it, remember?"

"Well, if you weren't spying on us, then how did you find out about our conversation?" Adam asked.

"Okay, okay, I admit I was spying on you. I had to make myself invisible so none of you could notice I was there. Then I hid within the shadows," said Betelgeuse coolly.

All four of the adults growled in perfect sync and Charles took the first move, lunging towards Betelgeuse and pinning him into the ground with a fist raised just above his head. The living male's teeth were grit and his eyes were narrowed (same as everyone else, who were all equally as angry). Just as Charles prepared to punch Betelgeuse, the demon teleported out from under him, reappearing in the air and smirking down at them. Charles stood up and all four adults got even angrier as they looked up at Betelgeuse and snarled.

"We'll take it from here," said Barbara as she and Adam took to the air and lunged at the demon at once.

Barbara tried to take in a hit from behind but Betelgeuse moved out of the way, his back now facing Adam. He chuckled as Barbara tried to take another hit, his eyes widening as he felt Adam sucker punch him from behind. He turned towards the male ghost but Adam grabbed a hold of his arm and swung him around, throwing him into a nearby wall and causing it to crack. Betelgeuse's eyes were blurry and he could make out the shapes of Adam's and Barbara's forms flying towards him (since when did they have wings? Then Betelgeuse realized they must be in the state ghosts enter when they get extremely enraged or pissed off about something. The things ghosts could do in that state were not pretty). He barely had time to get out of the way, as Adam and Barbara delivered strong punches to his face.  Both ghosts grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him into the wooden floor.

They hissed in unison as they prepared their next attack.

"Guys, stop! This isn't like you!" Delia called out to the Maitlands, her and Charles looking worriedly up at the two angry ghosts.

"We won't stop until he's taken care of!" snarled Barbara. She and Adam dove down towards Betelgeuse and only stopped in their tracks when Charles and Delia stood in between them and Betelgeuse.

"We want to remember the nice, sweet Maitlands that we got to know over time," said Delia with dignity, knowing Lydia would say the same thing if she happened to not have gone to school that day. "Not the angered Maitlands that revealed themselves to us right now. Please stop this. Please."

The Maitlands went back to normal and floated back down towards the ground. They looked over at Betelgeuse, who looked to be pretty beaten up from what they had done to him. The fighting was the only thing they could think of doing at the moment and now, they did not understand why they felt the need to attack Betelgeuse. They looked to Charles and Delia for answers as Betelgeuse snapped his fingers and made all the bruises and cuts he had endured from the attic disappear and the two living adults let out sighs.

"What do we do now?" asked Adam as he helped Betelgeuse up and apologized to him for what had happened along with Barbara, Charles, and Delia.

"First, we have to send Betelgeuse up to Lydia's room and then we have to chill out on the couch and pretend like nothing's wrong even when she asks," said Charles.

"But she still notice the cracks in the wall caused by us throwing Betelgeuse hard into the wall," pointed out Barbara, earning nods of agreement from the rest of the adults.

"Then we'll tell her that a Sandworm crashed in through the wall and tried to eat us, Barbara, honey," said Adam.

"She won't buy it though," replied Barbara. "She can tell when we're lying. Have you noticed that you and I tend to become extremely transparent and see-through whenever we lie from now on."

"I haven't really been paying attention," admitted Adam, earning him a playful swat in the shoulder and a giggle from Barbara.

Hearing the sound of a car pulling into the garage, all four adults motioned for Betelgeuse to teleport himself into Lydia's bedroom and they went over to the couch to chill out and act like nothing was wrong.

It was time to put their plan into action.

A/N: Wow, the Maitlands showing a side of them that's unlike them? Don't worry, this isn't the only time they're going to show their violent side, it will come into play in a later part of the story.