Cat in Hell's Chance (a Beetlelands fanfic)

It's All in the Past

The Maitlands teleported downstairs from the attic to the kitchen at around eight the next morning. Appearing in a flash of light in said room that nearly startled the hell out of Charles and Delia, who, like Lydia, were right in the middle of eating breakfast. Well, Lydia was the only one who was eating breakfast. Charles and Delia were sat beside her with two freshly made cups of coffee sat down on the kitchen table in front of them.

Without saying a word, the Maitlands sat down across from the Deetzes. When this silence went on for longer than a few minutes, Barbara looked from Charles to Delia to Lydia.

"Have you guys seen Betelgeuse at all this morning?"

Lydia looked over at Barbara, a sarcastic edge to her tone of voice as she spoke. "Uh, good morning to you too guys?"

Adam and Barbara looked over towards one another, then back towards the Deetzes. How could they forget something that was as important as that?

"Right," Barbara said as she and Adam giggled in unison. "Good morning guys. Have you seen Betelgeuse anywhere at all today?"

"I think he's still outside on the house's roof," Lydia replied, not bothering to look up at the Maitlands.

Adam and Barbara shared an appalled look with one another, then turned their attention back over towards Lydia, who, now looking up towards the two of them and away from her phone, shrugged in response.

A few minutes passed by but Lydia didn't seem to say anything else in response, instead looking back down towards her phone and continuing to scroll through it. Again, Adam and Barbara shared a look and excused themselves from the kitchen table - immediately making their way back up to the attic and outside onto the roof.

Finding Betelgeuse by the edge of the roof and looking over its railing down towards the ground three stories below had been far from a surprise to Adam and Barbara who, after debating things over, had decided to join him over by the edge of the roof.

"Hey bud?" Adam looked over towards the horizon then at Betelgeuse before looking back at the horizon. "What're you up to?"

Silence, for at least a little while, then...

"Nothing," Betelgeuse softly grumbled out in response, not bothering to maintain eye contact with either Adam or Barbara.

Barbara turned her head to look at Betelgeuse. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking, Babs..."

"Were you out here all night?"

Betelgeuse moved away from both the railing and the edge of the roof, leaning himself against the part of the roof next to the window leading into the attic "You're asking me that like that's a bad thing."

Confused, Barbara turned to face him. As did Adam actually. "What?! No I'm not!"

But Betelgeuse didn't seem to hear that. "Look, I was perfectly content being out here all night last night by myself."

"Betelgeuse, we've been worried about you all morning long." Barbara made her way over towards Betelgeuse at the exact same time as Adam did, both of the ghosts leaning against the roof on either side of the demon.

It wasn't that he minded their presences but his hair color being a mix between light blue and light purple seemed to indicate that. And neither Adam nor Barbara were going to leave the demon alone... again...

"You sure don't sound like it." Betelgeuse's hair color became entirely blue in shade.

"Well... like it or not, we are," Barbara said, putting a hand on Betelgeuse's shoulder. "And understand that we've forgiven you for what you did in the past."

Betelgeuse, however, tried to make things worse by bringing up the bad side of the situation with the Maitlands. "No you didn't."

"Yes, we did." Barbara and Adam each grabbed a hold of one of Betelgeuse's hands, pulling him back inside the attic. And Betelgeuse, although not wanting that, allowed the two of them to do so.

Once inside, Betelgeuse plopped himself down on the Maitlands' couch and folded his arms as his hair became a light but apparent red in shade. To Adam and Barbara, just that alone was worrying. And, hoping to make things better, both of the ghosts sat themselves down on either side of Betelgeuse.

"Y'know," the demon readily admitted, causing Adam and Barbara to turn their heads in his direction in confusion. "I could just go back to the Netherworld. Forget that I came back here in the first place."

"And we'd get worried if you did," Barbara replied, putting a hand under the demon's chin and causing his hair to turn a mix between blush pink and sunny yellow. "Bj, look. Everything you did... it's all in the past now and we've moved past it. Us and the Deetzes... we have all forgiven you for everything and are willing enough to give you a second chance. If you want it, that is."

Betelgeuse grew both stunned and silent at that, the sunny yellow color of his hair remaining when the rest of it went back to being green. He looked between the Maitlands for more than a few times, trying to rack his mind for a response. But he couldn't even think of anything to say, falling silent completely.

Half of him was telling him to take the second chance that the Maitlands and the Deetzes were giving him, whereas the other half of him was telling him not to. For a while, he was torn between both options - unsure which to go with. Then he relaxed and sighed as he figured that out, hair becoming entirely green as he again looked between the equally as curious yet concerned Adam and Barbara.

"Are you guys... really going to give me a second chance? Or are you tricking me?"

Barbara smiled as she took one of Betelgeuse's hands in hers and Adam did the same. "If we were tricking you, making all of this up, then we wouldn't have mentioned anything about it... wouldn't we?"

"..." Betelgeuse couldn't think of anything to say.

"So, what do you say? Are you willing to prove to us that you've changed if you accept this second chance?"