Beetlejuice: the Musical Short Story Book

Out of Mind

Lydia knew full well that she should have been angry. Angry at Beetlejuice for everything he had done a month prior. Yet she was fully aware that she missed him. She missed her best demon friend. She missed causing chaos and scaring people with him. Yet although she knew that her family probably wouldn't let her summon him again, it wouldn't hurt to at least try. Would it?

No. As much as she wanted to, as much as she wanted to forgive him, she... just couldn't bring herself to. What's done was done. She couldn't change things.

Lydia, wanting nothing more than to forget about the demon, clenched one of her fists and banged it against one of her nearby bedroom walls - the resulting sound from it echoing and reverberating around the house and alerting the rest of the Maitland-Deetz family.

It didn't seem to hurt. Or help. Lydia stepped a little ways backwards, looking down at her unbruised wrist. As the footsteps and worried shouts from the rest of the family were heard coming closer to the teenager's bedroom, Lydia sat herself down on her bed. Her anger towards Beetlejuice mixing in with her sadness from missing him and wishing he could've at least stayed in the house with her and her family.

"Lydia?! Are you okay in there?!" the teenager heard Barbara calling out to her, followed by the ghost knocking worriedly on the teenager's door a few times. Then stopping. Before starting up again. And calling out to her again. "Lydia?!"

Lydia looked up and towards her bedroom door, still angry but wiping a few stray tears away from her eyes. "I'm fine, Barbara! Really! Thanks for asking!"

"Do you want us to come in?! We don't have to if you don't want us to!"

"I..." Lydia paused, unsure if she should bring it up with her family that she missed having Beetlejuice around the house. "I... guess."

She curled in on herself as Adam and Barbara phased through her bedroom door one after the other. Before either ghost crossed the room to make sure Lydia was okay, Adam stepped backwards as Barbara turned and used her powers to open the door to let Charles and Delia in. As soon as both living adults entered the bedroom, Barbara used her powers yet again to close Lydia's bedroom door and keeping it unlocked.

Turning on her heel, Barbara moved to sit on the floor right beside Adam and looking up at Lydia with worry equal to what the other three adults felt.

"Lydia?" Barbara tilted her head to the side just a little. "Everything okay?"

"I miss having Beetlejuice around the house," Lydia mumbled, her voice much too quiet for any of the adults to pick up on what she'd said.

All four adults looked at one another briefly, concerned, Charles and Delia both standing up from Lydia's bed to give Adam and Barbara some room to talk to the teenager. Clearly they thought something like this would be easier for the Maitlands to deal with. The Maitlands didn't seem to mind. As long as either one of the two couples talked to Lydia, it often didn't matter which.

Barbara sat to the teenager's left, Adam to the teenager's right, the former of the two ghosts putting an arm on Lydia's shoulder and cocking her head to the side. "I'm sorry, we couldn't hear what you said. Could you repeat yourself a bit louder, honey?"

"I miss having Beetlejuice around the house," Lydia repeated, a bit louder this time. "I should be angry at him for everything that he did to the five of us. But I'm not. I miss him being here at the house. Can you guys please at least let me summon him back to the house. At least once?"

Barbara looked off to the side, then back at Lydia. "I know you miss him. The rest of us do too. But the reason we can't let you summon him back to the house again is because we don't want any more trouble. Him causing trouble for us once is more than enough for us to handle. Him being summoned back to the house will only result in more trouble. Which is why we're trying to avoid it."

"And I get it," Lydia said, nodding and turning her head to look over at Barbara. "But I would like to, at least, summon him back to the house once. Only once. Then I won't do it again, I promise you guys."

"Lydia, the answer is still no," her dad replied, hoping to at least leave it at that. "You've got me, Delia, Adam, and Barbara all here for you now. You know that."

"And it's not that I don't mind that," Lydia said, nodding in understanding. "I do, but of course that's not going to help the fact that I still miss Beetlejuice and want to summon him back to the house. One of these days, he is going to return to the house seeking forgiveness from the five of us-"

"And if he does." Barbara put a hand on Lydia's shoulder, again causing the teenager to look in her direction. Allowing Barbara to wipe a few stray tears from Lydia's eyes. "We'll be ready for him. Even if it's because he wants forgiveness from all of us, we probably won't be ready to forgive him quite just yet. We've gotta give it time."

"If he wanted to come back, then he could on his own accord," Adam added. "Though I do hope that he doesn't return. Ever."

Lydia nodded in understanding, feeling a little calmer and less angry. Barbara wrapped her arms around the teenager in a hug, followed closely behind by Adam. As Lydia relaxed in the hug, her dad and Delia had moved to sit down on her bed again and had since joined in on the hug. It was the five of them, just the five of them, there for one another. And they couldn't have it any other way.

After a while, the five Maitland-Deetzes pulled out of the hug and just stayed sat there for what seemed like an even longer while. Not one of them really knowing what to do. Any and all memories of Beetlejuice that they most definitely wanted to forget right now were pushed to the back of their minds. Or, at least... that's what they thought....

"It's not that I want to know," the male ghost said, the rest of the family turning to look over towards him. "But I do wonder just what Beetlejuice's up to these days now that he's in the Netherworld for good."

Rolling her eyes, Barbara nudged her husband in the shoulder. Giving him a stern look. "I'd rather we not think about it..."

Adam fell silent. He couldn't think of anything else to say.

Barbara sighed, relaxing as her attention focused back on the Deetzes. "So... Lydia, how did your math test go today?"