Saved by the Dead (Beetlejuice X FemReader)

Chapter 12: Getting to Work

The next day, you were feeling rested and happy. A feeling you hadn't felt in a long time. After grocery shopping yesterday, you relaxed the whole rest of the day. It was one of the best days you've ever experienced. Today you were gonna get to work on remodeling the house. Changing anything and everything you thought needed to go. 

You got dressed and did your morning routine, taking your time doing so. This was going to be so much fun. You went up to the attic to find Barbara and Adam setting up their paintings to dry. You looked at each of them in awe. 

"Guys, these paintings are beautiful!" You stared in wonder at the beautiful artworks they've made. Some of them were pictures of a forest in the winter. Some were of summer and spring. They seemed to enjoy painting nature-related pictures. "I had no idea you guys were so talented."

"Well, while living alone in an attic for a long time with not much else to do, you pick up a couple of hobbies." Said Adam, blowing on one of the paintings to make it dry quicker.

"We're so happy you like them. We were thinking of hanging them up around the house. What do you think?" Asked Barbara, holding up a painting of a winter scene.

"That sounds awesome. Maybe a couple of them could go in my room?"

"Of course! We'd be happy to put some in your room!" Barbara smiled ear to ear.

"Awesome!" You said, glancing at all the paintings. You noticed that it seemed a bit too quiet in the attic today. That could only mean one thing. Betelgeuse wasn't here. "Umm, where's Betelgeuse?" You asked the couple.

"Uhh, I don't know," answered Adam. "We haven't seen him at all this morning."

"Huh, that's peculiar." You scrunched up your nose in confusion. You stepped out of the attic and searched for Betelgeuse. Walking down into the basement, which always gave you creeps no matter what, you saw that the lights were on. Turning the corner, you see Betelgeuse looking through some boxes rapidly. As if he were in a hurry and was running out of time. His back was turned to you and an idea popped into your head. Payback.

You slowly and surely crept closer and closer to him, being as quiet as you possibly could. He then spoke up.

"Dammit! Where are they?" He angrily said, digging through another box. He still hadn't noticed you. Once you were right behind him, you waited a moment before jumping on his back and screaming as loud you could. He jumped in surprise and fell down, you on top of his back and him lying face down. "Hey, what was that for?" He looked up at you.

"It's called revenge for yesterday." You laughed knowing that you scared a demon. Truly one of your greatest accomplishments. During your laughing fit, he turned around and pushed you down to the floor. He was now on top of you and pinned you down to the ground.

"Now I got revenge for you getting revenge on me." He chuckled and winked at you.

You shook your head and struggled underneath him. "We could do this all day, ya know." You said. He then stood up, letting you free, and reaching out a hand to help you up. "What are you looking for down here anyway?"

"Well, I had an idea to make this place look better. I was thinking we could put up cool lights down here in the basement and make it a movie room or something. We could put a couch down here with a TV in front of it. Lights could be hung up around the whole room. The only problem is I can't find any goddamn lights anywhere!" He dug deep in another box, with no success.

"Yeah, that sounds cool. But you're not going to find any lights anywhere in this house." You crossed your arms in front of your chest.

"What? How come?" He looked at you with his eyebrows furrowed.

"Ever since my mom left and brother kicked out, ever since those two Barbie's came into our lives, we never celebrated Christmas or anything like that. So we don't have any lights or decorations. Sorry."

"Well, that's bullshit." He said, walking over to you and putting his hands on your shoulders. You looked up at him in surprise. "We're getting lights down here one way or another." He then ran upstairs to the attic, bursting through the attic door. Adam and Barbara snapped their heads up, eyes wide, and stopping their painting session. You came up behind Betelgeuse and stood at the entrance of the attic.

"Where have you been all morning?" Asked Adam, walking up to Betelgeuse, arms crossed.

"Down in the basement. Look, the first room we're going to decorate is the basement. We're gonna put lights up and make it look like a mini living room down there. What do ya say?" Betelgeuse proposed his idea to the couple. 

"Yeah, we can definitely do that. We'll check up here to see if we can put anything down there to make it more cozy and fun." Barbara said, putting down her paintbrush and taking off her apron. Betelgeuse then turned around, grabbing your hand again and dragging you out of the attic. Holding on tightly to your hand, he led you back down into the basement.

"Let's get to work, shall we?" He rolled up his sleeves, looking over at you.

"We shall!" You both then started cleaning up the basement. You made a pile of things to get rid of and throw away and a pile of things to keep that could actually be put to good use. You found a bunch of old blankets and pillows, which you thought would go nicely on the new couch you'd get for the basement. Betelgeuse found some old Halloween decor, which you were surprised was even in here.

* * *

You and Betelgeuse spent the next two and a half hours sweeping, tidying up, and cleaning the basement. There were piles upon piles of trash and dust that you swept and vacuumed up. Obviously, the basement hadn't been touched in a long while. Betelgeuse worked a bit of his magic to help with some of the clean-up; making some things disappear to help with throwing things out. With all of that done, it was starting to look like a decent basement.

"God, I'm exhausted. I need a break." You said, sitting down on one of the boxes.

Betelgeuse sat down on the box next to yours. "Yeah, same here. We should go see if Barbara and Adam found anything." He said. You nodded and got up off the box you were sitting on and started to walk upstairs. Betelgeuse grabbed your shoulder and snapped his fingers, teleporting you to the basement.

"Okay, next time, warn me when you do that." You said, getting a bit dizzy from the teleportation due to you not being used to it. You stumbled a little bit from the dizziness and Betelgeuse held on to you, helping you stand up straight. Both the Maitlands looked up at the two of you and you walked over to them. "We pretty much cleaned up the whole basement. We found an old TV down there so we hooked that up and surprisingly it still works."

"Yeah, and we found some blankets that could go on the couch. There are also some other decorations in some of the boxes that we put up. You two find anything?" Explained Betelgeuse.

"Yup, we sure did!" Said Barbara excitedly. She went on explaining about the things they found in some of the dusty boxes in the attic. There were more blankets in one of the boxes that Adam had found. They found a soft reclining chair they had never noticed was there before but it was a bit old and would need to be cleaned a bit. They couldn't find too many decorations except for one thing. "We saved best for last."

"You'll be excited about this one." Adam brought over a closed box. You knelt down and opened it. Although it was messy and in one giant tangle, it was just what the basement or any of the other parts of the house, needed. Lights. There were Christmas lights, Halloween lights, and fairy lights. All in one giant messy tangle.

"I can't believe you guys actually found lights. I didn't think we even had any!" You looked at the big pile of lights and then to Betelgeuse, who seemed equally happy to see them.