Barbara woke up with an ache in her chest, 'It's probably heartburn again,' She thought to herself as she got off the floor. She then noticed that something was off, something didn't feel quite right. It took her a moment to notice that she was somehow in the attic, among all the dusty cardboard boxes. She quickly stood up confused and slightly panicked, "Adam? Adam where are you?" she called out into the attic. Very quickly Adam rushed over to her, with a strange book she had never seen before, "Barbara, you're finally awake!" He hugged her tightly as if he hadn't seen her in years. That's when Barbara noticed something funny about Adam, "Adam you're as cold as ice!" she exclaimed after releasing him.
Adam winced, "Honey, there's something I have to tell you… But you should have a seat first…" He pulled up a chair for Barbara to sit on, which she did hesitantly. Adam was quiet for a long time, he seemed to be struggling to find the right words to say, "What is the last thing you remember?" Barbara looked at him amused, "Remember what? Last night? Of course, I remember what happened…" Adam raised an eyebrow sadly, "Then what happened?" Barbara shifted in her chair uncomfortably, "Well… We were having dinner… And-" her eyes widened, then she whipped her head to look at Adam, "That woman! The gunshots! Did we-" Adam quietly nodded his head, "I don't think we made it, Barbara…"
She started to tear up and stood to be hugged by Adam, "I had so much I wanted to do… And poor Bella is going to be so distraught when she finds out…" Adam held her close to her and tried to hold back his tears. He always felt that Bella was more of a daughter than a niece. He also knew how hard Emily's and Joseph's deaths were, and even though she was older, she would still have a really hard time with their deaths. He held Barbara's shoulders and looked at her, "Even though we're kinda… dead. We still have each other," Barbara nodded quietly and dried her tears. Adam smiled and said softly, "We can get through this together, and not much has to change, I mean things couldn't get any worse right?"
Right as he said that however, a pale, green-haired man in a white and black striped suit popped up from the floor right beside them screaming, "Helloooooo Worse!" Barbara yelped and fell onto the chair, whereas poor Adam tripped and fell backward over a box and fell with a thump. The strange man chuckled to himself, "Oh I love scaring the pants off of poor unsuspecting souls! It never gets old!" He finally took a good look around the room, "Ooh an attic, the perfect place to hide!" He looked down to see a startled and confused Barbara in her rocking chair, trying to decide whether she should kick the man or ask him who he was first.
The man smirked and fixed his hair, "Well lookie what we have here. A hot lady in distress!" He went to help her up when Adam got up and exclaimed, "Keep your mitts off my wife you striped weirdo!" The striped stranger backed off, or more precisely, floated away from Barbara, "Easy now, just wanted to help her onto her feet, so I can sweep her off of them!~" He winked at Barbara, who looked away from him in disgust. She hated men who were flirty in the wrong kind of way, especially when they knew that the woman they were flirting with was married. Adam helped Barbara up and stood in front of her protectively, "Who are you and what are you doing in our house?" he asked sternly. The man slapped his head in faux surprise, "Oh dear, how rude of me! I almost forgot to introduce myself!" He smiled and asked, "Do you want the song intro or the business card?"
Barbara and Adam looked at each other equally confused, "What song?" Barbara asked puzzled. "What business could you own?" Adam inquired baffled. The man shrugged and waved his hand, "Eh the business card will be faster, especially since people are coming over…" He handed them a card with a cartoonishly silly picture of him leaning on a giant word, "Beetle… gise?" Barbara said the word slowly, trying to figure out if she said it correctly, which she didn't. The man sighed annoyed, "Everyone always gets it wrong! It's pronounced 'Juice!' Honestly I should just spell it how it sounds…" He grabbed the card back and put it in his shirt.
Beetlejuice cut to the point, "I'll tell you two lovebirds why I'm here. I'm what you call a 'bio-exorcist', I get rid of the people that take over your house so you can haunt it in peace. I saw this middle-aged dude and teen girl downstairs, they're probably the poor shmucks who bought your house… So what do you say? Want my help with getting rid of them?" He smiled and held out a pale hand to them, but Adam spoke up before Barbara could yell at him for wasting their time, "A middle-aged man? A teenage girl? Did the girl have long brown hair with hairbows in her hair? And did the man have a business suit?" Beetlejuice dropped his hand and looked annoyed, "Yeah so? Why do you care?" Adam's mind raced, 'That's probably Charles and Bella! They probably are here because of the will…'
Adam gave Beetlejuice a reassuring smile, "Those people are our relatives. We told them in our will to come and take care of our house. So we will not be needing your… Services Mr. Beetlejuice…" Beetlejuice looked extremely disappointed, "O h. Well. Sorry to disturb you!" He walked on air away from the Maitlands, "If you need me, I'll be in a different room, trying to look for people who actually need me!" He disappeared through the door and the Maitlands were left alone to themselves once more. Barbara breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm glad he's gone! That guy just gave off 'creep vibes' you know?" Adam nodded, "I feel sorry for whoever he decides to bother next…"
He then looked around the floor, anxiously looking for something he dropped. "What are you doing?" Barbara asked curiously. Adam frantically searched by the boxes he tripped over, "The book! The book for the Recently Deceased! I was reading it while you were out… Where did it-" He grabbed a book off the ground and excitedly exclaimed, "I found it!" He smiled as he stood up, dusting his pants, "This book has the answers to our questions, if we read it I'm sure we'll be bound to find out what's going on and what we should do…" Barbara eyed the old book warily, it looked like something made in the '80s, but it had an aura around it that made her think it was ancient.
She grabbed the book and looked at Adam warily, "Are you sure you trust this?" He nodded, "I found it when I woke up, and all the things I was reading made sense. It said that alive people can't see us, so when I went downstairs to test it, none of the moving men could see me." Barbara nodded slowly, "Okay… I guess we can give this thing a shot…" She had a seat on an old bench and made room for Adam to sit beside her. He came over and they opened the book to the first Chapter. Barbara held Adam's hand tightly as they began to read.