For most people, a month either drags on like an eternity or it passes by in a blink of an eye. For the dead, however, their perception of time fluctuates between being non-existent and painfully aware of every second ticking by. Adam and Barbara Maitland due to their inability to leave the house, suffered from the first category. Could they have ventured downstairs, sure? The book specified that they were free to roam so long as they were within the building they had perished in or within 50 feet of the area they were last in.
However, despite these "generous limitations" as Adam described it, neither of them could get themselves to leave the confinement of the attic. The idea had been brought up a few times, but neither was particularly enthused to see how much the house had changed or the inability to be seen by anyone besides Bella or the perverted demon. The sweet girl, somehow was able to befriend said demon and got the supernatural beings to call peace for her sake. Adam honestly didn't mind staying up in the loft, he felt a sense of comfort being surrounded by nick-nacks and old treasures.
Barbara meanwhile, hated being separated from Bella and unable to do anything. Being a ghost had a lot of drawbacks: you were just barely cold enough that it was mildly uncomfortable, and you needed to concentrate to pick up or interact with objects in front of the living (Adam compared it to a worse version of social anxiety), and being practically invisible was getting to her. Once, the striped pervert popped in after hearing her loudly complaining about how was losing her mind and offered to show her a few tricks. It took convincing from both Adam and Bella (after she was summoned by the demon) but she gave in.
His lessons included teaching them to float a couple of inches off the floor, cause other objects to fly around, throw their voice to parts of the room, and the ability to possess humans. The last lesson was quickly shut down however when he asked Bella herself to be the test subject. Despite the trivialness of the skills, both Adam and Barbara were at least thankful that they had something to do with their afterlives besides reading the ancient tome that felt more like a history textbook rather than a handbook on how to move on after death. It had taken forever but with them taking turns reading the contents aloud, they finally understood what they needed to do. The problem was, how would they break the news to Bella?
"Her birthday is coming up, maybe we should wait until after to tell her…" Adam mumbled as he cleaned his spectral glasses anxiously. Barbara glanced behind her, her back now towards the silver moon shining through the window.
"Adam, if we don't tell her soon, then she will come to expect us to stay. I love her as much as you do but we both know that we can't," She sighed and sat on the window sill, her blonde hair slightly transparent and shining in the moonlight.
Adam walked over to her and knelt in front of her, "Barbara, love…" She looked up exhausted, her hair in her face. He brushed her locks aside, leaned his forehead against hers, eyes closed calmly, "I know you want to spare her the hurt. I do too. And I can see that being cooped up here has hurt you, darling. I want to go on this next adventure with you but I want our little flower child to be okay. We both know that death has been hard for her in the past, so could we stay for a little longer? Please?"
Barbara was quiet for a bit, then she lifted her head with a small smile, "Alright, but only because you asked so nicely, handsome," She then scooped up his face and brought it close to hers, "You always know how to make me feel better…" He smiled back at her before copying Barbara and holding her face gently as he kissed her firmly.
The moment was sweet, but cut short by a loud and frantic shouting from behind them, "WHEN WERE YOU TWO CRACKERS GONNA TELL ME THE KID'S BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW?" The couple stood up quite embarrassed having been caught and quickly separated. Beetlejuice however, rolled his eyes and stomped towards them, "Oh don't be so prude! You're married and in your mid-30s. Who is going to care that you two kiss? He##, you two could be going at it right here and all I'd do is ask to join you," This caused both Adam and Barbara to go bright red from the shock and embarrassment. Beetlejuice of course, ignored them and continued with his rant, "Granted that'd probably scar the poor kid. Speaking of, her birthday is tomorrow and I don't know what I am supposed to do! I've never been friends with anyone, let alone a teenager!"
Adam was so red, he could feel his body temperature rise from mildly cold, to about the temperature he was when he was still alive. Barbara, however, managed to calm down enough to smile and utter a simple, "Pardon me?"
Beetlejuice grabbed his face and groaned, "I'm talking to a brick wall here!" He let go and summoned a calendar from who knows where while it flipped to the current month. "Today is June 17th. Tomorrow is June 18th. I was hanging out with the squirt, watching her sketch the trees at the park and she just brought it up out of nowhere! I panicked! I said that I was going to give her the best birthday, but I don't know where to start! C'mon, you two are smart and know her. What can I do?"
Barbara turned to Adam, who was in deep thought. She smiled as the cogs turned in his head at lightspeed, it was times like this that she was reminded why she married him. Adam, despite his wariness of Beetlejuice, loved solving problems and was never one to turn down a puzzle that was hard to crack, "So… What exactly did you tell her when you said you were going to give her the 'best birthday'?"
Beetlejuice shrugged and leaned against a stack of boxes, "It kinda just got blurted out. I mean, I've got a best buddy now and I don't want her to leave like dear old dad you know? So I plan to do a celebration she will never forget! …And enjoy obviously, that is kinda the point…" He decided to clarify when the Maitlands gave each other a concerned look at the "she will never forget" part. Adam just sighed and fixed his glasses, "That's… a thoughtful gesture-" Beetlejuice scoffed, "Yeah no sh## it's thoughtful, that's the whole point! Sure most people assume I don't have a thought going between these ears," he grabbed and pulled them off nonchalantly to demonstrate, causing both Maitlands to turn away squeamish, "I mean the only thots I've had this last century was the 60s. MAN, THOSE FOLKS KNEW HOW TO MAKE A DEMON HAPPY!"
Poor Adam had his head in his hands, unable to express his discontent for the man, and simply nodded slowly, "Just… what do you know about Belladonna… Use what you know to think of how best to make her day…" Barbara walked over and held Adam, who leaned on her shoulder as he tried to calm down, "Adam is right. If we tell you what to do then it'll feel more like a gift from us rather than you. Put some heart into it, I'm sure you will be able to think of something…"
Beetlejuice growled quietly as he fixed his ears back in place, for a moment his hair and beard flashed a scarlet red, an odd sight since both Maitlands were so used to seeing him with green locks. He took a deep breath to calm himself down, "...I asked you two so I didn't have to think about this… You're her folks for g## sake! You should know her better than anyone! He##, if I wanted to I'd just torture the old man downstairs until he spilled some info…" He glared at a nearby box and kicked it. A heavy thud noise echoed through the attic as it barely moved, "Je### what do you have in there? Bricks? Or maybe some coke, I've been feeling a little low lately…"
Upon opening the box it was filled with at least 3 different photo books. He looked confused and looked down at the boxes' side to see the words "Bella's Drawings" written in beautifully written cursive, "Ugh, you white people and your mementos. How much of this attic is filled with useless sh##?" As Adam was marching over to set the record straight and defend their mementos, Beetlejuice pulled out a book and opened it up to a random page, looking quite astonished, "Holy crap. These are pretty good…" He looked up at the undead couple, "She really drew these?" Adam smiled and looked down at the box, "I believe these were from when she was about eight to ten years old… We have a couple more boxes but there somewhere in this mess…"
BJ flipped through a couple of pages out of curiosity. His face scrunched when he got to a page with a big group of people. He could recognize a few people: the geeky white couple, the stick in the a## dad, and the kid, smiling as if she didn't have a care in the world. There were two people she didn't recognize, "Who is the extra chick and the hunk in glasses?" With a raised eyebrow, Barbara peered from around Beetlejuice, realization dawning as she looked at the drawing, "Ohhh… This is Emily, Belladonna's mother, and Joeseph, her uncle. They're obviously, um…" She looked to the floor and held her arms quietly, causing Adam to hold her close as he comforted her.
Beetlejuice rolled his eyes unamused, "Oh boo hoo, the brother and sister are dead. Big deal so are you too. Grow up, death happens to everyone. You are born, you grow older and then you die." Adam looked up at Beetlejuice sternly, the light catching his glasses and making him look scarier than normal, "You may be right but not everyone loses two of their family members on the same night. Their deaths have affected us for years and if you're going to be around Belladonna then you'll treat the subject with respect, understood?" Beetlejuice smirked and leaned in with a slight growl to his voice, "You know you look extremely sexy when you're like this? I'm a bit turned on if I"m being honest~"
BJ laughed as Adam went a beautiful shade of red, "Maybe my new nickname for you will be 'Chameleon', Adam. You sure know how to turn colors like one A-Dog~" Adam fumed in embarrassed silence as it was Barabara's turn to hold him comfortingly, "The point Adam was trying to make," Barbara muttered chastely, "Was that we don't appreciate their deaths being mocked and neither will Bella. So keep that in mind should she ever bring it up…" BJ waved a hand and rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah I'll keep that where I store my sh##s. I need ideas for a present not for your 13th reasons Maitlands," He flipped through a couple more pages and smiled as he noticed a little motif, "Kid really likes her butterflies. I mean I know everyone has got a thing that they draw but really? Butterflies? They're cute I guess but-"'
He stopped dead in his words and let the idea tumble around in his head. The grin that grew on Beetlejuice gave both the Maitlands a bad feeling in the pit of their stomachs, "I'M A GENIUS! I GOT THE BEST IDEA I'VE HAD SINCE CRASHING THAT ASLYUM!" He then blipped out of their sight leaving two anxious ghosts and a very stuffy yet lonely attic behind.