Chapter Text
“Delia, honey? How would you feel about learning to perform an exorcism?”
Laid beside Chalres in bed, Delia looks up from her book, clearly puzzled. “Have you had a falling out with Adam and Barbara?”
“No, no, nothing like that. It’s just that this parenting book I’m reading advises learning how to do it in case of emergency.”
Charles nods towards the hardback he’s reading. The puzzled look does not leave Delia’s face.
“It’s a book specifically on parenting children of Lydia’ ability,” he clarifies.
“Oh, that’s fantastic!”
“Beetlejuice gave it to me.”
“...Okay!”
“I know it’s… questionable, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s more likely he wants something from me than he’s trying to harm Lydia. I’m honestly starting to think they have some sort of pact.”
He pauses, and then flicks back to the contents page to check if the book has a chapter on what to do if your child signs a demonic contract.
“She certainly talks more positively about him than you’d expect, given she stabbed him,” Delia muses. “Especially when you consider her baseline level of positivity is so low.”
“Well, I think maybe it could be raised a bit if I knew more about this sort of thing. If… she thought I was more equipped to care for her.”
“You think she’s insecure about that?”
Charles sighs. “It’s just something Beetlejuice said when he gave me the book. He… he made it sound like she thinks she’s a burden.”
“It might’ve been a sales tactic,” Delia points out. She’s been particularly cautious about these sorts of things since Otho, he’s noticed. “Making it sound as though you need that book more than you really do.”
Charles shakes his head. “As much as I’d like that to be true, I don’t think it is. The way she’s been acting through this school transfer… I have been getting the feeling she thinks she’s causing me problems. Sometimes I just want to be blunt with her, just- It’s not your fault you were being bullied, Lydia. But I’m not sure that would help.”
“And you think learning more about ghosts will?”
“Yes. Yes I think it will,” Charles says. He’s been hesitant around decisive decisions concerning Lydia lately - he went back and forth on the school move a hundred times before he ever mentioned it to her - but he’s doing his best to be certain now.
“Then of course I’ll learn to do an exorcism with you!”
The next afternoon, Charles and Delia are sat on the edge of their bed, rereading the same few pages for the fifth time. They’ve decided to back away from full exorcism for now, for the safety of their housemates. Instead, they’re pouring over a guide for expulsion of a possession.
“This feels far too simple,” Charles says. “I’d expected it to require… ingredients? Something physical. Symbols or runes, at least. Not just words. And so few words, too.”
“I suppose it’s more practical that way,” Delia says, sounding a little disappointed. It seems she took inventory of her crystal library in vain. Charles begins his sixth read. He’s noted that Lydia’s failed seance back when all this started was short and purely spoken too, but he doesn’t voice it. That’s not exactly the tone he wants to set.
“But anyway!” Delia says, clapping her hands. “How about I pretend to be possessed, and you can practice on me?”
Charles smiles. “Brilliant idea, Delia, thank you.”
With a smile of her own, she stands and dusts off her dress. “Okay. Here I go.” And she raises her arms, and starts moaning.
“Fantastic acting, dear,” Charles says as he finds his way back to the start of the incantation.
“Charles! Don’t break character!”
“Right, yes, sorry. Let’s see- unwelcome visitor, uninvited guest. Honestly, that just seems redundant.”
“Charles!”
“Sorry! Okay. Unwelcome visitor, uninvited guest. Flee your host, return to death.”
Delia waves her arms, gives a last moan and blegh, and beams.
“You did it!”
Charles rubs at his beard. “But can we be sure of that?”
Her smile falters. “Oh. No, I suppose not.”
“I don’t mean to fault your acting, but I think it may be more beneficial to use the real thing. With precautions, of course.”
“I think that’s a brilliant idea. Let’s go ask Barbara and Adam for some possession action!”
They make their way up to the attic together, Charles tucking the book under his arm to knock on the door. Adam opens it with a smile.
“Charles! To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“We need some… specialist help.”
“A possession!” Delia calls from behind him.
That takes a bit of explaining. But once it’s been established that this is for Lydia’s benefit, they’re right on board. Adam promptly whips out his reading glasses to examines the passage for himself.
“Alright, this certainly looks safe,” he concludes. “And I think if we focused on just possessing a certain part of the body, we could make sure you can tell us if you want to stop.”
“That’s very considerate of you, Adam, thank you,” Charles says.
Barbara, who had been reading over his shoulder, takes the book from him as he stands back and cracks his knuckles.
“Delia?” he asks.
“Go for my arm!”
“Roger that!”
Adam sets his feet, raises his arm, and tenses, a look of complete concentration on his face. All eyes are on Delia’s left arm. It doesn’t do anything particularly ghostly.
“Have you ever… done a partial possession before?” Charles asks.
“Well, no,” Barbara admits, “but Lydia says she’s seen Beetlejuice do it.”
“Do I want to know?”
“I’ve been sworn to secrecy, unfortunately,” Barbara smiles.
The two of them watch Adam shake out his arms, set his stance, and grit his teeth as he makes another valiant attempt to possess Delia’s arm.
“Does Lydia ever talk about me to you and Adam?” Charles asks.
“Sometimes,” Barbara says. “Mostly when she’s complaining about chores.”
Charles frowns. Barbara lightly bumps his side, a gesture that he barely feels.
“I’m kidding. She loves you, and she knows you’re really trying. She hasn’t mentioned this book of yours, though, that seems a little odd.”
“She doesn’t know.”
“Oh,” Barbara says, failing to hide her hesitancy very well.
“I don’t want it to seem like a big chore that I have to do for her. I want to tell her when I’ve made some progress and I know what I’m doing.”
“I suppose that makes sense… Adam, did you catch that?”
Adam falters in his latest attempt to posses Delia’s arm. “Catch what?”
“Lydia doesn’t know we’re doing this.”
“Oh. Well, if I’m being honest, we’re currently not doing too much for her to know about.”
“Delia, dear, does your arm feel at all possessed?” Charles asks. Delia flexes the arm experimentally.
“Not particularly.”
Barbara rests her chin on her hand. “May I have a go?”
“Be my guest.”
Adam steps aside, and Barbara steps forward. She takes a deep breath - not for any need for oxygen, but just to steady herself. Raises an arm.
The same amount of nothing continues to happen.
“I think it’s that it needs more precision,” Adam explains. “Barbara got possession faster than I did, though, so she might have more luck with it.”
Charles nods vaguely as he watches. He can’t claim to be an expert, but it seems to him that Barbara is doing just as well as Adam was.
“Would the right arm be easier?” Delia offers eventually. “Or a leg?”
“I don’t think that’s the issue.” Barbara steps closer to her, hovering a hand above her arm, and then hesitates. “May I?”
“Of course.”
The ghost slowly lowers her arm, allowing it to phase into Delia’s. “I was thinking, maybe…”
Delia’s arm lifts, and judging by the excited gasp she lets out Charles assumes it’s not by her own volition. “Oh, that tingles,” she says, and then beams. “Possession is go! Charles, read that book!”
“Oh! Yes, um-” He finds the paragraph again. “One possession expulsion coming up!”
“You’re sure that’s what it is?” Barbara asks nervously. “Just possession expulsion?”
“I’m sure. I will not be reading any kind of incantation that I’m not sure of the effect of.”
“Alright then, full steam ahead!”
Charles nods. “Unwelcome visitor…”
From the first words that leave his mouth, he can feel the difference. A buzz, a slight tingle around his fingers and throat. And he can tell that Barbara is feeling it too. The uncertainty has returned, she’s staring down at her and Delia’s arms with laser focus. Electricity sparks up his arm and down his neck, colliding in his chest, weaving through his ribs and thudding along with his heart.
“...return to death!”
With those last words it all snaps away into nothing, just as Barbara and Delia jolt apart. Charles sucks in a slow breath, hand over his heart.
“That- That was-”
“That was quite a trip, huh?!” Delia beams, bumping her hip against Barbara’s. “I could go again. You wanna go again? Let’s go again!”
Barbara gives her a somewhat queasy-looking smile. “Maybe later. My arm’s gone, um… More dead than usual?”
Immediately, Adam is at her side. “Are you alright, honey? Let me see. Can you feel this?”
He pokes at her arm. Barbara puts her other hand over his.
“I’m fine, it’s already wearing off. I just don’t think it’s something we should be doing over and over.”
“We can leave it there for today, to be safe,” Charles decides. “We know it works, that’s the main thing.”
Delia looks a little disappointed, but still smiles and claps her hands together. “Alright then! Well done team!”
“Yes, thank you everyone,” Charles agrees. “It’s really a relief to know-”
A door slams downstairs.
“Hello?” Charles just about hears Lydia call. The four in the attic exchange alarmed looks.
“She doesn’t know,” Charles reminds the room at large in a hissed whisper. Adam holds out his hands and he passes the book over, which the ghost promptly tucks behind the sofa cushions. Charles catches Delia’s eye and nods towards the door. They tiptoe over, open it gingerly.
They’re creeping down the stairs, incredibly suspiciously, when Charles makes eye contact with his daughter. She’s standing with a hand on her bedroom door handle, looking up at him with a bewildered expression.
“Uh… Hi?”
“Hello, Pumpkin!” Charles beams. “How was your second day?”
“Fine,” Lydia says slowly, clearly still bemused. “Those two girls from yesterday came to me during lunch, so…”
“That’s fantastic, Lydia! See, you’re already making friends.”
She shrugs. “Still not sure if it’s just new kid pity. It’s whatever. What were you doing in the attic?”
“Oh, you know, just um…”
“We were just chatting with Barbara and Adam!” Delia jumps in. “Getting to know the housemates a bit better.”
“Oh. That’s cool. That’s really cool, actually.” She smiles, just a little. “I’m gonna go change out of my uniform.”
“I’ll call you for dinner.”
Lydia’s door clicks closed behind her. Charles and Delia exchange a glance, and then continue on down the hall.
“Crisis averted,” Delia says, once they’re on the stairs and safely out of earshot. “And we didn’t even have to lie to her! Technically!”
“Technically.” Charles smiles. “Still, I think we’re off to a good start, here.”