Doctor Strange was a man of science. And magic, but mostly science.

He would never admit to himself that ghosts exist, no matter the insistence from Wong and the others. Ghost just simply couldn't exist. He had no reasoning, no hypothesis as to why they could not. He just knew that they couldn't.

Until something changed, that is.

The good doctor prided himself on being adaptable. And sometimes that meant bringing the danger to him. After some research in the library, he found a spell that looked decent and powerful enough to summon a ghost. But not just any ghosts. The king of ghosts, Pariah Dark.

There had been a brief history of Pariah in the spell book. He was a tyrant king who ruled with fear. He mercilessly killed humans and ghosts alike, and those who did not join him willingly were subjected to his skeleton army, or his right hand, the Fright Knight, bound to whoever ruled for all eternity. That is until he was locked away centuries ago by a coup of powerful ghosts who call themselves the Ancients. The Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire were separated and hidden in this so called ghost world, and pariah Dark was locked away in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.

At least, he was until a week ago.

It wasn't just a shift in the energy around them. There was no climax to behold, there was no coming of death. There was just nothing. And then there were ghosts.

They started showing up around the mountains often. Some of people who had perished trying to climb them. Some who had been sorcerers in training, and had not made it through. Some who were forgettable, and those Doctor Strange had to console even though he was probably the worst guy to talk to about the meaning behind being dead.

So to take care of the problem, he was going to wake this king and kill him. How he was going to do that, he had no idea, but that's never stopped him before. It's not going to stop him now.

As per usual, there were bright lights and lots of wind. Wong stood behind him, ready as ever.

What was not as per usual, was the child floating before them.

It shouldn't have been a child. It should have been a hulking brute with a long beard and a fiery crown. This-this child, because that couldn't be stressed enough, was looking at him very tiredly. And not at all surprised, like Doctor Strange had been expecting.

"Oh, Jesus, another one?" He asked. His voice echoed off the walls, sending chills down their spines. He huffed and blew his stark white hair out of his face before crossing his arms and leveling them with an expectant look. "What do you want?" He sounded tired.

"I...Pariah?" Doctor Strange asked. For once he was at a loss for words, because there was no way this dead child-this dead child-was Pariah Dark, tyrant king extraordinaire.

"Uh, no," the boy said. "My name is Phantom."

"Maybe the spell was wrong," Wong said, dropping his hands. "We were trying to summon the ghost king."

"Well, you did. So what do you want?"

It was nice to know that snark was still a thing in the afterlife, at least.

"We...We were going to fight you..." Doctor Strange said. "But seeing as you're not the evil ghost king Pariah Dark, we'll just see you out."

"Yeah," Phantom said. "Please do. I have homework I need to get done."

"How...How old are you?" Asked Wong. He sounded almost afraid of the answer. because all the ghosts they had seen thus far, they were adults. They were fully grown humans who flew to close to the sun. They were idiotic and just wanted to move on. But Phantom, he was just a child. He still had his whole life ahead of him. He didn't get the chance to fall in love or go to prom or get married and get a 401k.

"I turn fifteen next month," he answered, sounding way too nonchalant about being dead. It didn't seem to bother him much as he floated next to them on the way to the exit. He chatted idly, flying as if he was relaxing in a swimming pool, with his hands behind his head and not a care in the world.

"Congratulations," Wong told him.

"Thanks. Anyway, uh, I guess I don't have to tell you guys not to use that thing anymore, right? You're not going to be stupid about it?"

"What do you mean?" Doctor Strange asked. Phantom just huffed again, and rolled his eyes.

"I mean don't summon me. I'm to busy for that shit. Just like, I don't know, text me first or something. But only for emergencies."

"You have a cell phone?"

To answer his question, Phantom pulled out a marker from his back pocket and wrote a messy number on Wong's hand.

"Interrogate me some other time. I have a midterm to study for."

And with that, he disappeared into the night. Wong and Strange looked at each other for a moment, before coming to the same conclusion.

"Ghosts have midterms?"