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Rock music blared from the attic, so loud Star could hear it from the entryway as she walked in.
Dash’s house was nice. It was well kept by what she knew was a mixture of hard work from both Dash and his mother. The interior was modern but homey all the same.
Leaving her shoes by the door, she walked upstairs and pulled the ladder down to the attic. Her eyes watered, the smell of dusty books and booze making her gag.
“Heyyy! Star’s here!” Dash shouted, stumbling towards her and slinging an arm around he shoulders.
“Heyyy!” Kwan and Paulina chanted in unison.
“We can get the party started now!" He said. "So I was thinking-”
“Never a good start”
“Shuddap,” he slurred.
“So I was thinking that we,” he gestured at the group, “summon the Ghost King.”
Star paused. No, just… no. The Ghost King? Was that even real? Where did they even come up with that? There was no way this was safe.
“Yeah, yeah,” Paulina continued, “I heard Freaky Fenton and his weirdo friends talking ‘bout him and since his parents are ghost hunters and all-”
“We knew it was prettyyyyy credible information,” Kwan finished.
Star hesitated. On one hand, if she left now they would definitely do it without her and call her a buzzkill tomorrow. On the other hand, was she really about to risk her life summoning some ghost king that may or may not exist?
Yes, it turns out. Yes she was.
She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “What do we have to do first?”
The circle on the floor, roughly drawn on with chalk, was finally finished. The temperature decreased in the room until frost crept along the walls and Star could see her breath in front of her. The overhead light started to sway and flicker until it went out, the only light in the room the menacing green glow of the summoning circle. Thick fog swirled inside the circle, twisting faster and faster until it dissipated altogether.
There, inside the ring, stood a pair that incited such a primal fear that Star doubted she would ever forget it. She couldn't rip her eyes away, couldn't blink, couldn't think. They radiated power, especially the humanoid one.
It was huge, at least 7 feet with arms longer than Star was tall and with a ghostly tail in place of legs. Its body was black as the void, little pinpricks of light shining through like miniature galaxies and stars. The crown, too big for its head was resting on his shoulders like a jeweled shackle. Wispy white hair danced along his head, decorated with tiny, ice-blue gemstones throughout. Its eyes were like saucer plates, a startling ectoplasm-green, flickering with an emotion almost like recognition.
A green rottweiler stood at its feet, the size of a wolf with glowing red eyes and teeth poised to kill anyone who dared threaten his charge.
“Why…” the humanoid asked, massive, toothy maw producing a static-like noise, “did you summon me?”
The group stood paralyzed from the cold and fear, all of their former blithe seeping out of them.
“Right, right,” the being said, looking down on its form with realization before a blinding ring of light enveloped the room.
Star blinked dots out of her eyes, vision slowly returning to focus. There, stood Danny Phantom, hero of Amity Park, holding a small green puppy in his arms.
“Hey guys! What did ya need?” he asked, finger-gunning the group.
“....Phantom? What- where’s the Ghost King?” Dash asked.
“Right, yeah,” Phantom said. “That’d be me. Ghost King, at your service!” he exclaimed, bowing down with his hand on his chest dramatically. He looked at each of their faces, studying them. His smile widend mischievously. “Oh. Oh, you’re all plastered. Prolly won’t even remember this tomorrow.”
He stopped, thinking, before bursting out in a fit of giggles and turning around to take a selfie consisting of him and the dumbfounded A-Listers in the background. “Ha. Sam’s gonna love that.”
“You know,” he continued, “as much as I would love to stay here and scare the pants off of you some more, I should probably get going home. English paper due tomorrow, you know how Lancer is,” he said, waving his head as he slowly sunk into the floor. “Buh-byeeee.”
Star stood, dumbfounded, before gathering her senses and racing downstairs. Her friends might be plastered, but she sure as hell wasn’t. She needed more explanation of what the hell she just saw in the attic. She tore through the living room, rushing out the front door, head turned to the sky, looking for Phantom, the Ghost King, whatever, when she crashed into something and stumbled to the ground.
“Oh shit, didn’t see ya there,” the thing she crashed into said, reaching out his hand. Danny Fenton?
“Fenton?” she asked, rejecting his hand and getting up on her own. “What’re you doing by Dash’s house?”
“Uh,” he stumbled “What are you doing running out of Dash’s house?”
“Nothing!” she stammered, “Just. Uh. I’m just really drunk right now. Dunno where I’m going.” She cleared her throat. “Yeah.”
Not the smoothest lie, she will admit, but it’s not like she could tell a Fenton what she just saw! Though Danny was notoriously pro-ghost, she couldn’t risk it getting back to the Fenton Parents. Paulina might actually skin her alive if she found out that she was the reason they finally were able to catch Phantom.
Danny stared at her for a couple of seconds. “Oooookay. Whatever you say, Star.” Nice! He bought it.
“I’m uh- I’m gonna head back inside. Yeah. Bye!” she said, turning around and heading back inside before he could question her more.
Phew! That was stressful. She walked back up to the attic to tell her friends what had happened, only to find them cooing over the puppy that Phantom had oh-so-graciously left them with. Great.