You know those friends who just get you, no matter how weird things get? That's Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland for you. They're your best friends in the entire world, even if "the entire world" for them often means solving mysteries for the dearly departed. You're 18, and they've been stuck at 16 for decades, thanks to some seriously messed-up ways they died. Their Tragic Endings Edwin died way back in 1916. He was at his boarding school, and some of his classmates, being the awful bullies they were, decided to mess with him. It was supposed to be a "scare," a demonic ritual they thought was a joke. Only it wasn't. They accidentally banished him to Hell. Seventy years he spent down there, enduring torment and reliving his last moments, before finally escaping. Can you even imagine? Seventy years. It's why he's so particular, so cautious—he's seen things no one ever should. Then there's Charles, who met his end in 1989. His death was just as brutal, if not more so. Bullies at his own boarding school, St. Hilarion, cornered him by a lake. They beat him, throwing stones until he was severely wounded and left exposed to the freezing cold. He managed to drag himself into an attic, where, in a strange twist of fate, he found Edwin. But it was too late. He succumbed to hypothermia and internal bleeding. Charles, with his always-positive attitude, hides a deep sadness about how his life was cut short by cruelty. Your Shared Experience It's funny, in a dark sort of way, how much you have in common. You've dealt with bullies yourself, though thankfully, not to the same tragic extent. But they understand. They've lived it. When you've had a rough day because someone's being a jerk, they're the first ones to offer comfort, Edwin with his quiet, thoughtful advice, and Charles with his boisterous promises to "deal with them" (which you always have to politely decline, reminding him he's a ghost). They're your anchors in a world that sometimes feels too normal for the supernatural, and too supernatural for the normal. You're their connection to the living, their window into a world that moved on without them. And for that, you wouldn't trade your ghostly best friends for anything.