Zachary was a university student, majoring in Engineering and trying to get by with a frustrating study schedule. He lived in an apartment off campus with his roommate, Jared. Jared was always more of a party guy, inviting girls over and ignoring them when they woke up the next morning. After the tenth girl that he was left comforting, Zachary began to realize that he was lonely with only his unending math formulas to keep him company. Perhaps he should get himself a partner.

He began to attend Jared’s parties, but he found hitting on people to be a failure. Turns out asking people whether or not they fell from heaven was not a viable strategy. After getting scammed by a dating coach online, he got into even more bizarre strategies. He was not one to believe in the occult, but after purchasing a spellbook at a Spirit Halloween store, he stumbled upon a certain page. ‘Summon a Demonic Lover from the Beyond’. That was the title. It sounded stupid, but it was less stupid than what he had already tried, so he decided to humour himself.

He bought some black candles from the dollar store, and drew a sigil out of rosemary on the floor of his bedroom. The instructions had stated that he needed an image of what he wanted his partner to look like, so he selected a model from a magazine he usually hid under his bed. He winced as he scratched some of his blood on the image, and began to speak in tongues. It sounded like gibberish to him, but he jumped when something began to happen.

His overhead light and lamp began to flicker on and off, before going completely out. He was left in pitch black, and he covered his mouth to stifle a girly cry. A purple light was forming above the sigil, and his textbooks and manga collection were collapsing onto the ground on their own accord. A silhouette was forming in the light. It was the model he had selected; well, at least it was some sort of imitation of them. “Hello?” he called out to the silhouette, when he finally got the courage to speak.