Soft candlelight filled the otherwise dark expanse of the basement of the Lamda Epsilon Roh fraternity house (http://www.trinity.edu/jdunn/images/IthacaNY/Cornell/frathouse1.JPG). It was five minutes from midnight, though the young man was oblivious to this fact as he worked feverishly with chalk in hand to finish the diagram he was scribing upon the wall. He paused from time to time and consulted a book that lay at his feet. It was a worn looking codex with a binding of aged, cracked black leather and yellowed pages that looked as though they would crumble to powder at the slightest touch. The last of its kind, this book contained a sizeable assortment of spells, but the one in the pages before him was the one that carried his full attention.<br/><br/>The spell was a conjuration - a very specific conjuration. A conjuration that gained its energy from the powers of destiny itself. A spell made to open a gate between worlds and allow soulmates - otherwise cheated by fate and circumstance to never know each other's love - to find each other. This spell was greatly appealing to the young man, as he was rather shy and not possessed of particularly good social skills. Indeed, most interactions with women his age usually ended with him stammering and stuttering all over his words like a dope, completely ignored or taken for granted, or in the worst of instances left with a bright red hand-shaped mark on his cheek. But the stocky young man, with his boyish face, light brown unkempt hair and equally unkempt wardrobe wanted to know love, wanted to know romance and his sub-par social skills to this end compounded his misery.<br/><br/>And so, here he was in the frat house basement with a spellbook, candles, chalk and a desperate, crazy hope for love. Stepping back, he surveyed his handiwork upon the wall. It was an intricate chalk drawing of an arched gateway inscripted with words of an ancient language who's name he did not even know. Without this archway, the magical energies would have no physical focus in the mundane world and the spell simply would not work.  According to the book it looked perfect.<br/><br/>Carefully picking up the tome, Brendan stepped back even further - now a good 10 feet from the wall and the diagram upon it. His hand trembled slightly as he turned the page and a swallow traveled down a dry throat. He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath before exhaling to relieve the nervousness. And, clearing his throat, he began intoning the chant on the page in his boyish, almost nasaly voice. "Relian hespero, alteria vullzye. Igshabnal faldazar e ryott otrazek! Aldariabozi ot malakrian. Bolu! Taku! Imniott! Rakkomal KLACKTIEL!" Upon the final word, Brendan loudly clapped his hands together in front of him, then slowly pulled them apart as if opening up an imaginary double gate, much like the one he drew on his damp basement wall.<br/><br/>Brendan waited for but only a moment before the candle flames guttered and snuffed out. In the darkness that followed, the diagram of the gate gave off a faint iridescent shimmering. It was the only thing that Brendan could see and scarcely so at that until he caught sight of something inside the diagram. A single blue, golf ball-size orb seemed to float slowly out of the gate from beyond an unseen threshold. It flickered with waves of what seemed to be azure flame and grew with the near-living beat of an actual fire until it filled the bulk of the summoned gateway. A moment later, the eerie ghostly flame came tearing across the room in Brendan's direction, seeming to go right through him before it disappeared - causing no harm - and making the room go completely dark.<br/><br/>"HOLY FUCKING CRAP!" he screamed, falling back and landing flat on his ass. "What the hell was that about?!" He exclaimed, looking around. He was now in total darkness - with not even the shimmering of the gate left. Brendan groped around until, finding a candle and pulling a lighter from his pocket, he brought a bit of light back into the room. The collage boy looked forlornly at the book and back at the diagram upon the wall and a depressed sigh escaped his lips. "Well that wasn't at all what was<em>supposed</em>to happen..." he said sullenly. And holding the candle in one hand and the spellbook in the other, he headed for the stairs with shoulders slumped - he was done. All he wanted at this point was a light snack and what could still be had of a good night's sleep.