By candlelight.

He finished the circle—a mixture of Enochian and runes set inside a Seal of Solomon.

As he began the incantation, he asked for one thing. He asked for her. The perfect match. A soulmate.

As the words left his mouth, a woman from another era began to materialize inside the circle.

The eyes of the cat nearby flashed red for a second as it jumped, knocking over a few candles. The curtains caught fire, and he lost concentration in the middle of the spell.

She screamed, terrified and in pain, as both worlds pulled at her at once.

As the house burned to the ground, the radio nearby was the last thing left standing.

Weeks after the disaster, he began to hear her everywhere—while drinking at the bar, while walking through the city. In song lyrics, she was there.

You brought me here and left me, sang a random song.
I’m trapped in here, alone without you.

He listened carefully, trying to understand what she felt through the music.

He started walking the streets with a radio pressed close to his ear. After the house burned down, everything he owned had burned with it.

After a few months, he began replying to the radio—talking back, angry and broken, knowing it was his fault she was trapped.

Her voice in the lyrics was all he had. Listening was the only thing he could do to ease the guilt of the spell that had gone wrong. He walked, listened, and when it became unbearable, he screamed at the radio.

Coins from passing strangers were enough to buy food—for himself and for the dog that had started following him. He spent his days wandering aimlessly, listening to the radio.

Until one day, he decided to go to her.

He returned to the library, settling into a corner where his smell wouldn’t bother anyone. Away from judgment. Somewhere he could keep the radio on low.

He began reading again, studying the spell—how to modify it. He wouldn’t bring her back. If he became trapped instead, at least they would be together.

Under a bridge, on a night without a moon—just as the spell required—he began. The dark side of the moon would be the doorway to her. After all, a new moon is only the dark side showing.

He drew a new circle, this time around himself. He carved the symbols into his skin and traced them along the circle.

Before beginning, he left a pile of food far away so the dog wouldn’t wander near.

The ritual started at midnight. As he chanted, the voices multiplied, as if every symbol carved into his body was singing along with him.

The circle began to shift and change. It transformed into a staircase, rising upward into the darkness of space.

His body felt weightless as the symbols lifted him step by step, higher and higher.

When he reached the darkness of the moon, a handle appeared. As he placed his hand on it, he noticed the radio was still playing. Her voice sounded angry—distant, disappointed.

Hesitant, he opened the door and stepped through.

There was nothing to stand on. He fell, pulled by the symbols on his body, into what felt like an endless descent.

Suddenly, in the darkness, he hit the ground. The fall was over.

In the distance, a doorway glowed.

He stood and walked toward it, but it didn’t come closer. He ran, and it moved farther away. Exhausted, he collapsed onto the dark ground.

Without time to understand how, the doorway was suddenly right in front of him.

From it, a song played:

There is no gatekeeper. This doorway was made only for you. And now I’m going to close it.

Desperate, he got up and ran—but the door retreated again, the faster he chased it.

Exhausted once more, he fell. This time the door drew nearer, and he could hear her clearly.

It’s you. You’re the one I want. I need you. I love you. I’m at your feet.

He looked up, hope surging. Deep inside the doorway, he saw her—standing there, impossibly beautiful.

He rose again and ran toward her. The doorway moved away.

Defeated, he stopped. Lying on the ground, staring into the darkness, he wondered if she was trapped in a place like this too.

Then it began.

Every symbol on his body started singing a different song.

He heard her pain—her disappointment, sadness, heartbreak. As the music grew louder, the symbols began to burn.

Every second he wasn’t running, the sound intensified.
Every moment still, the burning grew hotter.