….He clenches his bloody hands into weakly bound fists and sneers with a renewed sense of purpose before he thrusts himself proudly to his feet.

“You’ll have to go through me, for I will not allow it!” he hisses through broken jaw.

“I thought we already had,” Sophia purrs cheekily.

“LUCK AND NOTHING MORE! BEST ME AGAIN, I DARE YOU!” he fires back quickly.

“Dare me? How about how DARE YOU!” she spits with a venomous bite. “Once would be luck, twice would be plausible at best, but thrice or more would have more to do with failure of self than it would with luck.”

“I-I-I,” he stammers through trembling lips as a sea of sweat cascades down his brow.

“YOU are NOTHING! YOU are FICTION! YOU are in MY way!” she growls with a temper growing in warmth. “NOW! Stand aside, or DIE!”

He swallows a dry mouthful of air and tightens his fists once more. “Then I guess today is as good a day as any to die,” he says as a smile cuts its way across his bloody lips….