That hurts! Go gentle on my entrance

Kato breathed heavily. Slowly his feet inched backwards. Laboured breaths punctured the silence of the hallway.

Then the skeleton moved.

A bony arm cut through the air as a hand unclasped showering him with its own splintered fragments of bone.

He had heard about using your body to fight but this was something else.

Not wasting a second the skeleton lunged, its sword moved through the air with a deafening whistle as it shot towards him.

Kato darted back, but his foot caught the loose cloth on the ground, and he tumbled head over heels.

With a sickening crash his head hit the edge of the sofa. Kato tried to push himself up, but his arms weren’t listening to his head. Faint incoherent sounds mumbled from him as he wondered what he was doing here.

‘Styx,’ a faint voice whispered in his ear, but if that word had ever meant anything to him, he didn’t know when it had.

Screech! The skeleton’s blade tore through the air once again. Arcing towards Kato’s cracked skull.

Kato’s body slumped further, gravity pulling him off the sofa and leaving him sprawled on the floor.

With a thump and a cloud of feathers the skeleton’s weapon sank into the sofa.

A sharp exhale was heard from the side.

The skeleton pulled its arm back once again and thrusted.

The blade descended towards Kato’s prone form.

Bleary and confused Kato’s eyes focused snapped into place as his eyes tracked the metal screaming towards him. He blinked once. Twice. ‘MOVE!’ his mind screamed as his brain caught up to his vision.

But it was too late.

SMASH! Pieces of fractured skull flew across the room.

Kato blinked again. He was alive.

A figure towered above him, he only saw a black outline of a man enshrouded in a cloud of pale, white fog. That seemed to shimmer in the candlelight.

“God?” Kato whispered, his voice thin and reverent.

Then the figure started coughing. Violently. Its hands moved to its waist, clutching its side as it bent over in apparent agony.

Kato blinked again. “Darren?”

“You damn kids always messing with my stuff,” he choked out between coughs.

Kato pushed himself to his feet, steadying himself against the sofa. His head throbbed but survival demanded action. He tensed. Prepared. Watching.

A moment later the fog was cut through, Darren’s face emerging in a billow of white smoke.

Tears ran freely around wrinkled eyes as the old man struggled to breathe. His right hand hung limp at his side, fragments of white bone jutting outwards from mangled flesh as blood freely wept to the floor.

Kato assessed the situation. Keeping Darren in his peripheral vision, Kato cast a cursory glance at his surroundings. The skeleton was dead. More dead. Its head appeared to have been pulverised. Dust piled at the tip of its neck and nothing of its skull remained. Even worse that is if you were a crazy person obsessed with sofas was the long gash marring the once pristine atrocity that an unstable man had dared call furniture.

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He looked back to Darren. The man had saved him, after nearly killing him. What a dilemma. Not. Kato’s expression hardened, his rage bubbling freely beneath his skin.

In two quick steps he crossed the distance between them and with a vivious hook he aimed to down the man. But with surprising agility Darren shifted in an instant darting to the side.

Darren staggered back coughing and spluttering, “You ungrateful brat.”

Kato stared him down disgusted, “you tried to kill me. Twice!”

Darren’s eyes pulsed with rage, “do you have any idea-”

Kato lunged again, swinging low at his centre of mass.

Darren jumped to his side, colliding with the wall with a thud.

“Do you have any idea how expensive that sofa was?” Darren rasped, his voice a wheezing growl. Then charged, his arms swinging wildly as he staggered towards Kato.

Kato watched the man’s approach then with a single measured blow the elderly man crumpled in on himself with a choked gasp, before collapsing like a sack of bricks.

“Damn you.” Kato muttered his voice cold. “And damn your sofa.” Kato spat the last part at the unconscious form. He turned to leave but paused something petty and spiteful pulling him back. He had more to say.

Crouching down beside Darren’s sprawled form Kato leaned in close, his voice a venomous whisper, “I lied earlier. It was in fact not nice to meet you.”

He stood then kicked the sofa one last time. “And I’m keeping your sword.” Without another glance he walked away. Leaving the man and the wretched corridor behind him.

Kato trudged back to the room with filled with doors. It was pitch black and he couldn’t see a thing. He sighed there was only one way out of this.

“I’m sorry.” He paused trying to add some sincerity to his voice, but it came out monotonous and forced, “I’ll play by the rules.”

A candle flickered back to life in the far corner. But the voice didn’t speak.

“Marvellous, “Kato muttered as he trudged forward.

Choosing one at random he pulled a door open wide. Bricks greeted him.

Anger spiked as he clenched his free hand into a fist.

A sickly-sweet voice called out, “Looks like the game has started anew. Tell me challenger would you like a clue.”

Kato took several deep breaths. He unclenched his hand and let the now startling white shade return to its natural colour.

Through gritted teeth he answered, “I. Would. Love. One.”

A soft whoop of enjoyment was briefly heard before a voice cleared their throat nonchalantly, “wouldn’t it be nice if I could see, but I can’t you know for a door I be.”

Kato’s eye twitched, “Thank. You.” He looked around the room again. There were only doors. ‘Great clue.”

He kept staring forward at the bricks they stared back taunting him. He did not like this game. He stepped forward examining the wall. At first glance it was closed off but if Kato knew anything about game designers, they loved their trickery.

He brought his ear against the brick straining his ear to hear anything. But not even the crackle of flame could be heard.

Gently he pressed his fingertips against the cool bricks and began to slowly push. Steadily exerting more and more pressure on the rough surface.

The wind in the room picked up again slightly. Kato ignored it pushing harder. A brick shifted. His heart jumped.

The voice crackled out into the silence its voice ominous and low, “I thought we were playing the game.”

“I am. I am.” Kato responded, “I’m just resting for a moment it’s been a long day.” His fingers pushed harder, a dull ache spreading through the tips. The brick shifted further.

The candle dimmed.

“Play. The. Game.” Any pretence of friendliness was now long past, the voice was cold and harsh and had apparently given up on any attempt at niceties.

Kato thought for a moment. If he was wrong, he could always try again. He pushed harder and with a grating pop a brick fell to the ground on the other side. His eyes widened slightly; he had done it! He wasn’t sure which clue was supposed to clue him into this but was glad he’d managed to outsmart the riddle master.

Low red light started to pulse in the room. Kato stiffened as much as he wanted to fight another skeleton it would be preferable not to. No longer attempting to obfuscate what he was doing Kato put his body weight against the wall and all at once a large selection collapsed.

Erratic static began to spike in the background as the voice started making strangling sounds.

“YOU SAID YOU WOULD PLAY!”

Kato blinked slightly, ‘is that not what I’m doing?’ He shoved with all of his might and the remaining bricks crumbled.

The last candle went out with a soft hiss.

He stepped thorough a voice screamed in the distance, “My skeleton! No! What did you do to him?”

He shook his head softly some people really were sore losers.

Luckily the new room was illuminated a small wooden desk was positioned over a strange symbol that had been carved out of salt around it. A five-pointed star with a circle encompassing it. He shook his head, ‘weird.’

Walking over it he sat at the chair facing where he had just come from. What stood out was the other entrance at the far end. Apparently, he hadn’t needed to smash through the bricks to get here. ‘What do you know? Apparently, you could win.’

He smiled slightly as he stood back up to leave.

He didn’t notice when a stray foot broke the circle and if he had he wouldn’t have thought it mattered.

The voice he thought he had left behind in started maniacally laughing, “I’m free. No more rhyming for me.” It coughed awkwardly, “no more rhymes from now.”

Then it laughed. "Thank you little beast and how sweet you even brought me a new host.”

Then a creature shot from the darkness towards Kato.