A/N: Written for The If You Dare Challenge DARK level, prompt 310: footwall.

Unused to Challenge

He suddenly hit a wall.

As a child
he had barely even stubbed a toe,
such lack of finesse
a foreignity
to his carefully crafted
puppet-form.

As a teen
his voice grew
to tender honey's river flow
and slipped through cracks
of armour ill oiled.
Those steels melded
till they fit him like a glove
and he took them all,
letting his sharp mind
do the rest.

As an adult
he found his heart had long since died
and he welcomed the hole that remained
for two simple words were now
the foot that kicked down walls
in his way

Except, he said them:
firm, unwavering,
staring into baby-blue eyes
and a young soul

But what did he care for that?
Why was he still looking at them?

The line had been cast.
The fish could not have failed to hook.

But time had suddenly frozen
against a wall.

His magic struggled with
...something else.
He could not tell what.
And he had no chance to work it out

Because the wall broke
and he was gone.