Day 22: Friday Fiction – Victory Lost

Simon knew he had to press through the pain.

That medal.

The gold.

It would be his. No matter what.

He got a cramp in his leg and he was determined it wasn’t going to stop him. Simon grabbed his water bottle and a salt tablet from his running bag and pressed on. He had a sort of run limp, which slowed him down and hoped the water and salt tablet would start working before his nearest rival, Drake, caught up to him.

A quarter-mile to go.

Drake won the race the last three years and Simon was determined that Drake was not going to take the gold this year. Simon turned to look for Drake and was pleasantly surprised to see him in pain too. He knew he shouldn’t revel in that, but he did.

Simon pressed on. Limping his way to victory.

He heard someone say, “Runner down. Need Medical.”

“Which runner?” Simon asked.

“Number 251.”

“Drake,” he thought. Suddenly Simon got a cramp in his stomach that brought him to his knees. He grabbed his water bottle and took a sip. The pain got worse and he was on the ground in a fetal position.

Another medical team was dispatched. “I have to finish. I have to win.”

“Not today,” a paramedic said. “But you will get a first class ride across the finish line.”

Just before the paramedics were about to put Simon in the ambulance, Brett, a newcomer, came running up.

He leaned over and whispered, “Never take water from your competition.” He stood and patted him on the shoulder and said smiling, “I’m sure you’ll be fine in a few hours.” And before Simon had a chance to process the information Brett was off.

Today another edition of 20/20 Five has posted and I hope you’ll come buy and have some fun with us. That’s where you answer five questions, link up, and then hop around and get to know some of your blogging neighbors. Let’s have some fun getting to know each other.

There is a blogger by the name of Mel and she has something called Writing Room 101. It looks really interesting. She has daily prompts such as Mystery Monday’s, Terrifying Thursday’s, Sci-Fi, and everything in between.

It doesn’t matter what genre you write, you just have to want to write.