Invisible

Chapter 1

The air was cold and damp that day. I hate the cold and I hate humidity, so I was miserable. The ground was muddy with the rain from earlier that afternoon. Honestly, all I could think about was going home as I jogged around that track, warming up my muscles with the other long-distance division girls. Even in warm-up, I am, as always, at the very back of the pack.

To make matters worse, we had a very tough workout planned out that day. Coach insisted we complete 3 seperate mile runs as fast as possible. This meant I would surely be left in the dust. Right after finishing warmup, we stretched on the side of the track as always. Pull your leg this way, pull your calf that way, blah blah blah. It seemed to go on forever some days. I was bored and grumpy that day. I still have no idea why.

Finally, the girls lined up on the starting line to begin the exercise. We got in position, and with a single signal, the beep of the stopwatch on the leader's hand, we were off.

Immediately the other girls sprinted ahead of me. I tried as hard as I could to keep just behind them. Everything around me blurred by as I began to hyperfocus on my running. People turned to a blur of sweat odor and neon colors of athletic shorts and shirts. Little bits of hair flew into my face and stuck to my sweaty forehead sometimes, which drove me crazy. Minutes turned to hours as I panted around the track, counting down how many meters I still had to run.

500...400...300...200...100...Before I knew it we were already beginning the second mile. That's when I noticed I was really falling behind. Every muscle in my body was sore, yet the others still sprinted ahead of me just fine. I was just so sick of it. Suddenly, I felt a rush of anger jolt through my body. I pushed my legs to run beyond the limits of pain. I'd had enough of being left behind. Faster and faster I gained on them. Every fiber in my aching body screamed for me to stop, but I kept pushing forward. Faster and faster, harder and faster, I could just about catch the girl in front of me, who always trailed behind the main group.

My lungs felt like they were on fire. Faster and faster and faster and... I stopped. A sudden burst of pain shot through my chest like an arrow and I fell to my knees. Desperate and exhausted I threw my head back and screamed out in my crackly and exhausted voice, "STOP!"
The girl in the back of the group, Olivia, was the only one who noticed. She halted and spun around to look at me. Her blank face told me she was genuinely confused.

Meanwhile, the pain in my chest was slowly turning into burning agony. The excruciating pain made my head spin and my vision blur horribly. "Help... me" I barely spoke out with all of my remaining strength, "Something's... wrong." The pain threatened to swallow me whole. I could just hardly make out the figure of the girl running to my side when I collapsed on the track and began to writhe uncontrollably.

My whole body was in pain now, and I could barely hear Olivia scream my name just above my head or feel her hands push on my chest desperately, trying to find a heartbeat. I closed my eyes and all at once, the pain vanished.