Grayscale

Don't slip. Don't slip. Don't slip.
These are the only two words that have been running through my head since I had begun running. It had just finished raining when I left this morning and the ground was still slick and wet. My feet hit the ground in a rhythm,
1234,
1234,
1234,
over and over again.
My lungs had started burning about a mile back, but I couldn't stop, not now, not while I could still hear him behind me. Not while he could still catch up.
No. I couldn't let that happen.
I was almost there. Just a little further.
I heard his feet behind me stomping on the ground trying to catch up. They were getting louder. He was getting closer. But so was I.
In about 2 yards everything would be over.
If I could outrun him I would be able to leave. I would be able to get away from everything and be able to start over.
That would be nice.
A change.
Suddenly an eruption of cheers interrupted me from my thoughts.
Looking around I realized I had just crossed the finish line.
Had I beat Him?
Glancing behind me I caught sight of him, only a few feet from where I was, he stood there, His body was covered in sweat, pretty much everyone was. i had beat him. We both wanted this for different reasons, yet they were the same. We knew that. We knew when this began that only one of us would win this. It was just a matter of who was prepared to be on the losing end.
And yet this victory I held. Made me sick. It made my stomach swell that this little big thing was something that mattered to us enough to give us false hope. I knew he could have beat me. I knew he gave this up so things could get better for me. He knew I wasn't expecting him to, But he did, and there's no going back.
~~~~~~~~
"Life Is just one gigantic grayscale. Everything's all black and white, but you have to find that one thing in the center that levels it to gray."