Speed Demon

Sunlight! Bright, white light emanating from a fiery ball of gas ninety-three million miles away from the earth. The same sunlight that now beat down on Xavier as he furiously pedaled his bike. Sweat trickled down his forehead, and his thigh muscles screamed for relief as he forced his legs up and down, up and down. Xavier thought back to when he had first started training for this race. The race was named the Speed Demon. The Speed Demon was an annual cycling competition in Xavier’s hometown that stretched thirteen miles. It consisted of five miles of winding hills without shade, then a three-mile section of a rough wooded trail, and finally another five-mile stretch of winding hills. Xavier had discovered biking last year and fell in love with the activity immediately. About a month ago he signed up for the Speed Demon. He had decided that he needed to push himself at biking and this race was a difficult but achievable challenge. He had devoted the last several months to biking long, fast, and hard, and he had biked forty miles a week for the past eight weeks. Xavier’s muscles proved it. His hamstrings twitched and strained, shaking with stress but they were strong and wouldn’t give up. Xavier would not give up. He had a chip on his shoulder. His family said that he would never be able to do this race,  that it would be impossible. When Xavier was three years old he was involved in a horrific car crash that killed his babysitter. Ever since then, he suffered from blinding headaches that would oftentimes make him blackout. These headaches were triggered by sunlight and even the littlest bit of natural light left him noxious with pain. These headaches had stopped him from playing any outside sports or activities for his entire childhood. He tried sunglasses and a hat but they would only help a little, mainly preventing serious blackouts. But even the littlest bit of sun exposure caused horrible headaches. Therefore Xavier was a pale, sickly teenager who stayed inside all day. That all changed when Xavier discovered biking. On his sixteenth birthday, Xavier had received a special bike helmet. The helmet was essentially a lightweight motorcycling helmet with reflective glass for the visor. It acted like a two-way mirror allowing Xavier to see the outside world while blocking the majority of light coming through. His family would never have been able to afford it. Instead, his neighbor had bought it for him, feeling sorry for his horrible, crippling illness. The helmet had taken weeks of getting used to, but once he overcame the strangeness, it became a piece of heaven materialized into plastic and glass. Xavier had started the Speed Demon energetically. He knew he had to pace himself but he started out fast. With the “miracle” helmet on his head, Xavier was feeling unstoppable. By mile two, Xavier was in first place and second place was nearly out of sight behind him.  For the first five miles, Xavier steadily biked, moving his legs up and down, up and down. He was nearing the end of the pavement section and drawing near to the tough wooded stretch. Mile six is when tragedy struck. Xavier had biked about half a mile on the heavily-rooted, dangerous dirt path. It was a hilly, windy, bumpy mess of a trail, but Xavier was loving it. He streaked down a steep, pothole-filled hill that required his full attention when a long snake darted across the path. Xavier shrieked and jerked his handlebars to the right, trying to avoid the snake. His front wheel struck a large root on the side of the path and Xavier was catapulted into the air. He flung forward five feet into the air, which quickly became fifteen feet above the ground due to the steep decline of the hill. His helmet slammed into a tree branch and his head whipped backward. As he continued to fall, Xavier desperately shot his arms out, trying to catch anything to stop his fall. His fingers wrapped around a thick branch but he cursed and released immediately. A sharp thorn had pierced the palm of his hand and Xavier plummeted the last ten feet down the hill. He tried to prevent serious damage by tucking himself and landing in a somersault but was not able to rotate fully. Instead, Xavier’s helmet slammed into a large rock on the ground. A shattering noise exploded in Xavier’s ears and pieces of glass jammed into his cheek. The helmet was destroyed. Xavier lay for a moment on the hard ground, a branch had ripped a hole through his shirt and made a deep cut in his back. Miraculously, nothing else seemed to be injured, no broken bones at least. His knees were badly scraped but Xavier could handle that. That’s when he noticed the glass from his helmet had shattered and some of the shards had pierced his face and cheek. He ripped off his broken helmet to get all the glass shards off of his face. In doing so he was exposed to the sun. Xavier glanced up through the trees and could see the bright, brilliantly beaming sun. The trees blocked most of the sun rays, but still, Xavier’s head twinged with unease. He didn’t know if he could keep on biking without his helmet. Just then, the second place biker zipped past Xavier. Seconds later a whole pack of bikers passed him. Xavier was going to lose. He sat down for a moment, trying to shield his head from the blinding sun. He couldn’t just give up, he had to finish the race. In fact, he had to win the race. Xavier shakily tried standing up and immediately vomited. His head spun like a top and the trees began spiraling and moving around. His head was seriously messed up. Xavier slowly uprighted his bike, walked it down the rest of the hill, and climbed on. He started to pedal slowly, but his head was becoming increasingly uncomfortable from the sun exposure. His back stung with pain as salty sweat dripped into the gash made by the sharp branch, and a clump of dry leaves stuck to the raw skin on his knee. His palm throbbed with pain, and blood seeped out of the puncture wound made by the thorn. By the time Xavier made it to the edge of the wooded section of the race his head was throbbing uncontrollably, yet he still had five miles left to go. His fall had set him back and he was now in fifth place. He could see the fourth and third place bikers in the distance, but the first two bikers were nowhere in sight. As he pedaled out into the open air, the unrelenting, unmerciful, always present sun beat down upon Xavier with a crushing force. Searing pain ripped through Xavier’s head and he grunted with the sudden voracious onslaught of light. He had to keep going. Up down, up down he forced his weary, scraped-up legs. His t-shirt clung to his wounded back and he could feel the blood seeping through his shirt. He told himself just get to top of the next hill, then when he reached that mark he would tell himself now just get to the top of the next hill. Lightning struck his head every time he tried to glance around. He had to finish the race soon or he was going to pass out. Glancing blearily through sweat and tear-filled eyes he saw a sign saying three miles left. He pedaled faster and faster trying to ignore the horrible pain racking his skull. He passed fourth place. Legs moving up and down, up and down. He passed third place. Up down, up down. Two miles left. Blinding pain. One and a half miles left. Up down, up down. He passed second place. Up down, up… Xavier’s leg wasn’t responding. He couldn’t push it down. He saw first place only about fifty feet ahead of him. Xavier passed a marker, but his vision was starting to blur and he couldn’t tell how much he had left. Xavier wept in pain as he tried to continue the up and down movement of his legs. He was twenty feet away from first place. He spotted the finish line in the distance, coming up fast. There was an excited crowd at the finish line but all he could see was a giant blob of fuzzy color and noise. Black spots appeared in his peripheral vision. Xavier yelled and with his last might, pedaled past first place taking the lead. The finish line was only one hundred feet away, but the darkness was getting worse. Darkness creeping, creeping. Up down, up down. Blinding pain. Shouts from the crowd. Darkness everywhere. Twenty feet, ten feet, five feet… so close. Darkness!