The Race

Soon came midnight and Ralph felt ready to go out and get this over with. He slowly left his apartment and walked quickly to the car park, got into his car and drove off into the night. He started to think who would be there at this one-time event. As all of these thoughts were going through his head this started to break him down and make him think hard. Suddenly his telephone rang, he stopped the car slowly in a lay by and answered the call. “Hey baby are you coming?” a voice said. “Everyone is here waiting, some people told me you are going to be racing ‘the hidden’… Is this true?”. He recognised the voice and knew that it was Ellie’s.

Ralph responded “Yeah I am on my way… did they say that?”.

He carried on talking for a while and wondered what people would think about him because of this decision he was making and whether people would be on his side or not, thinking of how people would respond to the choice that he had made. Ellie could notice that he wasn’t right. “Hey Ralphy, don’t feel down… I believe you’re going to beat him, honest”, but as hard and she tried, Ralph’s mind couldn’t stop thinking about the negatives of him losing. No matter how hard Ellie tried, nothing could save Ralph from his dark thoughts.

Ralph started to curl up and worried for a while, realising that everyone knew he wanted to race ‘The Hidden’. His body started to shiver and he could feel a cold wind blowing up his spine. His hands started to sweat and he could sense the pressure building. He didn’t want to lose and make a fool out of himself, all he wanted was to win the race and feel victory. He knew feeling nervous and scared wouldn’t help him in a good way, so he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath to clear his mind. He began to focus on the race and not worry about anything else, gaining back his confidence in winning. He hung up the phone and drove off.

Arriving at the location, he looked around to see that there was only one road surrounded by trees, forests and a mountain like figure in the darkness. He could hear the howling of wolves in the distance which made the hairs on his arms rise up. After taking a deep breath and a chewing gum, he opened the door and walked out into the light of the moon glowing over him and his car. Looking around he saw the vast crowd of cars and people standing around him. He could hear engines roaring and people shouting. He could smell the burning of rubber from the racing cars; he could feel the excitement of everyone around him and not see anyone who was upset even the slightest. All these feelings made Ralph feel relaxed and make him smile with joy. Ellie went up behind Ralph and hugged him, she was happy to see him smiling and not being looking worried.

Soon came time for the race to start, and Ralph felt ready. He turned to Ellie, hugged her and said bye to everyone and they wished him luck. Ralph walked back to his car, he could taste victory, sweet in his mouth like honey. He could still smell Ellie’s perfume which had that fruity sense to it. Looking in the distance he could see the single strands of grass swaying from the wind passing through them. The flag being lifted announced the start of the race. Getting into his car he saw the stitched up pattern of black leather on his chair and the faded raindrops on his windscreen. He could feel his heart rate increasing and the oxygen flowing around his body. Ralph paused, he could start to smell gas from his engine inside his car.