Two minutes. Waiting.

My heart is ready to burst.

The lanes are naked, clean,

ready to be torn up by cleats

and sweat.

 

Hundreds of eyes blinking and

staring.

Chatter swarmed into a calm

storm underneath this dome.

 

Waiting is the hardest part.

The anticipation, building.

Struggling to breathe as I

strategize.

 

Faster here.

Ease up here.

Go for the…

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Gray morning daylight peers inside the dim apartment with beaten walls and cold floorboards. An echoing hollow silence interrupts a family game of tag-your-it across the street. A tall man, 23, with a black hoodie opens the door, slamming it behind him in a stumbling hurry. Out of breath, tense with fear, he walks to through a dark narrow hallway leading to a windowless kitchen. Fists clenched, trembling breath, writhing pain.

 

A chip of dried blood flutters down onto his…

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