Runners get ready! Three, two, one, Go!

Now they all fucking run. I look around me and feel the flock moving all together, as fast as they can. I look down on my feet, I see them moving. My knees, the connection between the past and the future, pulling me down at one moment and up at the next moment. I look down, as I don’t want to miss a step. I don’t want to fail, I don’t want to be crushed by a relentless mass of human bodies. I must look forward. I speak to myself. I almost whisper to feel my voice just to verify that this is real.

Rush forward, without having any idea where the end is or what it’s like. We don’t have time to discuss. I don’t know what brought me to this race but I have to run. There is no choice, it’s run or die.

But what if I run faster? Will I reach the end first or second? I need to concentrate. I need to focus on my goal: reach the finish line.

I lift my face up and try to catch my breath to not fall down. The person in front of me turns his head and looks at me: it’s a clown. I look around, all faces are clowns. I am torn between laughing and crying, the absolute zero: I feel nothing.

All those people, running together and alone to an unknown location but to a known destination: the end.

At the end of the race there will be an ending waiting for us. Standing there, counting seconds. Whoever falls, gets transferred to the same conclusion: the end of the race. The clown mask falls and reveals the real face but it doesn’t matter, all is gone.

Some get motivated by the price but no one knows what it is. All they know is that by running as fast as possible, they get a chance to hear the applause and the crowd calling their name. They try hard to reach the end and meet the price: emptiness.

The price is a hole into the unknown that wipes away everything.

And the runners, they run away from the truth that is chasing them. But in the end, they will all have to eventually face it.

I see the ending line and I know there is no turning back. My feet still chasing the price. All that ever was holding my name, ready to vanish. Left outside to freeze cold while I settle into the comfort of my finely polished coffin.