The Chill
Logan Freight looked at the watch his grandfather had given him two days before he passed away, and saw that it was four thirty five on Saturday, and he was going to be late for his track meet. He opened the third drawer of his oak dresser and pulled out his track shorts. Then he opened the bottom drawer and looked for his track shirt. He ripped all the shirts out of the drawer and threw them on the floor. He realized his orange and white track shirt wasn’t in the drawer. He didn’t even bother picking up any of the shirts, and dashed out of his room and down the old wooden stairs. He made a sharp left turn and slammed into his older brother, Jeremy knocking the brand new cell phone out of his brother’s hands.
“Hey, this is brand new,” exclaimed his brother angrily and picked up his phone, “You break it, you bought it.” And with that, Jeremy went up the stairs into his room, and turned his radio, punk rock music blared out through the house until Jeremy slammed the door.
Logan didn’t have time to think about what his older had to say. He ran into the family room to see his mom sitting on the sofa watching her favorite soap opera.
“Mom, where’s my track shirt, I need it,” said Logan looking at the TV with a disgusted face.
“It’s in your closet, hanging up,” answered Logan’s twin sister Belle; “I put it there so it wouldn’t wrinkle.”
“Oh, thanks,” said Logan, patting his sister on the head and dashing out of the family room and up the stairs.
Logan ran up the stairs, skipping every other step, and running into Jeremy again, at the top of the stairs. Jeremy glared at Logan, and threw him against the wall as he headed down the stairs to make a turkey sandwich. Logan quickly forgot about the encounters with his stubborn senior brother and opened his closet to see his track shirt hanging neatly in front of his face. He slammed his bedroom door, changed into his track uniform, ran down the stairs, and put on his track shoes. He was now ready to run the biggest race of his freshman career.
“Mom, let’s go,” exclaimed Logan, waiting at the door, water bottle in hand, “I’m going to be late!”
Within seconds his mom came jogging to the door with her car keys, Belle right behind her. Logan opened the heavy, white door and stepped outside onto the driveway, and ran to the just washed, sunset orange, dodge viper. He grasped the handle and opened the door to hear his sister shout, “I call shotgun!”
Hearing his sister call shotgun, Logan opened the back passenger side door and got in the car. Belle ran to the car and jumped in the front passenger seat. They both closed the door simultaneously. Then their mom opened the front driver’s side door and sat down, closed the door, and started the car. The engine purred, and the radio played punk rock music. The music played in Logan’s head and his soul, it pumped him up for the up coming meet he had. He felt like he could out run anything. The music consumed him, and before knew it; he was at his track meet.
Logan’s mom parked the car and turned it off. Logan jumped out of the car, water bottle in hand and dashed to the track. This was no ordinary meet, this meet decided weather or not Logan’s school went to the state championship. Logan was in six different events. He had to run a one thousand meter relay, long jump, high jump, discus throw, shot-put, and an eight hundred meter race. He had butterflies in his stomach, but he was excited too. All he knew was, he was pumped and ready to win.
Logan ran to his coach to get ready for his challenges.
“Look who it is, the star of the team,” said the coach as Logan approached the team, “Are you ready for your big event”
“Sure am, coach,” replied Logan, still feeling nervous about the whole thing.
“That’s good, now go stretch, we don’t want you pulling anything, and I mean stretch everything.”
Logan immediately ran over to a clear area and began to stretch. He stretched his arms, legs, his back, his stomach, and his neck. While he was stretching, the girl he had a crush on came over to him and said, “Hey, Logan, are you ready for your six events?”
“ Oh hey Heather. Yeah, I’m totally ready, just have to loosen up,” answered Logan as he stretched his legs.
“Oh, that’s good, I hope you win.”
“Thanks, what are you competing in?”
“I’m doing hurdles, and that’s it, ‘cause I can’t do anything else…”
“You just have to believe in yourself, and good luck.”
“Thanks, you too,” and with that, Heather jogged off to finish getting ready for her event.
Logan finished stretching, jogged over to his coach, and said, “Hey coach, I’m ready for my first event.”
“Good, now go to your place for your relay.”
Logan jogged at a steady pace to his spot; he was the last one to get the baton. He waited in his spot and tried to listen to the ref. All he heard was, “READY? SET! GO!” Johnny, the first runner on Logan’s team ran the first two hundred fifty meters and handed off the baton, his team was currently in second. Alley, the second runner, ran the next two hundred fifty meters and handed the baton to Alex, the team was now in third. Alex sprinted to catch up to the other runners, and passed the baton to Logan at the same time as the second place team passed theirs. The millisecond Logan got the baton he was gone. He was in second place for about five seconds and then he passed the leader. He didn’t slow down at all, and crossed the finish line ten seconds before the second place runner. Logan stood on the first place platform and relieved his first place gold medal.
Logan’s next event was the shot put. He didn’t think he would be able to win because all the other competitors looked really strong. While he was watching the others throw, Christi came over to him, gave him a big, unexpected hug, and said, “Congratulations, you saved the team back there.”
“Oh, thanks,” replied Logan as he hugged Heather back.
Then they let go and Logan was called up to throw the shot put. Logan stepped into the ring and looked down at the ball on the ground. Then he looked at the crowd of people looking at him in silence. The announcer said, “When you’re ready, you may go.”
Logan picked up the shot put, placed it on his shoulder, spun around and threw it. It went into the air and landed just passed the first place mark. Logan stared at his thrown shot put in disbelief, and the crowd went wild. Logan threw his hands in the air and shouted, “YES!”
His whole team jumped off the bench to their feet, and Logan ran over to them and they lifted him into the air. Then they set him down and he got ready for his high jump. Logan stepped up to the starting line and looked at the high jump bar, it was six feet high. He had to jump over that and then another one higher until he messed up. The referee said, “GO!”
Logan sprinted up to the bar and without losing speed; he jumped over the four-foot bar with no problem. Then he had to jump the five-foot bar. When the referee said go, He sprinted again, and jumped over the bar. He landed on the blue mat and saw that he cleared the bar again. He then had to jump the six-foot bar. The judge said go, and for the third time, Logan sprinted to the bar and jumped, but this time, his leg hit the bar and it fell off. The crowd gasped and Logan looked at the fallen bar with tears in his eyes. He realized he didn’t make it. Then he stood up and walked back to the referee, and the ref told him, “You get one more jump, at five feet, ten inches.”
Logan stepped up to the starting line when the referee said go Logan dashed down the lane and jumped, he cleared the bar, and landed on the blue mat. Logan jumped up and ran off the mat to his coach, and looked at the scoreboard. He had the second place score.
Logan now had three medals, two gold medals, and one silver medal. He now was going for his fourth. He was hoping for a third gold medal, but he wouldn’t mind silver. All he knew was, he had no intentions for a bronze.
He went to the ring for his discus throw. The referee said go, and Logan picked up the discus and launched it as hard as he could. The discus soared through the air and crashed to the ground, flinging dirt into the air. Logan looked at it and saw he had tied with the first place throw. Logan and the other first place competitor stood face to face, and threw a tiebreaker. Logan was up first. He felt his heart beating faster and faster, the crowd was in complete silence, and Logan didn’t notice, but his entire body was shaking. Logan, once again, picked up the shot put and placed it on his shoulder. He spun around and released the heavy metal ball into the air. Everyone in the crowd was now standing, waiting, watching. The shot put landed with a thud in the grass. Logan had no idea what he was up against. He didn’t even know the other kid’s name. He just hoped he was going to win.
“Hey, by the way, my name’s Ty,” said the competitor.
“Oh, I’m Logan.”
Then Ty looked at the shot put, then at Logan. The adrenaline in Logan’s body was pumping. He couldn’t help by lightly pound his fists together. Ty picked up the shot put, and with one swift movement he spun around and shot the ball into the air. The crowd, still standing, watched Ty’s shot put fly through the air and start to drop towards the ground. The shot put landed on the ground and the judges went to look how far it went. After measuring, the judges announced the results.
“In third place with fifteen feet, five inches, from Northwest High School… Jared,” the judge said into the microphone, “In second place with seventeen feet, eight inches, from Clearview High School… Logan!”
Logan stood up, happy, but sad as well. He was happy that he came second, but sad he wasn’t first.
“And in first place with seventeen feet, nine inches, from Westmont High School… Ty!”
Ty’s team stood up to congratulate him. Logan looked over at their team. They all looked like they could throw the shot put fifty feet. Logan walked over to Ty and tapped him on the shoulder. Ty turned around laughing from something a teammate said.
“Hey, Logan, what’s up,” asked Ty.
“You did really good out there, congratulations,” answered Logan.
“Oh, thanks, you too.”
Logan and Ty shook hands and went their separate ways. Logan walked back to his coach who was sitting on the bench writing something on his clipboard.
“Hey coach, what’s next,” asked Logan.
The coach jumped, and dropped the clipboard, “Logan, you can’t sneak up on me like that!”
“Sorry, coach. So what am I in next?”
“Next is your long jump, go get ready.”
Logan walked over to the long jump to watch the older kids jump. Then he someone call his name. It sounded like Heather. He turned around and saw her; Heather was running toward him with a medal around her neck. Heather stopped about two feet away from Logan and held up her gold medal.
“I won,” she said.
“I see that, good job,” answered Logan.
“Thanks, how did you do so far?”
“I got two gold medals and two silver medals.”
“Good job, I hope you win your other events!”
Then she stepped forward and hugged him. Logan felt her slender body against him and gently wrapped his arms around her. At that moment he felt may different things. He was nervous, happy, confused, and excited. He just didn’t know what the whole feeling was. Was it happiness? Or was it more?
Logan’s name was called; it was his turn for the long jump…
“I’ll see you after my event,” said Logan to Heather.
“Okay, good luck.”
Logan jogged over to the starting line; the feeling was still on his mind. The referee said go and Logan started running, he started of at a jog, then a run, then a sprint, and jumped just before the line. He soared into the air, landed in the sand, both feet side by side, and fell forwards. When he landed he felt a cold sensation go through his entire body, but he ignored it.
“A new state record,” exclaimed the judge, “twenty-two feet!”
Logan looked at his landing spot in disbelief. It was actually twenty-two feet even. Was that humanly possible? All he knew was, he got first place and set the state record. He was definitely happy. But that feeling he got ten minutes ago hadn’t gone away. He stood on the platform to accept his gold medal and his record certificate, which was signed by the governor and had gold lace on the edges. After he received his awards, he stepped down off of the platform, and looked around for Heather. She was sitting on the bench watching him. When she saw him look at her, she smiled and waved. Logan ran over to her, sat down next to her, and looked directly into her eyes. She looked back at him, her face turned bright red and she looked away quickly.
“Earlier,” said Logan and Heather looked up at him, “when we hugged, I got a strange feeling. I felt happy, nervous, scared, confused, and excited all at the same time, but it was all mixed together, like it was one emotion.”
“Logan… I know how you feel,” Heather said with slight tears in her eyes and a smile on her face, “I’ve liked you since I moved here in fifth grade. I just stood back and watched, as we became friends, just friends, nothing more, and as you got different girlfriends every year. Then when they broke your heart, I was the first one you came to, and I talked you through it.” Tears were now running down her face, but she was smiling because she knew what Logan was feeling.
Then it was Logan’s big event, the eight hundred meter race. Something told him he was going to win. Logan looked at the other racers, then at the track ahead. He got stretched a little bit, bent over; touched his fingers to the ground, and listened for the command to go.
“Go,” shouted the referee, and the racers were off. Logan was in third at the start, but he quickly passed the other racers and was in first place. Logan wasn’t sprinting like all the others. He was doing something faster than that. He was going so fast that his feet were hot at the end of the race. He hopped up and down, throwing his shoes off and waving air on his feet.
He was once again standing on the platform, accepting another medal, and a certificate, but this time the certificate was for the world record time of five seconds. Then he looked for Heather again, he saw her, still sitting on the bench. He ran over to her and set his awards down with his other ones. He looked Heather in the eyes and said, “Heather, I think I love you…”
“Logan, I feel the same way, I have for a while,” said Heather with more tears in her eyes.
“Will you be my girlfriend,” asked Logan as he began to cry happily as well.
“Yes… Yes, Logan I will be your girlfriend, I’ll be the best girlfriend you’ve ever had!”





















The Discovery
Logan woke up from a very deep, dreamless sleep. His body was numb, yet extremely cold. He shouldn’t have been cold because he was under a very heavy blanket. His legs hurt, like he had just finished running a marathon, but he wasn’t sore from his events earlier. Not only was he sore, but his feet were moving up and down, like he was trying to run. He tried to stop his feet from moving, but it wasn’t working. He threw the blanket off of his body and turned so his feet were hanging over the edge of the bed. He stood up, within milliseconds, he slammed into his door, and his feet stopped moving. He stood up, looked at his feet, then at the door, and said in a whisper, “You know, we aren’t in a race anymore…”
Then he looked at his brand new, black iPhone and saw that it was one thirty in the morning. He walked to his door, grasped the cold, brass handle, turned it and pushed the door open quietly. Then he stepped out of his room into the long, dimly hallway. He turned left and looked down the old, wooden stairs. He didn’t want to take any chances of making any noise, so he decided to slide down the banister instead of walking down the stairs. He hopped on the banister, slid down, hopped off the end and landed on the soft carpet. Then he walked out the front door and onto the porch. He jumped of the porch and into his front yard. He stood at the East end of his yard and had a plan to figure out what has been going on with him. He counted to three and started running, and in about half a second, he was on the other side of the yard. His incredible speed made a monstrous wind that blew on the trees, causing them to lean. The wind caught up to Logan and knocked him to the ground. Logan stood up and brushed the dirt off of his pajamas.
“That… was… awesome, ” Logan said to himself. He knew what he had discovered couldn’t be told, because everyone would think he was a freak. Then he quickly gathered his thoughts and used his new power to get to the front door, he slowly opened the door and used his power one last time to get up to his room.
Logan picked up his iPhone, and composed a new text message that said, “I have something to tell you tomorrow… Meet me behind the bleachers tomorrow before school.” Then he scrolled through the contacts in his phone and selected Heather. He pressed the send button and in about three seconds the message was sent. Logan laid back down and fell back to sleep.

* * * * *

Logan stepped outside and walked to the end of his driveway. He sat on a rock by the end of the driveway with Jeremy and Belle. Jeremy was leaning against an old Oak tree with his headphones in. Belle was sitting on a rock next to the rock Logan was sitting on. They all waited in silence, which was strange because usually, Logan and Belle talked before getting on the bus. Then Belle looked at Logan and said, “Why aren’t you talking? We usually talk in the mornings… Is there something you’re hiding from me?”
“Well…  I have something you might want to see-“
“Show me,” Belle interrupted.
Logan looked at his watch, then at his sister.  Then he looked at Jeremy, who was listening to his iPod on full blast with his hood up, looking at the ground. Then Logan walked into his front yard and said, “OK, now you can’t say anything to ANYONE about this…” Then he used his magnificent speed to cross the yard and come back. “OK, that’s it…”
Belle’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened then she gave a big satisfied smile and said, “Your amazing secret is safe with me!”
After another three or four minutes of silence the bus came rolling to a halt in front of the Freight family’s driveway.
Jeremy pulled out his headphones, stepped into the bus, and quickly walked to the back and sat with his friends. Belle jogged up to the steps, skipped every other one, and sat in the middle of the bus with a group of her friends. Logan’s friends didn’t ride that bus, so he usually sat with his sister and her friends, but today was different, he went back three seats farther than usual and sat alone and listened to his iPhone.
Logan’s phone vibrated and lit up. Logan looked at it to see the screen say “New text message!” He tapped the touch screen and the message came up. It was from Heather. It was a reply to what Logan wrote to her the night before. The bus slowed to a stop in front of a student’s house, the doors opened and the stop sign swung out. All on coming traffic stopped to wait. The student walked across the street and stepped on to the bus. Logan had never seen him before. The student was wearing blue jeans and a black shirt with a green dragon on the chest. He was also wearing a black rope necklace with a golden dragon pendant.
“Hey, my name’s Ishimaru Masato, I’m new here. I just moved here from Japan last week. What’s your name?” said the new student as he sat across from Logan.
“I’m Logan Freight, I’m a freshman. What grade are you going into?”
“Oh, that’s cool, I’m a freshman as well. Maybe we’ll have classes together.”
“Yep, now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to my music,” said Logan politely, put the ear buds back in, and turned the volume up. Then he fell asleep listening to the music.
“Logan, Logan wake up, we’re at school,” said Belle insistently.
Logan unplugged the ear buds and put them in his backpack. Then he put his phone in is pocket and stood up. Him and Belle walked off the bus and Logan dashed off behind the school, but he didn’t use his new ability.
“Logan,” shouted Heather as Logan ran around the corner of the brick building. She ran to him with open arms. Logan opened his arms as well. They met and wrapped their arms around each other. Logan gently placed his hand on Heather’s face and looked into her eyes. She stood on her tiptoes to meet his height and she went in a bit closer. Logan held her hand with the hand that wasn’t on her face. Then he went in closer, their lips met, and they kissed. They pulled apart and Logan said, “OK, now, I’m going to show you something you’ve never seen except in the movies…”
“OK, I’m ready,” replied Heather in a confident voice.
Logan took three steps back, rotated his body toward the other side of the football field. He looked at Heather, who was standing in the same position contently. She nodded at him. He took one step and activated his power. Within a second he had ran to the other side of the field and back. Heather stood in the same place; her facial expression didn’t change at all. After the dash, Logan fixed his hair, and said, “Well?”
“I am surprised that you can do that, but since you’ve shared yours with me, I’ll show you mine-“ The bell interrupted her sentence. “Later…”
Logan picked Heather up and used his speed to transport them to the back of the group of students who were walking into the school. Logan and Heather parted ways to their lockers and got their supplies for their next three classes. Logan went to History for first period. Heather went to Geometry.
Logan looked at the clock impatiently. The teacher gave a boring lecture on something completely off topic to the day’s lesson. Logan slyly took his iPhone out of his pocket and read a text message he had received from his friend Brad. He read the text, replied and slipped his phone back into his pocket.
“Mr. Freight, would you care to repeat what I just said,” asked Mr. Burnstein impatiently.
“Um… I have no idea. Why are you even talking about this? It’s completely off topic to the lesson…”
“Logan, you’re absolutely correct! I was waiting until someone said that, I’m sure none of you would like to take a test over a lesson you haven’t learned…”
“Exactly…”
The class groaned and pulled out their notebooks to take notes.

* * * * *

Logan pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent a text to Brad. Then he slipped the phone back into his pocket. Within thirty seconds he received a reply from Brad. He slipped the phone back out and hid it under the desk. Mrs. Marshall looked at him right when he hid it. She gave him a stern look and said, “Mr. Freight, you know the rules… give me the phone.” Then she walked over to his desk and held her hand out, Logan placed his phone in her hand and sighed. She turned it off and put it in the top drawer of her desk. Then she continued class as normal.
That was the first time Logan got his phone taken away. The final bell rang. Logan stood up and walked back to Mrs. Marshall’s desk to get his precious phone back. Mrs. Marshall saw him and gave his phone back. As Logan was walking away she said coldly, “Don’t let me catch you with it again!”
Logan walked to Heather’s locker and saw her bent over putting books away. He leaned against the locker next to Heather’s. She pulled her backpack out of her locker and slammed the door shut. Then she slipped the backpack over her arm and on to her shoulder and flipped her hair. Logan couldn’t help but stair. He thought she was beautiful. She looked at him and said, “What?”
Logan smiled and said, “I was just noticing how amazingly pretty you are.”
“Well, I’m flattered, but we have to catch the bus, so let’s go,” answered Heather as she started walking.
Logan walked with her, looping his arm in hers. They walked to the bus and sat together. Logan sat on the inside and put his arm around Heather’s waist as she sat down. She looked at him and smiled at him. Logan looked out the window and saw the window start to fog up. Then he noticed that Heather was shaking tremendously, so he took his sweatshirt off and put it on her.  Then he looked at his hands and saw that they were turning blue. Then he noticed how cold he was. He instantly started shaking. All the windows on the bus got frost on them. The bus got dark. All the girls screamed and the bus’s engine stopped. Logan cleared the glass and looked out the window. All the cars on the road had stopped and the trees had ice on them. It was so cold he could see the ice in the air. Clouds blocked out the sun, making the entire town dark. The bus was silent. The sound of scared high school students breathing was the only sound. Then there was a screeching sound outside the bus. It sounded like some kind of creature screeched as it was attacking. The window frosted over again and something slammed into the bus. The bus shook from side to side and a group of girls in the front screamed. Logan wiped the frost away again and looked out again. The creature looked like is could be ten feet tall. It was really thin; all the bones in its body were showing. The creature’s body was black with blood red tribal symbols all over its body. Its eyes were a dark red color as well. The creature drew its huge, skinny fist back and punched the window of the bus where Logan and Heather were sitting. Logan pushed Heather to the seat across the aisle to safety and shouted “Back off!”
The creature didn’t notice Logan’s warning and ripped a hole in the side of the bus. Logan used his power to distract the creature from the bus. He ran in circles around the monster. The creature reached its hand down and snatched Logan off the ground. The creature’s giant hand was too strong for Logan to escape from. Logan struggled, trying to break free. The creature laughed at Logan’s pity attempt to break loose. Then without warning, threw him into the air. Heather screamed as Logan’s helpless body went flying into the air. Logan didn’t make a sound. By the time he could react to what the creature had done he slammed on the ground with a thud. Logan stood up slowly, in pain. The creature gave a loud, horrible screech and slammed its fist to the ground right next to where Logan was standing. Logan dashed between the creature’s legs. The creature spun around, its eyes concentrated on Logan. Then Logan thought about how to defeat the creature. He thought for too long, because the creature kicked him up into the air with ease before he had a chance to think at all. Heather screamed “LOGAN!” at the top of her lungs and began to cry. Logan slammed to the ground, attempting to catch himself by putting his hand down. When his hand hit the ground, the force from his fall made his body come crashing down on the extended arm, causing a very loud cracking sound. Logan screamed in pain. He looked at his arm and tears rolled down his face. He couldn’t feel his fingers. He looked at his elbow; it was bent the opposite way. He knew it was broken. Then he passed out from the pain.
The creature looked at Logan and gave a loud shriek, as if it knew it was victorious. Then, without warning, the creature went up in dark purple flames and was gone when the flames cleared.











It Gets Worse…
He was being followed. But he didn’t know by what. He didn’t see or hear anyone or anything, but he could sense it.  He was walking down the sidewalk. It was two thirty A.M. He didn’t know why he was walking. Maybe he was blowing off steam. And what was really weird was his arm wasn’t broken. He turned the corner of First and Main Street. He walked another five paces and heard a growl in the bush to his right. He stopped to find out what it was. He waited ten seconds and began walking again. Then heard the bush move. He turned quickly to see the creature that attacked after school flying out of the bush at him.

Logan sat up in the hospital bed. He was soaked with sweat. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and lied back down. There were balloons and get well soon cards through out the room. He looked at the clock and saw that it was two thirty five A.M. His cell phone was on the end table next to his bed. He grabbed it with his left arm, because his right arm was broken and in a cast. He had fifteen text messages from fifteen different people. He closed his phone and set it back on the table. Then he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
After sleeping another five hours, Logan woke up in the hospital bed confused still. That dream felt oddly real. It all felt so real; the creature, its skin; the attack, the pain; the whole experience. He just couldn’t get over how incredibly real he thought it was. He even looked in the mirror to make sure his face was still intact from the attack.
Then his phone rang, playing the song Bleed it Out by his favorite song, Linkin Park.