She looked over her shoulder to check out her pursuers. This look may have cost her more that she could pay.

She paddled as hard as she could, her muscles aching with every movement. But she couldn’t stop. This was her life on the line. She neared the final bend and realized her pursuers were closing in.

But she knew she could do it. She knew what it would cost. She knew this was a price she couldn’t pay.

But her pursuers kept inching ahead until they were neck and neck. The finish line was 50 feet ahead. But her opponent seemed to have the advantage. He crossed the finish line a few feet ahead.

He turned and said the most humiliating words in her life: “I told you I’d win.”

(Sorry it’s so short.)