Chapter 84 - A Surreal Scenario I

The clock on the massive stadium scoreboard flickered as the digits rolled over to fifty-eight minutes. The humidity that had choked the air earlier in the evening was starting to lift, replaced by a cool breeze coming off the coast, but the heat on the pitch was only intensifying. Northcastle Rising Stars were no longer the frantic, disorganized group that had trudged into the tunnel at half-time. They were moving with a new sense of purpose, their passes snapping across the grass with a precision that signaled a shift in the game's gravity.