NEW LIFE : A SECOND CHANCE

Rxel and Rylen arrived at the Speed Climbing Venue at 8.30am. They grinned and jogged up to Kyle when they saw him there.

"Where's Kay?" they asked, looking about and around Kyle. Where was Kyle hiding her?

"Not here," Kyle replied with a lopsided grin, relishing in the distressed and disappointed look of the twins.

"But ... She said if you win this round, she'll cheer for you in the finals," Kyle said and the twins grinned widely. Now they had even more motivation to win the round.

Suffice to say, the motivation was good enough for them.

Rylen's turn came first, and he scaled up the Wall quickly - even beating his own personal record. When he got down, Rxel came over and they did their twin handshake. Kyle laughed at their antics and Rylen said, "Remember to tell Kay how awesome I was, ya? I beat my own record by 0.1 seconds!"

Rylen did a little jig and Rxel said in determination, "I will beat my own personal record too! Kay needs to praise me, too!!"

After 45 minutes, Kyle had to go even though Rxel hadn't gone up yet. It would be his turn soon and he felt it best to be there much earlier. He could also look at the routes the other climbers before him took, even though he could make a good guess what it would be. He waved at the twins and they wished him good luck as he walked off.

Once he reached the venue, however, he noticed something was a bit off. The Bouldering Qualifying rounds actually started at 9am and each contestant had their timing given so that they would not need to wait needlessly for their turn. Kyle's time was 10am but there was no one climbing the wall at the moment.

Kyle looked at his watch. It was 9.50am.

Kyle asked the nearest participant, "What's happening? Why isn't anyone climbing?"

"The safety officers came by earlier and stopped the competition halfway. They said they needed to check a few things," the guy explained helpfully, "They just left and we should be starting soon."

Kyle nodded in understanding.

He looked up at the wall and his eyes detected something. There were no changes to the position of the handholds but there was something that was a bit off. Kyle began focusing intently on everything, his eyes zooming in on every hold that was on the Wall while making sure that his facial expression did not change.

It was tougher to look at the higher holds but he could guess that it was most likely the same. He double checked, comparing what he saw with what he remembered. Kyle simply smiled to himself.

Just then, an announcement was made.

"We will now begin the competition again. However, due to the delay caused by the inspection, we will start with those who are scheduled at this time. The earlier participants time will be rescheduled. Those affected, kindly proceed to the scoring table for your new time."

"Next contestant, participant #652C. You may begin."

Kyle stepped forward and headed to the Wall. One volunteer came over with the climbing harness that Kyle would need to use for the climb. For these preliminary rounds, they would be using the climbing harness but during the finals, it would be another type of security holders.

Kyle put his legs through the leg hoop, clipped the waistbelt and checked that it fit properly. The volunteer then came to double checked everything.

Kyle didn't pay any attention to him, as he checked his hands and chalk bag that was secured behind him. He noticed the guy spending a bit of time at the buckle itself but before he could ask, the guy patted it and nodded, indicating that all was fine.

Kyle thanked him, giving him a huge smile as he patted the guy's shoulder.

For some reason, the man seemed nervous and he mumbled a "You're welcome" and quickly ran off. Kyle shrugged and focused on the Wall and the route that he had already mapped out in his mind. As he placed his hand on the first hold, he waited until the whistle sounded.

Kyle made his way up steadily, using the most common route that the ones before him had been using. His speed was neither fast or slow and everyone studied him as he went up. Their curiosity stemmed for three reasons.

First, he is one of the youngest participants in the competition. Secondly, it became known that he was a team member for the senior category of bouldering, which implied that his skills and experience were at par with those who had been bouldering for quite some time. Third, some recognised him as Spiderman Kyle.

So he was an oddity and a curiosity.

Was he as good as the news hyped him up to be? So far, there was nothing impressive about him. He did pass the qualifying rounds but he wasn't amongst the top. As for now, there was nothing out of the ordinary about him.

By the time Kyle was halfway up, some of the people's interest began to wan, thinking that there was nothing truly special about the boy.

"Ah, as I thought," one commented, "It was all hype. Most likely because he's so young and good looking. The news just wanted to glorify him."

"Yeah," his friend agreed, "I mean, yeah, he's good. But that's about it. Hardly in the category of the greats."

The other guy laughed, "I wonder what his Team Leader was thinking. Putting him in the senior category."

"All the better for us! One less team to worry about. He'll likely get eliminated in this round and there goes their team competition," the friend said.

"True, SO true. I bet their Team Leader is ... wait. What the HELL ..." the guy cursed, "F-uck me. What sort of move was THAT?!"

"Huh? What are you - ... ... ..." his friend couldn't speak anymore, his eyes bulging wide open - as well as his mouth.

Kyle was at an overhang, that was in the shape of an octagon. It jutted out a bit, so it meant that he would be leaning at a 45 degrees angle in order to pass it. When he was at the base of the octagon, he was going up as normal. However, now, as he was basically hugging the octagon at the angle, he hooked his fingers on these teeny-tiny holes.

Kyle had not chosen the more obvious hold that was above it, which would have allowed him to grab onto and climb up. Instead, he chose those teeny-tiny holes. Then, with just one hand - no, the fingers of one hand - he actually released his leg holds and was basically hanging on that ledge.

The people watching was sure that he would not be able to hang for long and drop, some shaking their heads and was about to cross him off their list when Kyle turned himself vertically and grabbed hold onto another teeny-tiny hole with his other hand. His back was now against the Wall.

Taking a deep breath, Kyle brought his legs up. This was the slightly tricky bit. He would need to balance his legs up and reach to a point that was quite high up. Essentially, he was going to be doing something similar to the handstand push-up that he would do with his fingers.

Kyle had confidence in his finger strength, so he easily got into a handstand position as required. His fingers were feeling the pinch at the moment due to the sharp edges of the teeny-tiny hole, but it was bearable.

It was this move that made the guy curse out in amazement.

To be able to get into that handstand-like position was beyond any of their imagination to be possible. Not a single person even entertained the idea of copying that move. They continued to watch with bated breath to see how the young man would get up to the next step.

Once in position, Kyle hooked one of his legs on the hold above the one that those before him had held on to. After ensuring that he was secure, he let go of his fingers from their teeny-tiny hole position.

So now, Kyle was hanging upside down ... on one leg ... the spectators below rubbed their eyes. If the earlier position was mind-boggling, this one was beyond mind-boggling. Was there something special about his shoe that could stick on the hold like that? Was it a steel-tipped toe shoe or something?

The moment that thought crossed their mind, it was pushed aside immediately. All of their gear was checked to make sure that it met with regulations. For footwear, it had to be the normal climbing shoes.

They continued to watch as Kyle then seemed to use his hands to climb up the Wall like a spider and reached for another hold. Once that was secure, he pulled himself up. After that, he scurried up the Wall quickly, reaching the top faster than most of the participants before him.

The moment Kyle reached the top, the people watching him from below erupted in loud applause. They may be competitors, but it didn't mean that they couldn't appreciate a good move. If THAT wasn't a good move, then no movement was good!

Kyle pushed himself off the Wall, using the climbing harness to bring him down. As there was some leeway in the rope, Kyle would fall for a while before the belayer caught hold and then he would be brought down slowly.

However, this time, the unexpected happened.

Just as the belayer caught hold, there was the expected jerk when the rope went taut. That wasn't the unexpected part. What they did not expect was when that jerk happened, it caused the buckle on Kyle's climbing harness to open.

Without the required support of the buckle around his waist and to the rope, Kyle was flung backward as there was nothing to hold him in place. He fell headfirst downwards.

People below gasped and screamed.