Can't Get Enough [Wattpad Featured Story]

Chapter Eleven

"The waters saw you, God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed...Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen." – Psalm 77:16, 19

Waves crashed all around her. The sky was a dark, ominous gray. Threatening storm clouds billowed over the churning sea. Wave after wave rose up, only to slam back down in a spray of foam. Alana felt herself sinking lower and lower until she was completely swallowed by the ocean. Now the waves were no longer crashing, but spinning her underwater.

She swam furiously, not knowing which way was up and which way was down. The hazy underwater world was plunged into near-darkness. Only when her hand reached the surface did she come up spluttering, thankful to be alive. As the waves slowly receded and the storm clouds rolled back, she pulled herself onto her surfboard and rested.

In just mere minutes, calm waters replaced the churning ocean. The sun lit up the sky in a rainbow of colors, chasing away the dark storm clouds. Alana reached out and trailed her hand across the glassy water, her fingertips just barely skimming the surface. She leaned forward in amazement, causing her white-blonde locks to come tumbling over her shoulders.

She heard a splash of water and glanced up. The sun was so blinding that she could barely make out a silhouette moving towards her. Then the nose of a surfboard suddenly bumped against her leg, and she heard a low voice say her name.

"Alana."

Alana bolted out of her dream. Her heart beat erratically through the thin material of her tank top. She waited until her ragged breathing slowed to normal before lying back down, pulling the top of her sleeping bag over herself as she did so.

The churning feeling in the pit of her stomach should have told her it was a nightmare, but the sensation that had come along with it said otherwise. It had been a dream—an unusual but oddly pleasant dream.

As her eyes gradually became adjusted to the early-morning glow around her, she remembered that she was on the floor of Maya's campervan. Maya was sleeping soundly next to Alana, a lock of her brown hair draped over her eyes. Jake was positioned on the couch with Koa at his feet. On the opposite side of the camper were the Anderson twins, both of them sleeping on their stomachs.

Alana quietly propped herself up on one elbow. Reaching up with one hand, she pulled aside part of the curtain covering the window, allowing a half-inch of light to come streaming through. Judging by the soft pink glow of the sunrise, she knew it to be about six o'clock in the morning.

"Hmm." She let out a sigh when she realized she wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon. She fished through her sleeping bag until she found her well-worn Bible, the cover faded and the corners bent upwards from years of turning its pages.

Alana rolled over so she was lying on her stomach. Placing the Bible on top of her pillow, she opened up to the Psalms, where she had been reading for the past few weeks. She had made it her habit to read at least one Psalm a day, whether she found time in the morning before a surf session or at night before going to bed.

Her eyes skimmed over the verses. She was currently on Psalm 76: "The waters saw you, God..."

An image from her dream immediately popped up in her head. A tremor ran down her spine as she remembered the crashing waves, the feeling of helplessness, of danger—and then rising above the surface, only to hear someone say her name.