~A Wattpad featured and Wattys Longlisted story~
Lana can hardly remember what it's like to be free. After nine years as a captive on board a ship ruled by ruthless bounty hunters, sailing across Maris with no clear direction, she's desperate for so...
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FOR A MOMENT, Lana feels suspended in the air as she falls from the deck of the ship into the inky black night. Time seems to stand still, and all she can feel is the gust of wind against her face, and the adrenaline making her heart race. Then she hits the water.
She plunges beneath the ocean's frigid surface, and feels her muscles immediately stiffen, her body freezing at the sudden chill of the water. It's as if her body feels everything for a moment, each limb exploding with painful sensations in reaction to the cold, then everything goes numb.
She needs to move.
She forces her arms to swim upwards, clumsily thrashing them so her head resurfaces and she takes a huge breath of air. Immediately, she's struck by the frigid air, gusting against her face mercilessly, making her teeth chatter incessantly, and her muscles tighten even more.
"Lana!" She suddenly hears Arlo's voice call out to her from the night, and she looks around her desperately. Almost as if it senses her desperation, the once calm sea water starts to form waves. She tries to see over them but they are rocking towers of water, forming and crashing down around her at random intervals, making it impossible to see farther than a few feet.
Suddenly, cackling laughter fills her mind and she stops looking for Arlo, shocked by the sudden noise. It can't be her...
You didn't really think it would be that easy to escape? Vyanna's voice sneaks into her head, soft and mocking. her heart sinks and hopelessness seems to weigh her limbs down. The Morai's crazed laughter continues to reverberate throughout her mind, causing fear to take an icy hold of her heart.
Then suddenly, a crack of thunder booms through the sky. Lana looks up fearfully, and moving at an unnaturally fast pace is a pack of storm clouds, each dark cloud lit up with an eerie green light. With it, she can see hard rain pouring from beneath it's dark green clouds, and even with her obstructed view, She can see the waves getting taller, too tall for her feeble attempts of staying afloat.
The pure power and every light from the storm cause an uneasy feeling to settle within me. No natural storm forms like this...then realization surges through her. Vyanna must have conjured this storm.
A little bird told me you couldn't swim very well, Vyanna's voice says triumphantly, as if she heard Lana very fears, I would go back if I were you. The storm is only going to get worse.
Despite the defiance that wells up within her at the thought of turning myself in, she looks back behind me at the ship. Through the rolling waves, she can see the ship fading in the distance, its bright lights disappearing in the darkness, leaving her alone in the violent ocean. It seems cruel to even suggest swimming back when she can hardly tread water. She wouldn't be able to go back, even if she wanted to.
