Their Punching Bag Became The Storm novel Chapter 58

Chapter 58 A Light in the Dark

“Save it,” Whitney said.

She tied up her soaked hair. People saw her face now. She had bold features. Those eyes were narrow, unreadable, and cold in a way that nothing had touched her at all.

She looked cool and completely unbothered. “Save the lecture for the shore.”

Every second out here was dangerous.

Whitney glanced over at Ryan. “They can’t move on their own. Help them.”

Something clicked. Ryan’s brow pulled together. “You stay there,” he started. “I’ll-

”

He didn’t get to finish when Whitney hit the water. And just like that, everyone watching forgot how to breathe.

Through the water, she was fast and fluid, cutting her way to the lifeguards.

She slipped in behind them, hooked her arms under theirs, and held on. All three of them were in life jackets, which helped/ and also didn’t, because in the water, everything was slower and heavier.

Whitney was small. By any reasonable logic, two grown men should have been too much for her. But it didn’t seem to bother her.

She went slower than before, not by much, and pulled them toward the jet ski.

Ryan’s jaw tightened. He was leaning over the side to help, reaching for Whitney.

Then the wave hit without warning. The wall of water came down on all of them at once, cold and completely indifferent, like the ocean hadn’t even noticed them or they were nothing worth bothering with.

“Whitney!” Ryan shouted. The wave took him and his jet ski, too.

His hand was right there. Just a little more, and he could get her, but the wave came between them.

Across the screens, everyone went still, eyes wide because the ocean was open, endless and hungry on that screen, like it could swallow all of them whole.

Nobody was typing anything.

*****

In the director’s room, Chase’s mind went white at seeing this. He had both hands on the table. His eyes were red.

“Where’s the rescue team? Why aren’t they here yet? Someone get them out of there. Now!” The angrier he got, the more he wanted to scream at Whitney.

He bellowed inwardly, ‘Did she have to go and risk her life?‘

Two days of Chase trying, and Whitney hadn’t given him so much as a look. But two strangers went under, and suddenly she’d throw herself into the ocean for them.

Now Chase started to wonder if a stranger meant more to her than her own brother.

Beside him, Emily watched. She was still faking fragile. But the sullen look upon Chase’s face, and the veins that had started there, caused her own heart to sink into shadow.

Her eyes were fixed on the screen, where there was just water but nothing else.

She hoped that the ocean would keep Whitney for good.

‘Then I’d be the only Miss Anderson that matters, and Whitney would never be able to take any of it away from me again, Emily thought. ‘And Ryan, the one who’d never once bent to me. Let the ocean have him too.”

******

The sea turned, and the sky turned with it.

Where the sea met the sky, there were waves, one after another, each one bigger than the last, and there was no sign of stopping.

The waves took the lifeguards, hitting their heads and their bodies. They couldn’t hold on to anything.

Saltwater flooded in their mouths, their noses, and everywhere, all at once. The waves kept coming, and with each one, a little less of them held on.

But something did hold. That was something strong, like a light that had found them in all that dark.

“Hold on a little longer.” Whitney’s voice was calm. Something in their heads came back on, and with it, everything they’d

Chapter 58 A Light in the Dark

almost let go of.

Their heads broke the surface. They gasped, and gasped, over and over again.

Her voice cut through the noise. “Get on the raft. You’ll be fine.”

Something jolted in their chests. Their eyes opened. And there was her face, but even now, she was still pretty.

She looked exactly the same as before, like the ocean hadn’t touched her at all.

Her voice was steady, certain, making people believe things were going to be okay. The two lifeguards had years on the water, and even they couldn’t do that.

“Trust me,” she said, and then she was gone, back under the water.

The lifeguards didn’t get a word out as something pulled hard, and they were moving.

That was when they noticed. The waves were still coming, one after another. But the jet ski and the raft were steady, right in front of them. They had been pulled toward the raft all along.

Someone hit the water. Another pair of hands pulled alongside hers. It was Ryan,

Whitney’s head broke the surface. She glared at him. “What are you doing down here?”

‘The water is freezing. The waves aren’t letting up. Is he trying to get himself sick?’ she thought.

“To help you.” Ryan took the rope from her. “We need to move. If we stay much longer, none of us is making it back.”

Whitney said nothing. ‘Fine. He’s already in. If he doesn’t care what happens to himself, why should I?‘

Together, they pulled the lifeguards to the raft.

The longer they stayed in, the heavier they felt. And the lifeguards had nothing left to pull themselves up.

Whitney tied them off from the water and had both hands on the raft. Then she was up. Water was everywhere. She rolled onto the raft in one move, and the whole thing rocked under her.

Whitney planted her feet and steadied herself. When the raft stopped rocking, she grabbed the rope and pulled.

The lifeguards were in the water while she was on the raft, working together. Finally, they got it done.

Across the stream, people exhaled. But everyone could feel the stress still sitting in their chests.

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Chapter 59 Both Legends Are Unbelievably Cool