The six intercessors on the altar worshipped God and celebrated the victory till the early hours of dawn, then they settled on the chairs to rest their weary bodies.
Pastor and Mrs Layson had retired to the office. Deborah was sprawled on the altar, sleeping. Matthew and Jeremiah stayed together, discussing in whispered tones for a while before they too drifted off to sleep.

Ella stayed close to Rouge. She couldn't sleep. Even though she was exhausted and felt like a train ran her over, the events of last night kept replaying in her mind.
It was really mind-blowing and she was almost tempted to settle for the thought that it had all been a dream, a figment of her imagination. 

She worried about Rouge who was still knocked out cold. The poor girl had been shivering and had run a fever all night long, but looking at her now as the sweat broke through her forehead, it seemed that she was out of danger.

So, what next now? Ella wondered.
The physical world seemed so fickle in comparison to the dangerous battle that had raged in the spiritual realm. It was a pity that so many people were oblivious to it. She knew it was all a matter of time. From the little knowledge she had garnered during her days in darkness about Lucifer, the Evil Master below, she was sure that although these principalities over Ivory had been dispatched, the Evil Master would hasten to send an even stronger battalion of demonic forces to try to reclaim Ivory.

She stood, and went outside, behind the church building, to the cliff. It was looking so beautiful that it would have been undeniable that a bloody battle had happened at the very spot.

A soft zephyr flowed and blew up her hair as she stood, taking it all in.
The sun rose slowly like a bridegroom from his chambers. The water was as still as glass, reflecting the sky and the sun.
The mountains in the distance was only puffing whiffs of ash and smoke. That was the only sign that what had happened overnight was real.

She crossed her legs and sat on the grass. She breathed in and out to steady her shaky emotions. She wanted to cry, shout, jump and stare into space for no reason.

"Thank you, my Redeemer," she whispered emotionally.

She faintly felt his smile of approval over her, like that of a proud father.

That name—Jesus—had done more in her lifetime than any other thing. She only wished her mother was here to see the turnaround in her life.

'Oh Mom! You didn't die in vain. Jesus saved me too.'
She sighed heavily and wiped a stray tear.

"Hey! What's eating at you?" a voice coming from behind her said softly.

Matthew.

She quickly wiped the tear with her dirty sleeve, becoming more self-conscious as her heart thudded. He sat beside her and stared out the water too.

She didn't speak. She didn't know what to say. So they just sat there together watching the beautiful sunrise in silence. Some few minutes later, Matthew decided to speak.

"You know, Ella," he started. Ella turned to face him, studying his profile. His chiselled jaw and brown eyes had an ethereal aura as it was flooded by the morning light.
"I had lots of questions as to why God sent me back here. I struggled with him for a long time before eventually obeying and when I got here and saw that the state of things hadn't improved at all, I felt there was nothing for me here and God had just sent me to a hellhole."

Ella understood the feeling quite alright. When she had confronted her father, she knew she was walking straight to hell. Again in the prison, she felt abandoned and hopeless. Now, she was free. The battle was over. She had forgiven Mr D, something she didn't imagine would happen in a million years.
She wondered what must have happened to him. He'd find out soon that they had escaped and he was most probably already aware of the defeat of his masters.

"Well, then I met you," Matthew said, drawing Ella back from her reverie. He paused and drew in a deep breath.

He turned to face her, looking passionately into her eyes. Ella was startled by the intensity of his gaze and she felt her heart pounding faster.

Matthew tried hard not to show how deep his feelings ran but he knew he was failing woefully. She was perfect. Even with her puffy eyes, dirty dress and matted hair, she looked like the most beautiful creature on the planet.
The angle that the sun hit her face made her auburn hair more alive, blazing red. Her eyes had the deepest shade of purple as she watched him intently, her brows arched in surprise. He gulped.

"You shifted my paradigm, Ella. When I heard you were my best friend's sister, I almost didn't believe it. The Jay I knew lost his only sibling to a battle of leukemia. Joshua was dear to me too. I still miss him. But then, I saw your hunger for God. I saw how you silently were the binding glue to everyone around you. You had this quiet and humble spirit. And I started to like you." It was Ella's turn to gulp.

Matthew ran his hand through his hair and continued.
"Seriously, it startled me—I've had my share of toxic relationships and I was content to remain single if that's what it'd come to—and I almost ran from it. Until God told me plainly that he'd sent me back because of you."

They were looking into each others eyes now. The air between them was so tense, it could spark a fire.

"Ella, I know what you have gone through many things. I might not know the details and I don't know a lot about your past. I was worried sick because we couldn't find you and I couldn't do anything productive all through the time they carted you away.  You should have seen the way I pressured my Dad into pulling strings everywhere. When the Holy Spirit whispered to me last night to get up and go over to pick Jay and Deborah to church for a urgent prayer vigil, I didn't hesitate because the truth was I had been tossing on my bed, unable to sleep."

Ella blinked, touched by his words.

"I love you, Ella, and I want to see where God is taking us. Will you allow me to court you?"

Okay, so Ella hadn't seen that one coming so soon. She was so overwhelmed that she felt she'd burst into shreds. Yes, she felt a bit attracted to this man, but she was still trying to get a balance. After few intense minutes of looking into his pleading, soulful eyes, she pulled away and gazed back into the waters, battling with feelings of low self worth and her ugly past, asking the Lord for guidance in her spirit.

Yes, daughter. He is the one for you.

Ella grinned in her head. It was comforting to know, but she didn't want to give an answer yet. He was so out of her league. She really needed to think this through.
He was her brother's close friend, a man with a solid degree while she was just about to start her journey to getting one.
She'd spent her years in darkness doing all sorts of immoral stuff and she didn't want to soil his image.
Her father was still a bone of contention to deal with. From what she'd heard from Deb, Matthew was the son of a top judge in this country and a chief rival to her own father.

"Matthew," she started, picking her words carefully, "Thank you for believing in me and telling me about how you feel. I have to confess that I'm still trying to process everything. Would you please be patient with me so I can recover, pray and talk to my spiritual authorities concerning this? There's a lot to handle and I don't want to plunge into this without proper guidance."

Ella knew it was unnecessary. God had already given his go-ahead, but she was still stalling.

"I completely understand you," he replied, his voice betraying his disappointment.
"Well, I didn't even give her a proper proposal." She heard him mumble the last part to himself as he turned away.

Scared that she had hurt him, she put an arm on his shoulder. He looked from her arm to her face and smiled. She smiled back.

Then a crazy idea sprung abruptly into her mind. Out of impulse, she blurted, "Uhmmm... Do you mind if I show you something weird. You know, just for starters, so have a glimpse into the girl you're interested in." She gave him a sly grin.

His eyebrows cocked as he pondered what exactly it could be. "Okay?"

Ella almost backed out as logic slapped her in the face.
What was she thinking? What if the ability had just come because of the nature of last night's battle? She'd make a fool out of herself.

'Trust me,' the Redeemer had said. Surely if He approved of their being together, he would allow Matthew to see this aspect of her.

She stood up. Matthew did the same. He was a few inches taller than her.

Focus, focus, focus, Ella changed the mantra in her head 

'Oh Lord, please let this work.'

She closed her eyes and whispered softly, "Jesus." It was her latest magic word.

Then suddenly with all the faith and glamour in her, she raised both hands in a graceful curved motion.

Matthew's eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets. His mouth hung open. Before his very eyes, he saw as the water rose in a streak, slowly, following the motion of her hand.
He didn't know what to stare at—the girl doing this, her fingers currently twirling, or the water that rose, levitating above them. The water swirled and took the shape of a heart.

Love.

Awwwnnn... It would have been a sweet moment of realization that she was silently confessing her feelings for him, but Matthew was too stunned to even process that information.

This girl bends water? Oh good Lord!

She fisted her hand and the shape froze but still levitated. Matthew felt like he would faint. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly but no word came out.
Ella wanted to laugh as she watched his face flicker in a thousand conflicting emotions.

"Ella, where are you? We have to get your friend to the hos—" Deborah's voice said rounding the corner as she came into full view of the whole drama.
She halted and gaped too. Her face screamed a thousand questions at Ella. Deborah was the only person of the lot who had the slightest idea of her supernatural ability to move water but even she had never seen it in action. 
Behind her came her husband. Jeremiah was so shocked he bumped into Deborah. "What the—?"

Pastor Mike and Mrs Ruth came out too, bleary-eyed from too little sleep last night, holding hands.
"What's going on here?"

"Honey, looking at that! Wow!" Mrs Ruth said, pointing.

Ella was blushing with embarrassment. It seemed like she hadn't only frozen water but people as well.

"Young lady, you have a lot of explanation to do," the mature Pastor Mike eventually said with a smile when he recovered.

"I know," Ella said with a sigh as she slowly unclenched hand as if she was pouring sand. The ice melted and flowed back into the waters below like a waterfall.

"But first, we have to get your friend checked up at the hospital," Deborah was heard saying. "What's her name?"

"Rouge Clatrava. She allows me to call her Red."
Ella smirked. "What you guys saw now is nothing. That girl bends fire!"

The looks on all their faces was priceless.

"Are we going to get going or not?" Ruth said, shaking them out of their trance.

Stunned, they all started to move. All except Matthew. Ella turned back when she noticed he wasn't moving and saw him still staring at her as if she was a goddess.
This time she chuckled, went over and pulled his hand for him to move. Only then did he seem to recover a bit. He wrapped his hand about hers.

Ella smiled at him and gave a slight squeeze as if to reassure him that she wasn't an alien from Planet krypton. Both of them trailed behind the two couples before them.
They walked hand in hand.

~~~

Rouge felt as if she was placed in a cold room. She felt stiff and sore all over.
She opened her eyes. It was dark, then blurry, then everything slowly came to focus.
'Where am I?' was the first question that came to her mind. Then like the crash of a waterfall on rocks, she remembered.

The tsunami and the volcano!

Agitated, she spun, ready to get off her lazy position and help Ella. A viscous wave of dizziness hit her. That was when she saw Ella seated beside her. She almost cried in relief. There were some strange faces close by, but she didn't mind. She was just happy that Ella was fine. And from the way Ella was smiling softly, by all indications the situation was under control.

That was when she noticed that this was an hospital. She was in a general ward. A doctor and a nurse were close by speaking to a Pastor Mike and Deborah.
"What happened?" she asked with effort. Her lungs felt heavy and it was difficult to speak.

"Just relax, Red. You'll be out of here soon."

"I mean, what happened? Why am I here?"

"You drowned."

"Of course I know that. I was talking about..." She lowered her voice. "The volcano, the tsunami, the storm, all of that! And how was I even brought out of that water?"

"It's over, Red. We won. Jesus won. I'll tell you more later." Ella smiled. Rouge felt relieved. "Meet my friends. They prayed for you."

They introduced themselves with cheerful greetings. Pastor Mike came and informed them that the doctor who'd examined her said Rouge  and could be on her way home.

Home, Rouge thought. Mother will be worried sick.

Home, Ella thought with a smile. She did need a good scrub. Maybe a bubble bath to unwind from all the tension.

"Let's go," Ella said to Rouge and helped her out of the bed.

As they bounded out Crystal General Hospital, Ella recalled her double trip to this place. Many times the Redeemer had saved her from death. First from water, then from fire.

At the reception, a flat screen TV showed a newscaster reporting about the unusual storm, the speculations the national association of volcanologists and hydrologists gave about evidence of unusual activity in the mountain range and sea bed.

If only you knew.
Ella thanked God in her heart that they didn't. Maybe she and Rouge would have been captured again, by the scientists this time around, for tests and experiments if they knew what they'd done. The thought made Ella smile to herself.

**********

Author's note: Awwwnnnn...☺️☺️☺️ Matthew proposed. That was so sweet😍. But it's like Ella needs me to sit her down and get some talking into her head🙄😒.
Shey she wants to give the poor man a heart attack ni?😂💔

Let's see what'll happen next. 😃 What do you think will happen next?

Thanks for reading this chapter, my fan-mily. 😁😁😁
Your votes and comments will go an extra mile in stirring the juices of inspiration in my brain. 😋

Love you all. 💖💖💖
Happy Easter celebration. 💫🥳