Afloat in the Dark

"How beautiful you are," she whispered, dumbstruck. Wrapping herself in a blanket, she proceeded to look at him long and hard, before hesitantly putting pencil to paper.

As she drew him, she was discovering him.

Over time, the tentacles began to regain their playful sway as Kaito relaxed in the knowledge that she wouldn't run from the place screaming.

Occasionally, Marina tip toed around the room to observe Kaito from a different angle, before sinking down against the wall again, producing sketch after sketch, until it seemed she might do so until daylight.

Eventually--was he getting bored?--Kaito began to strike a series of poses.

I want you to draw me like one of your French girls.

Marina laughed at the reference. "Coming from Enceladus, that movie must have struck you as some bizarre beach holiday."

I confess to rooting for the iceberg.

Marina put her sketchbook by her side.

"Why were you so afraid to show yourself to me?"

A deep rumble came from the dark creature.

It's not a matter of shame, but you must understand, we look just like the monsters from your most terrifying stories. The ones you can't bear to watch for the horrors they contain. Would you have revealed yourself in my position?

"That's not fair, you haven't given us a chance to--"

Kaito's thunderous voice broke her off, and the entire room seemed to tremble: Do you know your own history? Do you know what humans do to those they fear? Your leaders could wipe out my entire species in a single afternoon, if they so chose.

Marina sensed a deep fear in Kaito's voice--and she was altogether not sure it was unfounded.

She carefully moved her foot so that her toe touched one of the big tentacles resting by her feet. A deep shiver ran through her body, which made her reach out her hand to stroke it. The smooth, silky texture of his skin caught her by surprise.

Marina got up and made to sit down on an empty corner of the futon, still wrapped in her big blanket.

Reaching out to the massive, skull-like segment that appeared to be Kaito's core, she was given pause by his almost childlike eyes, reminding her of the eternity that separated stars.

"May I touch you?"

Yes.

Softly, Marina pressed the palm of her hand up against the skull. The sensation inadvertently made her laugh. It was as though a gust of wind blew through her mind, whipping up the dead autumn leaves to leave behind a sense of sheer joy.

She felt alive.

Slowly, she extended her hand further up around Kaito's frame until the whole side of her body leaned against him. She tilted her head to rest against his, as she might with a lover on a date to the movies.

He felt so vibrantly alive. It was the only way Marina might describe it. Neither warm nor cold, neither rough nor slick and smooth--his skin simply vibrated with energy.

Her other hand reached out for a big tentacle that twisted past the futon. Gently, she placed the length of her arm against it, falling deeper and deeper into the sensation of Kaito's touch.

Are you sure you want to be committing this huge a cliché? A prostitute and a tentacle monster walk into a bar...

Marina giggled, then kissed his head.

May I touch you?

She nodded slowly, and a smaller tentacle curved around her neck in an intimate embrace. Another reached out around her ankle, spiraling up around her calve, her knee, her thigh. Marina breathed through it all, giving into the sensation.

At the very end, it reached up...

Marina dug her nails into the skin of Kaito's great head as the tentacle's tip stroked her labia. A distinct physical sensation had emerged now below the vibrating energy of his skin. The siren seemed to... harden.

Do you know why I chose you?

"Because I can feel you," Marina sighed, gripping the bigger tentacle and closing her eyes to relish the sensation of his touch.

It is the other way around. Your own feelings run deep, like an underground reservoir, hidden below the desert of the everyday. They are brilliant to me, and I'd... I'd like to experience them through you. I want to feel you feeling yourself. Will you allow me?

"Let's feel each other," she whispered, kissing his head again.

Nudged by Kaito, she then lay down before him, putting her body to rest on a bed of tentacles as more hovered over from around her, breathless, uncertain where to start giving her pleasure.

"Come," Marina commanded, stretching out her arms.

Supple flesh grazed her fingers. The firm ends of these tentacles, smooth and somewhat wet, touched the palms of her hands. Slowly, they pressed and turned. Flesh against flesh.

A hand massage, in pursuit of something beyond the physical.

Lust took over. Marina gripped two of the stiffening tentacles, as she welcomed the touch of a great many smaller ones running along the back of her hands. Two of them coiled around her wrists--and further up till they tickled her armpits. Like supple rope, these scouts wrapped themselves around her body.

Marina tried to turn, and felt resistance. The black tentacles held her in a close, warm embrace, leaving her only enough freedom to squirm and move around a bit.

With effort, she crawled over the floor, every movement bringing her pleasure through the various points of contact with Kaito's energetic tentacles. Even as Marina moved, they explored their hold over her, as if teasing themselves--delaying what must surely come...

Finally, their hold firmed and Marina was playfully pulled up onto her knees and swayed from side to side. There was a hungry undertone there, in her own body and Kaito's. She was made to flex and stretch her arms. Thicker tentacles around her legs circled up to support her waist and back, then pulled her up until she found herself suspended in midair.

Several smaller tentacles nibbled at her feet, playful still, but eager.

They curled up around her ankles and past her calves and then her thighs... which was where they paused, little heads swaying back and fro.

Marina sighed with anticipation. The sound was echoed by a deep rumble that came from the siren, whom she'd been turned around to face.

She stared deep into the Kaito's eyes.

Do you want this?

One medium-sized tentacle--its touch soft as velvet--had circled twice around her throat, leaving the tip hovering before her face as if observing her. Others great and small were gathering all around her.

Marina parted her lips in a scream of silent ecstasy, feeling the tentacle's tip brush past her lips. But they weren't going to give her what she wanted. Not until she invited them in.

Was this crazy?

Fuck it. Marina smiled seductively and then, slowly, licked her tongue across her lips. Torturously slow. Inviting Kaito in and giving up all resistance to the deep desire that filled the room.

"I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it," she quoted with a whisper. "Won't you make a man out of me, Rose?"

A deep tremble resembling laughter came from the siren.

Wet with desire, Marina stuck out her tongue to touch the tentacle in front of her. Smoothly, the siren's dark flesh shivered under her touch.

As she kissed and slowly licked him, Marina twisted with pleasure from his approach down below. A smooth, small tentacle had begun circling her clit, as others followed up the inside of her thighs, wrapping themselves firmly around the creases of her butt. She felt them stroking, grabbing, teasing her more and more closely to her most intimate spots.

Two of them lay to rest outside the flows of her vulva, throbbing, while two smaller ones slowly pulled her open.

How exposed she felt.

Unable to move, her last point of control was her voice. Drunk with anticipation, Marina moaned, pleaded, cursed this creature to make her his. To take her. Deeply. Until the tentacle she'd kissed earlier pressed itself up against her lips and filled up her mouth, craftily avoiding the region of her throat that would have sparked a gag reflex.

Now she was denied even speech.

Still Kaito waited, utterly entranced by her experience. Was he hoping to make it last forever?

The tantalizing caress around and all about her vagina continued apace--by so many little tentacles, sneaking up to her before retreating, each wanting a taste of her wetness. The bigger tentacles waited. A few were building up to other parts of her body.

Two of them, mirror images of each other, circled up around the bottom of her bosom, reaching up her abdomen and entwining between her bouncing breasts--then parting ways to encircle around them twice, three times, leaving the ends to tease her nipples.

How horny she was. When would this creature fuck her?

Suddenly she felt her whole body vibrate softly; everywhere the tentacles that held her in place, suspended, began to resonate with Kaito's hum.

A big one began to press up against her vagina.

It was so achingly gentle.

At times it retreated, nudging her, like a stolen kiss at the movies... ostensibly sweet while whipping her up into an even greater frenzy.

Marina felt her own body beginning to resonate with the flesh around her. She was the center of a dark lotus of frenetic tentacles, who were now beginning their feast.

Gazing into Kaito's eyes, still sucking on his one tentacle, she was being made to sit down, slowly, giving it the space it needed, which it filled up gratefully.

Pulled all along her shins, abdomen, and chest, her body was lifted up.

And laid down again.

She squirmed, as the big tentacle slid back inside of her.

It reached into her greedily, expanding and nestling among her hidden folds, before retreating again for another round. Smaller ones writhed along the opening, kissing her vulva and noisily seeking a way in.

Marina moaned urgently, feverishly, for him to take her.

One smaller tentacle circled her anus, then eased its way into her. Another one circled around the first, massaging the opening, causing it to relax and widen further...

Marina shook with delight.

Her body was pressed upon from all sides now. Kaito was responding to her desires sublimely, as if he'd melded with her mind and her deepest desires.

He pulled back the tentacle from her mouth, and the small room began filling up with her whimpering cries of pleasure.

Before long, Marina found her body coated in a thick gleam that extended down the tips of the tentacles. Whenever one pulled out, sliding back down her thigh, as if satisfied, another eagerly took its place. They were ravenous for her body and ached to have a turn at her.

Marina called out to Kaito, begging him to fuck her.

Expertly, he massaged the insides of her cunt and ass. At times, the tentacles would press against each other from inside her different cavities--expanding for a moment at the height of her pleasure, before retreating again.

Like the ocean, Kaito rolled in and out of her, his dark body sweetly strangling her limbs, so sensitive to her touch, yet ever unyielding. At one point, she began yelling, begging him to go faster, to make her come, only to hear the sound turn into a gargle as the tentacle around her neck slid its way back inside. There it stiffened, and she felt her mouth turn salty.

Again, and again, Marina was made to tense up with pleasure as Kaito had his way with her.

The turn came right when exhaustion was about to claim her.

Draw your desire out of my flesh.

Marina felt herself expand, as Kaito's supple form became an obedient vehicle for her own pleasure. At that point she realized, to her astonishment, that she was fucking herself. Instinctively, she found herself adjusting, using his tentacles precisely the way she wanted to, in order to give this human shape in her grasp its ultimate pleasure.

Except, even as she pleased herself, she was struck by a growing awareness that it wasn't exactly her either, but... something bigger than both of them?

Ecstasy made her abandon the question. Like a shiver it ran from the tips of her toes--assailed with kisses from all sides--to deep down her throat, which shuddered sloppily. In that moment, she felt herself merge with Kaito and whatever lay beyond them both.

The silence was numbing.

Marina would go for early runs, no later than 6:00am, through her neighborhood in Tokyo. No matter if there was snow, rain, or suppressive heat--she always made that run. This feeling that she felt now, it was something similar: it was the rush of pushing through all her obstacles, her tiredness, her soreness, digging so deep into herself that she unlocked something... an unparalleled rush of adrenaline. This was that feeling.

She wasn't a big clubbing person, but her friends were. Every now and then, when the planets aligned and the music was just so, the mass that had gathered to dance could hit her in a very tender spot. She'd find her whole body resonating with the happiness of that moment, that thrill of merging with a rhythm so much deeper than yourself. This was that feeling.

And beyond that rush there was that numbing silence. The texture of it made her gasp. She felt her face soften, her jaw unhinge, and her eyebrows raise in pure ecstasy. Without making a sound, she moaned.

Two tears rolled down her face, and she drew in a deep, stuttering breath as she came back to earth. She felt the tentacles gently lie her down on the futon and tuck her in. Satisfied to her core, Marina closed her eyes to curl up against Kaito's warm body.

All night she felt his tentacles hug her, keeping her safe.

* * *

Upon waking, Marina kept her eyes closed for a while. Not for fear of seeing Kaito again, but because she'd been privy to something deep; a sensation she feared would disappear with the daylight she could sense flowing into the room. That silence.

Marina, may I ask you something?

"Yes, Rose?" She opened her eyes and found the bedroom empty. The door and windows had been closed and the curtains neatly shut, leaving no trace of the gigantic siren from Enceladus.

"Where are you?" she asked.

I am--

She waited patiently, but the siren seemed to have gotten stuck after those two words. Marina closed her eyes again and found that she could still feel his presence, no less than after she had woken up. It made her shiver with joy, and was at a loss as to why.

"What would you ask of me?"

I would walk up the mountain in your shoes and watch the sun rise.

There was a strange undertone in Kaito's words, but it was too early for Marina to make out what it was exactly. For a while longer she lay curled up in bed, eyes closed, feeling his embrace, even though there was nothing to see or touch.

"Okay," she finally yawned into the empty room.

* * *

"Why are you... nothing?"

They had set out from the ryokan for the woods. The staff had left by the door a bento box with breakfast as well as walking shoes, thick socks, a big winter jacket, a fuzzy hat, thick gloves, and a backpack filled with honeyed tea, lunch, and other supplies. Apparently, Kaito had arranged it all while she slept.

Sometimes I enjoy taking no shape at all... plus some people might be unpleasantly surprised to watch a yacht-sized squid monster climb a mountain.

"As far as dreamboats go, you're more of a Titanic to me," Marina quipped.

...I can also sense you better this way.

Marina stopped as she felt Kaito touch her.

She took a deep breath and filled her longs with the crisp morning air. With it came that sensation again: it was like a tickle of joy that made all words meaningless. For a while they walked on in silence, occasionally touching each other with joy, until eventually Marina wondered:

"When will you take control?"

We are almost there.

Marina didn't know what that meant but continued down the path until she began to hear a raucous sound. Before long, she found herself standing below a waterfall.

"A takigyo?"

The erotic is but one of many pathways to the divine.

Marina felt a soft nudge and took off her backpack. Hesitantly, she undressed, piece by piece, and stepped up to the edge of the small lake. Crouching, she wet her shoulders and whispered her name, as the ritual required. She then bowed and stepped into the waters...

...only to jump out again almost immediately.

"That's cold!" she complained.

She felt Kaito rumble with laughter, goading her on.

Apprehensively, she stepped back into the lake. An icy cold began to crawl up her legs, slowly numbing her to the bone.

"Why do want this?"

I wish to experience what humans are capable of. What we shared last night... I know you felt it too. There was something deeper there, Marina--something that went beyond both of us. It reminded me of home.

She took a step deeper. "And an icy waterfall will help us get there again?"

The water reached up to her knees now, numbing her body. She gasped and wiped an involuntary tear from her eye. "I--I don't know if I can do this, Kaito."

Will you allow me?

"Okay," she said, closing her eyes.

Once. Twice. Three times she breathed in and out deeply.

She kept going, until at some point her breaths flowed over into one another and became cyclical; an intoxicating rhythm without pause that had her sink deeper and deeper into the cold water. She was aware of her body stumbling over the pebbles towards the waterfall, but could not pinpoint the prime mover that made it happen. All that she was certain of was Kaito's embrace.

Eyes still closed, Marina felt the iciness retreat into the background of her awareness. Likewise, the sound of the falling water grew closer with each step even as it seemed to fade further and further away.

Her body turned, but Marina barely felt the shock of the water hitting her neck and shoulders. Right when it engulfed her, she was lost to a different, darker world. One where she had no body. High above, brilliant stars pierced the eternal night.

Somewhere, Kaito sang a chant.

Marina felt lightheaded, aware that somewhere, in a different world altogether, she had stepped out from under the waterfall.

"Now our minds, bodies, and souls are purified," she heard her voice whisper. The siren proceeded to take deep, slow breaths, taking full control over her body.

With each cycle, Marina sank deeper and deeper into the glorious emptiness.

What are you doing?

Kaito didn't answer her question...

She was aware that her body had moved out of the water, dressed, packed, and walked off uphill.

Then came a faint smell of pine needles, before she found herself adrift in warm ocean water. It took her a moment to even realize the change in setting, so natural did her new surroundings feel.

Where is this?

The answer came from afar, muttered in her own voice: "Home."

Marina tried to move around in the water, realizing that she was not in fact floating but submerged. The darkness of the ocean was all around her, drowning her--

"It's okay, you're safe."

Her own voice began to guide her gently back to calm, and she desperately clung onto that faint sound echoing off into the vast emptiness.

When Marina allowed herself to relax, she noticed that the water wasn't warm at all. It was colder than ice, and yet it felt so comfortable. Like a breeze, invisible currents caressed her face, and she tasted some salty substance on her lips... only they weren't lips.

Marina realized they were tentacles, a whole forest of them spreading out around her, playing in the dark, each one as sensitive as... as her lips had been on Earth.

The siren stirred on his mountain walk, reaching out for her joyfully.

Marina touched him back and laughed, a deep guttural rumble emanating from her core. She realized it must be the black elephantine body she had seen on the futon the previous night. For a moment, she reached inwards with her tentacles, exploring her body, her face...