Pacific Beasts - Patience (Chapter 1)
Chapter 1 - Patience
Enamored with the waxing darkness of the night, Cody reclined along the soft shoreline of Santa Monica beach and waited for Elise to arrive. The moon's pristine glow caressed his short, blonde hair, molding it into diamonds. He thought about Elise, whose own tender locks would soon glisten in the light, sneaking up behind him in a vain attempt to surprise him, as per tradition. He smiled.
Eighteen years have encompassed Cody's life, and the past two have been spent with Elise. Their young love, as juvenile as it seemed, grounded itself in a pure sense of devotion that eluded their parents, who, calloused by years of matrimony, decried their affair as insignificant. In response, the couple reserved these summer nights for Shakespearean rendezvous. Tonight's outing was just one of many.
As Cody lay on the sand, the roasted grains molding around his taut figure, he thought back to his past ventures with Elise, realizing them in perfect detail. Most were spontaneous, informal, and involved outrunning security guards. However, their first date stood out as the most significant moment he could recall. He vividly imagined the bright lights hanging from the sideshow rafters and the unrestrained screeches of joy emanating from the rollercoaster. Pop music roared from the poorly camouflaged speakers, and in the boy's mind, the pier was alive once again for the Sweet Summer Festival.
Hand in hand, he had walked with Elise through the endless field of carnival games and food stands as they shared an extra large roll of cotton candy. Whenever he caught a glimpse of her auburn hair and fair skin, he fell into a trance, unable to look away until their eyes met. He would quickly face forward, blushing uncontrollably. She would chuckle in response, causing him further embarrassment, and then grip his hand tighter.
They continued walking until they reached the end of the pier, where they boarded the Ferris wheel and rose above the spectacle of the fair. From the summit of the wheel, Cody and Elise stared down at the spirited ocean, its vast waters dancing under the stars, and shared their first kiss.
Suddenly, a piercing siren rang from the lighthouse offshore, signaling the end of ship-docking hours and knocking Cody out of his reflection. He shot up reflexively and surveyed the beach; unfortunately, he was still alone. Looking over to the dimly lit boardwalk, which no longer shined and thundered in his eyes, he saw his shirt, sandals, and cell phone still lying on the sidewalk. He had left his attire in plain sight as a marker for Elise to find him. Shaking off his nostalgia, he began to worry that she forgot about their engagement, though this seemed unlikely. It was her idea to swim afterhours in celebration of his birthday.
Perhaps he should call her.
As Cody moved to stand up, a ferocious wave rushed in, knocking him back to his supine position. Without warning, the tide rose exponentially, and without hesitation, the mouth of the sea engulfed the young man's legs, thrusting upon him an electric shock that ran up his spine. Cody's back arched involuntarily, forcing a pained groan from his throat. Another oceanic pulse crashed down, sending a constant barrage of nervous attacks that rocketed his body temperature skyward. Each pounding missile shot more foreign signals into his system. Writhing in the sand as his nervous system went haywire, Cody clenched his eyes shut and appeared to undergo an epileptic seizure, in which his muscles twitched and jerked at random intervals.
After a few minutes, the waters calmed, and Cody's fits subsided. Sweating profusely and breathing heavily, Cody lied back in the sand, panting. Then his feet began to itch.
The itching spread to his ankles and transformed into a searing burn. Cody reached forward and scratched at his skin, but found it hardening and splintering. His eyes widened at the sight of his flesh cracking like fault lines. He brushed his fingers against his ankles, only to have his skin flake off to reveal bright blue scales underneath.
The sea grew more unruly, throwing waves towards the young man at unnatural speeds. Cody tried to retract his legs before the water reached them, but to no avail. Even the slightest splash of water proved acidic, tearing away at his skin to reveal more sparkling, blue plates.
Soon, his ankles were completely covered in scales, and whatever skin remained on his feet turned a smooth, reflective grey. The nails slowly sank into his toes like they were trapped in quick sand. Astonished, Cody let out a horrified gasp. The body he had known for 18 years was being stolen by whatever cruel sea-god required a sacrifice that night. Suddenly, the bones in his toes cracked, causing his digits to curl involuntarily. With an agonizing snap they straightened again and slowly started fanning out, accompanied by a series of cricks and pops.
Cody moaned in pain the gaps between his toes grew wider and wider until a final set of cracks rang out, locking his toes into position. Although he could still wiggle them, any attempt to bring his toes closer together was met with painful resistance. He grimaced as the skin between his toes began to stretch, forming thin webs between his them. His phalanges snapped again, this time forcing his toes to lengthen an entire inch.
"Fuck!" He cried out as his toes jerked forward in spurts, becoming longer and thinner with every beat of his heart.
He grew nauseous watching this take place, and the feeling of his toes being stretched beyond their normal limits did little to calm his nerves. As the webbing caught up, his toes lost their individual shapes, becoming little more than sinews of flesh. He reached out and clenched his mutated feet, in hopes of stopping the change or at least easing the pain. However, as his long, fin-like feet flopped forward, no longer supported by bone, they proved too large to grasp. Cody struggled to crawl away from the water, but his mutated feet provided no leverage and simply slapped against the sand.
As scales began to spread up his legs, passing underneath his swim trunks, Cody felt his member harden. Out of embarrassment, he vainly tried to suppress his growing erection, desperately looking around to make sure no one saw him. Fortunately--or perhaps unfortunately, given his situation--he was still alone. The persistent ache forming at the base of his shaft forced Cody to slide down his swim shorts and inspect his privates.
Cody released a terrified cry as his eyes met his engorged penis, which had taken on a blue tint. It pulsated every few seconds, and with each beat, the shaft pulled forward, growing longer, just like his feet had. Cody groaned as the delicate skin of his shaft stretched rhythmically. He tried to pull his trunks back up, but his penis had grown too long to cover. Pulling off his shorts proved easy given the new flexibility of his feet. But an explosive feeling quickly formed within him, one that he only experienced while masturbating.
Cody screamed.
Agonizing pain overtook him as the head of his deformed penis split open like a blooming flower and pulled his shift in different directions. Sticky white fluid--not necessarily semen--dripped off each of the four "petals" as they began to thicken and develop small circular bulges. The vestiges squirmed uncontrollably, occasionally brushing against each other. His eyes were wide in fear, but they clenched shut as a stabbing feeling grew in what was once the base of his shaft. He felt like an enormous kidney stone was passing through him but got stuck on the way out.
Without looking, he reached down to feel around the area and hopefully remove the intrusion--trying and failing to not touch what could only be described as his tentacles. As if he was reaching inside himself, he brushed past a disturbingly hard protrusion that, oddly enough, ended with a point. Like a bird beak.
The beak snapped open and bit his finger.
Cody shook off what was a slight pinch, but he was disturbed nonetheless. And as if the situation could not be any more disturbing, waves of pleasure racked him as his newly formed tentacles began rubbing against each other at an increasingly fast pace, secreting a lubricating mucus.
"This is so wrong," Cody moaned, reaching out to pull the tentacles apart. While their slimy, spongy texture was abhorrent, he couldn't deny the sensations were somewhat pleasing. This relief didn't last, however, as Cody soon felt webs of skin filling the gaps between his fingers and sharp talons piercing through his nails.
His hands swelled in size, and his fingers pulled close together, his new claws merging into a single point. He gritted his teeth and looked away, not wanting to witness the destruction of his young body any longer. The joints in his thumbs locked up and wormed their way down to the center of his hands. As his hands continued to gain mass, the skin hardened into thick chitin plates that maintained a rusty brown color.
Cody lay back in the sand, naked, ashamed, and exhausted. He barely noticed as his nipples began to grow and pull away from his chest. The two long stalks forced themselves out of his pectorals, ending in highly sensitive probes. They glided across his bare chest uncontrollably, searching for food. Mentally weak from the onslaught of pain, Cody lied motionless, ready to die.
And yet, just thinking of Elise sparked a fire within him. He refused to surrender without a fight.
Half-expecting a second head to grow from his neck, Cody rolled over onto all fours and tried once again to crawl away from the water, now using his enormous claw-like hands to push against the sand. Slowly, he made his way towards to sidewalk, until a crushing force ravaged the depths of his stomach and exploded from his backside.
As he crawled, Cody found himself leaving black trail of ink in the sand. With no shame left within him, he fastened his pace and closed in on the spot where he left his clothing. He had to call for help. He had to call Elise.
Cody crawled on his claws and knees until he reached the dirt patch where he left his possessions. His feelers and tentacles dragging uncomfortably against the gravel, he let out a pained moan and released another ink jet out of his anus, which was beginning to swell.
He could only describe it as going to the bathroom, only ten times as unpleasant. Cody's bowels, covered in ink and blood, began emerging from his anus. They developed into a long tube-like appendage, which dangled behind him. Cody looked back.
"Is that a tail?" He mouthed.
It wasn't, but that was Cody's best guess. Still determined to escape, he pushed through the pain of his back muscles expanding and forcing a sharp lump up through his skin. He cried out, voice cracking, tears welling in his eyes. The large fleshy mound rose from his back, pointing skywards and towering inches above the rest of his inhuman body. He assumed this was a dorsal fin.
The pain in his back subsiding, Cody tried to unlock his iPhone with what normal body parts he had left, but the touch screen was unresponsive. It seemed even his bare skin was not human enough for the device to recognize. He considered his options, though not many existed. No one would help him since he looked like a monster. No one could help him, probably. Even Elise wouldn't recognize him.
He collapsed on the ground and cried. Though his tentacles were being crushed under his weight, and he wasn't one to cry over things, Cody didn't care. This situation warranted it; in less than an hour, he had transformed from a normal man into a freakish beast. And the process was excruciating. Holding on to the scraps of his eviscerated humanity, he sluggishly tried to dress himself, but his claws tore through his t-shirt, and his flip-flops couldn't fit on his enormous fins. How he hadn't already blacked out from the pain was beyond his comprehension.
So when Cody's lungs collapsed and dissolved, he knew he was going to perish.
His neck split open on both sides, revealing the gills that had been forming underneath. Coughing, choking, desperately fighting to stay alive, he began crawling towards the ocean. That was the only way he'd survive. As he crawled, an enormous pressure built inside his neck, causing him to scream in pain. He writhed in the sand, bashing his head against the ground, as his spine slowly lengthened, stretching out his neck like taffy and pushing his entire head away from his body. His neck was a foot longer than it had been before, and Cody had no control over the muscles. There didn't even seem to be any muscles as he dragged his head through the sand.
From head to fin, Cody now measured an amazing nine ft long. Still crying, he crawled into the water, diving in head first. Kicking his fins, he propelled himself deeper into the Pacific. Finally, he could breathe again. And though Cody felt like he was being sodomized as his siphon began taking in water, this brought on indescribable relief. He barely felt his jaw mercilessly split into two crustacean mandibles. His skin no longer burned as it flaked away, the familiar blue scales rising from below, covering whatever was left of his human flesh.
His eyes dilated and began to grow inside their sockets until they were the size of tomatoes. They would have burst if not for the expansion of his skull, which stretched vertically for another three feet until it resembled a squid mantle. His enormous optical lenses migrated to the sides of his head, settling in the former position of his ears, which had already melded into his cephalopod head.
While diving into the sea had saved his life, his human brain was being crushed buy the water pressure. While his other organs had already shifted to accommodate the new terrain, Cody's brain was the last thing to go. His rational thoughts slipped away into darkness. His memories came undone. Though his body kept swimming, his mind stood still.
Images of Elise flooded his disintegrating mind, her smile fading, her auburn hair dissipating until he could barely picture her face.
She was the last thing Cody saw before he died.