[Aeolynn]: 217.Scene4TrappedSoul

Scene 4: Orca

Fortunately, for both of them, Marco’s car was big enough to fit Lena’s bike and make the short drive to her apartment. They arrived there at about eight o’clock.

“So…” Marco said as he wheeled in her bike and noticed his surroundings of a modest one room home complete with a mini-kitchen, a couch, a small table with two chairs and a bathroom, “-you live on your own?”

She glanced at him for a moment before nodding. Marco had introduced himself during the car ride and they shared small facts about themselves when the silence became too intolerable. “My family left me about a year ago. They believed I couldn’t survive with them and in a way they… put me on my feet.”

Marco’s eyebrow rose at the choice of her words, “That’s… I’m sorry, Lena.”

She shrugged off his sympathy. “Anyway, um, what do you want to know about what happened at the pool?” Lena sat down smoothly onto her couch, still wrapped in a towel and wearing a swimsuit. He cleared his face of any stray hairs that liked to trail in his eyes before he sat on the opposite end of the couch. 

“How can you hold your breath and sing underwater… like a whale?” Marco asked bluntly.

“Because…because-” Her face contorted in frustration as she tried to explain. Explain what, Marco didn’t know. She sighed, “Because I, I’m a whale. Or rather I am a whale trapped in a human body.” Marco was silent, his face showing no emotion as he asked in a toneless voice,

“Do you think I would believe some crap like that..?” When she didn’t respond he shook his head, “You’re joking…right? That’s imp- that’s impossible! It just can’t be…”

“Is it really so hard to believe?” Lena asked him quietly before she scooted herself forwards along the couch till her knees barely touched the side of his thigh.

“Stay calm.” She placed her palm against the dark skin of Marco’s forehead.

“W-what are you doing..? AHH!” Suddenly Marco was not in his own body, he was floating above the scene of Lena and himself, noticing a slack expression on his face and Lena’s tightening in mind splitting concentration. Without warning he shot upwards through the roof to the sky that changed to match the dark sight of the ocean’s depths. He dropped down deep in the water insomuch that the pressure on his snout was great, but not too much for a whale such as himself…wait, a WHALE such as HIMSELF? Marco tried to scream but the whale body he inhabited would not respond but continued to dive, expanding his sight trying to locate the shark that had attacked the Family. Echo locating the Great White, he slammed into the shark with close to six tons of muscle, sending the shark flying. As quickly as the deed was done he was soaring through the air again, one eye looking up at the Statue of Liberty while the other watched his descent back into the water. Light blinded him and he flexed his tail weakly as the feeling of suffocation set in. Under his belly nosed a force that lifted him above the water and he was able to breathe for the first time. As quickly as it had begun it was over and Marco opened his eyes to Lena in shock. Those had been her memories he had seen and felt and somehow she had projected them into his mind; but not without a price. Lena had slumped against the side of the couch breathing hard and trembling. She was also very pale.

“Lena? Are you okay?” She didn’t reply but slowly the tears began to fall and she hummed to herself in her sorrow. Marco’s mind sought to find an answer to settle her down. She was whale, he had that down plus she had mentioned the Family so they lived in a pod. He ran through her memories quickly, looking for answers in the echolocation shapes and sounds the other whales had made. A shape of a whale formed in his mind but it was more the markings that helped him figure it out. Killer whale; an orca. 

Marco studied Lena’s face and discovered that the skin of her temples was different, paler than the skin of her eyes, exactly where the color changed on an orca. Killer whales are technically the biggest species of dolphin and dolphins are particularly social creatures that are more physical than most humans. Hesitantly, Marco reached out to touch her shaking shoulder. When Lena flinched away he grabbed her in a gentle but firm hold and pulled her beside him. The more of him that touched her the calmer she became. Lena soon lay across his length, sobbing into his chest as he held her tightly to him, stroking her hair and back while whispering kind words. As Marco’s hand ran across her back he noticed a long scar that was exactly over her spine starting in the middle and running down past where her swimsuit began. 

“You miss them, don’t you sweetie?” He felt her nod into his chest,
“-And that’s why you sang?” Lena nodded again before she propped up her head on her arm that lay across his ribs. Her eyes were pink from weeping and she was still crying slightly,

“I… was born in the b-bay, you know? This is my home.” Marco lifted his hand from her back and moved some of her bangs out of her eyes before he cupped her cheek. Wiping away a tear with his thumb, “You must be trying to find your family.” Lena leaned into his hand, her eyes closing as she whispered, “Yes, yes I am.”

“I want- I want to help you.” She opened her eyes and brought her face closer,
“You can help me by keeping my identity a secret.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Marco said. Her face was so close that he could not help himself and brought her face even closer until he could feel her warm breath wash over him.

“There’s something about you Lena, it’s doing something to me, I don’t know what it is, but it’s there.” As she stared into his emerald green eyes Marco felt his stomach flutter and he blushed softly. 

“Marco…” Lena said quietly, “-whales don’t know love. The bond within the pod, in the Family, it’s higher than love. A whale cannot love anymore than a fish love a bird.”

“But… you have the ability, you’re human!”
Lena rubbed his cheek and sighed softly, “My mind is still orca, Marco.” She pulled back to look him in the eye and he bathed in her gaze as long as she would let him, till she looked away. 

“Lena…” Marco whispered, pleading, “May I show you something? Something human?”
“…Yes, but wha-” Marco cut her off by pulling her forward to enclose her lips in a tender kiss. At first Lena stiffened, not knowing what he was doing but she didn’t add to it either. When Marco stopped Lena’s breathing had quickened slightly and her body had begun to tremble again,
“W-what was that?”

“That Lena, was a human sign of affection… called a kiss.” He trailed one of his hands down the scar on her back, making her trembles increase. As he continued down to the end of the scar his hand was under the swimsuit, stroking the middle of her tailbone in small circles. 

This time it was Lena who kissed him, crushing their lips together in her intensity. She muttered a soft “-Oh!” into his mouth as she went slack. Lena’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body began to convulse. 

“Lena!” Marco yelled, pulling himself up and grabbing her shoulders to shake her but he stopped dead as her head lolled to one side. The skin of Lena’s body began to harden and become as black as the darkest night that was only penetrated by the bone white marking’s of an Orca. He tried to grab her as Lena’s body slipped onto the floor. The towel around her waist had come undone, revealing the skin changing colors and her limbs flattening or, concerning her legs, melding together. She had begun to grow, lengthening and easily exceeding fifteen feet while her girth widened to match her length. A breathing hole appeared where the back of her head had been and with a loud POP, her four foot long dorsal fin shot out of her back. The scar that Marco had supposed to be one line was really three faintly curved scars: propellers. 

Letting out some clicks then a low whimper, Lena thrashed around as the transformation was complete. Her lashing out though caused the couch, including Marco, to be flung against the opposing wall. He lay there spread eagled for a moment with his legs sticking awkwardly in the air.

“Lena,” Marco said exasperatingly, moving one of his hands to run it over his face. She stopped struggling and let out a small whine. He climbed over the fallen couch and stayed back as she threw her head upwards, opening her mouth to reveal long white teeth and whistled. Marco knelt beside her head and stroked the skin around her eyes, calming her.

“Baby, why’d you change?” Lena whistled weakly and made a movement that looked like she had tried to shrug, “You don’t know?” She nodded, nearly knocking her head against his chin. “Can you change back? Change back Lena,” the killer whale visibly tried to relax then hummed in frustration.

“Just… just focus girl… just focus…” he though for a second before adding, “Let me try to help you,” Marco laid his head against Lena’s; forehead against forehead and placed his hands under her eyes. Concentrating, he thought of the school’s pool and the basketball court, imagining him on it just shooting hoops. Human things could override the whale transformation that occurred within Lena. He willed her to change and ever so slowly, she began to shift back. Finally Marco held a human head instead of a whale’s, Lena limp in his arms. 

“Marco- I feel sick.” He quickly grabbed a mixing bowl from the mini-kitchen and just made as she began to dry heave as she fought for air. 

Flipping open his phone, Marco speed-dialed his parents number and quickly explained that one of his friends was extremely sick and that he was going to stay with her till Sunday morning. Lena waited till he was done before closing her eyes.

Putting his phone away, “Lena sweetie,” He touched the pale skin of her shoulder gently, “-are you okay?” She nodded weakly, coming to her knees then to her feet with Marco’s help. Lena tried walking but her legs failed her and he didn’t say anything about it just scooped Lena up into his strong arms and carried her over to the bed where he laid her down gently. When she didn’t stir Marco checked her breathing and her pulse. She had fallen asleep. 

“Lena.” He said softly and kissed her on the lips before he went into the bathroom to grab a towel. Tenderly, he dried her short hair trying not to wake her up. When he was finished he tossed the towel into a basket on the floor and kicked off his shoes and stripped down to boxers. He tucked Lena underneath the covers then slipped in beside her to wrap his arms around her slim form. When Lena snuggled against his chest Marco’s stomach leapt and he fell asleep with a soft smile of content on his face.