The Octopus’ last dance.

“You know, they have three hearts, and their arms basically have a mind of their own. About two-thirds of their neurons reside in their arms. Oh, and their brain is donut-shaped, it’s wrapped around his esophagus.”

“Freaky.” James rapped a knuckle on the glass of the octopus’ enclosure.

“What are you, four?” Annie said, irritated.

“I just want to see him do something!”

As if in defiance, the octopus didn’t move a muscle.

“Here, watch this.” Annie opened the top of the tank and offered the octopus a mussel in her clenched hand. The eight-legged creature gently pried the prize from her hand by opening her fist one finger at a time until it was released.

“Woah!”

Annie smiled. “Isn’t that cool? His name is Cupid, he was found in the bay with a fishhook in his siphon on Valentine's day.” Annie smiled at Cupid as he crushed the shell in his beak. The tips of his suction cupped arms gently wound around her fingers.

“It’s what?”

“His siphon.” She pointed at the opening on Cupid’s head. “He’s almost better and he’ll be ready to go back to his home soon.” Annie’s mouth pressed into a line and she sighed. “I’m going to miss him. He’s a real interesting dude.” Annie greeted Cupid by scruching her index finger as she pulled out her hand away from Cupid’s grasp.

“Check this out!”

Music came on over the speakers as Annie turned away from the computer. A swooping, romantic melody mingled in the air with the gentle gurgle of the flowing water in the rehabilitation room of the aquarium.

“He likes love songs.” She said, leaning forward to blow a kiss to Cupid. “Keep an eye on him, he always does this when I play music.”

Like a ghost, Cupid lifted himself from the floor of his tank and spun around in circles.

Annie swayed in front of the octopus’s tank moving her hands gracefully. Cupid shadowed the movement of her hands as if he was in a trance.

“No way! That’s so cool!” James was astounded by the little red octopus.

“Here we go, Cupid!”

She strutted from one end of the tank to the other with the octopus following her every step of the way.

James watched, mouth open in amazement.

“Ta da!” Annie put her hands up to signal that the dance was over.

“Did you teach him that?”

“Nah, he does that on his own. I just started playing music for him one day after everybody left to keep me company and then this happened!” She gestured to Cupid bobbing in the corner of the tank with his eyes locked on Annie.

“Are you ready for a good time tonight?” Annie turned and flirtatiously flicked salt water in James’ direction. “Do you think you have better moves than Cupid?”

James grinned and pulled Annie close to him kissing her neck, “you betcha.”

“James!” Annie giggled and pushed him away. “Not at my job man!” She looked him up and down and bit her lower lip. “Save that for later, baby.”

Annie twisted out of James’ arms.

“I’ll be right back, I’m just gonna change real quick. Don’t go nowhere!” She shouted as she disappeared around the corner to the employee's lockers.

James smiled and stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked gently on his heels and looked down at his nice black shoes.

The reflection of water danced as auroras on the ceiling above the aquarium pools in the dimly lit room of the rehabilitation center. The cascade of the water filtration systems whooshed continuously and the smell of fish drifted from every direction. A soft pattering of water broke the melodic harmony of the mechanical ocean next to James.

He looked around for the leak glancing at Cupid’s enclosure. His empty enclosure. James did a double take, surely his eyes were playing tricks on him.

“Hey babe?” he yelled out, looking in all corners of the tank.

“Yeah?” Annie called back.

“Where’s Cupid?”

“What?”

“Well he’s not in his tank, where could he have gone?”

“He can get in pretty small places, he’s probably in the PVC pipe.”

James pressed his face to the glass and turned his head to look. The pipe was in the corner which made it difficult to see inside of the dark tube. But James tried anyway. He smeared his skin and squinted his eyes trying to get a peek of the octopus hiding inside a tiny tube, but it was just too difficult. He pulled his head away leaving a greasy mark on the otherwise crystal-clear glass.

Drip drops of water fell from above his head and splattered on his nice black going-out shoes. He scoffed irritably as a splatter splashed onto his pressed, black going-out pants.

“My pants!” He moaned and turned upward towards the source of the water. The glossy yellow eyes of Cupid blazed in front of James. Impossible! The drops of water had been falling off the cephlopod who was hanging from the drainage pipes above him.

James stammered backward with an open mouth poised to shout for Annie to come to his rescue. As he took a breath, the octopus flung himself onto his head and suctioned his beak over his open mouth. Before he could do anything but whimper Cupid had his arms ensnared around James’ limbs making him powerless to move. James tried his best to make some kind of an effort to shake loose the grip of the cephalopod but with every struggle, his grip tightened. Cupid pried open James’ mouth and forced himself down the man’s throat. James gagged and coughed and tried to scream as the octopus crawled down his esophagus making his way into the belly. He stuck an arm into his duodenum and snaked through his intestines. Instantly Cupid released a chemical neurotransmitter from his arms that allowed him to connect to the neurons in James’ body. Cupid sparked a little jolt of electricity and just like that, James went into dark mode.

Linked with the human man, Cupid blinked with his human eyes and touched his human fingers to his human palms.

“Fingers.” He thought in wonder, wiggling them in front of his face.

He cleared his human throat as he pulled the rest of his arms into his mouth and down into his stomach. He tried out his human feet by taking a few steps around the room of isolation tanks. Above him, a sweet melody played from the speaker boxes. He closed his eyes and sighed. The sound moved Cupid in his borrowed human heart and all three of his own. He swayed gently with his human hips to the rhythm as if he were back in the ocean, floating on a warm current with rolling warm waves crashing over his head. Lyrical poetry blended and bubbled together with the sounds of running water. He lost himself to the deep sea of notes that resounded perfectly in his ears.

“What do you think?” Annie asked.

Cupid’s human heart and all three octopus hearts raced at the sound of Annie’s voice. He swallowed hard, afraid for a moment that his disguise would be found out. He took a deep breath trying to compose himself as he turned to face her.

She leaned on a rack of wetsuits and posed with her hand on her hip as she licked her teeth. Annie’s body was hugged by a tight, black, low-cut dress with spaghetti straps. Her red high heels clicked on the damp floor as she walked towards James.

“Well?” she smiled as she approached her boyfriend, giving a little twirl.

“Annie,” Cupid whispered, his breath taken away. His eyes locked on the woman standing in front of him. He moved in closer to pull her into his borrowed body knowing that this is something that James probably would have done. He traced her waist with his fingers unbelieving how something could feel so soft and warm.

“Annie.” He said again.

“Uh huh?” she asked cocking her head.

Cupid touched Annie’s cheek and gently kissed her forehead, a spark of affection left his lips shippong it to her own heart.

“You’re radiant.”

Salt water stung his eyes, Cupid had only been able to imagine what it would feel like to speak and touch the creature that had been so kind and gentle with him for the past few weeks. But he never dreamed of how marvelous and overwhelming the sensation of human emotions would be. At nights when he was alone he would search for words he felt for Annie in a way an octopus could describe how he felt for a human; grateful, curious, obliged? These words did not serve his feelings anymore. He searched James’ vocabulary for something stronger, perhaps lust or endearment. Or maybe, could this be love? He wasn’t even sure what the word meant but he felt it when he looked at her through James.

Annie giggled. “Why thank you! You don’t look so bad yourself. You ready to go, babe?”

Cupid thought quickly. He didn’t know what he was going to do now that he had control of this man’s body. There was no way he could live inside his belly forever, he didn’t even know how much time he had before he was forced to leave either by his will or James’. Overhead the music played on and Cupid knew what he wanted to do with his short time as a human.

“Will you dance with me?” He whispered.

“Of course baby! Now let’s go, we’re meeting Alysia in..”

“No, no,” he whispered softly again. “Will you dance with me here? Just one dance?”

Annie smiled and put her arms around Cupid’s neck. “Ok.” She said, her smile planted a kiss on his lips which left hers and Cupids tingling.

Cupid’s cheeks flushed as he pulled her close to his body. He placed her beautiful hand into his and intimately squeezed and mingled his fingers with hers. A fresh melody rippled through the speakers gesturing the two bodies to move. Cupid looked deeply into Annie’s eyes as the two became lost in the ebb and flow of a tango. The cadence led their hips out of the rehabilitation room and danced into the ocean-blue lights of the closed aquarium.

The colorful fish of the tropical exhibit took notice of the octopus and human and they too began to sway in the undercurrent of their caper. The stingrays gathered close to the glass to watch the couple and swoosh gleefully in figure eights.

The silver fish sparkled and swirled in circles following Cupid and Annie twirling in their whirlpool of dance past the giant wall of fish. All eyes of the fish followed the dancing duo but the two only had eyes for each other. Sharks circled and sea turtles twisted, the jellyfish bobbed and the angelfish flitted. The curious behavior of the fish was unbeknownst to the two lovers floating through the empty chambers of the aquarium. They danced and smiled and waded through the sea of song pouring through the speakers above them.

Annie pirouetted and dipped while the fish curiously watched the couple. Cupid felt the flutter of James’ human heart and the thrill in his stomach as he beheld the beauty in his arms. Her body moved in his arms like the warm currents of the ocean and as if her movements were controlled by the god of the sea himself. Annie laughed, feeling as light as the water reflections on the ceiling.

“Ah!” She sighed in euphoria. Her body tingled where his fingers touched and crimson rose in her cheeks. She closed her eyes as the sensation of this intimate movement flooded her overflowing heart.

The couple danced into the aquarium tunnel as the song crested and melted onto the shore of silence. Cupid and Annie stood in the middle of the tunnel still feeling the excitement of the dance rolling in waves through their bodies. All around them the fish gathered and watched. They swirled in circles and danced above them.

For the first time, Annie took notice of the extraordinary performance that was happening all around them.

“What is going on?” She smiled in wonder as she marveled at the fish's unnatural yet beautiful behavior.

“Annie”, Cupid called her attention back, her eyes meeting his soft gaze. “Annie,” he whispered again and drew her closer to him.

She rested her head on his shoulder as the invisible waves crashed at their feet. His fingers interlocked with hers and he pressed their hands to his chest.

“I want always to remember you this way.” Tears blurred his vision as he anticipated the inevitable exit of James’ stomach. He knew from the beginning that the time he would spend with Annie in either octopus or octopus-human hybrid form was fleeting. He breathed in notes of Annie; lavender, rosemary, and thyme. He felt the warmth of her body through her silky soft dress. But his heart! Oh, his heart! A soft aching so pleasurable and painful pulsed in time with his breath. He flooded his senses with Annie, wishing to take her all in before he had to return to his octopus form.

“What are you talking about?” Annie laughed, pulling away to look at Cupid’s face.

The two swayed in an invisible tide as light glimmered and sparkled on their skin reflecting off the shiny scales of the silvery fish behind the glass.

“Thank you.” He whispered and took her head in his hands. He pressed his lips to hers.

Passion flowed through his body and poured into the portal of her mouth. Tenderness enveloped the couple as the fish spun and swooped in dazzling patterns all around them.

The kiss broke in a sigh that escaped Annie’s lips. Her knees dipped and Cupid pulled her closer to him. She looked into the storm behind his eyes calling her to become lost at sea.

“James.” she breathlessly whispered.

Cupid jerked and grabbed his stomach. The pain snapped the octopus from his living daydream as James began to fight the interloper in his belly.

“James! What’s wrong?” Concern righted her body and crossed her eyebrows.

Cupid felt the cramps in James’ stomach. The neural pathways were breaking down and his time in this body was running out, fast! Traces of James pushed through the octopus’s hold and one by one his arms peeled away from the man’s insides.

Cupid looked into the eyes of his beloved one last time then took off running as fast as he could to the rehabilitation tanks.

“James? Baby, what’s wrong?” Annie took off after him, sprinting through the cool blue rooms.

Cupid fled, feeling another spasm that nearly knocked him off his feet. James’ consciousness was gaining on the octopus and he was ready to purge the beast from his body. Back through the staff entrance Cupid rushed to his empty tank. Annie’s high heels echoed through the building.

“James!” She called.

Cupid held onto his tank as James’s body heaved the octopus out of his belly. Cupid’s suction cups clung to the sides of his throat as James coughed and gagged. In a final heave, James purged the last of Cupid from his body. The octopus dropped into his tank in a plop.

“James!” Annie cried.

James turned around to see Annie panting in the doorway.

“You ready to go, babe?”

Annie shook her head quickly in confusion.

“What the hell, James?”

“What babe?” he said as he readjusted his shirt.

Something red swam in his peripheral in the tank behind him.

“Oh! There he is!”

“Are you kidding me right now?”

James was puzzled, as far as he knew he had been waiting for Annie in this exact spot.

“Wow! You look amazing!” James pulled his phone from his pocket and whipped his mouth on the back of his sleeve. “Oh shit! We better go hon!”

“You sure you’re ok?” asked Annie.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

James hurried behind Annie. “I can’t wait to get you out of that-”

Slam! The door shut and locked behind him.

Cupid blinked his horizontal eyes as another love song played through the speakers. His body swayed and spun to the romantic rhythm.