She splashed in the ocean and I rode the waves. That was our way, others had their own. She instigated, I reacted, and there wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do about it. I’d have knelt at her feet and worshipped her, and given half a chance, I would. If Celeste said jump, I jumped. If she commanded, I did as bade. If she’d have said kill — well, best leave it at that.
Some of her friends said it was wrong the way she treated me like I was a slave or an animal or worse; I had no friends, so it didn’t bother me. Anybody that questioned her methods be they family, friend or foe were cast out into a world without her, a world where I for one never wanted to go.
And so back to the ocean, the place where she found me, and where this story started. I’d forgotten what it looked like until I saw it through her eyes, an expanse of undulating cerulean, an ever-changing carpet of blue, so much more than a day at the beach.
Celeste removed her clothes first, I was ever shy, and strolled into the waves like a queen through her kingdom. I followed in a nervous licking of lips and tiptoed advancement. It was funny walking that way, it felt like the first time I’d ever done so. And, like a veil lifting from my eyes, as the waters reached my chin and tickled my face, I remembered. I remembered it all.
Celeste realised her mistake in those moments, of what she’d done. In her widening eyes, I saw my past: how she’d found me on the rocks, dazed, confused, no longer myself, cast ashore by a storm; how she’d dragged me away, changed me in the so doing. I remembered it all.
As thoughts of the ocean returned, the deep, wonderful ocean, my body remembered too. Toes unused to the ways of men extended outward like dough rolled beneath a rolling pin. My skin coloured from paleness to aquamarine, my form filling out becoming more powerful. At last, after oh so long, I was me again.
She didn’t say sorry nor show any form of regret, Celeste turned her back on me and that was that. So, I left her there to think on her sins as I returned to face my own. I swept away in a spray of rainbow droplets and didn’t once look back. It felt good to dip beneath the waves and say goodbye to the sun. I wished I’d never seen it at all.

The End