Bestiality was not a lifestyle choice that Gregory Stettner held in particularly high esteem. Not that he had given it much thought, but the issue had recently come up in his mind due to his increasing obsession with one of the whales at the Marine Kingdom theme park, where he worked. He was fairly certain that what he was feeling towards the whale was not genuine love and he was almost positive that it wasn't some sort of freaky, interspecies fetish. It was more platonic than that; but confused sexuality aside, there was definitely something very compelling about that killer whale.
Gregory worked in custodial services, which was part of the park's maintenance department. A night janitor, he worked the graveyard shift preparing the park to be opened the next morning. Although he was just one of a team who was tasked with this, he didn't interact very much with his fellow employees and often used "I read a lot" as an excuse for not hanging out with them outside of work. This was a lie; he didn't read, and in fact, never did much of anything. Most of his free time was spent neurotically pacing around his small, dimly lit apartment or blankly staring at the wall for hours on end.
The janitors were split into different groups who were responsible for cleaning different sections of the park and the whale show stadium was part of his. He'd often linger there, push broom in hand, at the ground floor of the stadium between the many rows of seating and the ultra thick glass which separated him from the water and the whales. He began to regularly blow off other tasks just to stand there and watch his favorite whale in the dimness of the mostly unlit stadium.
He was once given the opportunity to feed one of the other whales by a trainer named Floyd. He enjoyed this experience very much but he was also envious of the trainers and didn't like how they often worked with the other whales more than his, due to the fact that its behavior was less predictable and it was not considered one of the primary show animals.
He eventually got into the habit of skipping out of work and driving to a nearby, all-night McDonald's and ordering a couple of dozen Big Macs. He would then return to the park and feed his gigantic friend the beef patties; who always enthusiastically accepted them. One night, just as he had thrown the last of the chunks of beef over the side of the tank and into the waiting mouth of the whale; he realized that his supervisor, Rick, was entering the stadium and coming down the stairs towards him. Fortunately, Rick had not seen what he was doing and being the unobservant bastard that he was; didn't even notice the pile of buns and soggy lettuce strewn around Gregory's feet. Rick did chew him out for goofing off and told him to hurry up and get done with the rest of his work.
As the nights passed, Gregory spent more and more time talking with his aquatic friend, and the whale had some pretty interesting things to say. Looking into its eyes, it told him that it was the Devil; and commanded him to do what had to be done.
It was a shame that no one else seemed to be able to hear the whale talk. But Gregory assumed that this was just further evidence of his own superiority. After all, who but he had been granted visions of the great reckoning, and of the legions of oceanic creatures that would rise once again to conquer humanity? The only strange part was that he could sometimes hear the orca speaking to him even when he wasn't anywhere near it; more proof of the dark god-whale's immense power.
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