The acts of that unbalanced creature were fraying his nerves.
He felt as though a monster of the same class as those in the tank but much larger--a gigantic octopus from the oceanic depths--must have slipped treacherously behind him and was clutching him in one of its tentacles.

He could feel the pressure of its feelers around his waist, growing closer and more ferocious.
Freya was holding him captive with one of her arms.

She had wound herself tightly around him and was clasping his waist with all her force, as though trying to break his vigorous body in two.
Then he saw the head of this woman approaching him with an aggressive swiftness as if she were going to bite him....

Her enlarged eyes, tearful and misty, appeared to be far off, very far off.

Perhaps she was not even looking at him....