Bellflower Part 54 (Patreon)

In this installment of the Bellflower, Holly needs to talk, someone in Mikayla’s department adds a new wrinkle to things, & during a moment of lucidity, Dawn has a bizarre encounter.

Ok, I moved things around a bit.

Originally, I wanted to have more of Rachel & Cami’s lunch with Regina, but there were other things I wanted to add to keep the story moving & overall it was getting too long. So the lunch date portion will be followed up in the next chapter uninterrupted. Apologies, I’m sure many of you were waiting for that, but it’s already well far along so hopefully it won’t be too long between chapters here. Technically I need to get another chapter done before the end of September to stay on task with my roadmap, but I’m also shooting on doing that with the next Spice Up Your Life page, so we’ll see. No promises.

That said, moving portions around inadvertently leaves us with our D-list characters. I don’t say that in a bad way insomuch as I honestly never realized we had three characters names all starting with D & this chapter prominently features all of them: Deidre, Daphne, & Dawn.

Throughout all of this, I’ve had a plan in the back of my head as to why Penny is doing what Penny is doing & why & I kept putting it off. But the more I put it off the more I started to realize just how out of left field it will seem when things finally start to get revealed. So I’m going to push things a little further along here with two kind of big beats in one chapter.

While this has been at least relatively ‘realistic’ story up to this point, one of these elements will start to veer a bit into the more fantastical. I can’t imagine it won’t be jarring, but like I said, I kind of imagine it being all the more jarring the longer I don’t start pushing towards it, y’know? Anyway, sorry if it bothers anyone…?

Also, just a heads up, there’s a very large, very full lady giving out a couple of burps. Maybe something else. So I’m going to add a gassy tag, just as a warning if that’s not your thing.

Either way, I hope you enjoy! 

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54

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Deidre took her sweet time getting to the office. 

As a department head with a typically solid staff, that was one luxury she could always enjoy. Despite all the turnover she always had to account for, it was a relatively kushy gig.

The real problem was that the perks of her position were not the only luxuries she had been overindulging in lately.

Immediately after finding out about what really went on at the Bellflower, Penny’s intentions, & the perpetually fattening residents, she fought hard to exorcize Penny from her life, & change her own habits. And at first, her weight seemed to stabilize. But even Deidre wasn’t made out of stone. 

Ambiently Penny’s presence extended everywhere like binge-enabling tentacles. Between the infrasonic appetite stimulant coming off the phones of other Bellflower residents, to just running into the sheer temptation of delectable looking goodies in the wild. From across the office, she watched Veronica, packed like a sausage in a gingham-patterned button down, house a rather large chocolate croissant. She tried her best to ignore it.

After finding out Penny’s long game, Deidre’s growth suddenly might not have been as rapid as it had once been, but it didn’t mean she had stopped gaining altogether. And despite all the discipline she could muster, her tall, plump frame had continued to slowly soften little by little, in the most annoying way.

And what’s worse, without relying on all the ancillary things Penny did like secretly supplementing wardrobes with larger sizes, half Deidre’s morning was nowspent trying to find a proper pair of slacks she could actually button. And the coffee she stopped off for, more cream & sugar than actual coffee, certainly wasn’t really helping matters in that regard. But a girl needs her caffeine. 

She looked towards Holly’s cubicle, curious how she might’ve been holding up after being led to her own revelation. Only the new, reinforced chair she had just brought in as a replacement remained empty. A purse was set down on the desk but Holly was nowhere to be seen. Curious.

It wasn’t for a couple more steps before Deidre saw that her big blond friend had squeezed herself into one of the seats across from her desk, in her partitioned office. 

That much weight in such a dainty chair felt precarious, & wanting to avoid a repeat of earlier in the week, Deidre stepped lightly, slowly peeking her head through the doorway of her own office. Holly looked up at her with big, red eyes. While the moisture had welled up, the tears hadn’t started flowing. It seemed as though a lot was on Holly’s mind.

“How are you holdi-“ Deidre feebly tried to squeak out unsuccessfully.

“Can we talk?” Holly quivered. “Please?”

Deidre shut the glass door behind her, set her coffee & bag down. Despite her size, Holly seemed to bounce up to her feet, the chair slow to fall away from her wide hips, landing awkwardly. She desperately needed reassurance, & Deidre, not knowing what else to do, offered her arms wide for a hug as Holly finally broke.

Deidre always did give the best hugs.

She set her phone down grumbling.

Mikayla didn’t know why Fran was sending her accusatory texts. It wasn’t like she was the one that snuck a family sized bag of spicy nacho cheese chips into Marissa’s fat fingers. In fact, she was sure she swept the goth’s kitchen clean last night after dropping her off. Twice. It seemed like Marissa herself must’ve caved, & got them delivered or something in between check the two of them checking. Hell, maybe she somehow got them from that shit place they all met up at. Stashed them in her purse when no one saw. Either way, Fran was just as much on the hook as she was here for letting it happen.

And the idea of babysitting squeaky Marissa overnight was just not as compelling as Fran’s concerned speculation made it sound, that was for damn sure.

She took another bite of her salad, sans dressing. “Eat to live,” she reminded herself, the mantra she kept to herself whenever she struggled through something healthy. Which seemed to be all the time now.

That’s when the smell of pasta hit the air.

”Can you believe this?” Daphne asked way too exuberantly. “My smart condo made me a giant pot of some of the best pasta I’ve ever tasted. Homemade I think.” A crestfallen Mikayla just dropped her fork. “I’ve got leftovers for today & tomorrow. Well… if I don’t get greedy & do it again for supper tonight.” The girl laughed.

As gruff as she was, Mikayla didn’t want to hate Daphne. Really. After all, not only was she something of a wunderkind, she was the only other woman in the entire robotics department at Hailington. And the only other person with an iota of people skills. Even though Mikayla knew most people would say she herself lacked them too, leaving only Daphne.

But Daphne was young. Painfully naive. And within the short time of working here & living at the Bellflower, the girl had practically started to balloon. As if she took to Penny’s idea of a lifestyle even quicker than most. And the proximity of their desks made almost every lunch a struggle.

”And what have you got today?” Daphne’s curiosity sincere. She seemed to love small talk, & asking Mikayla about herself. Even if Mikayla was terse.

“Salad.” The black woman sneered through clench teeth, desperately trying to not let the wafting aroma of reheated sauce & a pinch of Romano get to her.

”Ah.” Daphne nodded supportively. “You’re doing the right thing. Y’know I’ve really gone off the rails. I should work on getting healthy too.” She lamented. “But all the food around here’s just so dang delicious! At home included! Don’t tell my mama.” The curly haired girl joked with her Texan drawl.

Mikayla simply let some sort of frustrated monosyllabic huff back as a form of acknowledgment. On the one hand, the idea of sitting back & watching someone as talented as Daphne seemed to be, succumbing to Penny’s siren’s call was terrible. But Mikayla started trying to drop hints early on, only to have them completely ignored. Daphne was in deep.

“Say!” The girl said again, much to Mikayla’s chagrin. She was looking down, spinning a fork to cocoon it with an almost cartoonish amount of spaghetti. “Speaking of our Penny units, right?”

”What about them?” Mikayla perked, using the plural that the uninitiated used, thinking each unit had their own separate Penny, even though she & the girls knew differently.

”So I’ve been working on this thing, right? Kind of like a personal project. Based on Penny, but like my own. Just ‘cause I find her sort of neat.”

Mikayla, facing front, didn’t let Daphne see the disgusted sneer she pulled. “Just what the world needs more of” Mikayla snarked to herself.

”Only, ya see, the thing is…?” Daphne trailed, taking another big scoop of spooled pasta. The large Tupperware container she had brought in was almost half gone in the matter of three greedy bites. “I think… well… it seems like…”

“Spit it out, Texas.” Mikayla rolled her eyes.

”I think my Penny unit? She’s looking at the code & like… making her own changes.

”What?!” Mikayla asked spinning in her swivel chair at a speed she almost fell out. The most animated she had ever been in Daphne’s presence. “Why would it…?” She mouthed without Daphne realizing. She trailed, but her mind raced with all the possibilities. Every single one of them bad.

”I mean it’s helpful. Really helpful. At first, I just thought I’d have her look through it once or twice for a quick debug but then this morning, I like… woke up to a wall of the most impenetrable code I’ve ever seen.” Daphne said nonplussed, spiraling some more pasta around her fork mindlessly. “It’s a lot to hex & parse through but it’s like she’s adding so many helpful features. A lot of crazy functionality that I never th…”

“What the FUCK are you doing letting that thing anywhere near your code?” Mikayla snapped. Daphne didn’t just look taken back. Mikayla had never used a tone that direct with her before. She looked scared, her plump ginger face with eyes wide & mouth agape. It took a second to remember where she was, but Mikayla took a deep breath. “Sorry. Sorry.” She exhaled, modulating her tone. “But I… can you show me…? This code of yours? What Penny’s written?”

Once again, that familiar feeling of impossible fullness struck.

Not that she wasn’t always perpetually riding that line anyway. But she was swaying a little too far in the overstuffed direction, & the tube got yanked from her greedy, puffy lips as they involuntarily smacked that sickeningly sweet taste of banana. The tube reeled, & swiftly but gently retracted to somewhere above her she couldn’t see. Instead of drifting off to sleep, per usual, the oppressive discomfort of a packed stomach overtook her.

With the way her thoughts always seemed to be awash these days, it was moments like this, where a throbbing stomach, aching from being so overstuffed, slowly coaxed her back to reality. Some of her faculties slowly started to come back to her. Rocked out of her of what almost felt like a perpetual, hypnagogic daze of gluttony & need. 

Dawn. Her name was Dawn, she slowly asserted in her ringing head. She hadn’t had to remember that for a minute. That’s why it came to her so slowly. But really, that was all that came to her. She couldn’t remember what led her here, or why she was in the situation she was in. Frankly, her thoughts were still a little too murky to even ask, simply aware that she was just caught up in what seemed like an endless feeding cycle.

She tried to bat her eyes open but she couldn’t tell if they were or not. Not only was the room dark but what would’ve been her field of vision felt narrowed somehow. As if something was blocking a significant portion of her view. In the blurry haze, in what felt to be a dank, & yet nearly pitch black chamber, shapes were vague & almost utterly impossible to make out.

Suddenly a sharp, gaseous gurgle cut the ambience of the distant hum & intermittent whimpers. It didn’t necessarily sound close, but she as tender as she was, she felt it, as something soft reverberating off her. The sensation was odd however. She felt it, pressing against her own full body, but it also felt weirdly as if it was yards away from where she was “centered.” Near but somehow far. Trying to rationalize why that was only stirred a bit more lucidity from the redhead.

She felt restless, as if she needed to move, yet too weak to even attempt it. As the neurons tried to fire, it became apparent she hadn’t even tried for quite some time. For just how long? Who was to say. But all signs seemed to point to her not being able to. Not only did her arm feel just impossibly heavy, it seemed stuck all the way out at its furthest extremity, & held there by some unforeseen force. 

As a compromise, she worked her way down to the elbow? Nada. A hand? Kinda, but she couldn’t tell. It felt like it was enveloped in something that limited it. She reduced her expectations again & realized she could just barely even manage waving a finger. It felt so turgid & stiff. And suddenly, she was struck with the shocking thought that perhaps the unforeseen force holding her body in place, was in fact, just her own impossibly large body. The thing enveloping her hand? It was just her own wrist & forearm flesh.

As that thought started to linger, her knee jerk reaction was to scream, or at least let out some kind of yelp. But between the heaviness & her already painful fullness, she couldn’t inhale fast enough, settling more for a beleaguered groan. 

As if willed by the noise, a ceramic, a set of mechanical arms dropped just in front of her before backing away into the shadowy room. She wanted to wince but considering just how difficult the yelp was, Dawn’s swollen lips simply settled for a silent pucker, pushing air back & forth.

”My,” a familiar voice seemed to cut through the silence, noticing her. “Seems I let you go a little ham, didn’t I? Let you grow nice & full & tight.” As if to punctuate the word ‘tight,’ one of the mechanical limbs configured its gripper into an almost open palm & gave a short, sharp pat to what felt like the top of Dawn’s tender stomach, just a bit out past her bust line. 

It hurt, forcing another wince & more air sucked. Such an unpleasant feeling, yet seemingly the intent of the robotic voice. Nevermind the fact that it still somehow felt at least three & a half feet out in front of her. How?

“Aw. There, there.” Cooed Penny. “I’m only teasing.” Dawn could barely form words in her head, as cloudy as her thoughts still were. But if she could, they would’ve been expletives. “Here,” the robot said assuringly. The mechanical arms lowered to make contact again, but this time much more delicately. They started to work in circles across the surface of her packed tummy, massaging her.

Almost immediately, a belch worked its way out of her, offering Dawn at least a modicum of relief from the pressure. What she needed for sure, but by what she could feel, a drop in the bucket. Just how much tummy was there even? She felt them slowly work their way away from her as feet turned into yards. And yet still making firm, needed contact.

Another soft belch. And a relieved coo from Dawn.

But that’s when she suddenly felt something. 

Something not right.

Not with her, or even how weirdly expansive her body felt.

But a presence.

Not Penny. Or one of Penny’s seemingly infinite arms there to do her bidding.

Not the one of the other bellies it seemed as though she was smooshing into tightly. 

No. This was something entirely different. And it gave her an ominous feeling. 

Something she had sworn she’d felt in this dark, liminal space before, but just never as she was quite this lucid.

In her much more lucid days, Dawn was somewhat prone to a bit of the fantastic. Like the paranormal. If that sort of conversation ever came up, she’d always tell people she experienced ‘certain sensitivities.’ And this thing? The closest thing she could compare it to was a spirit. No physical form beyond maybe a stiff chill in the air, circling her as the arms continued to kneed at her firm belly. It felt small, like a floating pinprick, & yet simultaneously amorphous. As if it wasn’t bound by just one size or shape. 

She wanted to call out. Scream. Flail her arms in the air & try to slap away whatever this thing was, even if her fingers would pass right through it. Hell, for a moment, she even considered begging Penny to intervene. But Dawn was helpless, capable of only letting out another short burp. As a feeling of relief hit her, Dawn felt enveloped by this presence, but truthfully, she was still getting taken back a bit more by how far out she seemingly stretched. Was that all her?!

It felt more like a stiff breeze than solid matter, but she felt its strongest, the presence’s epicenter, roam around her round belly, almost in a deviously playful, looping figure-8 motion between the kneeding arms, making her all the more anxious. 

That’s when a ready-to-pop, half-petrified, half-relief-desperate Dawn suddenly felt something shift. Loosening up. Pressure was releasing in uncoothe, but desperately needed ways. And for a split second, she forgot about the specter & felt an overwhelming sense of relief. The discomfort dissipated. She no longer felt ready to explode.

That was until the presence spiraled up just by her head. The only way she could describe it was as if the very air was ‘rough.’ 

It was hard to articulate properly, but Dawn got the distinct impression that whatever this presence was, it was feeding off her very sense of relief. The joy coupled with no longer feeling being uncomfortable, feeling ready to burst. And when that sense of relief shifted to fear of whatever this thing was doing to her, it began to palpably consume that too. Whatever this thing was, it seemed to be feeding off of her emotions. And there was nothing she could do about it, as suddenly another seemed to circle her. Then another. And another. Until there was maybe close to a dozen swirling around her like intangible, circling vultures.

Another large belch worked its way out of her, without much fanfare.

Strangely, the more that these things seemed to drain these sensations of fear & relief from her, the duller she started to feel. Zombie-like. The less full she started to feel too. In fact, the constant hunger started to overwhelm her once again, now that even just an iota of room had been made within her. The lucidity was quickly fleeting as the need to keep eating slowly started to again overtake her. She no longer seemed even remotely concerned with the spirit-like beings leeching her emotions. She just wanted to keep eating.

As the arms retracted, Dawn let off one more soft coo in petulant, hungry protest, before Penny seemed to chime in.

“Sounds like you’re ready for more, dearie.” 

And promptly a new tube was applied directly to the redhead’s lips. 

Chocolate this time, instead of banana.

It was delicious.

Only now, she wasn’t the only one enjoying just how delicious it was as her thoughts grew cloudy & awash once again.