chapter 1

Lana laid in bed, her deep hazel eyes cast on the dark clouds as they slowly drifted across the night sky; her boyfriend, Jeff, was next to her snoring softly. It was 11:00 PM on Halloween night and instead of being at a party or some other event, the young couple had decided to stay home at the last minute.

"Unbelievable - the nerve of this guy..." Lana thought to herself. Jeff's words spoken earlier in the evening echoed in her mind: "You'd really look good with a few extra pounds. What do you think, maybe 10 or 15 more?" Lana regretted getting into a fight over the innocuous comments, but she still felt confused and hurt by what he'd said.

"I mean, c'mon, who actually wants their girlfriend to put on weight? I don't even want to imagine what I'd look like then..." she thought.

Just then, the clouds in the night sky parted enough to reveal a small sliver of the moon. Its light instantly beamed through Lana's window and as if on cue, Lana felt a strange tingling in her stomach. She immediately arose from her bed and headed to the bathroom, feeling as though she might need to use the toilet. However, the sensation passed by the time she reached the bathroom mirror.

Lana looked at her reflection. She ran her fingers through her long, caramel-colored hair and gathered it up in a pony-tail. Her pajamas, which consisted of an old oversized t-shirt and sweatpants, hung loosely on her 120 pound, 5'3" frame. She moved her hands down her torso: over her modest breasts, alongside her slender hips, and toward her flat belly. Wait, was she dreaming or did it feel somewhat...fuller? She quickly found a likely explanation. "I'm probably just bloated from the Mexican food we had earlier. No big deal," she thought.

Lana turned and looked out the window only to see that the moon had revealed more of itself. She tried to resist staring, but couldn't help herself; she became mesmerized by the celestial body. After a few moments, Lana turned from the moon and said "I'm hungry..." in a dull, lifeless voice.

She walked in a trance-like state toward the kitchen and impulsively took a pint of chocolate chip ice cream out of the freezer. She plunged a spoon into the container and began to shovel in mouthful after mouthful without any hint of expression on her face. A few minutes passed and she had consumed half of the pint. Suddenly, she shook her head and snapped back into reality.

"Huh? What I am doing...?" Lana looked down at the half-eaten pint of ice cream. "Oh! Did I...did I eat all that?" The fullness in her belly confirmed her fear.

"Ok, so I was sleep walking...sleep eating, whatever. I just need to get back to bed," Lana thought to herself. However, before she could take another step, she felt the same strange tingling sensation course through her hips and legs.

"What the...what just happened!?" Lana instinctively grasped at where she had felt the strange sensation.

"Oh my God! My thighs feel...thicker!" Lana shouted. "Oooh and my waist! Am I...wider?" she said, placing two hands on her newly expanded hips and clutching the extra flesh that now clung to them.

Panic began to set in. Lana's breathing quickened and her thoughts raced. She was an intelligent young woman and there had to be a logical explanation for what was happening to her. She racked her brain for answers.

"Jeff! He must have done something to me. That son of a bitch..."

Lana raced into the bedroom and violently shook Jeff, rousing him from sleep.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" he groggily replied.

"I don't know, maybe it's the fact that you slipped me something and now I'm swelling up like a balloon!" Lana shouted.

"What are you talking about, babe?"

"I'm talking about the fact that I...oooh..." Lana clutched her belly as she again felt the now familiar tingling sensation course through her. With her hands on her midriff, she was able to verify the phenomenon. She felt her belly expand, ever so slightly, as though it was slowly rising dough. She now had no doubt that something was very wrong.

"This! This is what I'm talking about!" Lana cried, lifting her shirt to reveal a small, but noticeable pooch.

Jeff examined Lana's swollen belly. It was certainly bigger than he had ever seen it before, but he struggled to make sense of it. "Maybe you're just gassy?" he offered.

She punched his outstretched leg. "This is serious, Jeff. What did you do to me?"

"Lana, I didn't do anything to you. Besides, what do you think, I gave you some kind of drug that's causing this?"

"Well...no, I don't know. I just find it really odd that we have an argument about my weight and a few hours later I'm...I'm..." Lana couldn't bring herself to admit that she had already likely added several pounds.

"Ugh, that again. I told you, it was just a random thought. I didn't mean anything by it."

"But you said it so it must mean something. Is that how you really feel?"

"Lana, I..." He became distracted by the new moonlight that shone through their bedroom window. When he turned back to Lana he saw that her face was blank and she began to turn away from him. "Hey! Where are you going?" he shouted at her as she continued to walk away. Lana marched toward the kitchen in a zombie-like state, completely unresponsive to Jeff's pleas. Jeff followed her and watched as she opened the freezer and pulled out a pint of chocolate chip ice cream.

"What are you doing?" he asked. Lana merely responded by grabbing a spoon and digging into the high-calorie treat. Jeff watched her inhale a few mouthfuls before cracking a joke, "Well, I think I know where that belly is coming from, don't you?"

Jeff smiled at Lana but she just continued eating; her face remained completely expressionless. Minutes passed as Jeff watched Lana put away what remained of the pint and he began to worry - maybe something really was wrong with her. When Lana finished the last bite of ice cream, she seemed to once again regain her awareness.

"Oh no...not again," she sighed, looking down at the now empty carton.

"Again? What's going on here?"

Lana turned red and bit her lower lip. "Well...I may have just finished the other half of the carton 10 minutes ago..." Just then, her belly rumbled with hunger. Jeff and Lana looked at each other with wide-eyed, surprised faces. They both wondered what else the night would bring, but they didn't have to wait long to find out.