chapter 4

Who knows what woke her up that night? Maybe an owl had hooted outside the window. Maybe the cat had knocked something over. Maybe it was just a bad dream. But whatever the reason, Natya stirred.

She shifted and yawned. She had only fallen asleep a few hours ago, so her belly was still stuffed full. But she had slept off enough to think more clearly than she had in days. Something was different, but she could not think what. She felt different… her body moved different. It was… slower… heavier…

It was too dark to see herself when she looked down, but Yunitsa kept a long mirror in the corner of the room, lit now by a shaft of moonlight. Natya heaved herself up. Why was it harder to walk? Why was she already slightly out of breath? Natya reached the mirror, looked at herself…

And screamed.

“What’s all the racket?!” Yunitsa pounded down stairs from her bedroom.

Natya was crying, her panicked breaths coming fast and shallow. “What happened to me?! I’m… I’m…”

Yunitsa laughed. “As much a pig on the outside as you are on the inside, that’s what you are!”

It was true. Natya had grown as round and fat as Lyuba… no, more so! Her hands shook as she touched her double chin, gripped her flabby belly, lifted her pillowy arms. “I don’t understand!”

Yunitsa chortled. “I pegged you right away as a girl who would get fat in no time if given half a chance!” She petted the black cat perched on the table. He pushed up into her hand, purring. “A very simple spell really, and one of my favorites.”

“A-a spell?” Natya clung to a chair for balance. Yunitsa’s words, no, her SPELL, echoed back to her head.

In this house, you will eat as much as you want.

Natya shook. How had she not realized at the time that those words were not an invitation. They were a command.

“You… you did this to me!”

Yunitsa’s cackle bounced off the walls. “I did no such thing! I may have tweaked with your impulse control and holding capacity, but the wanting is all yours! You ate because you WANTED to! Face it, girlie-” Yunitsa poked her cane into Natya’s broad belly. “You’ve been a glutton your whole life. I just let it out.”

Natya trembled. Deep in her heart, she knew Yunitsa was right. None of the food had been forced on her. She did this to herself.

She looked in the mirror again, and winced. “How long have I been in this house?”

“A week.”

“A WEEK??”

If she was this big after a week, she shuddered to think how big she would be in a month. “I have to get out of here!”

Natya lunged for the door, waddling as fast as her fat legs would carry her. Yunitsa, unconcerned, strolled to the kitchen. When she opened the oven, the luxurious smell of apples and honey washed over the room. Natya froze at the doorway. The smell held her back as firmly as an arm around her neck. Her stomach lurched with longing. She was still full from her last binge mere hours ago, but her stomach demanded more, more, until there was no more to be had. Natya gripped the doorway, hands shaking, mouth watering, head spinning, heart pounding. She was so close! Just leave!

Yunitsa cut a thick slice of pastry, passing the plate under Natya’s nose. Her swollen, bloated belly begged her to grab it, stuff it in her mouth, reach out for more and more!

“Little piggy, you must be hungry after so much excitement.” Yunitsa smirked wickedly at the joke that was no longer secret.

Groaning with shame, moaning with hunger, Natya reached out for the plate. Yunitsa kept it just out of her reach, forcing her to follow. Natya let herself be led back to the table like a herded cow.

Today’s stuffing would begin early.

✥✥✥✥✥

Yunitsa was right, it was a very simple spell. Any time Natya saw food she wanted, the spell would push her to eat, no matter what. The problem was, Natya had never in her life seen food she didn’t want.

She tried to resist, tried to hold herself back. But she only ever managed a few seconds before she was overpowered by her own stomach, surging forward to cram her mouth with whatever cake or pastry Yunitsa put in front of her. Every night she cried with shame at her failure, shuddering at her expanding girth. She swore over and over that tomorrow she would not give in. But then the morning came, and her belly would roar with a hunger she was powerless to fight.

Yunitsa was merciless, never letting Natya rest, no matter how full she got. Even as she forced down the last bite of a meal, her stomach bulging, Yunitsa was already walking to the oven, calling back, “Would you like some more, girlie?”

“Please, please no, I feel like I’m going to burst!”

“You always say that, but you always have room!” Yunitsa jabbed and squeezed the girl’s belly. Natya cried out as her jam-packed stomach complained at the rough treatment. “See, I knew you weren’t full. Look how soft all this is, look at how much room you have left!”

“That’s not how it works-” But her arguments were cut off as Yunitsa set down the next dish, and Natya’s feverish appetite forced to start eating again. Because Yunitsa was right. She did always have room. It must have been part of the spell, because no matter how much she ate, she could somehow always cram in more. But the magic didn’t stop her from groaning in pain as the abundance of food forced her stomach to stretch to inhuman limits.

And Yunitsa always, always, always had more food. Kaska with mushrooms, topped with a slab of butter. Dumplings stuffed with meat or cheese that dripped grease down Natya’s chin. Giant pirog pies filled with fruits and sweet sugars. Nuts dipped in thick candy coating she devoured by the handful. Baked apples soaked in syrup. Borscht served hot with thick fresh bread. It didn’t matter. It was all so delicious, and Natya could not resist any of it. She had spent so long fighting her hunger, suppressing her stomach, forcing it to be silent. But now she no longer had any power. Her stomach made all her decisions, forced her hands when her brains said no, commanded her to eat again and again and again. Now that Yunitsa had given it a chance to rule, it would rule Natya with an iron fist.

Yunitsa had kept quiet in the early days, not wanting to give away the game. But now that Natya knew, Yunitsa was free to have fun with her little pet. And Yunitsa did not play nice.

Natya’s chair and her clothes were both spelled to broaden with her ever-swelling girth, which was partly why she had taken so long to notice at first. But now sometimes, Yunitsa would stop the chair from growing. Natya would wake up with the arms of the chair digging into her soft sides, too tight for her to pull out. Yunitsa laughed, watching her struggle against the pressure. Since Natya couldn’t stop herself from eating, all she could do was whimper as her belly grew larger and larger, the unrelenting chair pressing tighter and tighter, until Yunitsa finally had enough fun and let the chair grow again.

Other times, Yunitsa would snap her fingers, and Natya’s clothes would not grow for a week. So she had to constantly pull down her shirt as she ate, desperate to cover the belly swelling over the waist of her skirt like rising bread. She winced as her waistband tightened and pinched, leaving deep red marks. Once, after cramming in a particularly large cake, Natya’s belly burst through her waistband entirely. She groaned in relief and then buried her face in shame. Yunitsa thought this was so funny that she played that trick every day, making Natya’s waistband tighten and burst over and over. Finally Natya had to give up. She had no choice but to let her swollen belly sit heavily over the top of her skirt, a constant sign of defeat.

Sometimes Yunitsa would set Natya’s plate just out of her reach. Natya would stretch and strain, desperate to reach it, until she fell back in a sobbing heap, belly still rumbling, Yunitsa cackling behind her. Other days, Yunitsa would carry the food around the house, forcing Natya to waddle after her, panting and sweating, getting hungrier and hungrier. Eventually her knees would buckle and she’d collapse into her chair, heaving from the exertion.

Then there were times Yunitsa would just sit and make fun of her. “Remember how long you spent terrified of sweets?”, she’d chuckle while Natya shoveled chocolate cake in her mouth, icing smeared all over her cheeks, belly stretched and swollen from two she had already crammed down. “Soooo afraid of getting fat! Now look at you, stuffing yourself like a pig, belly halfway to the ground!” She grabbed one of Natya’s rolls, shaking it till her piles of flesh shook like an earthquake. Natya groaned, her overstuffed belly revolting against the movement.

Yunitsa pulled the mirror over so the girl could see herself every day, could watch herself grow broader, thicker, heavier. Natya trembled at the sight. Her once slender thighs were thick as barrels, bulging under the weight of her heavy belly, now round and full and swollen completely out of proportion to the rest of her. Her formally flat breasts were now fighting for space between her monstrous belly and her multiple chins, chins that forever wobbled with her constant chewing. She tried not to look, but there was no way to avoid it. "Maybe this is a good thing", she told herself. "Maybe seeing me like… this will give me the strength to control myself." But of course it didn’t help at all. Natya was completely out of control.