chapter 13

Prince Khalid left soon after, but Frank stayed around until late into the night. He made sure I was not alone with Carolyn, and as the doctor had instructed, kept feeding her with small, healthy snacks. Any time I approached to talk to her, Frank found a reason for her to ignore me, so I realised that I would had to be patient and wait until I was left alone with Carolyn again.

Rather than sit around the house, I decided to look for Abigail. I was hoping that she would tell me about her mysterious message and give me more information about the cages. From Khalid's comments, I had a really bad feeling about what they were for! I knew that I needed to get Carolyn off the island and save her from Khalid's threatened massive weight gain and I hoped that would prove to her how serious I was about her too. Then Carolyn would finally accept that I was not going to hurt her and she would keep her promise that we would be together. To do this, I needed to know everything about the island, but I had no idea who, if anybody, I could trust. It seemed that everybody was there with the sole purpose of making Carolyn eat as much as possible, so I had to be careful and make sure I could get the information I needed without letting anybody know my plans. Abigail had promised to tell me everything, but I wondered if she would really be honest with me.

As soon as I headed down the garden towards the beach path, two soldiers barred my way, and were not afraid to point their rifles at my head until I returned to the holiday home. It seemed that Prince Khalid had put me under house arrest! Although they changed regularly, there were always at least two armed guards standing in plain sight and I had no idea how many more were in the surrounding trees. They made it very obvious that I was going nowhere, so all I could do was watch Carolyn flirting with Frank, smoke more than ever and be fed little and often.

The next morning, I looked out of the window and was dismayed to notice that two soldiers still stood on the path to the beach. Carolyn joined me to watch them, still in her bikini, although it was tighter on her now, and squeezing into the skin at the top of her thighs and around her ribs. Her belly stuck out, so smooth and round and I could not help staring at it while she told me how much she was enjoying Frank's company.
I tried to tell her what Khalid said, but as I began talking, several servants turned onto the path pushing carts. Carolyn did not hide the excitement on her face when she saw Frank following and issuing instructions. She rushed out to meet him and I was annoyed with myself for missing my opportunity to talk to her.

As the servants unloaded the carts onto the kitchen table and I realised that Prince Khalid was making good on his promise to fatten Carolyn! Gone were the small healthy snacks from yesterday, replaced with foods high in sugar and fat. One plate contained a pile of burgers topped with bacon and cheese, another a deep pan pizza and another deep fried and battered sausages. More and more were added to the table; everything from bread and nuts to large cakes and desserts. As the servants filled the table, Frank brought Carolyn a pale pink fruit juice.

"Breakfast will be ready soon," he told her. "Here's a little something to keep you going."

Carolyn sipped the drink and her eyes widened.

"This is awesome!" she said and quickly drained her glass shaking it over her mouth trying to get the last few drops of the thick liquid.

Frank nodded. "It is from the fruit on this island," he said, "but be careful; it does contain naturally occurring alcohol and we wouldn't want anybody to take advantage!" He winked and nudged me and I blushed, annoyed at myself for doing so.

I tried to make a witty response, but luckily one of the servants cleared his throat and politely let us know that breakfast was ready before I embarrassed myself further. Instead, I watched as Frank took Carolyn by the hand and gently led her to only place on the table which did not have a pile of food on it. He helped her onto the stool and as soon as she took her place, the servants began to fill plates, mixing from the various dishes on the table. Pasta and sausage with pizza was placed in front of Carolyn, and she started eating as though she were starving. As she finished that, a plate of deep fried chicken with rice and garlic bread was ready for her. In between courses, Carolyn smoked a cigarette, drank some more of the fruit juice and giggled like a schoolgirl at everything Frank said. I did not understand how she could keep eating and be so seemingly oblivious to how much she was stuffing into her stomach. There was no way she could keep going like this!

I was getting more and more concerned as she continued eating, so was relieved that during the fourth of these plates of food, Carolyn noticeably slowed down and began struggling to finish. Frank nodded to the servants who took away some of the remaining dishes, but left all of the cakes and desserts.

"We will let that settle for a bit," said Frank, "and then we will have some of this pudding?" He helped Carolyn to her feet and when she stood, I noticed that her stomach was bigger that I had ever seen it before; stuck out in front of her, so round and stretched. The skin looked tight and Frank confirmed just how over-stuffed Carolyn was by giving her belly a slight push. It hardly moved and Carolyn whimpered in pain.

"Oh, I am sorry," he said and sounded almost sincere. "You are such a good little piggy!" He patted Carolyn's stomach and I expected her to lash out or at least say something about the way he treated her with such disrespect. Instead she just laughed and told him she needed to lie down.

Frank helped Carolyn through the garden and laid her on the sun lounger. I watched as he began to smear the sun tan lotion onto her thighs and noticed that once more he began to massage more than rub the cream into her skin. Then he picked up a large stick which he began to roll up and down her thighs, as though he were making pastry. Again, I expected Carolyn to complain, but she just turned onto her back and let Frank get on with whatever he was doing as she laid there with one hand holding a cigarette and the other resting on her stuffed, swollen belly.

As he had promised her, Frank spent most of the morning and afternoon taking Carolyn cakes, biscuits and snacks, and filling her glass with the fruit juice at every opportunity. It seemed that he wanted to keep her belly filled to the limit at all times, and Carolyn happily ate everything he gave to her. I knew she had a gluttonous streak; I had seen that in London, but this was something different, almost as though she had no concept of refusing to eat.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the servants came and cleared away everything from the kitchen. Frank told Carolyn that dinner would arrive in a few hours so she had to stop snacking as it would ruin her appetite. He led her to the bedroom so she could sleep until it was ready. As he left her room Frank looked at me and smiled.

"Don't do anything silly now," he said with a wink and walked out into the garden.

I watched him go down the path and say something to the armed guard as he passed them. I was not sure whether that comment to me was a warning, but decided that talking to Carolyn was more important than fear of a half-hearted possible veiled threat. As soon as Frank was out of sight, I went into Carolyn's room and found her snoring softly.

I tried to wake her up by softly calling her name and gently rocking her shoulders, but I could not get a response. I pulled back the covers and turned her from her side to her back.

"What?" she groaned, half opening one eye.

I tried to make her sit up, but she kept turning back over and closing her eyes. How could she be so deeply asleep after such a short period of time? In desperation, I got a glass of water and began to trickle it over her face. At first she wiped it away in her sleep, but then she suddenly opened her eyes wide and sat up.

"What the hell....?" She shouted.

"Carolyn, I need you to listen to me!" I interrupted. "Please, it's for your own safety."
Carolyn rubbed her face, and nodded though I could see she was still angry.

"You have been brought here under false pretences," I said. "In fact, we have both been conned! I thought this was a private holiday island, but you are here to be force fed and fattened."

"Fattened?" Carolyn looked confused.

"Yes. Do you realise just how much Frank gave you to eat today? The people here are not going to be happy until you are obese. Look how stuffed your belly is!" I poked it to make the point, and Carolyn looked horrified, but I realised it was not at her swollen stomach but at me.

"You're just jealous of Frank," she said, lighting a cigarette. "You don't want me to have any fun, but I am on holiday, so I am going to eat, drink and smoke as much as I like."

"But..." I began. Carolyn cut me off.

"I only stayed with you because of the lifestyle you had," she said. "And now I am on a tropical vacation that I could never have had in other circumstances. I told you that nothing was going to happen, and just so you know, we are never going to be together, because apart from your money, there is nothing appealing about you."