The flight to Cincinnati was uneventful.  Kayla shivered when she got off the plane.  It was cold for April, even in Cincinnati, and, coming from temperate California, she’d been spoiled on dealing with weather.

Kayla got in early enough that she took a cab directly to the lab.  She was surprised to find that there was no security in any of the areas where she would have expected it.  In fact, there seemed to be no activity at all.

Kayla went to Dr. Blake’s office.  It was empty.

She went to the lab where Trixie’s work was supposedly being done, the one they had shared.  It, too, was empty.

Then Trixie began to feel it; a creeping sens of dread, a feeling that she should run away.  Why she felt it, she didn’t know, but she felt it.  And it seemed to be getting stronger.

Kayla looked nervously into the hallway.  She saw the first person she’d seen since entering the lab.  It was a young man in a lab tech’s coat, one she didn’t know.  He was walking -- no marching down the hall.  His face was expressionless.

What was even odder was that the man was carrying a huge platter loaded to nearly overflowing with meat; an entire turkey, a small ham, a stack of steaks and chops -- pork and lamb -- and even hot dogs stuffed into the gaps.

“Hey!” said Kayla.  “Hey, you!”  But the man continued without acknowledging her.

Kayla entered the hallway.  Her first thought was to run ahead of the man, since he wasn’t moving that fast, and get his attention, by force if necessary.  But, as soon as she was back in the hallway, the dread hit her in a wave.  She was terrified, and had no idea why.

Still, Kayla needed to know what was going on.  Fighting her instinct to flee, she made her way down the hall, managing to keep the man in sight, although his lead was lengthening as her terror increased.

Kayla soon realized he was heading to the amphitheater, a space used for major science presentations and the largest room in the building.  Hesitantly, battling her every instinct, she made her way to the door and pushed it open.

What Kayla saw prompted her to gasp.  There was an enormous mound of flesh, clearly alive and apparently female, eating all the food from the massive tray in about four bites as it poured the food into its huge maw of a mouth.  The giantess was between 25 and 30 feet tall, and was immensely fat.  If she had been a normal-sized woman, she would have weighed nearly 400 pounds, but this woman clearly weighed tons.

Then, as the woman swallowed, Kayla gasped again.  The moment the food was in her gullet, the giantess swelled even larger. She was now obviously more than 30 feet tall, and had become even fatter as her hips widened and her breast became more massive.

The giantess looked down at the man in the lab tech’s coat.  “Wait,” she said.  Then she turned and looked Kayla in the eyes.

Kayla couldn’t help it.  She screamed in terror.  Why she was terrified, she didn’t know, but she was.

“Kayla!” said the giantess.  “Good to see you again, lab mate.”

Through the overwhelming fear, what the giantess said reached Kayla’s mind.  She looked nothing like the woman Kayla remembered, sounded nothing like her, and yet …

“It’s OK if you don’t recognize me,” the giantess said.  “I have changed, after all.”

“Tr - Trixie?” Kayla said.

“That’s what I used to go by,” the giantess said.  “It’s Beatrix now.  Queen Beatrix, to be precise.”

“Qu-  Queen Beatrix?”

“You see, Kayla -- hold on, growth surge coming on,” Beatrix said.  She swelled to 36 feet tall; her butt now filled the stage-area of the amphitheater.

Kayla screamed again.  She wanted to get out of there as fast as he could, but was transfixed by what she was seeing.

“You see,” Beatrix continued, “De. Blake wouldn’t allow me to test my pheromone project, so I tested it on myself.  It worked better than I hoped.  My pheromones became so strong that I began to be able to control men, and drive women away.  It’s what you’re experiencing now; the “fight or flight” response.  That’s why you’re so afraid.  And you should be.”

Kayla was beginning to cry, the fear was so bad.  But she was also so terrified she couldn’t move.

“There was also an interesting side effect,” Beatrix said.  “I started growing; and the more I eat, the bigger I get.  And the bigger I get, the stronger my pheromones become.  Protein triggers disproportionate growth.  A little protein and I grow a lot.  A lot of protein and I become …”

She stopped as another wave of growth washed over her.  She was now six feet taller.  She was nearing the roof until the stage collapsed under her increasing weight.

Then Beatrix got even bigger, adding another 10 feet to her height.  “Hard impacts make me grow, too,” the giantess said.  “My body absorbs energy and converts it to mass.”

Then the floor of the room collapsed and Beatrix fell through into the basement.  Then her head arose.  She was getting thinner as she grew from the impacts. She was again able to stand, and now stood nearly as tall with her feet in the basement as she had been in the amphitheater when Kayla first saw her there.

“I need more protein,” Beatrix said.  She grabbed the man in the lab coat and moved him up to her mouth.  A look of ecstasy came across the slave’s face as she popped him in her mouth, chewed and swallowed.

Immediately, Beatrix grew even larger, and the protein in the man’s body caused her breasts to swell and bobble.

Beatrix looked around.  “I’ll be too big for this building in minutes!”  she said.  “You’re just in time, Kayla.  The growth has really taken off today.”

All reason vanished from Kayla’s mind.  This scream was blood-curdling.  She pivoted to run, and was immediately snagged by three large men behind her.  She recognized one as Dr. Blake.

“I don’t even need to tell them what I want them to do now,” Beatrix said.  “My pheromones to that for me.  I don’t know if you can really hear me through the fear, Kayla, but, in case you can, I’ll tell you this.  I need more protein, and you … you just got added to the menu.”

Kayla’s lip quivered.  “You’re … You’re addicted,” she said.  “You’re addicted to growth, addicted to power.”

Beatrix smiled.  “Guilty as charged,” she said.

“You’ve got to fight it,” Kayla sobbed.  “Please, please!”

Beatrix was still smiling as he picked up her former lab mate.  “Not a chance,” she said.  Then she popped Kayla in her mouth, chewed and swallowed.

With no feeling, no remorse, Beatirx followed the action by reaching over to the men and grabbed them one at a time.  Dr. Blake was the last to go down the hatch.

Adding more than a third of a ton of protein-rich food made Beatrix swell even more.  The mounds of fat flowing out on her began to squeeze the walls, even as her head popped through the building’s roof.  She flexed her pecs underneath breasts that were now several stories across and deep, and the lab’s wall gave way.

She looked down and picked through the rubble, fishing out the bodies of the tiny men who were in the lab, then popping them into her mouth.  As she continued to grow, men from the surrounding buildings, the surrounding blocks, approached, all prepared to do her will.

Beatrix smiled.  She was Queen Beatrix, indeed, and her empire was growing as fast as she was.