Chapter 36

A few hours later, the bright, golden light of the rising sun was streaming in through the open hangar of the Facility. Dr. Jeltzin, per usual, had opened the door, eager to rouse Emma and get her started on her morning exercises. Usually, Emma would remain stubbornly in bed for a while, stretching and yawning, and sleepily insisting on cuddling with Daniel – whom she often woke up by snatching him up out of his bed on her nightstand to press intimately into her cheek. Weeks before, Dr. Jeltzin had been more forceful and persistent in getting her up, since her mornings were strictly regulated, but lately, he had become more and more lenient…or rather, Emma had stopped responding to the external schedule imposed on her, and Jeltzin hadn’t been able to effectively assert his authority. Once she had grown past 55 feet tall, there had been a silent, though clearly noticeable swing in power, and even though the scientists were uncomfortable admitting it to themselves, the fact was that they weren’t even sure that their “nuclear option” (the pink gas) could contain her anymore, should she overstep the Facility rules.

“Oh please, just…don’t even mention that!” Alison had responded, clearly upset, the day before, when Dr. Farley had expressed his fears about not being able to control her anymore. “As long as we just, uhm…keep her fed and happy…which is much easier now that Daniel’s here…we should be fine, for…well, for a while, at least.”

“And if she keeps growing?” Dr. Ossford had countered, raising his eyebrows.

“Or if she keeps growing…at an accelerated rate?” Dr. Farley added with a challenging tilt of his head.

Alison couldn’t respond with anything but a long sigh and a shrug, and silence had reigned over the meeting.

Now, back to the present morning, that conversation was replaying over and over in Dr. Jeltzin’s head as he opened the hanger door. There was no way around it: he was nervous about the future. They all were. But compared to where Emma had been, mentally and emotionally, months ago…it was like night and day. He had never seen her so happy, in such high, playful spirits. Jeltzin knew that Daniel’s presence was probably the main reason for her elevated mood, but he also knew that it wasn’t all because of Daniel. Something had clicked in Emma’s mind, while at the Facility, that had fueled her confidence, and…most unnervingly, her desire to keep growing, to keep getting bigger and bigger. On one hand, Jeltzin loved it, loved challenging her to lift more and more weight, loved being her biggest cheerleader. But on the other hand, he couldn’t help but join the other scientists in feeling a deepening sense of concern, and even helplessness, when they were around her. They still had no idea why she was growing, and the prospect of an accelerated spurt loomed over their heads – they had no plan about what to do if this happened.

‘So why even worry about it?’ Jeltzin thought to himself, turning around from the hanger door to rouse Emma for her morning workouts. ‘We’ll just cross that bridge if and when we come to it – and besides, Alison was right, we need to manifest positivity and confidence around her, otherwise she’s going to start thinking something’s wrong, and then she might revert back to –’

But just then, as he turned back to Emma’s bed, he stopped dead in his tracks. A gigantic ankle was directly there in front of him, waist-level. Jeltzin’s eyes went wide as he stared up the full pillar of the leg, 16 feet up to where a massive knee loomed over him. Her thighs were so big that he couldn’t even see up to her waist. Over 30 feet above him, he saw the dark, tight fabric of her underwear stretched across the bottom of her crotch. Jeltzin looked back down, trying to compose himself. Emma had played around with him like this before, but she had never managed to actually sneak up on him quite like that, without him even noticing. She must have been awake the whole time, and used extraordinary care tiptoeing up to him. But most strikingly, he could tell that she had grown bigger during the night…a LOT bigger. Her foot alone was over three feet wide, and, from the back of her heel to the tip of her big toe, nearly nine feet long.

As Dr. Jeltzin’s brain tried to process what he was seeing, the gigantic, white-manicured toes sprang to life and began scrunching and tapping teasingly, sending palatable vibrations through the concrete floor. Far, far above, an enormous, gusting exhale preceded the soft, deep wave of giggling laughter.

“E-Emma! Woah!” Dr. Jeltzin exclaimed, and he reflexively took a couple steps backward. He had already been startled by her sudden appearance behind him, but the gust and energy of her laughter had truly caught him off guard. The scary thing was he knew that Emma was just giggling…but to him, it sounded almost like thunder.

“You, uhm…haha! You snuck up on me there!” he added, calling up to her by cupping his hands around his mouth. In the past, this trick had worked and allowed her to hear him, since he had one of those big, loud male voices that naturally carried. But right now, Emma was just standing there, apparently gloating down at him. In an impressive whoosh of motion, she put her hands on her hips, and again Jeltzin felt the power and energy from even the simplest of her movements. Anything she did seemed to produce its own wind current, and he felt his hair brush back once more in response. She was licking her top teeth now, glancing around the hangar, apparently still waking up.

‘She didn’t even hear me,’ Jeltzin thought suddenly. ‘She usually hears something, and makes a joke if she can’t understand…but she didn’t hear anything that time…’

Then another thought suddenly came into his mind, a thought that made his stomach clench up uncomfortably inside – what if she hadn’t snuck up on him? What if she had just been getting out of bed and…narrowly avoided stepping on him by accident? No, no it couldn’t be…even though she had gotten much bigger, he was still big enough for her to notice him…right!? But he didn’t have too much time to dwell on this unsettling thought, because the air was trembling again – Emma was speaking:

“How’s he reacting? I can’t even tell – you’re way closer.”

Emma was apparently talking to her nightstand, but then Jeltzin saw that Daniel was sitting there on the edge, with his legs dangling. It had been difficult to notice him sitting there (even though Daniel was about his size), since his senses were so calibrated to Emma’s gigantic stature.

“He’s…surprised, I think!” called Daniel. Jeltzin felt a shadow pass over him, as the light from the rising sun outside was blotted out momentarily – Emma was leaning over him, forming an upside-down “J” with her body, as she crouched down close to Daniel, with her hand to her ear. Her feet hadn’t even moved, and Jeltzin wondered if she was intentionally showing off her flexibility.

“Surprised!” yelled Daniel again, and Emma nodded and grinned over at Jeltzin, upside-down, from in between her legs, still in her arching, crouched position.

“Of course he is!” she laughed, finally straightening up and taking two 30-foot strides over Jeltzin towards the open hangar door. Now foregrounding the morning sun rising over the jagged, icy mountains in the distance, she slowly brought her arms up above her head, deliberately taking her time, as her smile widened. Since he was now standing far enough back to take her whole figure in at once, Jeltzin saw that Emma had squeezed herself into her pink long-sleeve cat shirt…and it looked absurdly small on her now. To begin with, the “long” sleeves stopped in the middle of her forearms, and the sleeves themselves, which had been quite baggy just a couple weeks before, were now filled completely by the bulk of her arms…even stretched-out. Jeltzin could see how one of the sleeves was even beginning to fray. What’s more, that truck-chain bracelet on her wrist, which she had only been wearing for, what – a week? A week and a half!? It had gone almost halfway down her forearm before, and now, as she raised her arms up over her head, Jeltzin saw how it didn’t budge from the smallest part of her wrist. It actually looked like it was pretty tight.

All these thoughts and details were rushing through Jeltzin’s head, not giving him time to focus on any one of them, as one thing after another left him amazed. The act of her raising her arms up over her head exposed the soft white of her belly – the cat shirt was so small that it was riding high up on her torso, exposing about three-quarters of her stomach, which was gently toned from her workouts. The cat face, which had been etched in black across the front of her shirt, was utterly unrecognizable now – it just looked like a strange series of stretched-out symbols or etchings. Jeltzin found himself wondering how on earth Emma had managed to fit herself into that shirt, and how uncomfortable it must be feeling for her.

“Look!” boomed Emma, forcing Jeltzin to take a couple panicked steps back (before he recovered, shaking his head at himself – this was Emma, after all! What was he so afraid of all of a sudden!?). “Whaddya think, huh?”

Jeltzin stood there, staring up and down at Emma’s body, a bit confused. What did she want him to say? The full, creamy pillars of her exposed thighs looked absolutely incredible, and strikingly imposing – her legs alone were over 30 feet tall. Her stomach looked great; her shoulders sure did look extra-big in that silly shirt; her arms were looking nice and buff. Was she asking how the shirt looked? He arched his head to look up at her face, to try and get some sort of a clue what she meant. But just then, the top of the sun broke out above the snow-capped pinnacle of the tallest mountain in the distance, and the entire hangar, complete with Emma’s statuesque pose, was bathed in bright golden light. Jeltzin was stunned. He had never been so struck by an image – he had always been her fan, her cheerleader…but he had never before been left open-mouthed like this. The image of her standing there in her underwear, squeezed into that ridiculous shirt, grinning and stretching her arms up, with the sun rising above the mountains behind her…he had no words.

“Oh my god…” came Dr. Farley’s hushed voice from behind him. “Do you…are you seeing what she’s…?”

“Yeah I’m seeing it alright,” replied Dr. Ossford, in an equally-astonished tone. Jeltzin looked behind him, and saw that the entire array of Facility scientists (with the conspicuous exception of Dr. Clinebell) had gathered behind him, and were all staring up in awe (and something like fear) at Emma.

“Seeing…what, exactly?” Jeltzin heard himself asking, turning back around to gawk up at Emma some more. It sounded to him like a ridiculous question, but he had the sense that he was missing something.

“Look at her hands,” Alison said next to him, pointing up. Jeltzin glanced sideways at Emma’s therapist; she looked completely baffled…and afraid. “She’s…she’s palming the ceiling.”

“No, she couldn’t be – she wasn’t even close to touching…” began Jeltzin as he looked back up, but the words died in his throat. He could see the slight outline of the powerful tendons in her wrists stretching and flexing as she drummed her fingers on the ceiling. She was palming it…effortlessly. He looked back down at her feet, just to make sure she wasn’t “cheating,” but they were flat on the floor, barefoot. How could she have grown so much taller…and bigger!? In a single night?? It didn’t seem possible.

“This isn’t good,” muttered one of the technician scientists at the back of the group.

“Yeah,” returned another, a dark fatalism imbuing his words, “We can’t keep her here much longer.”

“There’s just…there’s just no way, no way…” came the chorus of muttering voices, building on top of each other.

“Now listen, we don’t need any of that talk,” Dr. Ossford snapped, turning around at the group and casting his eyes about reproachfully. “Imagine if Clinebell heard you say that; we’ve gotta nip that kind of attitude in the bud. She’s our responsibility – end of story.” Jeltzin, Farley, Alison, and a few of the other head scientists gathered around behind Dr. Ossford, clearly backing him up, but none of them could think of anything more to say. The assembled technician scientists, auxologists, and others grew quiet, even though the deep uneasiness remained etched in their expressions. It seemed like a few of them were still on the verge of arguing back, but a powerful, rhythmic thudding brought everyone’s attention back to Emma. She had lowered her hands off the ceiling, spread her arms wide (over 60 feet), and was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, going up to her tiptoes and then down again – up…and then down once more.

“Ha! Check that out!” she was smiling down to Daniel, “On my tiptoes my head’s not too far away from the ceiling – can you believe that!? Remember when I had to bounce on the trampoline to even touch it with my fingertips? Wait, here…”

She had bent down close to hear Daniel’s answer, but had then just made a snap judgment and swooped her hand down, fishing him up off the nightstand. As she did so, she remembered to move her body slowly, just so Daniel wouldn’t get nauseous as he moved through the air. Even in the midst of her excitement in showing off to the assembled scientists below, she wasn’t letting herself get carried away. As she nestled Daniel into the snug neckband of her tight shirt, she took a moment to appreciate the progress she had made. Her mind shot back to what seemed like ages and ages ago, to their old house, when she had first started growing, and how miserable she had been. And then to the farm, and the…well, what still seemed like a nightmare in her mind, still garbled up into dark disjointed pieces in her memory…and then when she had first come here, to the Facility, and how new everything had been, and how drastically her moods still shifted.

But they really didn’t anymore. She felt totally calm, collected, and in control. The bigger she got, the more at ease with everything she became. Of course, certain things were getting harder – clothes were a constant issue, she could barely hear anyone except Daniel when he was right near her ear, and she had started bumping into things unexpectedly again. But everything else? It was great – she felt amazing in her body, more so than she had ever felt before. She felt hot. That sex with Daniel from the previous night had been a revelation. The whole time, she had been in total, absolute control of everything, keeping him on the edge, teasing him, tantalizing him, and showing him how good she could make him feel. His precious little expressions were still stuck in her mind…and the way she had made him cum…mmmmmmm, she felt a shiver of pleasure go through her body as she remembered.

She gently plucked Daniel out of her shirt and held him up to her face. He had been saying something to her, but that’s not why she was holding him up. She marveled at how tiny and fragile his gorgeous little body looked in between her fingers – to her, he appeared only 6 inches tall.

“Hrmm? What’s that, sweetie?” she asked, pouting at him as she blinked her eyes lusciously.

“I was just saying,” Daniel repeated, feeling a liquid warmth go through him as Emma blinked at him, “That I think they’re gonna need to build you a bigger trampoline – and put it outside!”

“Oooooh yes you’re so right!” Emma practically squealed, though making it a point to keep her voice frequency lower to protect his little ears. Then, without saying anything more, she did what she had brought him out for – bringing him even closer up to her face, when she had to cross her eyes to see him, she gave him a soft, tender kiss that spanned the entirety of his stomach. Daniel, clothed in his nightshirt and underwear, couldn’t help but close his eyes in pleasure. He had expected Emma to put him back in her neckband after, but she didn’t. Instead, she opened her lips a little farther and kissed him again, encompassing his entire midsection, and then…she opened them even more and kissed him a third time, becoming a bit more aggressive, now latching onto his torso and beginning to suck gently. He could feel his underwear and nightshirt start to tear from the sheer power of her mouth, and then the massive tip of her tongue slithered up his shirt, stretching it to its breaking point, and then flicking backward once, shredding it completely.

“Emma…E-Emma wait…not here…” panted Daniel, who was red-faced and rock hard instantly. “Not in front of them…”

“Awggg who carrressssthh?” she moaned into him, and for a few long moments, she didn’t let him go. She kept gently spearing his exposed chest and belly with her tongue, bit by bit working her way down to his underwear. The massive tip of her tongue teased his waistband.

“Hahh…hahhh…Emma…” panted Daniel. It wasn’t clear at this point whether he was embarrassed, or simply transported by desire. Blowing a playful exhale out of her nose, Emma squirmed her tongue once into his underwear, scrambling his cock and balls in a quick flurry of hot, wet action, before slipping it back out again, and freeing him at last from her lips. They stared at each other, with her holding him there, with his back to the scientists below. He arched an eyebrow at her, and they both laughed.

“Emma!” called Dr. Ossford from below, through the megaphone. She realized that he had been calling a few times, but had only registered it presently, now that she had had her little moment with Daniel.

“Oh, yes! All of you down there!” Emma laughed, putting Daniel back in her neckband before stepping toward them. As she expected, they all took a few steps back. She smiled inwardly to herself; she wasn’t trying to scare them or anything. It was just fun predicting what would happen, and then being totally right.

“Daniel and I agree that it’s time for a field trip!” she announced, bouncing up and down again on the balls of her feet. “I think I need to jump around a little, and if I jump in here…” And she mimed getting ready to jump.

“Don’t! Emma!” called Dr. Jeltzin through another megaphone, causing Emma to giggle again.

“I’m kidding, duh!” she burst out playfully. “I mean, obviously I can’t jump in here anymore without cracking my head open on the ceiling.” She turned out to face the mountains and pointed at them, feeling a sudden, strange, powerful sense of camaraderie with their icy peaks.

“So!” she demanded, turning back around to stare down at them as she pointed out towards the mountains, “I wanna go hike those!” She had been very close to adding the word “today” at the end of her sentence, but something kept her back – things were lovely and bright right now, and deep down, she understood that she could darken everything with a single word or action. And far from it giving her anxiety, the power made her feel proud and strong…and sexy.

The scientists hadn’t answered yet. Their faces were all turned inward towards each other. They were talking, conferring, debating – Emma felt a sense of tenderness towards them, even though she felt like rolling her eyes at the same time. And then, after a few more seconds, Dr. Jeltzin stepped forward from the group, holding up the megaphone as he did his best to try and look natural and confident.

“Alright Emma, yes!” he called up to her, “A field trip! Good idea! But first, we need to get your morning measurements.”

Tightly secured underneath the neckband of Emma’s shirt, Daniel’s upper body actually started jerking forward slightly in a rhythmic cadence, as he felt his back heat up rapidly. He immediately knew why – positioned this way, he had his back to Emma’s neck, and his body was directly pressed up against her carotid artery. He had already been able to feel her blood pumping behind him, but as soon as Dr. Jaltzin had mentioned measurements, Daniel’s entire upper body started bowing forward in jerked motions to the rhythm of her heartbeat. He needed no verbal cues to tell that she was excited to be measured. But the next moment he was blinking, startled, as Emma clasped her hands together about 30 feet away. He knew that she had purposefully avoided clapping her hands for his sake, but even the barely-contained excitement of her hand clasp seemed as loud as a sudden boom of not-too-distant thunder.

“Ooooo MEASUREMENTS!” Emma exclaimed, again shaking the floor by rolling up and down on the balls of her feet. “Ever since last night I’ve soooo been looking forward to this!”

“Last night, huh?” said Dr. Jeltzin, as he and the other scientists began walking towards the “measuring station” at the corner of the hangar. “So were you…I assume you went through another growth spurt last night? And you were awake while it was happening?”

“Mmmmm, well yes I was awake,” Emma answered, easily beating the scientists to the station in two huge strides. “But I was a little…distracted last night, hahaha…”

“Distracted?” Alison asked up through the megaphone, “By what, Emma? Was everything ok last night?”

“OH…” grinned Emma suggestively, as she struck her tongue slightly out and to the side, biting it, “Everything was waaaaay more than okay.”

“Um, Emma?” piped up Daniel, twisting and gyrating his body a little so that he could speak up directly into her ear, “Maybe they don’t need to know all about…uh, you know…”

“What?” Emma retorted merrily, her brow furrowing a little as she inclined her head down and pulled in her chin so that she could see him, “Why not? We had the best sex of our lives last night! It was so good it literally made me start growing more!”

She turned to look back down on the scientists assembled far below, and she tilted her head slightly to the side, her eyes going a bit wide in humor. She was still talking to Daniel, but she was addressing them now too. “Don’t you think that’s all…what’s the phrase? Clinically significant!?”

The scientists didn’t know whether she was just making a joke, or whether there was some darker sarcasm behind her words. Either way, the expression on her face was making them more uneasy.

“Hehheh okay,” Dr. Jeltzin chuckled into the megaphone, eager to keep things moving, “Well of course we’re all glad that you and Daniel were –”

“Oh who am I kidding?” Emma’s voice rose up above the megaphone. She was looking down at Daniel now, and talking only to him, and he could feel her blood rushing and beating behind his back even faster now. “They’ve got their cameras on us 24/7 – I bet they were watching us on their little monitors in their control room!”

“Emma…shhhh!” Daniel admonished, privately acknowledging how silly it was for him to order her to be quiet. But all of a sudden she had started treading on dangerous ground, and, more than anything, it was her jocular tone that was the culprit. At her size, sarcasm was scary.

“Yeeeeah,” hummed Emma, looking back down on the scientists. She raised her head up (so she wouldn’t knock into Daniel with her chin) and shook it slowly back and forth as she continued smiling. “They were watching us.”

A strange, eerie silence followed. Even Dr. Jeltzin wasn’t able to immediately respond through the megaphone. It wasn’t at all clear whether Emma was still being funny or sarcastic…or not. Her smile had dropped slightly, and for a few tense moments she was just standing there, staring down at the crowd of scientists, her eyes fixed on them, unmoving. For an instant, no one really knew what was going to happen next. Even Daniel was starting to feel the tension, both metaphorical and real – Emma’s heartbeat was truly pounding into his back now, and he found himself starting to worry about her blood pressure.

“Emma?” he asked into her ear, unable to hide a bit of desperation in his voice.

“What?” she whispered back to him.

“Y-Your…your heartbeat,” began Daniel, feeling a bit silly for bringing it up. “It’s…it’s really fast right now. I can feel it.”

“Oh I know!” exclaimed Emma happily. “I’m just excited to get measured!” She bent a little forward, and pointed straight down at Dr. Jeltzin. “If a certain someone would practice what he preaches and stop shilly-shallying! Isn’t that what you used to tell me when I didn’t want to work out? Stop shilly-shallying, Jeltzin!”

“Ehaha, always down to get called-out by you, girl!” Dr. Jeltzin laughed back up at her. A relaxation of the tension was tangible in his voice, and all the scientists seemed to breathe an odd sigh of relief as well. None of them had really understood what had happened – if anything had happened at all – but at this point they were just glad to keep things moving, and normal.

Less than a minute later, Emma was standing with her back to the measuring implement. Several auxologists were gathered around the control panel, making sure all the settings were correct. It took them a bit longer than usual, since one of the technicians was having to alter the dials to account for some unknown vibrations that the instruments were picking up. After several minutes, he was on the verge of restarting the whole measuring implement when Dr. Ossford, who was looking over his shoulder at the readings, stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“No need to restart everything,” Ossford declared, “I understand now – the vibration’s natural. Proceed along.”

“Natural!?” the technician replied, perplexed. “What do you mean? The readings indicate that there’s 5.4 million joules of energy going into the floor, like…rhythmically every few seconds. That’s 10 cars going 60 miles per hour! We have to make sure that there’s no interfering frequencies with the –”

“It’s her heartbeat,” interrupted Dr. Ossford. “That’s all it is. As long as we account for it, no readings will be compromised.”

The technician stared blankly at Dr. Ossford, opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. He looked to the screen, and then, with a new sense of awe, up to Emma, who was in the middle of betting with Daniel how tall she had gotten.

“60 feet!?” she laughed, blowing out her air far over his head in a 50 mile-per-hour gust, “Are you kidding me?? Noooo, no I’m like…at least 62 feet now!”

“You want to be 62 feet now,” Daniel gibed.

“No I am 62 feet,” Emma countered, turning up her nose. “I want to be 80 feet.”

“Are you…sure about that?” Daniel asked uncertainly, still smiling but now beginning to worry again.

“Sure I’m sure, cutie pie!” Emma laughed, extending her thumb gently up to his face and tapping him playfully. Daniel felt a shift in her weight as the air current changed. She was moving her arms slightly, and, far down below, he could see that she had put her hand in between her legs. “When I’m that big you can crawl up inside me and go to sleep, and we’ll both be soooo cozy, mmmmmm!”

“Emma, quit itttt!” Daniel exclaimed, trying to push the pad of her thumb away from his face, even as he felt himself get aroused at how blatantly sexual Emma was behaving. Part of him was embarrassed about all the scientists hearing her lewd talk down below, but Daniel reminded himself that Emma was surely right – they were being filmed 24 hours a day, and so, with that in mind, he could get on board with Emma just deciding to be openly salacious. He wouldn’t have spoken it quite like that, but then again, she had always been the one who was more inclined to dirty talk. And at her size, this kind of flirtation made an immediate impression on him; he was completely erect.

“All right Emma,” called up Dr. Jeltzin, giving no sign that he was distracted by her sexy talk, “Put Daniel down on the floor so we can get an accurate measurement, okay?”

“Anything for an accurate measurement!” she chirped, extending her finger and allowing Daniel to grip it tightly before pulling him out of her neckband and setting him carefully down at her feet. She did all this without bending her knees, and Daniel knew that she was just taking advantage of another opportunity to show off her flexibility – it turned him on even more, watching her straighten back up from putting him down. Even after all this time, it was awe-inspiring to watch such a gigantic body move with such agility and coordination. And now, of course, she was bigger – much bigger. But by how much, he really couldn’t say; that was about to be answered. Daniel stepped about 30 feet to the side, making sure to get off the weight plate that was going to be taking her measurements.

“Ready when you are!” Emma announced, putting her hands on her hips as she drew back her shoulders and rose up completely, standing as tall as she possibly could. Daniel could see the wide smile on her face, despite the fact that it was a bit hazy, since he was looking at it from so far away. He had always been a bit nearsighted, but he hadn’t ever really needed glasses. This was the first time he had actually noticed that her face was a bit blurred when he looked up at it, standing on the floor. He felt a shiver go through him – she truly was becoming enormous, in an entirely new kind of way.

“Okay, so you’re backed into the wall,” Dr. Jeltzin was saying, “Now stand still, no cheating with your tiptoes, haha…not that you’d need to cheat of course…getting the reading now…aaaand…WOW.”

“What!?” Emma burst out, her voice causing everyone to shudder and cover their ears. Emma seemed to notice and quickly added, in a more temperate voice, bubbling with excitement, “What’s it say!? What’s it say!?”

“It says,” Dr. Jeltzin said slowly, “That you’re 755 inches, or, in other words…62 feet and 11 inches.”

Emma’s mouth dropped open, though the rest of her body remained stock-still. Her eyes went wide and traveled slowly and deliberately down to Daniel, until they rested on him far down below, off to her left. Daniel was laughing and shrugging, throwing up his hands, as if to say, ‘Damn! I was wrong – you win!’ He could tell that Emma was feeling a strong inclination to physically react to the incredible news of how tall she had grown, but he also knew that she wanted to know how much she weighed too, and wasn’t intent on disrupting the measurement procedure. She just kept standing there, unmoving, staring down at him with those beautiful wide eyes of hers, with her mouth still gaping open in unabashed delight.

“Aaaand…hold on, the weight’s still calculating,” Jeltzin muttered into the megaphone. It was obvious, despite Jeltzin’s attempted nonchalance, that he was floored by Emma’s new height. His voice had even wavered a bit as he had spoken. All the scientists and technicians were gathered around, none of them speaking, their eyes fixed in disbelief at the measurements that were showing up on the control panel screens.

“755 inches…” spoke Dr. Oxford in a low voice after a few silent moments, “That’s already 20 percent outside of our maximum protocol…”

“For…what, exactly?” asked one of the technicians uneasily. “Like, her diet? Her clothing size?”

“No,” Dr. Ossford answered, his voice hollow, “The building.”

“The building?” whispered the technician blankly. Dr. Ossford nodded grimly.

“The whole Facility.”

“Okay a-and…and it looks like we’ve just about got your weight, Emma,” Jeltzin was saying, trying to keep talking to somehow assuage the fear they were all feeling down on the floor. Daniel could sense it, but he was too far off to hear what they were saying to each other. In any case, he was too focused on Emma, and that beaming, open-mouthed smile she was still flashing him. But his attention was briefly re-directed back at the scientists, because a palpable, audible shock had gone through them. They were already agitated and flustered from the height measurement, but now that they were learning what Emma weighed, they were finding it more difficult to conceal their disbelief.

“And your…weight…now, Emma…” Jeltzin said, in his best attempt at a deadpan voice, “Is…177,933 pounds. Or…uhm…or, in other words, 88 tons, and 1,933 pounds.”

“WOAH!” Emma boomed out, thrusting her arms high up into the air in a “victory” pose, before hopping off the weight plate with a reverberating, thunderous sound that shook the entire Facility. In the midst of her little jump (which was no more than 6 feet off the floor), she had reached up and slapped the ceiling with her palms – the combination of her feet coming down on the floor and her hands smacking into the ceiling shook every aspect of the building’s foundation, and little clouds of concrete dust trickled down from all four corners of the ceiling.

“Emma!” warned Dr. Jeltzin quickly, his voice higher-pitched than he intended, “Please! Don’t do that! The structural integrity of the floor and the ceiling…! We can’t have you doing –”

“Sorry, sorry!” laughed Emma causally, waving him off with a windmill motion of her hand. “I was just excited is all – did you HEAR that, Daniel!? Did you HEAR how BIG I am now?!”

She had immediately sidled up to him, so that she was standing directly above him, with her bare feet about 20 feet away. And then, reaching up towards the ceiling again and arching her back sexily, she began to perform a series of suggestive, sensual dance movements with her gigantic body. She swirled her hips side to side in languid, fluid motions, feeling herself up with her hands as she did so; without her feet moving, she lowered herself down, until her knees were almost completely bent, and threw her huge ass back, twerking it seductively in Daniel’s direction before standing up again. Her ass cheeks jiggled and clapped the whole time she was standing back up, and once she had reached her full height again, she leaned forward, shaking her butt even more crazily while her giant thighs shook and gyrated in tandem.

Daniel didn’t know how to react to Emma’s blatant sexual display, other than getting aroused himself, of course. When she had been twerking her ass cheeks from her crouched position, he had been struck by a crazy urge to reach up and give her butt a playful smack. But, of course, despite her crouching down so far, he couldn’t have reached her ass if he had jumped. And now that she had stood all the way back up again, all that was left was for him to flash two “thumbs up” signs at her, positively beaming. He was happy for her – really he was. By this point, he knew how much Emma had learned to embrace her growth. He had never seen her so fresh and happy, and he couldn’t help but tap into this well of exhilaration and glee. There was also something of a sense, in his mind, of smug satisfaction, seeing all those scientists huddled up together by their instruments, heads bowed in close together, speaking in low voices.

Daniel knew that they were all just doing their jobs, and he actually liked a few of them, particularly Jeltzin and Alison. But he had grown to detest the way that they treated Emma, even though he knew that they were all just trying to find out what caused her growth spurts. If they had been able to discover the cause, he might have felt more sympathetic towards them. But they had discovered nothing, and meanwhile, were subjecting her to all these daily tests, many of which were invasive and difficult for her, and confining her to the Facility hangar, which was fast becoming too small for her. In Daniel’s mind, they were treating her like some kind of giant lab rat, while stifling her blooming free spirit which, as each day passed, seemed to intensify.

“Well what do you think of that, baby?” Emma crooned from high above. “Your girlfriend is basically 63 feet tall…and here you were saying that she was 60 feet, tops. What do I look like, some kind of midget!?”

“I was wrong, haha, please don’t hold it against me!” laughed Daniel, putting up his hands. He knew that Emma couldn’t hear him, but he also knew that she was acting out her own scene right now, both for him and for the scientists.

“Yessss, so now what do I get,” Emma asked, grabbing her stomach and shaking it playfully. “Now that I won the bet? Hmmm?” Her abdomen, like the rest of her body, stretched her cat shirt to the limit, to the point where her belly was poking through in between where the shirt ended and her panties began. Ever since her growth spurts had really taken off, Emma had developed a bit of pudge in her belly that hadn’t quite gone away yet – she was still gloriously proportional, but her stomach still protruded out just a bit. Dr. Farley had told her that she had a running caloric surplus of 580,000 calories a day, which he had tried to explain as the cause of her slight belly.

“But I like it!” Emma had pouted at him, giggling as she shook her stomach in her hands high above him. “It helps stabilize my deadlifts!”

And now, back in the present, Emma was jiggling her belly again, her eyes upturned to the ceiling as she thought out loud:

“Now I kind of forget some of the rules here – this place has a lot of them, haha, too many if you ask me – but I think I remember something about having to stay here at all times, and never getting to go outside. Is that right, Daniel? That’s one of the rules, isn’t it?

“Now Emma, uhmm, we need to keep you on the growth plate for a few more minutes,” Dr. Ossford called through the megaphone, taking it from Dr. Jeltzin, who seemed equal parts awed and uncomfortable. “We’re n-not…not done with the tests yet, alright?”

“Because there’s something I don’t really get,” Emma continued breezily, completely ignoring Dr. Ossford’s words. She still had her slight belly in her hands, and was now jiggling it playfully down at the scientists. “Little Dr. Farley down there tells me that I have a…what was it called again? Oh yeah – a caloric surplus! Which is why I’ve gained a little weight recently, heheh.”

She turned down to Daniel, grinning at him as she extended her tongue out and bit it suggestively. “You didn’t mind me being a little heavier last night…did you?”

Daniel shook his head. He already knew where she was going with this, and, despite his admiration at her audacity, he began to feel uneasy again. This uneasiness was not the same as it had been months and months before, when it was quite clear that she had lost her mind. No – now, she seemed sane enough (despite the occasional inability to understand space and size in “normal” terms), but he could tell that she and the Facility were on a collision course. And Daniel had no idea what that looked like, and feared what it would be. She was getting bolder, and the ultimate power threat that the scientists had – the pink gas – didn’t really seem to be on her mind right now. Daniel wondered if it even needed to be.

‘Does that stuff even affect her anymore!?’ he thought.

“So my significant other doesn’t seem to mind my weight,” Emma continued, and she lifted her foot up and put it down again 30 feet away. At first it looked to Daniel like she was moving to stand in another place, but then it became clear – she had started walking in a circle around the scientists.

“And I’m stronger than ever before,” continued Emma, “Right, Jeltzin?”

Dr. Jeltzin took the megaphone from Dr. Ossford and replied, in an attempt to diffuse the tension: “Right as rain girl, but we really do need you to get back on the growth plate so we can run –”

“Mmm, yes,” persisted Emma, talking over him as she lifted up her arms and flexed her biceps. Her forearms also swelled a bit as she flexed, and Daniel heard a metallic “twang” go off. It took him a couple seconds to realize that one of the metal loops in the truck chain bracelet around her wrist had been bent. Emma continued walking around the scientists in a circle as she kept talking:

“Bigger and stronger than ever…but still, it’s not enough for…certain people…who just looove to critique what I eat, and write it all down in their charts and diagrams every day. That’s what you do all day, Farley, isn’t it? Obsess over what I eat? Pretty weird if you ask me.”

“Call him,” Dr. Ossford muttered to Dr. Jeltzin, as Alison looked on in growing fear.

“Oh I don’t, uh, she’s just playing around,” whispered Jeltzin, trying to wave him off, “I don’t think we need to go th–”

“Jeltzin,” Ossford hissed through his teeth, “Call. Him.”

Alison was at Jeltzin’s arm, and he looked to her; she nodded.

“See, I would think the perfect way to burn some calories,” Emma laughed, “Is to go for a niiiice long hike…” She stepped over the entire host of scientists, bringing her bare foot down with intentional force as she walked up to the edge of the open hangar and gestured to the snow-capped mountains in the distance. “Out there.”

Daniel was right on board with her. The bigger she grew, the more confined their space at the Facility had become. Of course, it wasn’t much of a concern for him, but by this time he was certainly feeding off Emma’s energy, and he could feel her growing frustration with her confinement. More and more, he found himself wondering when the scientists were going to have to do something – let her out to roam around, move her to another “Facility,” or something else…anything other than just making her stay here.

‘Because they can’t keep her here for much longer,’ he thought, as she stood there, towering over the tight, huddled, frightened mass of scientists down below her, gesturing with her huge, powerful arm to the mountains. ‘Actually,’ Daniel continued, continuing the train of thought, ‘I don’t think they can keep her here at all, if she doesn’t wanna stay.’ He felt oddly detached from this possibility, like it didn’t worry him in the least, even though he felt that it should. The truth was that he simply felt like Emma wasn’t going to do anything drastic with him there.

“I’m gonna climb that mountain,” Emma declared, raising her arm slightly and pointing straight at the highest peak in the distance. “That one right there. The tallest one. And I’m gonna build a giant snowman on top, that you can see all the way from here! And then I’m…and then…”

She had turned around, sensing something, and Daniel followed her gaze. The other scientists were already all turned around. Dr. Clinebell was walking slowly up to the group from wherever he had been before. Daniel felt an initial jolt of fear when he recognized the figure as Clinebell; he realized now that he hadn’t seen him for weeks. The head Facility scientist still managed to chill a gathering by his mere presence, but the longer Daniel looked at him, the more he realized that the doctor was going through a kind of transformation himself. His normally-sharp and crisp white lab coat was disheveled and dirty, looking like it hadn’t been washed in weeks. His hair, always neat and trim before, had grown out into a mess of bedraggled and unkempt tufts. He clearly hadn’t shaved in days, or even weeks. And the slow, leaden pace of his steps made it obvious that he no longer felt like it was important to assert his authority through his body language – with shoulders slightly slouched, he looked like a broken man.

And yet, it was still him…and there was something in the slow purpose of his walk that inspired confidence in the scientists…and fear in Daniel. When he stopped, a bit of a ways off from the scientists, and looked up at Emma, Daniel could see that Dr. Clinebell didn’t seem afraid at all. He just looked…exhausted…and beaten down. Daniel turned back to look at Emma. She had stopped talking, but not out of fear – she didn’t look the least bit afraid either. In fact, she looked positively delighted to see Dr. Clinebell after so many days of his apparent absence. She pursed her lips, in a playful attempt to act “tough,” and crossed her huge arms over her chest, staring down at him as she widened her huge legs, adopting a “power stance.”

“Clinebell!” she cried, with just enough volume to make everyone (except Clinebell) cower from the soundwaves. “Where have you been!? I haven’t seen you in ages! Looking a little smaller since I saw you last…”

“I’m the same size, Emma,” Dr. Clinebell answered up to her through a megaphone, in a voice that was surprisingly strong despite his appearance. “It’s you who’s been growing.”

“Oh I knowwwww, I know!” she laughed, clapping her hands and sending more ear-splitting waves through the air. For a few moments, Daniel was focused on covering his ears, but immediately after, he realized that the scientists were all quickly moving toward the exit at the far end of the hangar. The dark mass of their group moved strangely, like it was an independent organism, powered solely by fear. Daniel’s heart started beating faster. Was something about to happen?

“And I can’t wait to go on that field trip you promised me!” Emma continued, turning to point at the mountains. “Remember that? Like monnnnnths and months back? You told me that, if everything worked out, I could go?”

“I remember,” answered Dr. Clinebell calmly. “But you’re not going to go today, Emma.”

She turned slowly back around, raising her eyebrows. And then, without moving any other part of her body, she turned and looked straight at Daniel, flashing him a smile, like she was saying ‘Get a load of this guy!’ Daniel tried to smile back, but he was really getting scared now. Dr. Clinebell was so calm…so cool and collected down there, even though he looked like a little toy in her shadow. What was he going to do to her!?

“Oh?” Emma’s voice was calm too…somehow even calmer than Clinebell’s. At least, hers didn’t sound exhausted. It sounded like she was trying hard to keep from laughing.

Dr. Clinebell didn’t say anything more. He just stood there, about 30 yards away from her, with his megaphone poised over his mouth. Daniel suddenly realized that there was something bulky in the doctor’s lab coat pocket, and his fear deepened. But Emma didn’t seem to be fazed in the least. In fact, she upped the ante, and took a small but purposeful step closer, so that her toes were now only a few feet away from him. Daniel was not at all encouraged to see that Dr. Clinebell hadn’t flinched. He hadn’t moved back a single step. But Emma didn’t appear to care, and put her hands on her hips, arching her head forward over her breasts, so she could see the doctor clearly.

“And how exactly,” Emma began, her voice a deep, quivering calm (from excitement, Daniel realized with a nauseous kind of wonder), “Do you plan to stop me, if I decide that I don’t care what you say, I’m gonna climb that mountain today?”

It felt like the air had been completely sucked out of the hangar. There wasn’t a sound, a movement, anything. Daniel was staring up at Emma, his mouth slightly open, totally dumbfounded by her brazenness. He knew that she had been acting more casually toward the scientists, and had been taking advantage of her increased size to bend a few of the Facility rules these past couple weeks. But never, ever, did he think that Emma was going to step up to Dr. Clinebell, loom over him like she was doing now, hands on her hips, and openly challenge his authority. As all of this rushed through his mind, he realized that neither Emma nor Dr. Clinebell had moved…and that the scientists had left the hangar completely now, nowhere to be seen. It was just Emma and the doctor now, facing off, with Daniel sitting on the sidelines, petrified. His body felt so tense that he wasn’t able to take the deep breaths he needed to steady his heart rate. He was terrified that Dr. Clinebell would take some device out of his lab coat pocket and shoot her with it…or that he would order the release of the pink gas, the “nuclear option” that Daniel had never seen, but had been briefed on. He knew enough to be scared…very scared.

But Emma knew all about the pink gas too, far more than he did. And yet there she was, standing fearlessly before the man who was supposed to have so much power over her – total power, in fact…and Daniel couldn’t help but feel, despite his terror, that Emma had the upper hand. She wasn’t out of her mind like she had been so many months before. This was different; she knew something he didn’t.

“Do you know what’s in my pocket, Emma?” Dr. Clinebell asked presently, breaking the silence. It was almost uncanny how conversational his voice sounded. Emma didn’t stand there thinking how to respond; she reacted immediately. Taking a gigantic step backward, almost impossibly light on her feet, she swiftly sank down to one knee, and then to two knees, accomplishing this all within a couple seconds. Daniel had seen her move quickly when she was working out, but Dr. Jeltzin had always made it a point to stand a good bit aways from her, especially since that incident the previous week when she had accidentally thrown a 2-ton dumbbell when it slipped out of her hand in the middle of bicep curls. But he had never seen his giant girlfriend move that quickly with someone so close by, and the effect was as mesmerizing as it was terrifying – it looked like she was about to utterly obliterate Dr. Clinebell, or at the very least crush him or injure him with an errant limb. But Emma’s movements, though rapid, were deliberate and controlled, despite her enormous size. She was kneeling down now, her arms at her sides, facing the doctor, who was now standing about 40 feet away from her, since she had taken her huge step backwards.

A second later, it became clear what Emma had planned to do all along. The statuesque bulk of her upper body started to fall forward toward Dr. Clinebell, and, seemingly at the last second, she planted two gigantic fists into the smooth concrete, arresting her fall, so that she was leaning on the twin pillars of her arms. Daniel saw the muscles of her forearms flex and ripple, supporting her weight, and, despite the nervous gravity of the situation, he couldn’t help but stare in wonder at the sheer strength in those arms. She was effortlessly supporting the weight of the vast majority of her body, poised above Dr. Clinebell as she leaned over him, so that he was again completely in her shadow. And then, Emma shuffled backward again, shaking her butt in the air, as she lowered herself down further, first to one forearm, then the other, until she was crouched down low on her knees and forearms, wiggling her butt in the air playfully as she grinned knowingly at the doctor. Her expression didn’t change as her body slid smoothly down into a lying position, with her feet in the air behind her, and her thighs and stomach completely on the floor. She raised her forearms to prop her chin up, and in this ridiculously relaxed and childlike position, she regarded the doctor, gently kicking her feet back and forth in the air as she chewed thoughtfully on her tongue. It was incredible – it had only taken her a few seconds to assume this position, and she had done it so easily, so gracefully, that Daniel could hardly believe it. Even Dr. Clinebell, usually unflappable to the extreme, had backed up another couple paces, looking genuinely flustered at her behavior.

“Gee I don’t know,” Emma mused aloud, still kicking her feet back and forth in the air like a little girl lying in a field of wildflowers on a summer day, “It’s hard for me to see such tiny things, but from here, it reminds me of that gas mask you wore in front of me, all those months ago.”

Daniel felt himself starting to seize up inside. The scene before him felt surreal, poised in time, and terribly wrong – the tension was constricting, to the point where he began to feel sick. Quite cheerfully, as if she didn’t have a care in the world, Emma had just brought up the pink gas, the final “nuclear option” that the scientists had briefed Daniel on when he arrived at the Facility. At the time, he hadn’t wanted to hear what they had to say, and had actually been very angry to hear that they had actually used it on her once. But, upon being told to consider the scientists’ position, he had relented. After all, he had reasoned at the time, Emma truly had been out of her mind. As the weeks and months at the Facility had gone by, the muted threat of the pink gas had faded into the background. Aside from the fact that no one had discovered the source of Emma’s growth spurts, life had been good for her and Daniel…very good. The scientists’ ultimate deterrent weapon hadn’t been needed at all to maintain order.

Now, though, in an instant, the threat was back on the table…at the forefront of everything else. Daniel desperately racked his brains, trying to remember what they had told him – something about it being a potent neurotoxin which worked specifically on the pain receptors, which didn’t cause organ failure or death, but which incapacitated its victims through the sheer amount of overwhelming pain it put them through. They had told him before about Emma’s reaction to it, and about how she had screamed…and about how they had needed to do it, just to make sure she understood that she was not ultimately in control. It was the only way for them to admit her, they had told him, without the risk of injury to their own personnel…the only way that they could keep her close and work to discover the source of her condition. As much as he hated to admit it at the time, when he pushed through his anger at them hurting her, Daniel had to admit that this really did seem like the only option. And they had only done it once, and would never do it again, so long as Emma continued to obey the regulations…and even if she didn’t, Dr. Clinebell had assured Daniel that the gas would only be used as a last resort, to protect someone’s life, or to prevent her from escaping.

And now, as Daniel’s mind snapped back to the present, his incredulity, fear, and bewilderment increased. Emma knew, more than anyone else, what that pink gas felt like…what it felt like to have every neuron in her body seemingly on fire. And she was just lying there on her stomach, her breasts squished in between her elbows, her feet kicking playfully in the air behind her, as she stared down Dr. Clinebell, daring him to try his most powerful deterrent against her. For a moment, Daniel felt a sickening wave of fear flash through him, a fear that her madness had returned…that she had gone crazy again. But this wave passed through him quickly and did not return; he knew it wasn’t true. She wasn’t crazy…not like last time, at least. Her eyes were bright and clear; she didn’t appear at all confused; she knew exactly where her body was in relation to everything; and, most importantly, she wasn’t having any of those unhinged mood swings, where it was very clear to those around her that her sense of reality was dangerously unsound.

‘She’s totally sane,’ thought Daniel, staring at her as he remained frozen on the nightstand. ‘She knows the dark pall she’s casting over everyone right now, making them all nervous and scared, but she’s not doing it to be mean…she’s…she’s playing with them…she’s making a point.’

“Do you want me to put it on, Emma?” Dr. Clinebell said. His hand had gone to his pocket, and, from his vantage point, Daniel could see him partially take out something, though not completely…a brown hood, with two skeletal glass eyeholes, and a ghastly-looking silver grate over where the mouth would be. A gas mask.

Emma kept kicking her bare feet slowly up in the air. She cocked her head slightly to the side, and pursed her lips. It wasn’t clear what her expression meant, but whatever her thoughts, it was clear that she still wasn’t afraid. Not by a longshot. If anything, she looked mildly amused.

“I don’t see why you’d need to,” Emma answered, her eyebrows going up as she looked Dr. Clinebell dead in the face. Even lying on her stomach like this, with her head propped up on her forearms, she was still almost 20 feet tall.

“You can’t go hiking today, Emma,” Dr. Clinebell said bluntly, though Daniel detected something else in his voice, a hint of desperation, that contrasted noticeably with Emma’s casual, playful tone. “Not today.”

Daniel saw the muscles in Emma’s cheeks harden, and for an instant, it looked like she was about to do something crazy…something unspeakable. But maybe it was just the sheer intimidation factor of her size – Daniel wasn’t sure. All that he knew was that Dr. Clinebell took two very obvious steps backward, and kept his hand on the mask in his pocket. Daniel could see that his hand had started to tremble. Emma blinked slowly at the doctor, and then, still in the same position, she turned left and looked straight up at Daniel from across the room. She inhaled a deep breath through her nose and let it out again, shrugging genially as her closed lips turned up into a kind of sad smile. But as Daniel felt the sweet gust of air from her breath hit his face, he suddenly understood what she had wordlessly communicated to him. She wasn’t just a little sad about the hike – she was sad that she AND HE were trapped together in the Facility.

‘If it was just her,’ Daniel suddenly realized, ‘She would’ve broken out of here a while ago. She’s not scared of that gas…she knows everything was built for her being no bigger than 50 feet…she’s almost 63 feet now…there’s no way they could stop her…she wouldn’t feel a thing…she’d be out of here in a second. But I’D feel the gas. It would hurt ME. And she’d never leave without me.’

It was amazing that Emma was able to communicate so much to Daniel with one look, but there was no doubt in his mind that this was exactly what she had meant. Just because she COULD cause trouble didn’t mean she WANTED to. Because she was looking out for HIM. Daniel could feel himself getting a bit choked up, even as he felt a dull anger growing in the pit of his stomach, against the scientists, against Dr. Clinebell, against this whole operation that had imprisoned her without finding a cure. But he reminded himself to not indulge his anger – if anyone had a right to, it was Emma, and she was as bright and cheerful as could be, even in the midst of that muted but profound sadness that she had communicated to him.

“Welllll,” Emma said, turning back to Dr. Clinebell and smiling pleasantly down at him, “Could we maybe agree on a day, then? How about tomorrow? Or…okay, what if we said, a week from now? Hmm? Would that be enough time for you to arrange all the, uhm…what do you call them? Logistical stuff? Making sure no one sees me, you know, diverting all the planes away?”

She giggled, cupping her pretty face with her palms, and turned her head sideways as she stared down at Dr. Clinebell. It was clear that she knew, hands-down, that she had the power in the exchange…nearly all the power. At this point, the only thing they could do was threaten to hurt Daniel, and she had noticed that Dr. Clinebell had conspicuously steered clear of that particular threat…wisely. She had made her point, and now all she had to do was wait for the wounded pride to start healing. But she was going to stay firm on this point – she was GOING on that hike.

Dr. Clinebell’s shoulders slumped slightly, and he slipped the gas mask all the way back down into his pocket. He nodded, and Emma felt a warm, happy thrill spread out through her body. She even noticed, with a light, surprised humor, that she had gotten aroused during the facedown. The telltale heat was extending through her loins, and she could feel her clit throbbing through her panties against the cool, smooth concrete floor. She grinned, almost laughing at herself for getting turned-on by such an encounter, and reveling a little in the endorphins rushing through her body, she gave her ass a little shake, glancing behind her to admire it for a moment before winking at Daniel and turning back to Dr. Clinebell. She could feel the tension draining out of the hangar, out of her boyfriend, out of this poor little man in front of her, a man she had once feared. And she knew why the tension was gone – it was gone because SHE had decided for it to be gone.

“So you’re saying a week from today, then?” Emma asked happily. “In a week, we can go on a field trip to those mountains?”

Dr. Clinebell nodded again. Emma let out a delighted squeal and thrust herself backwards, up off her elbows and into a sitting position, as she whipped her 30-foot legs around into a cross-legged pose. Once again, Daniel could hardly believe the effect of seeing her huge body move so quickly when it was this close to another normal-sized person. One errant move and she would’ve smashed Clinebell’s body to smithereens. But she was showing off now…showing how much control she had. Or, at least, that’s what it seemed like to Daniel. ‘Maybe she’s just happy,’ he thought.

“Oh BOY, I can’t WAIT!” she laughed, drumming her hands excitedly on her knees. “Daniel will tell you, I’ve been wanting to go on this hike for AGES! Isn’t that right, Daniel?”

She turned to him, and he gave a big nod and a thumbs-up sign, feeling a bit silly and stupid in the midst of the emotional roller coaster he had just been on. His body was still buzzing. She held her hand up to her mouth, and blew him a kiss the next moment. It was the first time in his life that Daniel actually felt a blown kiss – and it was from 30 yards away.

“I’m sorry, Emma,” Dr. Clinebell said suddenly. He was standing up straight before her, looking up into her eyes as she sat there in a perfect-posture cross-legged position, her torso swaying back and forth a little in a kind of giddy dance. The other scientists had cautiously emerged back from where they had fled to before, and they were beginning to gather behind Dr. Clinebell.

“Sorry?” asked Emma genuinely. “Sorry for what?”

“That…we still don’t know,” Dr. Clinebell said simply, spreading his hands helplessly out by his sides. “That we don’t know what’s causing…all of this.”

“Oh PLEASE!” laughed Emma, rolling her eyes as she bounced up and down on her butt. “It’s not like you guys haven’t been trying! Don’t feel bad!”

She leaned in closer, putting her hands down on the floor so that she loomed fully over them now from her sitting position. Even sitting down, she was over 30 feet tall. Her outspread hands on the floor, each well over 3 feet wide, began stirring, and her fingers began drumming in slow, deliberate animation to punctuate what she was saying. The next words she spoke were tinged with the same fun, happy, almost-girlish amusement, and yet, she had dropped her voice down an octave, so that her words reverberated profoundly through the floor, the walls, and the air:

“And honestly, at this point, even if you FOUND the cure to stop me growing…I wouldn’t take it.”