Querie, The

Allison started breathing heavily, the pressure sat still within her. Feeling the dense energy that was shifting inside. She held her face in her hands as she sat straight at her bureau. She leaned back trying to take the attention away from the increasing sensation, she rubbed her stomach, sneaking the palm of her right hand under her tight gray hoodie. Eyes closed she just stared at the ceiling wondering out loud. "God, what's wrong with me. I didn't even eat that much."

Sitting beside her on a TV tray was a plate of some special recipe of cake her next door neighbor had prepared. She took a small corner of the cake as instructed by her neighbor Enola. Who explicitly told her only to eat the cake in small qualities. As a matter of fact, just before leaving her apartment moments earlier, Enola told Allison outright not to eat more than a small amount. On account of it being (according to famity myth) "So appropriately filling, that anything more than a bite size is asking for trouble." Allison knew Enola was a kooky lady. She was the talk of the Watercrest Heights Complex, wherein many of the inhabitants thought her as a 'lonesome witch doctor.'

Despite her strong idiosyncrasies, Allison always stood by Enola in the face of the tenants brazen rumors.

"I hear she collects shrunken heads from gypsy parlor and speaks to them through chainlink veils."

"I hear she keeps an altar in the corner of her apartment where she commutes to spirits from the olden times."

"I hear she talks to ghosts."

"I hear she talks to demons."

Etc.

Allison knew Enola to be a harmless old lady with a few strange habits and nothing more. 

For her first visit with Enola, Allison wanted to pick apart why people saw her as the strange witch doctor people make her out to be, and through the duration of her stay she couldn't find anything to spark the rumors throughout the apartment. 

Nothing beside her vats collection of cats and consistently resetting record player. Regardless Enola was a remarkably hospitable woman. More than Allison could say about her other neighbors. Oddly enough, the one thing Enola was excited about showing to Allison was her special cake, or as she refers to it as "The Querie." So named because of its curious characteristic of making whichever hungry soul who consumes even the slightest piece become absolutely stuffed within moments. Allison was offered a bite sized amount wherein she was instructed to only eat a small amount and nothing more. In doing so, Allison was not even the slightest bit hungry.

Since then Allison returned to her apartment, bent on finishing her editorial, when for some odd reason she felt a rumble in her gut. Immediately poised to have another bite of cake. But not a bite size she figured, she didn't want to feel full, she wanted to be full. Considering after three hours of processing her meeting with Enola, that The Querie's fullness factor was something of a placebo effect. With this in mind, she decided to go for it. Pulling off a small square's worth, wanting to save more for later. Possibly before she went to bed. And that was it, all she had to do was take a bite of that very slice of The Querie and her fate would be sealed.

Her stomach started gurgling louder and louder. As if something was churning inside of her belly. She hugged herself tight, not wanting the sound to travel throughput the halls. But she couldn't help it, the gurgling continued, and she could feel a heat come on. As if she was sweating from an air condition-less room. "Oh God what's wrong?" said Allison. She removed her arms looking down as her stomach started peeking out from her hoodie. It was pudgier flabbier. Spreading around to her sides, hanging out over the top of her pants like a muffin top. She breathed deeply, as if she were in labor, clenching her fists tight to the arms of her chair. 

"What the hell? What's happening?" She said worried.

Allison stood up slowly, hovering her hands over her pudgy tummy. Afraid that the slightest touch will trigger this sudden condition that's just afflicted her. Her fancy nails had just barely tapped her bloating belly, before the gurgling returned something louder than before. She groaned loudly as she could feel something in her belly growing stronger. That energy that was nothing but a mystic foreign feeling before was now pushing against her insides. Her stomach started expanding, stretching out like a balloon up to basketball size. Allison was plunged into a fit of unpleasant moans, keeping her hands firm to the sides of her enlargening gut. She fell backwards, laying flat on her floor as eyes rolled back into her head. Her hoodie unzipping from below unveiling her swelling stomach. 

"Unnngh God... What's happening to me!?" Allison groaned. Her stomach now swollen and huge. She could feel the top button of her jeans cutting into her fatty underbelly. She tried to reach around her still ballooning globe, but her fingertips could just barely reach the top of her pants. She felt her belly creaking as whatever was swelling inside was taking up any and all space inside her belly. "This is *pant* this is impossible." Allison said between her short breaths. She groaned through her teeth as she felt something pushing against her stomach. Her belly rumbling and almost shaking as it creaked back and forth. And the next thing she knew...

POP!

Her belly button popped out. There was no space left. Allison breathed out deeply, rubbing her massive glove as her shirt became strained against her perfectly round globe. It was clear that The Querie had done its job, and the adverse warnings that Allison naively thought nothin of had finally taken its toll. Having a big swollen belly was one thing, but all Allison could think of now was how in the world was she gonna fix this?