Wonderpill

It all started in the diner, she remembered. Dinah was just finishing off her breakfast when she spotted someone across the establishment. It was an old friend from community college, Quinn. Her mint green hair, pulled in a neat ponytail, was obvious even from a distance. Dinah gave a big wave to get her attention. Quinn’s eyes flashed as she recognized her as well, and she smiled and waved back.

As Dinah made her way over, she couldn’t help but notice the enormous pile of dirty plates that had been accrued on her friend’s table. It was unthinkable that a girl of such petite stature could devour such an absurd amount of food. After some brief chatter, Dinah had to know.

“Hey, were you eating with friends? Like, a dozen or so?”

“Nope. Just me,” Quinn answered nonchalantly. Seeing Dinah fixated on the plates, she elaborated. “I asked the waitress to keep them here.”

“That’s not what I’m asking,” Dinah said annoyedly. “How did you eat all that food?”

Quinn paused for a moment, peered around the restaurant, and appeared to weigh something in her mind. Looking back at Dinah, she said in hushed tones, “All right, just for an old friend. Can you sit with me?” She silently complied. After a sigh and another pause, Quinn began.

“The truth is, I have these pills that let me eat however much I want. For two hours, I don’t get full and I don’t gain a gram in weight. They call it Avarum. Apparently, it’s gonna hit the market in a couple of months, but I got my hands on an early sample.”

“Hm,” Dinah whispered back. “I don’t believe you.” Truthfully, Dinah was hoping to have her mind changed.

“I’ve had maybe a dozen breakfasts just this hour alone, and I’m only hungry for more,” she smirked. “Is that proof enough?”

Dinah sat back and continued staring at the plates, now with a hint of wonder in her eyes. She was skeptical, to say the least. It was totally ridiculous to think such a product could exist. But, at the same time, seeing that her friend had seemingly eaten almost half her body weight, it was hard to deny the results. Dinah couldn’t chase the allure out of her head.

Quinn interrupted these thoughts. “Listen, if you don’t believe me, why not just try one for yourself?” She ruffled through her bag. ”I brought a few extra with me.”

“Really?” Dinah asked, struggling to temper her excitement. “Um, are there any side effects?”

“I’ve been taking one of these every couple days for two weeks now. Granted, I haven’t engorged myself like this before today,” she gave a light chuckle, “but it’s totally zero risk.”

There was a morbid curiosity within Dinah’ she was desperate to know whether this ‘Avarum’ really worked. However, ingesting dubious, unregulated pills from a near stranger was not how she expected this day to go. Seeing her lost in thought, Quinn extended her hand. “So, what do you say?” She held out the mint green pill in front of her.

Looking back at this moment in the elevator, Dinah was very much regretting her choice. Her stomach was feeling incredibly cramped, and she felt so full she could faint. The low rumble she felt from the elevator, wasn’t helping either. “Maybe I should have taken it easy,” she thought.

After she had left the diner, the pill was all Dinah could think about. It was less than an hour before she finally caved in, downed the pill, and headed to a buffet to have an early lunch. In the moment, she was so enticed by the opportunity, and whether this pill would really work, that she allotted herself a decadent full course meal. She absolutely demolished it all, having a hard time keeping her curly hair out of her face as she set her mouth nearly on the table. After finishing the whole thing without any resistance, she found to her delight that she did not feel any bit fuller; in fact, whether by biological response or pure curiosity, she seemed just a bit hungrier.

So she plated another meal for herself. And another. And another. Soon, what was once enough food for one became enough for a village. All the while, she maintained her insatiable hunger, as well as her healthy form. She ignored the bewildered stares of the other customers, and the suspicious looks from the chefs. Time flew by as she remained totally engrossed in her food.

It wasn’t until about two hours into this euphoric dining experience that Dinah felt just the smallest ache in her stomach. At first, she tried to ignore it and continued eating, but as the ache slowly grew in intensity, her worries grew in her mind. No matter how intently she tried to set those thoughts aside, the pain rose and rose, and a legitimate fear for her well-being along with it. Soon enough, it all became too much, and she finally stopped her food rampage. Now there was nothing to distract from the horrible cramp that had arisen within her; she needed a serious talk with Quinn. After some nasty glances from the staff, Dinah headed out of the buffet. She knew the apartment where Quinn lived from back in community college; she could only hope that she was still staying there. Nevertheless, she was confident that everything would turn out all right.

As Dinah got out of the elevator, she was greatly startled by the explosion coming from Quinn’s apartment. Her door was slammed out by the blast, hanging weakly by the hinges. This stirred commotion in the whole building, with piercing shrieks and cries, as well as a few tenants peeking out nearby.

Dinah rushed into the apartment and was presented with a strange scene. The entire room was covered in a moist, grey-ish brown splatter which smelled of vomit. Furniture was demolished and blown away, the glass and plates had shattered, and there were blast marks that indicated the explosion was centered at what was once a couch. Searching the apartment, she found Quinn’s phone and bag, but Quinn herself was nowhere to be found. The whole situation had Dinah baffled, until, after a moment, she made a horrifying realization.

Quinn had exploded.

Her mind racing, she quickly made her way past the gathering crowd standing by the door. On her phone, she made a few panicked searches while half-running back to her house. “avarum,” “avarum pill,” “pill stops hunger,” “new drug stop weight gain.” No luck. She hesitated, and then reluctantly typed:

“can people explode”

More useless results. “Don't Overinflate: What HR can Learn from a Balloon.” Maybe an interesting read, but she wasn’t exactly in the mood. As she continued briskly down the street, Dinah felt a strange bubbling in her stomach and chest. That couldn’t be good. Her stride became a full on sprint. She could now feel her shirt and jeans slowly stretching around her expanding form. Her increased size made it more difficult not to bump into the other pedestrians. Not to mention that this whole situation was seriously worrying her.

Once Dinah finally arrived home, she had no idea what to do. She was under a lot of stress, both physical and mental. The bubbling she felt was in full force now. Her already generous breasts had doubled in size, her belly resembled late-term pregnancy, and her bum was visibly extending from her sides. She headed to the bathroom and tried getting herself to vomit. Nothing. She tried eliciting a burp, anything to reduce the pressure. No luck. All the while, she continued to expand considerably. Her comically large belly was now pushing her beach ball sized knockers right into her face, making her rather front heavy and obscuring her vision. She felt a painful crack as her jeans exploded off of her, unable to take the pressure. And while she couldn’t see her ass now, Dinah could feel that she couldn’t even reach all the way around it.

She was out of ideas. In one last effort, she pitifully tried to reach for her phone, a difficult task in her current predicament. Once she finally grabbed hold of it, she maneuvered it above her so she could see the screen, and dialed an emergency number. As Dinah awkwardly held the phone to her ear, shaking from the pressure, and waited for a response, she couldn’t help but find the bubbling at the forefront of her thoughts. The ringing of the phone felt like an eternity. The bubbling felt near deafening, so much so that when the emergency line finally picked up, it made her jump, and she lost her grip on the phone. Then, in a critical fumble, Dinah fell forward and dropped it on the floor. She could guess from the sharp cracking sound it made as it landed that it wasn’t in good shape, and from the loud crunch from her rolling over onto it that she wasn’t reaching it any time soon.

Laying on her belly, she was out of options. Her long, curly hair was in her face, and now she couldn’t even reach to brush it away. Her shirt ripped right down the middle and joined her jeans on the floor. She screamed in frustration and desperation. “Help! Somebody! I’m gonna burst here!” However, she knew how unlikely it was that anyone would hear her. “I never should have taken that pill,” she thought to herself. “Never should have taken the pill.” Even now, she was replaying the scenes in her mind. Meeting Quinn again. The best meal of her life. Seeing the state of Quinn’s apartment. As her perilous growth continued, she wondered how things could have gone differently. She wouldn’t wonder much longer.

Her immense, expanding size had made her immobile, but that didn’t stop her from furiously trying to stand up, jerking her arms and legs in a feeble attempt to upright herself. Her inflation, still going strong, had reached absurd proportions. From ground level, she hardly resembled a human being. Quickly, the tension in her body was at a bursting point. As she flailed about, the bubbling sound grew to a rolling boil, and her rate of inflation seemed to double.

A new surge of panic arose within Dinah. “Please! Anybody! Help me!” she yelled once more, “Please!” She huffed at the pointless endeavor. She continued to flail her limbs, out of hysteria rather than reason. Eventually, the bubbling shifted into a deep rumble. There was a slow realization of what was to come. She began to scream once more.

Dinah’s inflation now slowed to a crawl, but the pressure within her continued to climb rapidly. She had quit her erratic movements and was now clinging onto her stomach and breasts, in one last desperate attempt to hold herself together from her impending explosion. She whimpered as the rumbling inside her grew in strength. Her gargantuan belly and breasts were now visibly vibrating. The rumbling reached its peak, and she shouted one final time, “Please! Please-” Dinah was cut off as she finally exploded from the pressure.

The day after, it would be mentioned in passing to certain major stockholders that distribution of Avarum would be delayed several months due to adverse reaction.