Wake Up Blow Up
Your eyes open slowly. You blink away some of the sleep that still clings to you and roll over in bed. A sliver of late morning sun peeks through the gap in your blackout curtains and runs across the sheets. It’s nice to sleep in after a week like the one you’ve had. Hard work all day everyday for six days straight is just not something your body was designed for. At least you have today. Your sleepy Saturdays make all the difference. No commitments, no boss, no responsibility. Just a handful of chores that you can spread out across the easy day.
You lay on your back, looking up at the old popcorn ceiling of your bedroom. You take a deep, slow breath. In through the nose–count to three–and out through the mouth. It feels nice. You take another. The stress blows out alongside the warm air from between your lips. You take one more for good measure. Today is your day and yours alone and you’d have it no other way.
Looking to your side, you see that you forgot to plug in your phone last night. It doesn’t bother you. Without a boss breathing down your neck and asking you to do the impossible every fifteen minutes, you don’t need to check your phone so frequently. Maybe a friend has texted, maybe someone commented something silly on your last Instagram post, maybe your mom’s dog learned yet another new trick. All of those things can wait though. You can lay here awhile longer and just enjoy your time.
Your lazy gaze drifts to the far wall where your bookshelf–
That’s odd…
Your sheets aren’t particularly heavy and your pajamas are light and flowy so why is there a little lump in the middle of your bed?
You take another deep breath and watch as the lump rises while the air fills your belly. Laughing to yourself now, you wonder what you ate last night that could have caused you to be so bloated this morning. It’s not like you’d had anything weird or even particularly heavy.
Another three deep breaths as you look back to the ceiling. Much like everything this morning, it really doesn’t matter. It’s not like you feel sick or anything. Really, you’re feeling very good today.
Eyes on the ceiling, you count your breaths
In–One, Two, Three–Out
One
In–One, Two, Three–Out
Two
Your eyes again drift downward and…
Is your belly bigger?
You watch closely and breathe deeply.
In–your belly grows with the air–Out
For the first time in your life, when you breathe out, you don’t watch your belly shrink back down to it’s starting size. In fact, it stays exactly as it was when you were full of air. That can’t be true, though, can it? Another deep breath leaves you with the same observation. It looks like there’s a basketball sitting between your body and the sheets now. What could be happening? This isn’t real, it’s just a particularly vivid dream. You woke up as usual and just fell back asleep to a really vivid dream a few minutes later. That’s what’s happening. People don’t just blow up.
In–your belly grows a few inches–Out
In–two more inches–Out
In–two more–Out
Whatever could cause such a silly dream? It’s not like you were watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the third Harry Potter movie last night. Well it’s happening. May as well play around with it. You decide to see what happens if you push the boundaries a little. You breathe in as deep as you can.
In–In–In–In–your belly rapidly presses outward further and further–Out
In–In–In–In–In–your lungs feel like they’re going to burst–Out
In–In–In–In–In–In–your belly surges forward–Out
Well now you know what you’d look like nine months pregnant. Really it’s just funny. How big can you get before you wake up? It’s not every day you have the most vivid dream of your life, you should take advantage of it. Too bad your lung capacity isn’t good enough to inhale deeper. Since when did your real world lung capacity transfer over to dreams? That’s odd.
In–your belly is slowing down–Out
In–it barely seems to grow–Out
In–wait a minute–Out
It’s not that your belly isn’t growing, it’s that it’s not pushing straight out anymore. You’re rounding out. You breathe more and feel your midsection becoming barrel shaped. Your sides and your back slowly grow to meet the impressive size of your belly. The body you inhabit in this dream is now just four limbs and a head sticking out of a huge oval.
In–your girth slowly increases–Out
In–your previously loose pajamas are quite form fitting now–Out
In–you wonder if you’ll float away before you wake up–Out
In–that’s a new sensation–Out
Your belly isn’t all that's growing, you just couldn’t tell because it was blocking your view. Your puffed up thighs are rubbing against each other. They must be huge compared to your normal skinny self. You wish you could see them. They must be fabulous balloons. Based on the feeling in your pants, your butt is probably getting bigger too, but you can’t be positive without looking. Come to think of it, everything is tight, your sleeves included.
Quickly glancing to your sides, you confirm your suspicions. Your arms are blowing up as well. It’s your whole body minus the extremities. Your hands and your head haven’t grown as far as you can tell. You doubt your feet have. Even your neck feels a little puffy.
In–these clothes are getting really tight–Out
In–REALLY TIGHT–Out
In–it’s quite uncomfortable–Out
Isn’t pain supposed to wake you up from dreams? You’ve definitely never felt pain in a dream and these tight clothes are starting to really hurt. It is the most vivid and realistic dream you’ve ever had. You’d think it to be completely real if not for you being a big balloon person. Although it’s not like you aren’t open to the idea of the supernatural.
A car passing outside your window honks its horn and you hear someone yelling at it. Okay that definitely would have woken you up, right? How do you know this is a dream? You really don’t, do you?
In–you feel your shirt starting to tear–Out
In–a dog barks loudly outside–Out
In–your pants are going too–Out
This is not a dream, is it? Shit. You better start treating this like it’s real. You try to reach for your phone and in that moment realize your true predicament. You can’t move your arms or legs. They’ve swollen to the point that they’re just air and skin now. Your hand flaps wildly towards your phone, but it’s not even close. You’re at least two feet away.
Okay. Think. You grow from breathing. So don’t breathe. Easier said than done. You settle on small, short breaths for now. Hopefully you can at least slow down any further expansion. Your face is starting to puff up now. Not all of it, but your cheeks are becoming more and more like a stuffed chipmunk’s with each breath.
Little in–no visible change–Out
Little in–you’re definitely still growing–Out
Little in–at least it’s slower–Out
Wait! You have it! You can get help! Your phone has voice activation enabled. You call out to the robotic voice who has dutifully answered you every time before, though her answers to questions aren’t always the most accurate.
Nothing in return.
You call out again.
Nothing.
What’s happening? She always answers. That’s just how it works. Then all of a sudden it hits you. Earlier this morning, before you even started blowing up, you rolled over and could see that you never plugged your phone in. It’s dead and so is its handy voice servant. There’s no way you can plug it in now, you can’t even reach it in the first place. Shit. This really isn’t good.
In–your torso swells further–Out
In–your limbs are starting to be subsumed by the huge sphere–Out
In–what’s left of your clothes tear away–Out
In–your huge body finally pushes the sheets off of itself–Out
You stare in horror at the giant skin coloured orb in front of you. Well not in front of you. That is you. So big you can’t move, you can’t do anything but think and speak and wave your little hands around. How can you get out of this? There must be a way. The protagonist always makes it, right?
In–your neck is just a car tire by now–Out
In–a car tire sunken deep into a giant ball of gas–Out
In–your head barely sticks out of your body anymore–Out
In–you try to yell for help, but your face is too swollen. You can’t open your lips–Out
Uh oh. In your panic you’d started hyperventilating. You have to stop right now or you’re just going to become immeasurably huge. How do you stop? How do you stop? Your panicked mind takes a moment, but you remember how you always calm yourself down… Deep breaths. Which is worse? You really don’t know. You have to decide.
For the hyperventilate ending, read the section marked #1
For the deep breaths (canon) ending, read the section marked #2
#1
You don’t know what to do. Oh god, why did this happen to you? You’re just growing and growing and growing. People aren’t balloons so why are you all of a sudden? What did you do to deserve this?
In–Out
In–Out
In–Out
Your thoughts make little sense now. Your mind is just a rush.
In–Out
In–Out
In–Out
Your body is starting to make ominous creaking noises.
In–Out
In–Out
In–Out
How big can a person get anyway?
In–Out
In–Out
In–Out
However big it is, you’re too big.
In–Out
In–Out
In–Out
You’re gonna–You’re gonna
In–Out
In–Out
In–Out
Your skin is stretched past it’s limit.
In–Out
In–Out
In–Out
You’re going to pop.
In–Out
In–Out
In–
BOOM!
#2
Deep breaths may not be any better than hyperventilating, but you have to try something. At the rate you’re going now, you don’t know if your body can take much more before you burst like a human balloon.
In–In–In–one, two, three–Out
In–In–In–one, two, three–Out
In–In–In–one, two, three–Out
Your mind slows and you return to short, oh so shallow breaths. You don’t know how long you can keep it up with so little oxygen, but at least your growth is slow.
Tiny in–Out
One… Two… Three…
Tiny in–Out
One… Two… Three…
What’s that creaking noise? Well more of a groaning. Like a giant balloon being rubbed a little too hard. What’s going to happen to you? Will you really just pop? How much more can your body take before it comes apart?
Tiny in–Out
One… Two… Three
Tiny in–Out
One… Two… Three
You hope desperately that someone will find you and save you before it’s too late. For once you actually hope that your roommate bursts into your bedroom unannounced. Maybe she could save you.
Tiny in–Out
One… Two… Three…
Tiny in–Out
One.. Two… Three…
Soooo… tight…
Tiny in–Out
One… Two… Three…
Tiny in–Out
One… Two… Three…
The groaning gets louder.
Tiny in–Out
One… Two… Three…