Buttons

Detective Karin Watts surveyed the crime scene. A pretty flashy apartment belonging to supermodel Katie Russell - ex-supermodel now as there wasn't much left of her. Neighbours had reported a loud explosion coming from her apartment and Karin was looking at the aftermath now. A forensics crew were taking photos of broken windows and other damages, as well as pieces of torn clothes littering the place. That seemed to be all that was left of poor Katie. Sure she was a self centred bitch on camera and most probably off camera, thought Karin, but did she really deserve this?

"Hey Eddie," she said, approaching one of the men. "anything new to tell me?"

"I wish," he replied. "But whoever did this is good. There's no evidence of anyone else being here but supermodels don't just explode on their own. Do they?"

"Generally not." Karin muttered, nudging a piece of torn jeans with her foot. "Especially not 3 in the same week. I'm off to lunch, let me know if you find out anything."

Minutes later she was sitting down to a big, greasy burger. She'd put on a little weight recently and had started to develop a little belly but dieting could wait. It had been a tough week for Karin so she was going to eat all the comfort food she needed until the case was solved. 3 exploded supermodels and no leads. The only connection was the fact that they were all with the same agency, so logically it could be someone who was turned down. But there were hundreds of rejects and she wouldn't know where to start. She sighed as she realised she might have to resort to tracking all of them down and questioning each one. Just then, her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Eddie. We've got a witness! Well not quite, but kinda. You better come over though, you have to see this."

She finished off the burger, her third one, and rubbed her stomach. She looked down at it curving outwards, rounder than it had been before. Screw it, she thought, and ordered another one to take with her.

Back in the apartment she found a new person waiting with the rest of the crew, a very nervous looking guy in his early 20s with a dv camera round his neck.

"Is this him?"

"Yeah," said Eddie, smirking slightly. "Ask him how he saw what happened."

Karin looked at the boy, who blushed.

"Well?" she asked impatiently.

"Well... maybe once or twice I... may have spied on her from my room across the street and even... sometimes kinda filmed her." Karin gave him a disapproving look. "Come on!" he whined, "It's Katie Russell! WAS Katie Russell. You would've done the same!"

Karin sighed.

"Just tell me what you know."

"I'll show you."

He picked up the camera and turned it on, tilting the little monitor towards Karin who watched the footage.

It showed the former model starting to undress, before closing the curtains. Her silhouette could still be seen though. For a few seconds it was just her changing but then suddenly another figure appeared, carrying what looked like the shape of a gas cylinder. They put it down and attacked her. The two struggled until Katie was overpowered. The tube and nozzle were too faint to see through the curtain but it was clear that something was being pushed into Katie's mouth. She struggled in vain as the attacker turned on the gas. Her stomach could clearly be seen to be growing outwards as the air was pumped into her. She tried to pull the nozzle out but it was stuck.

"So she was inflated." said Karin, watching Katie's shadow grow. "That's insane."

"I'll bet the same thing happened to the other two." said Eddie.

They continued watching as Katie gradually rounded out into a huge sphere, her arms waving frantically up and down as she ballooned. The attacker had gone, presumably taking cover.

"Wait, you filmed her exploding?" asked Karin in disgust. The boy blushed again.

"I was stunned, I didn't know what to do!" he said defensively. "I would've reported this sooner but I didn't want people to know how I found out."

They looked back at the screen in time to see the windows shatter as Kate popped. The camera went off shortly after. Karin stared at it.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be buried in a pizza."

Karin sat in her office, leaning back in her chair with a slice of pizza in one hand and a tv remote in the other. She flicked through channels on a small tv she'd brought in. There wasn't much point going home at the moment as she was always being called in. She lingered on one channel showing some reality show on the new top models. Don't get too comfortable, she thought, you'll probably end up like the last three soon enough. There followed a montage of people who didn't get through. Karin pressed record, just in case.

Meanwhile, a few blocks over, Sophie Cartwright had just arrived home. It had been a hard day with all the photoshoots and pampering. She looked in the mirror and flicked back her long blonde hair, giggling. Life was good. Great in fact. It stayed great until a few moments later at least when she saw another woman in the mirror sneaking up on her. She looked round but before she could scream, the end of a fire extinguisher was pushed into her mouth and the handle aqueezed down. Before she could even realise what was happening her stomach was already filling with foam. She tried to pull it out but her attacker was too strong and held it in. Her stomach started to expand and she looked down to see her blue top getting tighter as it struggled to cover her. Her tummy rounded and she put her hands on it, trying to push it back in but the pressure was too much. As she filled her cheeks bloated out. At this point the attacker let go of the end, it was stuck between her cheeks now and no amount of pulling would get it out. Her breasts filled out a bit and her arms started to get pushed out to the sides as she filled up completely, her cut off jeans ripping slightly as her thighs grew wider. Now completely full and with nowhere else to go, the foam continued to blow into her stomach and she watched uselessly as it grew.

As Karin finished the last slice of pizza she considered ordering another but before she had the chance, the phone rang. She picked up.

"Eddie?" she asked, sleepily.

"No," said an unfamiliar female voice. "But you might want to pay Sophie Cartwright a little visit. Her career's been going great. She's going to be HUGE."

The woman hung up. Karin jumped up, wide awake now and rushed out the door.

Sophie's door flew open as Karin kicked it in. She was holding a gun and ready for action but stopped when she saw what was in there. Sophie Cartwright, hot new supermodel, now an overinflated ball. Her blue top was stretched over the top of her and her jeans were just about hanging on, although they had popped open, but most of her huge belly was exposed. A fire extinguisher was hanging from her mouth, the handle sellotaped down and Karin was alarmed to see she was still growing.

"Mmmmmm!" she screamed as best she could. Her cheeks bloated out more.

"Hang on." Karin said, approaching her. Her belly button popped out and she creaked loudly. "I'll help..."

Before Karin could do anything there was a loud pop and a powdery white spray which engulfed her.

"...you." She finished weakly.

Karin stumbled back into her office carrying another stack of pizzas and flopped down into her chair. Still covered in the white powder, she couldn't be bothered to clean it off. The phone rang again.

"Speak."

"Hello again, Karin. I'm sorry you couldn't help Sophie in time, it must be a pain when your plans blow up in your face."

"What do you want?"

"I want what they have! I'm just as good! Better! They rejected me for being too nervous! Of course I was nervous with them judging me! Well it's too late for me now but I can still teach all those stick insects a lesson and you'll never stop me in time."

She hung up again.

"Ugh, screw this." She started on the first pizza and made her way through them. Her stomach grew tighter but she didn't care. She looked down at her belly as it started to poke out from under her brown top. Her pants were getting tight too. One more slice. She started to eat and looked down at her stomach again. She could actually see it growing slightly but shrugged, Better than being a stick insect. She swallowed the last bite and her stomach expanded again slightly, popping the button off her pants. She looked down at it on the floor.

"Wait a minute..."

She grabbed the phone and dialed. Eddie answered.

"Eddie! I need to know something. What do you know about the buttons?

"What?"

"The victims buttons. They all popped off didn't they?"

"Yeah but we couldn't find any of them. They all just dis..."

"Thanks." She hung up.

She turned on the TV and hooked up the kid's camera to watch the footage of Kate's demise again. After a few rewinds she noticed that the attacker was definitely opening and closing her mouth, as if she was catching something in it. It was a long shot but it might be enough. She turned on the recording of the reality show and looked at the montage of rejects again, all pretty girls but all acting nervously which always resulted in rejection from the judges. One girl kept chewing her hair, another bit her nails. The one that got Karin's attention though was a pretty girl with reddish hair who kept nibbling on the buttons on her clothes. The judges didn't like that and showed her the door, resulting in a slow motion shot of a heartbroken girl's walk of shame. She gave all the other models a dirty look as she left. This was the attacker. Zoe Peterson.

Karin rushed into Eddie's office. He looked up.

"Are you all white?" he asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost. Hell, you look like a ghost."

"Oh this." she said, remembering her powdery shower. "Yeah someone exploded on me. But I know who did it, it's Zoe Peterson! She swallows the buttons!"

"Are you sure?" asked Eddie.

"Positive. she was rejected and now she's getting her revenge. i have to go and stop her.

"Wait, if you're right, you need to go in their properly equipped."

Karin sneaked quietly down the hallway, towards Zoe's apartment. Reaching the door, she kicked it open, gun pointed forwards. But there was no one there. She walked cautiously in and looked around, unaware that behind her, Zoe was silently running out into the hall, returning seconds later dragging a fire hose with her. Next thing she knew the gun had been knocked out of her hand. She whirled around to defend herself and was immediately greeted by a hosepipe in the mouth.

"Normally I usually target models but for you I'll make a special exception." sneered Zoe. She looked down at Karin's tummy. "You're already getting fat so this wont take long, I guess I should thank you for helping me. I hope you're thirsty."

She turned the pressure on and water started to rush into Karin. She immediately started to bloat and her round stomach began to grow.

"Did you really think I'd fall for that? I knew you'd come for me. You can't beat me."

Karin looked down at her stomach swelling up and tried to pull the hose out but Zoe moved behind her and held it firmly in.

"No no no, I think you should drink a bit more. Don't want you getting dehydrated."

Karin's cheeks began to bloat out as she filled up with water until the hose was stuck. No going back now. She held her belly, now several times its original size and getting heavy until her legs collapsed under the weight and she had to sit down. She watched the curve of her belly rise in front of her as her top rode up, showing more of her stomach. Her pants made a groaning noise and Zoe eagerly skipped in front of her just in time to catch the button in her mouth as it popped off and swallowed it.

"As you may have noticed, it's kinda my thing." she said. "I always swallow my victims buttons. Here's to number fi..."

She stopped smiling and held her stomach. Something wasn't right. She was starting to feel bloated.

"What did you do to mmmmmmph." she started, before her cheeks filled up with air, cutting her off. Karin reached into her back pocket and pulled out a knife, being careful not to pierce herself. Bursting all over someone's carpet was not how she planned to end her career. She cut through the hose and stopped inflating, giving a great sigh of relief. She swallowed the extra water in her cheeks which returned to normal, and pulled the end of the hose out.

By this time, Zoe's stomach had started to swell up making her look pregnant. She clutched it and felt it stretching beneath her fingers and looked up at Karin, who had managed to pull herself to her feet, despite the huge round expanse of her belly.

"Just a little something they made for me. It wasn't a button on my pants, it was a compressed air capsule. Thought I might turn the tables on you."

"Mmmmph?" squealed Zoe angrily, growing rounder by the second.

"Yeah there's enough air in there to... well, you'll find out. Oh, I'd look at your feet one last time while you still can."

Zoe looked down and saw them disappear under the curve of her belly. She was now almost as big as Karin and her pants started to grown. Sure enough, the button popped off and Karin caught it. She looked at it for a second.

"Here, you have it." she said, pushing it through Zoe's lips, which were tightly sealed by her cheeks. "Your last victim. It's your thing remember?"

Zoe was now bigger than Karin and started to lift off the ground as the air built up in her. Her arms were pushed out to the side and she began to creak with the pressure. There wasn't anywhere else for the air to go as it made her belly button pop outwards. She was now huge and taking up most of the room.

"Well I better go now so I'll leave you to it. Maybe you should've been a pop star instead." Karin winked at her and left, closing the door behind her. Zoe gave one last angry squeal.

Karin heard a very loud pop from inside the apartment, but kept on walking. She liked her new bulbous form and decided to get one last pizza before bed. She knew there would be a lot of paperwork tomorrow.

The next morning the forensics crew did their usual thing, although it was more of a clean up than an actual investigation. It was the usual scene, except this time in the middle of the room they found five buttons and an empty capsule. Case closed.