Torture Dressed Like Therapy 2: Testing the Limits
A year, maybe two. Glen had quickly grown tired of his life hooked up to a canister. Klestofer stopped visiting him after a few months, leaving him alone most days. Sometimes therapists came in and asked him questions. He would anawer truthfully, but they never did anything about his dark thoughts.
He often wished he would just pop. Or deflate. Or fall asleep and never wake up.
The more time that went on, the more dazed he felt. He needn't eat nor drink. So, there wasn't much for him to do in his little padded prison. They would turn a television on for him every now and then, but he felt disconnected from the people in the box. Whilst they lived their lives, real or imaginary, he sat alone, a big orb in an empty chamber.
Klestofer never did tell him what organization had taken him in. It seemed like some sort of secret group, dedicated to stopping extremist from pushing science too far. But, for all he knew, they could be collecting data from him, just as his old captors had. He developed a distaste for his new caretakers. They didn't talk to him, didn't praise him like the old ones did.
He didn't so much as blink when the alarms started going off, red lights flashing in the dim room. He could care less if this place was overrun. He'd gladly go down with it if it meant an end to this monotony.
But then the door to his cell opened. He lazily shifted his gaze, but stared wildly once he saw who was there.
It was Joseph.
"My friend," he whispered, rushing forth. He looked disheveled, wearing a large, white coverall. "Oh they've made a mess of you."
"Joseph."
"Quickly. I don't have much time."
"What . . ."
Joseph moved around to the tank that supplied him with the altered formula and unplugged it. New alarms hollered over the existing ones, the machine buzzing and warning them to plug it back in. Joseph ignored the signs and yanked the hose free before turning back to Glen.
"Moving along." Joseph pushed Glen towards the door, shoving him through the exit.
Glen's sides pressed against the door frame and he could feel the gas leaving him through the tube in his stomach.
"Joseph," he wheezed, wondering if the mad man knew how unstable he became without his compound.
"Easy, my friend. We must be swift."
He got Glen through the door and hurredly rolled him down the hall. Glen had never seen the outside of his jail, and was disoriented by the winding passageways. On the floor, there were a few unconsious guards and associates.
Cold air assulted his skin as they made it outside, but Glen was still deflating, becoming more difficult to roll. Joseph bumped him onward, towards what looked like the sea.
By the time they made it to a small motor boat, Glen was having trouble breathing. His body was collapsing in on itself without his compound. He felt concave, like he needed a deep breath but couldn't get any air in.
"Jo . . ." Glen struggled. Everything hurt. The weight of his own body was folding in on itself.
"Do not worry, my friend. You will be fine."
Glen heard the motor start up, just before he passed out.
"Now, isn't that handy?"
Glen opened his eyes, surprised to find himself outside in a forest. Joseph was in front of him, seemingly surveying his feeding tube.
"Ah, you're awake! Isn't this neat? Much more efficient than using your mouth. Alas, I don't have the materials to replicate such a proceedure."
"Where are we?"
"An island! It's not on the maps. No one should find us here."
"Weren't you in prison?"
"I was! But I left that dreadful place. I had so many amazing ideas during all that free time."
"Like what?"
"Well, more ways to test a human's limits!"
"Mason?"
"Don't know what came of him. We were separated."
"Sorry."
"No matter. I suppose you're excited to resume your growth?"
Glen eyed him strangely. "Resume?"
"Yes! You worried me when you passed out, but I've got you reinflated with the original compound."
"Oh."
"And, I have a companion for you. A younger lad. About twenty two. He's even tinier than you were when you started out! And I've got a new compound to test on him!"
Glen found himself feeling irrationally jealous. "Why not me?"
"Well! You're filled with gas! This new fellow will be filled with something a bit heavier!" Joseph tapped his nose mischieviously, turning to walk away.
Glen looked around and noticed the rest of the camp. There was a metal shed nearby, a window showing a bed and table. He supposed that Joseph had been living out of it. Next to it were towers and towers of air tanks. They were labled: Friendly Gas.
Glen frowned at the name.
On the other side, were large, wide vats that he didn't recognize.
"Here we are," Joseph said as he came back. He was carrying a person! Wrapped up in a thick blanket, he placed the body on the ground. Glen wondered if that was how they had brought him in to the original test site. "Told you he was tiny."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to save him the trouble, hook him up before he wakes."
"How are you going to learn his name if he's got a hose in his mouth?"
Joseph paused and looked guiltily up at Glen. "Oh dear. My friend, I -"
"Did you ever learn what my name was?" Glen stared daggers at Joseph.
Joseph at least had the decency to look ashamed. "No, I didn't."
Glen opened his mouth to tell him, but stopped himself. Instead, he just looked away.
Joseph stood there in awkward silence for moment, before rolling his shoulders and getting back to work. Despite their dispute, he placed the nozzle into the smaller man's mouth, the tube leading back to those large containers.
"And now you," he said, returning to Glen.
"What?"
"Well, you may float again. So I must teather you. There's no ceiling and I don't trust that new port compared to my adhesive." He brought a long hemp rope over to Glen and tied it around his left right wrist. "And I won't be overinflating you like those strange agents, so your wrists should stay put."
"Okay." Glen didn't want to show it, but he was eager to blow up again, so long as Joseph praised him once more. This was the only thing he could hope for in life. He'd die if he deflated, so he might as well get bigger.
"You're nowhere near where we left off, I'm afraid. They did try their best to stabilize you. Lucky for us, they couldn't get you too small."
"Lucky."
"Oh! I almost forgot! I've got to get the other lad started!"
"Before he wakes?"
"It will be a pleasant surprise."
"Mmm! Mrph!"
Glen looked up at the small man across the clearing from him. He wriggled around in his blanket, trying to bring his hands to his face. He watched as he tugged his hands free and tugged at the nozzle. He smiled when he saw that it did not give.
"Breathe through your nose," he told him.
The smaller man looked to him, startled. His eyes went wide and he started crying, panic quickly overtaking him.
"Why did you not tell me that he was awake?" Joseph demanded as he marched back out to them.
"He just woke up."
"Psh!" Joseph kneeled down beside the newcomer, unwrapping him from the blanket. "Calm down, now. Everything is going to be fine, my friend."
Glen grit his teeth.
"Mmm, mm! Mrrph!" The small man swatted at Joseph, trying to crawl away.
Glen watched as Joseph explained why the nozzle would not come loose, how he should just relax, for he was not being punished.
"I am testing a new compound on you," he told him. "Neither liquid, nor solid. It will test you similarly to my friend here." He gestured to Glen, which only made the man's panic grow. "Don't worry. He's a long way from bursting. If handled properly, he could grow into a second moon without popping!"
"I plan to," Glen said bitterly. Joseph ignored him.
"Those vats are filled with a concentrated formula. It will help you grow. It will provide you will nutrients and good health. You are never to go hungry or want for anything else. You will be well taken care of."
"Even without Mason?"
"Stop that!" Joseph told him. "Don't mind him. He's just tired from the trip over."
"Right."
The small man just shook his head, trying to deny his fate.
"Oh dear, I'm afraid I've already begun. That tube has been snaked down into your belly for hours now. You will soon begin to notice its affects. And it works much faster than his did!"
"Why's that?"
"Gas is harder to control, I suppose."
The small man continued to protest, pleading weakly on the ground.
Joseph dismissed him and turned to Glen. "Do look after him, will you?"
Glen squinted at him, but agreed. "I will."
"Stop squirming. By the time you've got your strength back, you won't be able to move. Especially if your's works faster."
The small man shook his head, crying still. Already his stomach had pushed his shirt up. His hips were more pronounced too.
"How does it feel?"
The man continued to shake his head, cradling his stomach.
"The pressure? The building of your hips? Touch them. Use your hands."
The man didn't listen.
"You ungrateful pig," Glen sneered. "You've got hands. Use them. You'll want to keep track of what's happening to you before you forget why you're even here."
He refused to comply, opting instead to lie in the fetal position and whimper softly to himself.
Glen huffed and looked away. He was inflating again, but it wasn't the same. There wasn't much pressure, not after he had already been so much larger in the past. He felt like a dissapointment, sitting there at just seven feet wide. He was eager to get back to where he was so that he could experience something.
By morning, the newcomer's growth had spread to his thighs. Glen growled at the sight.
"He's doing well," Joseph told him.
The man just looked hopelessly up at him, exhausted.
"He's bottom heavy."
"Yes, well. That's to be expected. He won't be bouyant like you. It will be a much different experience."
"How so?"
"For one thing, you have some give to you." Joseph pressed a hand into Glen's side, demonstrating how his hand could dent him in slightly before being pushed back out. "He will be much firmer. This concoction will give him a sort of . . . stress ball consistency, once he's filled in of course."
"I don't understand. Is this meant to be an improvement from me?"
"I'm not sure. I'll have to compare you both once he's close to your size."
The thought of the newcomer catching up to him made Glen angry.
"Mmmrm." The smaller man moaned, slumping forward onto his growing belly in defeat.
"You like seeing it happen?" Joseph asked curiously.
"It's not the same," Glen said. "I would rather have liked to see him get the gas."
"Ah well. I'll be increasing his growth in a few days. For now, try to relax."
Over the next week, the newcomer succumbed to his new lot in life. His thighs and hips had billowed outward. His stomach stuck out so far, that he spent most days leaning forward on it, his growing behind sticking out.
"You're nearly too big to go back, I'd say," Glen told him.
The smaller man looked over at him, unamused.
"A day or two more, and it will be dangerous to try and get back to normal. When they deflated me, I couldn't breathe."
"Mmph."
"What's your name?"
The newer man frowned at him.
"Write it, in the dirt."
He rolled his eyes at Glen.
"My name's Glen."
The smaller man looked back at him, a bit less wary.
"I didn't volunteer for this either. I've been this way for years now."
Worry lines worked their way between the small man's eyebrows.
"Look. You better write anthing you want to say now. A few more days and you won't be able to use those hands any longer."
The man looked down at the dirt and sighed through his nose. He leaned to the side, off of his belly, and wrote a few letters into the soft soil.
"Sam?"
The man nodded.
"Nice to meet you, Sam."
"Time to speed things up!"
Glen smiled as Joseph moved over to the vats of compound for Sam and turned the large wheel that controled the flow of substance.
"Mmmr!" Sam huffed, grabbing onto his buldging gut. His thighs and butt billowed out as his belly pushed him more upright. His thighs widened so much that his stomach and hips seemed to sink into them, like scoops in an ice cream cone. His legs were spread apart as he continued to surge outward.
"Isn't it fascinating! When most people fill with a weighted substance, they sag and get all lumpy. But this compoud keeps things even and smooth. No stretch marks. No dimples. Nothing!"
"I think you oughta speed up my growth too," Glen suggested.
Sam opened his eyes to look at him in disbelief.
"Oh?"
"I'm so loose," Glen said. "I'm still so far from where I was."
"Alright. I will give you a little bit of a boost. But I want your friend to catch up to you eventually, so not too much!" Joseph paced over the the tanks and turned a dial for him.
Immediately, he noticed that his skin was tighter, much more fitting for a balloon of a man.
Meanwhile, Sam was having trouble waddling around already. And the dip between his stomach and hips was rounding out into nonexistence.
"He's still so bottom heavy."
"He'll come around eventually," Joseph assured, returning to his shelter.
Glen watched Sam grow for a while. His upper thighs were already being absorbed into his waist, his calves growing stout and stubby. His arms were only a little bit plump, barely any noticable change.
"You look like a real freak with those skinny arms."
Sam glared at him.
"You know I don't want this, right?" Glen explained. "I was a baker a few years ago. I wouldn't say it was my calling, but I could have done something more than this. Eventually."
Sam looked away from him and just focused on his breathing.
"I only encourage him because this is all I have. I spent over a year alone in a cell. Stable! they called it. It was mind numbingly dull. I would have rather popped than stayed there."
Sam shuddered at the mention of popping. His stomach was so wide that he couldn't get his arms around it. His legs were spread so far apart, he looked like he would drop into a split. His torso was a bit puffy, but still quite cinched, maintaining that grotesque teardrop shape.
"The only goals I can have is to either get bigger or die. I might as well try to achieve one. Joseph loves his projects. He loves my progress. You're just some afterthought."
Sam looked up at him, confused. Was Glen really envious of this?
"You won't get bigger than me. I can go on forever. I've done it. I've felt it. You think I'm big now? I've spanned twelve feet before!"
Sam just stared back at him, trying and failing to fathom Glen's outlook.
Glen huffed out a laugh. "You look ridiculous."
"You look wonderful!" Joseph pranced out into the clearing, admiring Sam's progress.
His lower half was so round and smooth. He tip toed around, unable to bend his knees any longer. His torso had gotten thicker, but his arms were still completely mobile.
"He's likely to sit today," Glen told him.
"I see that!" Joseph agreed excitedly. They were reffering to the moment when one's feet spread so far apart that they could no longer stand.
"He's so bottom heavy."
"I shall speed him up!"
"What? Again?"
"I'm eager to see him sit, my friend!" Joseph hurried over to the valve and turned it once.
"Mrrmph."
Sam was forced into a sit the moment the wheel was turned, legs and thighs becoming one big mound beneath his belly. His little cone shaped ankles carrying his feet up and to the sides. He wobbled back and forth bit, like one of those egg shaped toys that you couldn't tip over. His hips grew even wider and his backside ballooned out to match his stomach. At last, his upper arms plumped up, making them stick out a bit from his torso.
Atop his mighty butt and belly, Sam was nearly as tall as Glen.
Glen's face flushed red with jealousy as Same surpassed him. He was nowhere near bigger overall, but being shorter still felt like a loss.
"Blow me up!" he shouted at the celebrating Joseph.
"Not today. You will have to be patient my friend."
"No. I want to get bigger. Experiment on me! I'll take his compound too! Fill me with that thick stuff and then fill me doubly with the gas! Enough to float even weighed down by that sludge!"
Sam ogled at the idea, looking frightened.
"Perhaps after I have compared you to," Joseph offered, leaving Glen to be frustrated in Sam's shadow.
That night, Sam continued to grow, and far more noticably than Glen. His feet were slowly being hugged closer to his core and his torso truly had begun catching up with his bottom.
"Sam."
Sam looked over at Glean, breathing heavily.
"You'll loose the use of your arms pretty soon."
Sam nodded.
"I want to get bigger."
Sam shook his head and rolled his eyes, looking away.
"Listen! You can help! If you can get to that dial, you can help blow me up!"
He shook his head again.
"I can float! Do you want to see me float?"
He didn't answer.
"Come on! What else have you got to do here?"
. . .
Glen bit his lip and thought about what might motivate Sam. "Joseph wants me to wait. He doesn't want me to float."
. . .
"It's the only chance you'll get to mess with him. To get back at him for this."
Sam looked back over at Glen, skeptical.
"You just gotta turn the dial, I don't care how far. Will you do it?"
Sam looked over to the tiny shack where he knew that Joseph was sleeping. Then, he nodded.
"Yes. Yes!" Quickly, woddle over there."
Sam leaned forward and his body rocked to and fro. It was difficult to move, but not impossible. He shifted his weight back and forth, slowly but surely making his way across the yard. He shimmied up to the shed and pushed against it with his arms to help him along the rest of the way. He finally teetered to a stop when he reached the dial.
"Turn it," Glen whispered to himself. "Please, god. Turn it!"
Sam took hold of the dial and spun it as far as he could in one go.
"Ah!" Glen yelled, as the gas gushed into him. The pressure went from barely nothing to overwhelming! His skin grew taught and his body returned to its truly round state that it had once been in long before. Glen was panting, feeling as though his muscles were straining. "More," he shouted."
Sam looked at him in horrow, but moved the dial again.
The change was less noticable now. He was almost perfectly round and twice the size of normal person. All of his lumps and creases smoothed out, but he continued to expand.
Then, he left the ground.
"Woah!" he yelped, having forgotten what it felt like to fly. Then, he let out a laugh. "I did it!" he hollered. "I did it!" The string stopped his ascent and he bobbed up and down in the air a few times before steadying. "Ha ha!"
Sam looked up at him, eyes wide and unbelieving. Then, he looked to the horizon and saw that the sun was beginning to peak the horrizon, figuring he ought to try and get back to where he was supposed to be.
"What is this?" Joseph cried the next morning.
Glen opened his eyes and looked down at the clearing. He saw Joseph staring up at him and beamed back a toothy grin.
"I'm a blimp!" Glen cheered. "I'm bigger than where we were when I left!" He smiled wider, waiting and hoping for the praise.
But it didn't come.
"You've gone so far passed your foil!" Joseph complained, gesturing to Sam.
Glen's smile faltered slightly. "But . . ."
Joseph turned down Glen's dial, slowing his progress but not stopping it.
"I want to find my limit," Glen tried. "I want to be a moon!"
"Well, you'll have to wait," Joseph fumed, visibly angry as he stomped over to Sam's vat.
Same shook his head, fearful of Joseph's temper.
"You selfish, little bobber!" Joseph shouted up at Glen. "You're so worried about being the biggest that you've messed with the experiment!"
"No, I . . ."
"Now I'll have to force the newby to catch up!"
"Mmm-mm. Mmm. Mrrmph!"
Joseph turned the valve with both hands twice over and Same let out a muffled yell into his tube as his formula gushed into him. His bottom half exploded outward to an alarming size, his feet sinking into his core. His torso shortly followed, finally growing outward and filling in the old teardrop shape. His arms shot up and out to his sides and were quickly engulfed by his midsection. Finally beginning to look round, Sam surged outward, growing taller and rounder and heavier by the second.
"Stop. Stop!" Glen pleaded as Sam caught up to him.
"I told you that he would be able to grow faster," Joseph teased.
"Mmmmrrrmm," Sam moaned as his skin streatched and grew, his body becoming denser and more boulbus. He looked up at Glen with a hopeless expression as he surpassed his diameter, his firm, round chest coming up to meet Glen in the sky wihtout even leaving the ground.
"You're going to pop him," Glen tried, feeling intimidated by his rival.
"Nice try, my friend. I know his limits just as well as I know yours." Joseph turned the valve again.
"Mrp!" Sam kept growing and growing and growing, casting a shadow over the clearing below. Glen watched in horror as his ankles and wrists spread out into his overall curve, much like his own had when he had been over inflated. Only, Sam didn't seem to be straining. Even as his palms and the soles of his feet flattened into his sides, his fingers and toes following through and forming wide but short mounds on his skin, he seemed to thrive, remaining solid. His cheeks puffed up and his ears parted from his face as his head sunk in as well. Only when his growth threatened to stretch his eyes permanently open did his surge finally stop.
Sam was panting, heart pounding as he realized what had happened to him. Still sitting firmly on the ground, his eyes were now level with where Glen was floating. Glen looked out at him, defeated and guilty. Sam wanted to be mad but he was too tired and sore to care.
Below, Joseph was struggling to set up a ladder. He propped it up against Sam's side and he didn't even wobble. He was grounded by his own weight, sat stiff and round, sunken slightly into the earth. Joseph climbed up his torso until he was standing at the top, next Sam's face.
"Look at this marvelous thing!" Joseph cried to Glen. "How could you have ever hoped to compare?"
Glen took in a shaky breath. "Stop."
"What? It's true! He's like a big, smooth boulder! And what are you? A flimsy balloon? A bubble?"
"I just wanted to be bigger! I wanted you to see me grow! I wanted you to be happy with me!"
"Oh, my friend . . ."
"My name is Glen!"
"And you think I care?"
Glen's eyes started to well up with tears.
"Oh dear," Joseph cooed. "You're not my child. You are an experiment." He shook his head fondly. "I don't care for you, I am merely facsinated by your size. But I tinkered with helium in prison. I blew up the inmates and the guards to get away! I only retrieved you because you wouldn't be missed and you were so big already."
"Why?" Glen cried, sobbing.
"Because I'm curious!"
The air fell silent as Joseph and Glen stared back at each other. Same looked on awkwardly, unable to move.
"Pop me."
"What?"
"Do it! Pop me!"
Joseph smiled and shook his head. "You know I won't. I learn nothing from death."
"Please!"
"Perhaps I'll try that idea of yours - giving you enough of this sludge to weigh you down before switching you back over to the gas? That might be interesting."
"Please . . ."
"Or maybe I'll just leave you there on your strong and give this fellow the gas."
"No."
"Then, my friend, I think it is time for you to become a bit more compliant."
Joseph did end up giving Glen some of the thick compound that Sam had been getting. He seemed satisfied knowing that Sam was just a dumb rock sitting in his newly formed ditch. Though his size did decrease ever so slightly, only enough for his head, feet, and hands to somewhat reform into strange looking stumps.
Turns out, whilst the gas would slowly absorb into Glen or else leak out of him. The sludge would be absorbed or digested, then turning into gas and seeping out through the pores. It wasn't a noticable process, but it was clearly happening if Sam had regained some shape to him.
For Glen, the sludge felt dreadful. He was already so big and hollow. Filling him up with Sam's formula made his stomach feel like a cold bowl being filled with soup. It made him feel ill. By the second day, it had weighed him down enough to tug him back toward the ground. But he didn't feel heavy. Instead it felt as though there was a heavy mass in his body, pinning him down by his skin.
Sam wiggled his fingers one night, relishing in their return. He looked over at Glen, feeling guilty.
"I'm sorry you know."
Glen rolled his eyes.
"I am! We're both stuck in this mess."
"You've only been here, what? a month or two?"
"Yeah."
"It's been years since I had a proper body. And I never will again."
"I know."
"I thought maybe I could embrace it. But now?"
"Well, you're the biggest again."
Glen huffed. "Not that that means anything."
"How does it feel?"
Glen swallowed. "At first it felt like being pinned down. But now I think it's spread itself out. I still feel hollow, but like my outer edge is thicker and sturdier."
"Do you think he'll go back to the gas soon."
"I hope so. It feels like my skin is too condensed."
"I understand," Sam laughed. "That's what all of me feels like."
"Right"
"I think my feet are somewhere in the ditch, burried."
"Ouch."
"I don't feel it though. They're as stiff as the rest of me. I feel like I've been turned to stone."
"What do you think is going to happen to us?"
"More of this, I suppose."
"And what after? What would we do if we were free."
Sam shrugged. "I don't know."
"Extraordinary!" Joseph hollered, jumping into the air with excitement. "You were right to try both in one man, my friend! Look at you now!"
Glen was gigantic. His shadow from where he floated was nearly cast over the whole island. Joseph had discovered that the sludge compound would thicken the skin of an inflated subject, thus making further inflation even easier.
It seemed that Glen would get his wish. His expansion really would be limitless.
"And I know just where to go from here! A new formula!"
Sam grimaced from his whole in the ground.
"I have come to realize that my resources for inflating the two of you are, in fact, limited. We're nearly out of sludge and I haven't been able to get the supplies for more."
Sam let out a sigh of relief. He was still mostly round, but his hands and arms were somewhat reformed and his head was in a more relaxed state. He really did not want to be filled up again.
"But I have a new development in the works! A remedy that will cause the subject to absorb flruids!"
"Oh dear," Sam winced.
"It is nearly complete, and it looks like rain will be rolling in soon! So you two best be ready!"
"Both of us?" Sam questioned.
"Indeed. you are both in such different states! I must try it for each of you."
Two days later and Glen was still expanding into the extra room that the sludge had created. It was a wonder that no one had found them yet, what with Glen practically being a giant, blow up advertisement for their little torture island. He was nearly as wide as the entire landmass, simply floating up in the sky above it.
But Joseph did not flake on his promises. Just as the storm clouds were rolling in, he came out to the two of them and gave them each a new remedy. He sent a sample up the tubing and into Glen before climbing up the side of Sam and pouring a sip into his mouth.
Then, he retreated into his shed and waited for the rain to come.
Glen and Sam were honestly growing bored of their bloated lives and a small part of them was excited for this new change.
Sam was smaller, so he noticed a difference first. As the rain came down, he felt it absorb into his skin and then oddly trickle down his insides, pooling in his stomach and sending chills through his body.
Glen heard the rain drum off of his tight skin before it too soaked into his body. The cool liquid congregated at the bottom most part of his spherical body, which was his chest. It made his shiver and he tried to look down to see what had become of Sam.
Same was filling up much more effectively, though not in the way that either of them had ever done so before. Instead of rounding him out, the water was collecting soley at the bottom of his body, causing his already wide midsection to spill over the top of his ditch. It caused his belly to push him up higher, making him taller than the nearby trees once more. "Well this is an odd one, huh Glen?"
"Mm," Glen uttered, unamused. He just felt like a poorly formed water balloon.
The rain only grew stronger however, and soon Glen was so filled up with water that he had floated back down to the ground. He was so large that his body pressed into the tree tops and Joseph's shed was poking him in the side. His chest pooled onto the ground where the water was, giving him a flat base whilst the rest of him was still round and trembling in the wind.
"I don't think he thought about you crushing us," Same said over the sound of the downpoor. The curve of Glen's body was towering over his head.
"I don't think he cares," Glen retorted.
Sam's body was pulled down more and more by the water that filled him. He felt so heavy and trapped that he wished he had been given the chance to grow with the helium-like substance that Glen had.
"Ouch," Sam wince as his hips spread further awat from him. One of his hips had met up with Glen's chest and was now being pinched between him and the earth.
"Glen. Glen!"
"What?"
"You're going to cover me."
"There's nothing I can do about it. Besides, you're solid as a rock. It's not like I could squish you."
"Yes, but I need to breathe."
Glen looked over at him, looking sad. "There's nothing I can do. You'll just have to lean back and hope the rain stops soon."
By morning, the rain had finally come to an end and both men had survived the night. What was but a small portion of Glen's body was pressed all along the front of Sam's, who appeared to have melted into the ground with the way hi sides sunk all around him.
"You've done well," Joseph praised them. "See, both of you have interesting effects. Very different. Of course, I'll have to give you more helium to get you up off my shed. I had to climb out the back window this morning"
"Maybe you can get us both in the air?" Sam offered, hoping for another change just to keep his life interesting.
"Oh no! I couldn't. It's so difficult to maintain and nearly impossible to reverse completely. One blimp is enough!"
Sam sighed. "Have anything else then?"
"Why so eager?"
"He's bored," Glen grumbled.
"I think I may be able to come up with something for you whilst I wait for Glen to get airborn again."
Sam smiled.
"You want gas? I can't give you what Glen's got, but I could steam you up!"
"Oh?"
"Yes! I have a lovely potion that will steam the water you've absorbed without boiling it so it doesn't melt you away!"
"Amazing science, Joseph," Sam mocked.
The next day, Glen had only slighly peeled away from the earth. Part of Sam was still trapped underneath him when Joseph gave him the potion.
The cool water slowly turned warm as it bubbled up inside of him. His body made a hissing sound as his droopinf parts began to rise like a cake in the oven.
Over the course of the day, Sam's side pushed up against Glen, causing him to roll over a bit, the water sloshing about inside him and making him queezy.
They went on like this for days, Glen finally rejoining the clouds. He just bobbed there whilst Sam billowed up from the ground.
"We should do something to him," Sam said one day.
"What?"
"We should get back at Joseph somehow."
"I don't see how."
"Maybe you could squish him."
"I don't weigh anything."
"Not today."
Glen huffed. There was nothing they could do to get their revenge.
But the thought did linger in his mind.
One night after it rained, Joseph accidentally left out the potion that caused them to absorb water. The rain was lighter than expected, so Glen was still in the sky and Sam was able to move his arms.
Sam stared at the bottle, itching to touch it.
"He left the potion out," he said.
"So?"
"It's on my waist."
"Oh no," Glen said sarcastically. "Is it bruising your flob?"
"No. Glen! I might be able to reach it."
"What? You starting to like the water thing?"
"No! What if I got him to drink it?"
Glen paused, thinking for a moment. "There's no way."
Sam was already stretching to the side to try and grab it with his nubby fingers. "Worth a shot. We've got nothing better to do."
"He'll stay out of the rain if he knows he's had it."
"Still - aha!" Same snatched the bottle off of his wasit. "I've got it."
"Now what's the plan?"
"I'll just . . . wait till morning."
"Morning, freinds. I've got some of that steam concoction for you, Sam."
"Oh boy," Same said sarcastically. "Not come up with anything new yet?"
"Sadly not," Joseph laughed as he climbed a ladder up Sam's side.
Glen idly watched as Joseph got closer to Sam's face.
"Any fun changes you'd like to tell me about."
Sam's face lit up and Glen started paying more attention.
"Yes, actually," Same said.
"Oh?"
"My left hand. It felt like it filled up with cement last night!"
Joseph frowned. "That's odd."
"It's stuck in a fist! And heavy!"
Joseph, every curious, walked across to his hand. "Let me take a look. I wish I'd brought my scale up here. I could measure - Mmmf!"
Sam jammed the open potion bottle into Josephs mouth the moment he was close enough. Glen's eye went wide and Sam let out a hooting laugh! Joseph stumbled back and spat at Sam.
"You lousy sack of sludge!" Joseph growled, striking the potion out of Sam's hand. He straightened his back and adjusted his clothes. "You're foolish to think that would work. I of course, have an antidote in my shed that will help the potion wear off sooner."
"Good thing it's not already raining then," Same said, smiling oddly.
Joseph nodded. "Good thing indeed."
Same glance up at Glen, shot him a smile, and then spit directly into Joseph's face.
For the fist time in months, Glen smiled. Watching as Joseph sputtered and gasped. No visible change had come over him, but he was visibly offended bu the thought of him filling up even slightly with Sam's saliva.
"You rat!" He shouted, lunging at Sam's torso.
Eyes wide, Sam pushed back at Joseph, sending him tumbling down the slope of Sam's side. Head over heels he fell, even rolling a bit along the ground and into the sand.
He mumbled and grumbled as he climbed to his feet, but when he rose, he found his two test subjects staring back at him in shock. He had a look of confusion on his face, but only for moment. He looked down and saw that his feet were in the damp sand of the beach.
Quickly, he moved to run, but he was too late. A tiny wave washed up and caught his foot, causing it to swell with water and make him trip. He screamed and got back up but tripped again.
Backwards this time.
"No! Stop!" he shrieked as the water engulfed him. His stomach immediately swelled outwards, his hips and butt billowing out, filling to the brim with ocean water. "Ah!" At record speeds, his thighs swelled up to contain his girth, rounding him out into a beached blob.
His growth slowed but, as he expanded, his backside grew closer and closer to deeper water. It surged outward, pushing him forwards with it's sheer size and mass. He cried and shrieked in terror as his growth suddenly sped up again, his body reaching a deeper point.
His torso expanded and melted into his midsection as he filled up. "Oh!" His legs were already widening to the point of nonexistence, causing him to tip back abd flop into the ocean. "Stop! Help!"
"Oh," Sam cooed. "We'd love to help, Joseph, my friend, but we're a bit stuck."
"Gah!" His back filled with water, pushing him back into an upright position but he kept growing. His arms were gettign sucked into his torso. His face was sinking between his buldging shoulders! "Ohhh," he wept, as his flabby body, continued to grow and grow and grow, until he finally started to round out. His hand and feet were pulled into dimples and his body, now a lopsided orb, sat swelling in the ocean, soaking it all up.
Glen smiled.
There was no end to Joseph's resivour as he continued to grow and swell and slope into the side of the island. His newest potion truly was remarkable, stretching the human body above and beyond its limits.
Joseph grew so large within the hour that his head had risen up above Glen's. Glen grinned up at him, happier than he'd ever been over the past four years. And Joseph could only quiver as he went on with his never ending expansion.
As his butt and sides continued to grow out and grab at the ocean's water, Joseph's belly billowed forward onto the island, pressing up against Sam's side and brushing against Glen's underbelly.
Soon, he was so full that his cheeks had puffed up and his lips were so swollen that he found it difficult to speak. He could only moan and wine as his new torture prevailed.
It looked like he would be growing alongside Glen and Sam for a long time.
And the possibilities were limitless.