Originally posted September 14, 2016.
Contains: long-term weight gain, behind-the-scenes and direct encouraging, supernatural encouraging.
One year ago today, I posted my first weight gain story, The House that Time Forgot. It was my first foray into writing gainer fiction, and while I’m happy with what I wrote, it ended up being a very different story from the one I had intended when I started writing it. As a novice gainer fiction writer, I didn’t have a good handle on keeping my story under my control as I wrote. Therefore, the plot got away from me during the writing process, and it turned out way more sprawling and lengthy than I intended. Looking back on it, I admire how ambitious the story became, but I also feel like it could have been more focused.
So, to commemorate the one year anniversary of when I started posting weight gain fiction, I wanted to write a weight gain ghost story again, this time writing how I’d intended to write it the first time: more focused, more patient, and without all the plot diversions of the first. In a sense, I wrote this to exorcise the ghost of the story I’d intended to write, and now I can rest easy knowing I’ve finally told the story the way I wanted it to be told all along.
Synopsis: While hiking in the forests around the mountains he used to climb in his younger and slimmer day, Ted stumbles upon an abandoned cabin. Inside, he finds a freshly-prepared, family-size feast set at the dinner table, and in spite of his suspicions, he eats the whole thing. That trip becomes the first of several that Ted takes out to the cabin, finding a newly prepared meal every time he does and enjoying them enthusiastically. But something inside the cabin seems to not want him to leave, and that something seems to be more than just his engorged stomach weighing him down after every meal…
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon as Ted hiked through the forests that adorned the Green Mountains. The range was a short drive from his house, and provided a great escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life. At 47, Ted wasn’t much for mountaineering like he was in his youth, when he’d scaled several of the range’s peaks. His once toned body now sported a significant paunch, along with other trappings of the aging process like a slightly receded hairline and a more casual relationship with shaving. But he still enjoyed long walks through the untamed, trail-less wilderness, something his ample abdomen didn’t stop him from doing.
What the years had taken from his climbing abilities, they’d made up for in his intuition for navigation. Ted made a hobby of getting to know the wild corners of the forests around the Green Mountains, and he never had to worry about getting lost. He’d had a few tense encounters with some of the forest’s larger inhabitants, but those were rare, as he wasn’t exactly built for sneaking up on an animal and surprising it. Far more often, the natural wonders he found there made straying from the beaten path well worth it.
That Saturday was no exception. After traversing a particularly dense section of the woods, Ted came across a green-tinted cabin that looked like it had been uninhabited for years. The cabin looked like it was in mostly good condition, but the paint looked faded and was starting to chip, and the windows we too clouded for him to see inside.
Curious, Ted walked up to front and peeked through a window. He could see some living room furniture and what looked like a wood stove, but no signs of any activity inside. Giving the door a knock, he called out, “Anyone home?” and heard nothing. The door had an old-fashioned latch, though its craftsmanship suggested it had been made more recently than the days when latches were commonplace.
Lifting the latch, Ted carefully pushed the door open and leaned into the doorframe to look inside. The dirty windows let in just enough light for him to be able to see his surroundings once his eyes got adjusted. On the right side of the room, he saw a couch, several chairs, and a coffee table. They were simple in their construction, and Ted wondered if they might have been made with wood from the trees around him. To his left was a wood stove and several cooking implements suited for cooking in a house without electricity or running water.
Stepping inside, Ted walked carefully as the floorboards creaked underneath him. Each step sent up small plumes of dust around his feet as he walked past the living room furniture to look through a door frame on the right side of the far wall. In the next room, he saw a bedroom with a double-size bed and a nightstand next to it. There wasn’t much else to see in the room other than a few decorations, but Ted figured whoever had inhabited the cabin wouldn’t want to drag several pieces of superfluous furniture all the way out there.
There was only one room left to look in, past a door on the other side of the far wall. Ted crept along the wall slowly, not wanting to cause a commotion, though he knew no one would hear him. At the same time, he told himself he shouldn’t spend much longer in the cabin. He swore he could smell fresh-cooked food, a far cry from the old, dusty smell he expected, and concluded he was starting to imagine things. Something in the cabin’s old air must have been getting to him.
But when Ted looked in the doorway, it turned out to not be his imagination at all. Sitting in front of him, in the best-lit room of the cabin, was a dining room table surrounded by several chairs with a chicken dinner laid out on top. There were rolls with butter, Caesar salad, mashed potatoes with gravy, a sizable roasted chicken, and pumpkin pie for dessert. In the rays of light that crept in through the windows, he could see puffs of steam coming off of several of the items.
It was ludicrous, Ted told himself. No way could anyone have gotten that food all the way out to this cabin and have it still be warm. Even if they could, why would they? And what were the odds of him finding the cabin at just the right time to stumble upon the feast?
No, he must have been seeing things, he concluded. But when he heard his growling stomach echo in the empty cabin, he wanted to check anyway. He cautiously reached out and touched one of the rolls, fully expecting his finger to go right through it like some kind of mirage. But instead, he felt the warm, firm crust halt his fingertip. Still not entirely convinced, he grabbed one of the rolls and held it in his hand, examining it like a strange rock he might find on his hikes. It seemed so bizarre, but he had to know, so he pulled it close and took a bite.
The bread inside was warm and delicate in Ted’s mouth, and the crust was crunchy, exactly how he liked it. The only thing that could have made it better was butter, which happened to be placed next to the rolls. With a shrug, Ted sat down on the center chair..
Ted finished the roll quickly once he’d spread it with butter. Looking over the feast laid before him, he concluded it would be better for the food to not go to waste lying in an abandoned shack. He pulled the dishes closer and filled up his plate with a heaping portion of everything, including the pumpkin pie. It felt a bit odd for him to mix main courses and dessert like that, but this far out in the woods, no one was going to judge him for it.
To Ted’s pleasant surprise, everything on the table was top-notch. The butter was just a little sweet, making the rolls taste even better. The salad was drenched with dressing, making it actually worth eating as something other than a filler. The mashed potatoes were smooth and creamy, and the steaming gravy complimented them perfectly. The chicken was moist and flavorful, seasoned with a delicious blend of herbs. But the pumpkin pie might have been the best of all, tasting like it was made from scratch, with dense, rich filling and a delicate crust.
With how delicious everything was, Ted easily wolfed down his first course, and had no reservations about filling up his plate with seconds. Now that he wasn’t quite so hungry, he slowed down and could really appreciate all the dishes laid out in front of him, but he still managed to finish his second plate without issue. After swallowing the last bite of his second piece of pumpkin pie, he laid back in his chair and let out a loud belch, which echoed in the quiet cabin. The belch was soon followed by a chuckle, as Ted patted his pleasantly full stomach before loading up his plate with thirds.
Ted ate his way through the third course casually, savoring the food and appreciating all the work that this mystery cook had put into it. He certainly wasn’t hungry, but he found enough room in his stomach to clear his plate a third time. Once he did, he became aware of a feeling of tension in his gut. It was mild enough that he could ignore it as he ate, but with his attention taken off of the food, it was quite evident. He gave his firm belly a gentle rub, alleviating some of the feelings of fullness, before he filled his plate up with fourths.
The fourth course didn’t go down as easily as the previous three courses. Once Ted was aware of how full he felt, he couldn’t quite put the feeling out of his mind, no matter how much he enjoyed the meal in front of him. Every “Mmm” at how delicious the food tasted was matched by an “Oof” as he felt even fuller. As the meal went on, he rubbed his stomach more often, as if a massage might convince his gut to digest faster. He still managed to cram all the food that was once on his plate into his swelling stomach, but not without some pained groans.
Ted dropped his utensils on his plate with a clang that echoed in the abandoned cabin. He reached under his shirt to give his swollen gut some comfort. As his girth gave underneath his fingertips, he felt a pang of pain at first, as if his stomach were lashing out against his attempts to soothe it, resenting even being reminded of how full he was. Though he wasn’t normally one for paying attention to the size of his midsection, he could tell that he had swelled up bigger with all the food inside of him.
Looking over the table, Ted could tell that the sum of what was left in the serving plates was enough to fill up his plate once more and leave nothing behind. As full as he was, he wanted to finish what he’d started. With an exhausted sigh, he loaded his plate up, stuck his fork in the remaining salad, and took a bite.
With how much food was already inside him, Ted could feel every bite when it hit his stomach and added to the growing mound. Every swallow was followed by a delayed pain in his gut, a pain that gradually dissipated into a warm soreness he felt as his stomach was forced to hold so much food at once. He’d scooched forward in the chair such that his belly had more room to stretch out. Between that and him constantly rubbing his stomach with his left hand, he managed to keep his stomach mostly happy as he downed the final roll and the last portions of salad, mashed potatoes, and chicken.
Ted saved the pie for last. Though there wasn’t much left of the other items, a full third of the pie remained, taking up much of the space on his plate. He gave his gut a few gentle pats before grabbing the lastpiece, scarcely able to lean forward to do so. With the giant slice in hand, he let out another sigh before scarfing down his first bite. A loud “mmm” of approval transitioned seamlessly into a moan of something between soreness and satisfaction. It was a noise the punctuated much of the time Ted spent finishing the pie.
After taking a few more bites of the tip, Ted ripped the slice of pie in half and took a piece in each hand. He went back and forth between the two pieces, usually taking a bite from both each time. All of his moans were now muffled by mouthfuls of pie, each time becoming less of an “mmm” and more of an “mmph.” As he neared the end, he lost the presence of mind to swallow before each bite, resulting in a mouthful of pie he couldn’t close his mouth over to chew. Instead he slouched in the chair with both arms dangling at his side, the half-chewed mass of crust and filling visible between his open lips. All his groans and grunts became no more than vibrations that dissipated as they traveled through the pie. The sounds that made it out of his mouth barely echoed in the silent cabin.
But Ted got it all down, letting out a grunted gasp once his mouth was finally clear. Breathing heavily, he slowly brought his arms up to his gorged stomach and cautiously placed them on it, like he might pop if handled incorrectly. As his fingers pressed into his soft belly, they soon met the firm mass of food that had swelled his stomach. In his gut was a meal for a family of four, with enough pie for leftovers, and he’d finished all of it. To his surprise, he felt satisfied, albeit also too swollen to move.
But Ted soon got the hang of it, and with some wriggling and a lot of burping once the gas had a chance to escape, he got out of the chair. As he stood by the emptied dinner table, he felt himself swaying back and forth, not used to his newly moved center of balance. Once he leaned back, he was able to center himself again, counteracting the added weight in his stomach while also giving his distended belly some room to stretch. With a short, quiet sigh, he gave his belly a few more pats and tried to pull down his shirt. He could feel his knuckles come to rest above his belt when the shirt couldn’t stretch any more, meaning at least a little of his belly was peeking out.
Ted gave his belly a gentle rub as he lumbered out of the dining room and back to the door. His gait was wider and his stride was shorter than they were when he walked in, and his arms stuck out diagonally as they swung back and forth with his walk. His belly usually bounced with his steps, but now it glided steadily ahead, refusing to be moved and forcing Ted to walk like he had to maneuver around it. Ted didn’t consider himself a massive man, more pleasantly plump than huge, but he wondered if that might be how massive men had to walk.
It was more difficult than he’d accounted for. With all the food weighing him down, he felt like it was a challenge to leave the cabin. The furniture in the living room area looking quite comfortable, like it was calling out to him to take a nap before he went on his way. But much as he liked the idea of lying down for a bit, he liked the idea of falling asleep in the woods a whole lot less. So he pressed on, until he could open the cabin door and step outside.
Once Ted stepped over the threshold of the door and felt the fresh air fill his lungs, he didn’t feel quite so weighed down by his bulbous belly. Though he still walked much the same way as he had in the cabin, he felt renewed, and the prospect of leaving the cabin didn’t seem so daunting. Still, he’d hiked a long way to get that far in the woods. He knew the return trip wouldn’t cover as much distance since he could take a direct route back, but his wide gait and short stride wasn’t going to make things any easier. With a determined yet resigned sigh, he braced himself for what was going to be a very long walk back to his car.
The next week came and went, and Ted took himself out for another walk in the woods around the green mountains. The incident at the cabin was still fresh in his mind, and he had to go back for another look. What would be left of the dirty dishes and empty serving bowls he’d left behind that far out in the woods? Would they still be there, smelling faintly unpleasant due to being left out in the heat? Would they have been cleared off by whoever or whatever mischievous individual had left them there in the first place? Would they be refilled? That last one seemed unlikely to Ted, but there was only one way to find out.
The walk to the cabin passed by a lot faster now that Ted wasn’t weighed down by a family-sized chicken dinner and now that the territory was familiar. Before long, he found himself in front of the old, green-tinted cabin. He couldn’t see any evidence of recent activity, so he didn’t know what to expect. With a cautious pace, he walked up to the door and knocked to see if anyone would respond this time. After a pause, he entered.
The living room and kitchen area of the cabin looked the same as before, as Ted expected. What he didn’t know was what the dining room would look like. So he strolled toward that end of the room, paying little mind to the floorboards creaking underneath him, and looked through the door frame.
What Ted saw was even stranger than what he expected. The table had been cleared of his last meal, and in its place was an entirely different feast. There was a large pepperoni pizza, several plates of chicken wings in different flavors, a plate of loaded nachos, mozzarella sticks, quesadillas, chips and dip, brownies, and as if that wasn’t enough, bottles of beer. It looked more like a food table at a party than the family dinner he’d found last time, and even less like what he would expect to see in an old-fashioned cabin like this.
But Ted reminded himself that seeing any sort of fresh food in a cabin this far out in the woods was weird regardless of what he found. The question was, how did it keep getting there? Who would leave food in the middle of the woods like that? Who was going to all this effort seemingly just to to confuse him?
But most importantly, where to start?
There were no plates laid out for Ted to use, a minor difference between this spread and the food table at a party. But Ted didn’t much mind. Instead, he pushed the chairs aside and stood next to the table like he was at a party where he didn’t know anyone. In fairness, he thought, there was no one else at the cabin that he knew.
Ted cracked open a beer first and took a hearty swig before pulling up a chip from the loaded nachos. He tasted at least two kinds of cheese alongside sour cream, olives, and a bit of salsa. He couldn’t quite identify all of the ingredients that had gone into making the dish, but he didn’t care much when it tasted so good. He pulled more chips from the pile, making sure each one was loaded with plenty of the spread.
Ted eyed the pizza next. He pulled up two slices at once as several tendrils of cheese stretched between the slices and the pie. Once they snapped, he lifted them up on top of the pieces before folding them together. The pizza had plenty of cheese and a thick, soft crust, but Ted still opted to eat the two slices at once, sandwich style. Mouthful after mouthful of the cheesy, meaty pie went into his stomach, usually followed by another swig of beer.
With the pizza sampled, Ted eyed the chicken next. He sampled a wing from each bowl in turn and found barbecue, buffalo, and teriyaki represented, all three of them styles he quite enjoyed. With a smile, he took a wing in each hand and wolfed them down. The tender meat tore off the bones with ease, and the wings easily fell victim to his hunger.
When Ted had enjoyed his fill of the wings, he chugged what remained of the beer and let out a belch. He thumped his chest with his fist before parting his belly, knowing it was going to get a workout that afternoon.
Over the course of the next hour and a half hours, Ted paced around the table and sampled all the food it had to offer. He waited to start the brownies, thinking they’d be an appropriate way to see the meal out, but found them too tantalizing to resist that long. By the time he took his first brownie, about half of each of the rest of the dishes remained, the other half consolidated in the heavy mound inside his stomach. Ted’s breath had grown heavy, and he found himself leaning forward, weighed down by the mass of food he’d already eaten.
But tasting the brownies got Ted eating just as voraciously as before. The brownies were soft, gooey, and dense, with a layer chocolate frosting on top. One reasonably sized bite was followed by a bigger bite and a grunt of approval as he kept wolfing down the delicious dessert, enjoying it too much to even finish chewing one bite before he took another.
With his sweet tooth satisfied, Ted resumed making his way back and forth along the table. He munched on one dish after another, never letting his tastebuds get too used to any one item. Thus he ensured he never grew bored of the meal, allowing him to keep eating even as he felt progressively fuller.
And he was getting very full. As the feast went on and the dishes emptied, Ted found himself resenting his walks around the table more, as each time, he had to bear more weight. He found himself leaning back to counteract the growing heft of his stomach, now leading him more than he piloted it. When he reached for more food, he had to pivot to the side to move his belly out of the way and reach for each plate.
But Ted managed to get down the last of all of the items on the table: every slice of pizza, every piece on the three plates of wings, every loaded chip and greasy mozzarella stick. All that remained was half a plate of rich, thick, decadent brownies.
Ted leaned down one last time to pick up the plate, grunting as his swollen stomach resented being moved even that little. With the platter in hand, he backed up until he felt his back hit the wall of the dining room. He picked up one of the smaller brownies and shoved it in his mouth, pushing like it wouldn’t go down his throat if he didn’t force it. He chewed as he pushed in more of the brownie, for all the good it did, as the gooey chocolate amassed in his mouth. To even his own surprise, he managed to fit the whole thing in at once, forcing him to chew with an open mouth.
Ted wolfed down the rest of the brownies much the same way. He managed to fit even the larger ones in his mouth all at once, albeit with plenty of chewing, grunting, and groaning until he finally swallowed the decadent mass. He saved the biggest for last, picking the giant piece up before stepping forward and dropping the plate on the table. He found it hard to maintain his balance as full as he was, so with one hand on one of the dining room chairs, he shoveled the final brownie into his greedy maw. As big as it was, he found himself needing to push it in when he could move it around his mouth anymore.
With some shoving, Ted got all of the final brownie in his mouth, successfully clearing off the whole table. He let his arms fall by his sides, finding they hung out diagonal to his torso as he stood in place, wavering back and forth, his back arched as his stomach pushed out for more room. His mouth was so full of brownie that he couldn’t even fully clench his teeth to chew. There was simply too much brownie for his jaw to close all the way. He still tried, grunting every time the moist mass of chocolate made his teeth stop before they met, his grunts muffled by the wad of brownie.
As Ted tried to chip away at his chocolate gag, he ambled out of the dining room. His arms didn’t swing as he walked, merely sticking out feebly from his shoulders. The only movement they could manage was swaying along with his chest as he walked, his torso wavering as it tried to push his swollen gut ahead. He could barely walk, each footstep taking several times more effort to get him a fraction of the distance of his usual stride.
It didn’t seem worth it to leave the cabin. Ted looked out one of the dirty windows and briefly pondered the distance he had ahead of him if he wanted to walk back to his car. There was no way he could get there before dark. Walking back to his car after the previous feast had been one thing, but he felt too full now to even consider it. No, staying in the cabin felt like a much more attractive option, so much so that Ted felt like he was being pulled toward the bedroom to take a nap there. It was a pull he happily obliged, albeit not without some difficulty as he hobbled his gorged body from one end of the room to the other and through the doorway.
Once Ted reached the foot of the bed, he had some difficulty in figuring out how he was going to lie down on it. Bending forward or sitting down meant compressing his abdomen, and he knew his stomach wasn’t going to have any of that. Complicating things was the wad of brownie in his mouth that he’d barely put a dent in. If anything, it felt like it had swelled from soaking up all his saliva, and all he could do was swallow the soggiest parts.
But Ted didn’t feel like he could remain upright for much longer. It was as if the weight of all the food in his belly was pulling his eyelids closed, and the last thing he wanted was to pass out on the floor. So he turned to face away from the bed, and with a muffled grunt of determination, he let himself fall backwards.
Ted was convinced the force of the fall would pop the brownie either out of his mouth or down his throat and make him choke, but the mass of chocolate remained firmly lodged in place. Once the dust had settled, he set about pushing himself up the bed so he could sleep without his legs dangling uncomfortably off the end. It was a difficult task, as contorting his body to scooch up resulted in a jolt of pain from his stomach, now bulging upward above his chest. The mound of food inside made it immune to gravity’s pull as it rose and fell with his short breaths.
Once Ted had pushed himself far enough up the bed, he let his arms lay limp at his side as he set about finishing the last part of his meal. The brownie had shrunk enough that he could finally get his teeth to chew through it, and he could move the parts that had softened to the back of his mouth to finish off. Eventually he cleared out the last of the chocolate treat, letting loose a gasp as he breathed heavily through his mouth. The heavy breathing soon subsided as Ted gave in to the pull of the mass of food in his gut and let it pull him down to sleep.
Ted woke up with scarcely an idea of where he was, or why he’d fallen asleep there. The memories of his previous feast came back in bite-size chunks, seeming more like a dream than anything else. But as he raised his hands to rub his eyes and felt the remnants of brownie smear across his face, he knew it had to have been real.
What he didn’t know was how long he’d slept, and the scant rays of sunlight coming in through the windows only provided so much of a clue. Reaching into his left pocket, he pulled out his phone and saw that it was 5:48 AM on Sunday morning. Though it seemed like he’d just arrived at the house, the early rising of the summer sun had in fact woken him up from a long night’s rest.
Ted sleepily licked the brownie crumbs off of his fingers before he rubbed his eyes again. He became aware of a vague soreness in his stomach muscles, which he tried to soothe by rubbing them next. They felt rigid under his touch, a firmness he wasn’t sure whether to attribute to food still in his stomach or the muscles having tensed up from being stretched so tight the night before.
Either way, Ted was ready to get on with his day. He swung his legs off the bed and let the rest of his body follow. He found himself standing upright as his stomach muscles pushed his abdomen apart like they still had to make room for enough food to feed a small party. He patted his gut with a sigh and ambled out of the bedroom, happy he could finally move easily again.
Ted was ready to leave the cabin and try to figure out how he’d spend his Sunday, but something pulled him back toward the dining room. Maybe it was morbid curiosity about what kind of wreckage he’d left the night before in his gluttonous stupor. Maybe it was a sense of guilt about the mess he’d made. Either way, he walked across the living room and rounded the corner into the dining room.
But Ted found no wreckage of the finger food from the night before, no dirty serving plates or spills on the table. What he found was a breakfast spread made up of home fries, grilled sausages, scrambled eggs, a plate full of bacon, and a tall stack of pancakes with plenty of butter and syrup, along with more butter and syrup on the side.
Previously, the sight would have confused Ted even more, but now it seemed like the only reasonable thing to expect when he walked into the room. With a smile on his face, he took a seat at the table and started on his newest feast. As Ted expected, everything tasted delicious. The sausages and bacon were cooked to perfection, and the pancakes were thick and fluffy, perfectly suited to soak up as much syrup as he could pour. And given that the pitcher of syrup was nearly the size of a water pitcher, he could pour a lot.
It nearly disappointed Ted to find out that once he’d finished the breakfast buffet, he didn’t feel so full that he couldn’t stay awake. Even getting out of his seat proved to be not impossible, as he only had to shimmy about a few times and make a few attempts before he managed to stand up. Once he did, he heartily patted his belly, finding it felt a bit sore when gave it a thump but otherwise merely contentedly stuffed. Rubbing it over, he found that his shirt hadn’t even ridden up enough to expose his belly button, only showing a thin stripe of skin on the bottom of his gut. As he lumbered out of the room, stance broad due to his swollen stomach widening his stride, he found that the prospect of walking back to his car didn’t seem so daunting. He felt like it wouldn’t even take twice the usual time to cover that distance.
But Ted was not ungrateful. Whatever person or force had left the meal there had done a wonderful job as usual, and he gave his gut a few hearty pats to show his appreciation. Something made him feel like he should stick around, like if he stayed, his quibble about the quantity of the food would be rectified. But he had things he wanted to get done by the end of the day, so he ignored the pull to stay in the cabin and headed out the door. Taking a deep breath of the fresh air, he closed the door behind him and started the walk back.
For the next few months, Ted’s trips to the cabin became a weekly tradition, taking a walk into the woods to go back and see what delicacies might be served up in excess that day. After the one morning with the more manageable breakfast, he found he never had any difficulty filling himself to the brim at the cabin again. Every feast had enough food that Ted could finish it all, but just barely.
And Ted found himself spending more nights over at the cabin, passing out from food coma on the bed or sometimes even on the couch, waking up to a bountiful breakfast the next morning, or a nice filling dinner if he fell asleep after lunch. These days, he found he could rarely leave the cabin right after a meal. He usually had to allot some time to sit down in the living room, take a break, let his food settle, and digest a bit. Only then was he capable of walking again. Which meant that if he ate dinner at the cabin, it was a guarantee that he was going to stay the night and eat breakfast the next day. And every time he left, he had to fight the pull of his curiosity, of his stuffed stomach wanting him to rest, and of his hunger.
Ted still wasn’t sure what kind of force or mechanism was filling the dining room table with goodies every day he was there, sometimes several times a day. He thought more trips would shed some light on how it happened, but it only seemed more mysterious. What he knew for sure was that every time he arrived, and every time he fell asleep in the cabin, he found another feast on the table, ready for him to devour.
And as his expanding waistline demonstrated, he did indeed devour them. As Ted kept visiting the cabin, his shirt rode up a little more every time he left, until his shirt was a little too tight even when he wasn’t stuffed. Thus he went from a little snug in a 2XL to wearing a 3XL and knowing he was on the cusp of needing to upgrade to a 4XL soon. Not that Ted much cared. As he saw it, as long as he could make the walk from the edge of the woods to the cabin, he hadn’t grown too big yet.
But Ted’s weekly visits came to a halt when a busy period at work forced him to start working weekends too. Late nights in the office with frequent calls for delivery helped him maintain the size he’d amassed, but without his weekly gorges, his weight leveled off. Even all the delivery he could eat couldn’t push him over the edge like those feasts could. After several weeks, he felt like he’d never upgrade to that 4XL shirt.
Thankfully, after four weeks, the busy period finally ended, with the project Ted was involved with shipping out. Most of his coworkers were just happy for things to lighten up a bit, but Ted had something specific in mind for when the project ended. With the approval of his boss, he scheduled a two-week vacation starting at the end of the week the project finally shipped.
“Two weeks, huh?” his boss Cindy asked before he could walk out of her office. “I certainly don’t blame you for it after the month we’ve had. Are you taking a trip anywhere?”
“Oh yeah,” Ted answered. “Going to get away from it all for a while.”
“Where to? Somewhere tropical? Visiting a new city?”
“Oh, just this small place that’s not too far away. A little hidden gem I’m quite fond of. They have great food,” he said cheekily
“Well, I hope you enjoy it,” Cindy said with a smile. “They have wifi there?”
“Nope,” Ted said with a satisfied grin.
With a nod, Cindy replied, “Good. Take a break from your work entirely. You deserve it.”
Between the much less substantial workload and waiting for his vacation, the rest of the week passed rather slowly for Ted. But as soon as the end of Friday hit, he walked out with a smile on his face. On the way home, he stopped at a clothing store to buy several 4XL shirts, knowing he’d need them by the time he was done at the cabin. Back in his car, he drove to the edge of the woods and quickly changed into one of the shirts before stepping out of his car. The shirt fit loosely over his newly expanded belly, falling well past his belt line. This was something Ted hadn’t experienced in a while, but he patted his belly with a chuckle, knowing the shirt wouldn’t be that loose for long.
Even with all his recently added heft, Ted walked to the cabin faster than he’d ever walked there before, excited to finally get reacquainted with his little buffet spot. Once he got to the cabin, he strolled in and walked around opening all the windows, knowing he’d need to let the dust air out if he was going to spend two weeks there. He also turned off his phone, knowing he’d need to conserve the battery on it to be able to check what day it was, and that there was no point in keeping it on in an area with no reception.
With the other windows open, Ted walked into the dining room to see a feast laid out over the table far bigger than any he’d seen before. It was like every Christmas dinner he’d ever attended, with biscuits and butter, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts and other grilled vegetables, baked stuffing, a roasted ham, a fruitcake, and a large turkey bringing it all together, among other dishes.
Ted chuckled as he walked around the room opening the remaining windows. Once he finished, he looked back to the table and gave his gut a hearty thump, before shaking it up and down. “Did you miss me?”
As soon as Ted finished his first meal, he fell into a routine that remained consistent for his two weeks at the cabin: gorge himself on some delicious feast, hobble into the bedroom or living room and fall asleep on the couch as food coma took hold of him, wake up, shuffle back into the dining room, repeat. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner soon lost all distinction as Ted ate whenever he woke up from his digestive naps. Even late-night meals became a regular occurrence for him, and they were a far cry from a midnight snack. Aside from his feasts, the only other landmark of his days happened when he woke up to a new morning and checked the date on his phone to make sure he left the cabin before his vacation ended.
Other than that, Ted remained in a gluttonous stupor for the entirety of his two weeks at the cabin. When the only thing on his mind after he woke up was food, there wasn’t much difference between his pre-meal and post-meal waking hours. Before he ate, he was tired from a slumber made restless due to his engorged stomach. After he ate, he was tired from a stomach filled nearly to bursting. Either way, any time he wasn’t eating or sleeping was spent shuffling around the house from bed to table to couch to table and back, with mouth agape and eyes glazed over.
Of course, Ted’s bacchanalian retreat started accumulating on his waistline immediately. His once-loose 4XL shirt was soon tight even before his meals, and rode quite far up his stomach once he’d crammed himself full of food. After a week, he ditched the shirt entirely, preferring to shuffle around the cabin with his bare gut jutting out in front of him. Though he mostly felt tired when he wasn’t eating, his gluttonous daze had him feeling quite pleased with how he’d built his belly up, smiling as he waddled across the cabin. At the end of his meals, he’d hobble back to either his bed or the couch, breathing heavily, his mouth often flanked with the remnants of what he’d eaten, with his swollen, taut bare belly leading the way, pulling him along as he submitted to its whims. He usually give his gut some half-hearted pats as he walked, half-hearted only because the same giant mound of food that weighed down his eyelids also weighed down his arms.
For two weeks, Ted lived this way, gorging, napping, and reveling in his constant stupor and growing form until the last Sunday before he was supposed to return to work. He still lived out his day as he had until then, enjoying a breakfast, second breakfast, and most of a lunch before he heard a tone come from his pocket. With a mouth still full of fried chicken, Ted let out a groan and pulled out his phone. It seemed he’d left it on after checking the date that morning. The screen showed a calendar reminder that read, “End of vacation. Work tomorrow.”
Ted’s gut reaction was frustration, a desire to ignore his responsibilities and never leave the cabin. But as he sat at the table, looking at his phone, he knew it couldn’t last forever. He had to go back to his regular life soon. That acceptance was soon followed by the realization of everything he’d have to do when he got back: clean out his fridge and buy new groceries, buy new clothes now that his old ones assuredly no longer fit, pay bills that had probably been neglected, and so much more. It all hit him at once, and was enough to shake him from his glutted stupor. There was still a giant chocolate cake on the table, surrounded by scattered remnants of everything else he’d eaten that meal, but he knew that if he was going to get out of there without taking another nap, he had to leave without finishing the meal.
Ted tried to push himself up from the chair and immediately collapsed back down, his belly flopping down on his thighs. He knew he’d managed to get up from the table before, and he wasn’t sure what could be different that time. With a gentler push and a slower rise, Ted strained to stand, pushing himself up with several grunts until he was finally on his feet again. Several belches sprung forth from his mouth, prompting him to give his gut some pats.
To his surprise, Ted’s hand hit his belly sooner than he expected. It seemed that when he’d been shaken out of his daze, he hadn’t retained his awareness of how much he had grown. Now he was faced with the knowledge of just how much bigger he’d gotten. His gut stuck out farther and wider than his torso was tall, looking at least 65 inches around. His chest had crept farther over his stomach too, but now paled in comparison to the size of his bulbous belly. Without a mirror, he couldn’t see how much the rest of him had grown, but he was sure his body had scaled up along with his gut.
As Ted tried to leave the dining room, he found walking to be more of an issue than anticipated, even knowing how much he’d eaten. He was thankful he hadn’t started the chocolate cake before his phone went off, because that would have put him out for sure. His legs felt like they had less range of motion as he waddled his way toward the bedroom to grab his shirt. Once he had it in hand, he made his way toward the door, bracing for what would certainly be a long walk back.
But as Ted got closer to the door, it got harder for him to move. He chalked it up to his engorged belly at first, but that became less sufficient of an explanation as he kept slowing down. It felt like that moment in a dream where he was trying to run but could barely cover any distance with each step. It was like some invisible force was literally holding him back, his struggles to push against it all for naught. Soon he grew tired of fighting against it and stopped in place, still feeling the force holding him back. He arched his back like it was pulling on his shoulders, pushing his gut out even farther.
If Ted was imagining things, it wasn’t about to get any better. What sounded like the wind rustling outside started to resemble whispers, whispers that seemed to be coming from a source suspiciously close to his ears. Stay, was the first word he could make out as the murmurs materialized into words. Stay, it came through more clearly.
“Wha–?” As full as Ted was, he could scarcely take in the breath to express more surprise than that. “Who’s there?”
Stay… longer…
“Are you… talking to me?” Ted stammered as the muffled whispers swirled around him. “I… I can’t. I can’t stay.”
Stay… and eat…
“I… Are… are you the one who’s been leaving out all that food?”
A murmur resembling an affirmative “mmm” came out of the whirlwind of sound. It would be rude, he heard more clearly, To not clear your plate…
“Uh… L-Look, I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but I have to–”
Before Ted could finish his sentence, he felt the force that had been holding him back push against the top of his gut. But it wasn’t pushing him backwards. Instead he felt it rub against him in a circular motion. Was it massaging his belly?
Whatever it was doing, it worked. As Ted felt the disembodied touch feel over his swollen abdomen, he leaned back with mouth agape, feeling himself falling back into his dazed stupor. “I… I shouldn’t…” he meekly objected. “I…“
But you did…
“I… did?”
You ate and ate… Like there was no end in sight… the voice whispered. You feasted without hesitation… And you want more…
“I… I do, but…”
You’ve grown so much already… You love it… Filling yourself until you can barely move… And waking up bigger than you were before…
The voice’s words were too intoxicating for Ted to deny. “Yes…” was all he could muster in reply.
Stay… and grow! the voice finished in a slightly louder tone.
Ted’s eyes nearly closed as the force kept working his belly, making him feel quite relaxed again. “Who are you?” he mumbled with a smile.
A chuckle seemed to come out of the swirling noises. You’re in my house, Ted heard among the hubbub. Bold of you… to be asking questions…
Any other time Ted might have been scared, but the force had been massaging his gorged belly long enough that he’d fallen back into a daze. With a quiet chuckle, he tiredly replied, “You’re right.”
Now… Go… And finished what you started… he heard before the force on his stomach pushed him around and gave him a nudge back toward the dining room. It didn’t have to push him from there. Ted was all too happy to hobble back in and sit back down in front of the giant chocolate cake, looking at it with an eager smile on his face. Now… eat…
Ted grabbed the platter the cake was on and pulled it toward him. Foregoing any of the silverware that was strewn about among the wreckage, he flopped his flabby arms on the table and grabbed a pile of cake in each hand. He ate from both hands in turn at first, before shoving both handfuls of cake in his mouth at once and chewing as fast as he could. Once one pair of handfuls had been devoured, it was quickly replaced with another, Ted grunting as he wolfed down the pile of chocolate in his hands.
For his third bite, Ted stuck both hands in the cake and pulled out a giant chunk before shoving his face in it. His grunts were complemented with groans as the cake piled on top of the mound of food he’d already eaten, swelling his belly out even farther. By the time Ted reached for more cake, he found it difficult to bend forward, struggling against a solid stomach that refused to be compressed. But he pressed on for the sake of getting more cake, difficult as it was.
When only one handful of cake remained, Ted looked at it like a challenger. His rear end had slid forward in his seat, and bending forward to reach the cake seemed impossible. Every attempt resulted in no more than him stretching his arms toward the cake before letting them fall with a sigh. He was so full he could barely see the cake over his swollen gut.
But soon Ted heard the rustling surround him again. He felt the strange force on his stomach, rubbing it and making him feel relaxed. He let himself slump down in his chair farther, with a contented “Mmm”. At the same time, he heard the platter the cake was on slide over the table and looked up to see it gliding toward him, rotating so the remaining piece was closer to him.
Wasting no time, Ted reached up and grabbed the last chunk of cake. He brought it to his lips and pushed it into his open mouth, chewing lazily as his eyelids started wavering. He wasn’t sure exactly when he got the last of the piece down; all he knew was that when he looked at his hands, he saw only frosting and crumbs. He’d done it.
Ted let his arms fall limp at his sides and looked up with mouth agape, breathing shallowly. He’d slid so far down in his chair that he could no longer see over his engorged gut. Any attempts to move or shift in his seat proved futile as his belly anchored him in place. Even his arms were too tired to go anywhere.
But this proved to not be a problem, for soon Ted felt the disembodied touch on his belly again, rubbing it tenderly. As full as he was, any sort of touch was a tad painful, but the pain soon gave way to a sense of relief as the food felt like it was starting to settle. It all felt so good that Ted had no desire to move from his spot. As the strange force kept massaging his swollen stomach, Ted let the pull of food coma take him and slipped into sleep.
Ted had no idea what day it was, as the battery on his phone was long dead, nor did he much care. He’d left his phone in the pocket of his pants once he’d outgrown those and shed them to leave them on the floor. They were only a hindrance to him now, and when no one was going to see him, why not walk around the cabin in his underwear?
His boxers were the only thing he’d worn to the cabin that fit him anymore; he’d outgrown everything else His arms and legs had both swelled out to hold whatever heft his belly couldn’t. Underneath a scraggly, unkempt beard lay a double chin the joined seamlessly with his pudgy cheeks, forming a ring of fat around his face. His gut had grown to nearly the size of a yoga ball, jutting out firm and bulbous, rounded out due to constant swelling.
Ted’s belly barely bounced as he walked, in part due to the fact that he couldn’t move faster than a waddle anymore. His new girth gave him a wide gait and short stride as he walked. The fat that streamed back from his chest forced his arms to stick out diagonally as he shuffled through the cabin. His belly glided steadily ahead like it was the Marshall of a procession, and Ted could do naught but follow its lead.
It all made walking quite the ordeal for Ted, but thankfully for him, the spirit of the cabin was willing to lend a helping hand. When he found walking to the dinner table too taxing, he felt a force on the underside of his mammoth belly lift him up and give his knees some needed relief, while a strong tug behind his legs kept him moving.
But he got no such help on the way back from the dinner table, only belly rubs and reassuring words. As a result, he was falling asleep in his chair more and more frequently after meals. But this wasn’t much of a problem to Ted; it just meant he could start eating as soon as he woke up.
This was one such meal. After enjoying the food coma brought about by a loosely-Italian-themed feast, Ted woke up to a buffet spread without a discernible theme. Since his appetite had grown along with his gut, he needed to eat more food to feel full, which meant the spirit couldn’t always coordinate it all. But Ted scarcely noticed. As long as he could stuff himself into oblivion, he was satisfied.
The spirit, it seemed, felt the same way. When Ted woke up, he felt it push his back up and his pelvis back, helping him sit up in his chair. Now he could more easily reach his meal, an important consideration when he could barely stretch his arms past his gut. Thankfully for him, the spirit was willing to help there too, pushing a pan of meatloaf toward Ted until it was within his reach. As he pulled it towards himself and plopped it on top of his belly, he heard a chuckle in the whispers around him. He felt a few gentle pats on his stomach before he heard, Enjoy your feast…
The Plot Thickens 
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