From the amount of noise being made and the way that the door is roughly shoved open, you know instantly that it's your brother Garrett that is about to come through it, even before you hear his heavy footsteps. You're not sure if you're relieved or not, but you're not sure if you could find the words to properly explain to your mother what has happened, if you could even get past your embarrassment. Besides, it's too late to 'slip' out the back door now. You can hear the thud of his footsteps from the hall and Garrett lets out a loud sigh. "I'm home!"
You hold your breath as Garrett seems to fumble around in the hall and for a moment it looks like he might head straight up to his room and spare you the trouble of an explanation - for a while at least. Then suddenly, the kitchen handle dips down and he starts to comes in. You have just enough time to glance quickly around at the remaining rubbish scattered about the kitchen whilst briefly trying to tug your t-shirt down to absolutely no avail. As he walks in you cringe and start to think that you've made a serious mistake.
Garrett throws his keys down on the counter closest to the door before turning toward you and stopping in his tracks. His eyes bulge and his mouth drops open as he slowly looks you up and down. Other than blinking hard, he spends a few moments rooted to the spot in what you can only assume is disbelief. As mortified as you are, you try to splutter to life and take control of the situation.
"Look... Garrett... I know that this looks..."
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?" Garrett says loudly, perhaps understandably You're not entirely sure of the best way to explain the situation to him, but fortunately enough it quickly becomes apparent that he isn't expecting an answer. "YOU'RE HUGE!" As he finishes the sentence, Garrett takes a couple of steps gingerly forward his face a combination of shock and sheer horror. It was as if he had seen a ghost, or a bomb, or at the very least a decent sized spider. "So... did you use some kind of... industrial... strength girdle or something? Is that how you hid it? Did it finally explode off? Are there little pieces of it scattered across the..." As Garrett looks around the kitchen to emphasize his point, he trails the sentence off as he takes in the many empty boxes, bags and packets of food still strewn across the floor. "Did... you eat all this?"
It's almost more disturbing hearing Garrett talk in such a shocked, low tone and you look around, fully taking in the aftermath of your evening of gluttony. There was a shocking amount of food that found it's way into your belly and you can't believe that before now you just seemed to accept it so nonchalantly. It was ridiculous, impossible and almost certainly magical. Maybe the magic made you more accepting of what had happened somehow... but there was no point second guessing what was going on. You had to get Garrett up to speed, sort out the kitchen and get Felix's help.
"Is that..." Garrett suddenly says, looking at some of the debris on the floor before quickly moving toward and opening the fridge, giving you a wide berth to stay out of your orbit. He gasps again before slamming the fridge shut. "My chicken breasts... you ate all of my chicken breasts..."
"Chicken breasts? You mean... raw chicken breasts?" Your stomach feels decidedly queasy at the thought. "Do you think I'm going to be alright?"
"Do you have any idea how much they cost?" Garrett says, turning around slowly to face you. "There were ten chicken breasts in there... TEN!" Although his volume had gone back up, he didn't really sound angry as such – more exhausted, confused and incredulous. It was as if he was going through the poultry version of the five stages of grief.
"I'm sorry, I'll replace them I swear, I just need..."
"I was going to have a couple of those tonight after the gym," he says, his voice returning to a defeated whisper.
"I mean... at least they helped one of us to bulk up," you say, gently slapping the side of your belly and laughing weakly. Garrett glares at you, his features twist and he opens his mouth to spit something out, but you manage to cut him off. "OK, sorry, that was a stupid thing to say and I'm sorry about your food too. I will replace it, all of it, but if you've seen all the wrappers and how empty the fridge and cupboards are..."
"You ate through the cupboards too?" Garrett says, his voice rising in pitch.
"Yeah, but please let me finish. I know you're pissed and confused, but if you've seen all this then you must know I have a problem and I need help. Help from my big brother," you say pointedly, looking straight into his eyes. He groans and raises a hand to his forehead, beginning to rub it slowly whilst clamping his eyes shut.
"I hate it when you use the big brother card..." Garrett's arm falls back down to his side and he opens his eyes again to look at you and sighs. "OK fine, but you better replace my stuff. Now tell me what's going on and what you need me to do."
And you do. Between trying to accurately relay what happened and still getting used to living in your new body, you don't keep a really close eye on Garrett's reactions but he seems to take most of it in his stride. You tell him about the bullies knocking down Felix, coming to his aid and being given the magical clay and stone before moving on to the bus trip and the multiple stops at various food outlets; then coming home and beginning your eating marathon and ending as Garrett walked in the door. Although you're not exactly brief, you realise that for all of the big changes that have happened a relatively small amount of time has passed.
"OK, I believe you." Garrett says flatly.
"You do? I thought for sure when I mentioned magic and about Felix that..."
"I just got a good look at your face while you were talking and it's a lot fatter too. A girdle might have covered up your gut, but you couldn't hide your face the same way. Although if you did have a girdle around your head, you probably wouldn't have eaten all of my food," Garrett says sourly, folding his arms.
"If I had a girdle around my face, I would have suffocated."
"Then you definitely wouldn't have eaten my food." Garrett deadpans.
"Fine," you mutter, "but if we don't sort this out soon, then if – when – the hunger returns and there's nothing left to eat here, who knows what I'll do? Roam the streets, break into next door and pick their kitchen clean?"
"I doubt it. You'd probably go through the bins first, they're closer and it doesn't look like you're all that picky..."
"GARRETT!"
Garrett chuckles softly to himself and uncrosses his arms. "It's OK, calm down. Just empty your mind of all this, the worry about another 'incident', sorting out the food and cleaning up. Just focus on your weird... cat, man... friend and call out to him again."
"OK," you say, taking a deep breath and smiling at your brother. You close your eyes and begin to picture Felix, his yellow-green eyes and stripey hair, the way he looked knocked down on the ground and standing up, talking to you. You try and relive the moment that he handed the stone and clay to you, desperate for him to hear your call.
"Felix!" You roar out loudly and open your eyes. Garrett flinches a little before quickly regaining his composure and in the moments following, the silence is deafening.
"Scared you," you say to Garrett with a grin.
"Shut up." A little more time slowly passes by and nothing happens.
"This is useless. What am I going to do..." mid-sentence you're interrupted by Garrett gasping and before you can ask him what's wrong, his arm slowly rises up and points to the kitchen wall. You ponderously turn your bigger body around to look and as you resettle yourself you see the end of a sentence appear on the painted beige wall in a living, glittering gold.
--- * --- GO TO ---*---
--*-- -*- THE -*- --*--
**-*-- MIRROR --*-**
The two of you are silent for a moment, before Garrett speaks. "Which mirror do you think it means?"
"It must be the one in the hall, right?" you say, still marvelling at the shimmering message that punctuates the bland wall. If it weren't for getting really fat in the space of a day, then you'd say that this glowing writing appearing was the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you.
"OK." Garrett says energetically, clapping his hands together. "Let's go!"
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