The next week was the strangest - and perhaps even the hardest - of Luna Loud's young life. First of all, her new bod took some getting used to. She was accustomed to being slim and sleek, and kept forgetting that she had a gut sticking out in front of her. It threw off her balance and seriously impacted her maneuverability. Every time she turned around too fast, she felt like she was going to topple over, and going up the stairs, she would have to hang onto the railing because she was in serious danger of falling backwards. She could no longer squeeze through tight spaces, so she'd have to wait for the way to be free and clear. One morning, Luan was standing in the archway to the kitchen and Luna tried to get between her and the jamb; she wound up bumping Luan and almost knocking her over. "Sorry, sis," she said sheepishly, "guess I don't know my own strength."
Luan dusted herself off and got to her feet. "Be more careful with that thing, will you? You're going to kill someone."
A hot blush of shame crept up the back of Luna's neck. She didn't have very long to feel bad for herself because those terrible hunger pangs returned with a vengeance. Leaving Luan where she had (almost) fallen, Luna waddled off to the pantry to graze.
Second of all - and maybe this was paranoia - the pets acted strange around her. Every time she walked into a room, Cliff would raise his hackles and hiss at her, and if she tried to pet Charles, he's whimper and shy away. One day, she went into Lana and Lola's room to borrow something, and Lana's many animals went crazy. Her frog jumped crazily around the room, like he was trying to get away, and all the little mammals she kept in cages started to shriek and run around. Lana tried to calm them, but they wouldn't settle down until she kicked Luna out.
That was strange.
Usually, animals loved her.
Since there was no logical explanation, she shrugged it off and went to get something to eat.
That led, naturally, to the "third of all."
Her appetite. She was always hungry now, even after she ate. Usually, she'd start her day off feeling sick and queasy - sometimes even puking - but after that, she'd be ravenous. She had second and third helpings wherever she could get them, and on bad days, even that wasn't enough. She took all of the money she'd been saving for a new guitar and amp - 172.56 dollars - and blew it on food. Burpin' Burger, Chicken Shack, and Hunkin Donuts being her favorite places to pig out at. She had quickly become acquainted with every buffet in town. She liked those the best of all because for one low price, she could stay all day. She'd usually take a break to go puke in the bathroom then come back for one. One day, she camped out in the Chinese buffet for six whole hours. Finally, the owner came up to her and, in his broken English, said, "It all you can eat, not you eat all. You go home."
She didn't, but on her way, she stopped and bought some ice cream.
Worse than the constant, neverending hunger were the cravings. They weren't consistent, but they'd come out of nowhere like a fist in the dark. At first, they were of strange combinations: Pickles and peanut butter, olives and milk, noodles and ice cream. Over time, however they centered almost solely around raw meat. It first hit her on Tuesday night. Dad was making meatloaf and had to take a phone call, so he grabbed the first person he happened across to take his place. That person just happened to be Luna. She went into the kitchen and found a large metal bowl filled with raw hamburger, all pink and cold. The heavy, wild tang of blood found her nose and she breathed it in with a sigh. Her mouth started to water and the greatest pang she had felt yet seized her stomach.
She stopped herself reaching for it. No. She was not about to eat raw meat. It would probably make her sick or something. It might even kill her.
Yeah, but it smelled so good…
Alright, fine, but just a little taste.
She wound up cramming a whole handful of it into her mouth. She had never tasted anything so fucking awesome in her entire life. It was cold and gelatinous and coppery, and she could have eaten the whole thing, but she managed to pull herself away. As soon as Dad came back, Luna rushed off to the supermarket, bought the biggest, bloodiest pound of ground beef she could find, and took it to the park, where she sat on a bench and tore into it. Squishing it between her fingers, she shoved it into her mouth and swallowed without chewing. Blood and meat juice dribbled down her chin and fingers, and people walking past looked at her like she was crazy, but she didn't care. When all the meat was gone, she licked the packaging clean and then ate that too. Feeling good and full, she waddled home. Every couple days thereafter, she would gorge herself on uncooked meat, the bloodier the better. Surprisingly, raw meat was the one thing that didn't make her throw up.
All of this eating led to weight gain. Her stomach grew bigger, firmer, like a beach ball, and the rest of her body bloated with excess fat. Everyone noticed but no one said anything anymore. Like Luna, they knew something strange - and serious - was going on, so they weren't inclined to make jokes or pick on her. Lisa asked her a bunch of questions and kept demanding that Luna let her give her a check up, but Luna tried to avoid the little girl. Part of it was shame, she guessed, but another part, a much larger part, was fear. Deep down, she was scared to let Lisa look at her, because Lisa might find something really wrong with her, like cancer or something. Luna didn't think she could face that, so she resolved to bury her head in the sand and try to forget about it.
Only she couldn't. As the cravings consumed her every waking moment and her stomach grew bigger and harder, her fears became sharper, more urgent. She could deny it to everyone else, but not to herself: There was something seriously wrong with her and not knowing was sometimes harder than knowing would have been.
On Friday, Lucy held a seance in her room. The only people willing to join in were Leni, Lana, and Luan. Lucy needed one more person, so Luna was drafted against her will. Lori had come home from college for a mid-term break but didn't want to participate. When she saw Luna's condition, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "Oh, my God, are you pregnant?"
Everyone looked uncomfortable.
"No," Luna said, "just eating good."
"Real good. Look at you, you're a pork chop!"
Leave it to Lori to not mince words.
Anyway, Luna sat at a card table with Lucy, Leni, Lana, and Luan. The lights were down low and a crystal ball sat in the middle of the table. Everyone held hands and bowed their heads as if in prayer. Lucy took a deep breath and began to hum a low incantation. "Oh, spirits, grace us with your presence. Move among us and make yourselves known. Spirits, show yourselves. Spirits, answer my call. Take my body and speak through me. I am your vessel and you are my guest."
Luna opened one eye and was stunned to see the lights were even dimmer now. Mist swirled in the crystal ball and a stale draft with no logical source rustled the curtains. Luna's heart sped up and she swallowed around a lump of fear in her throat. Lucy's head flopped back and her mouth opened, a long, eerie Ahhhh issuing forth. "There is something here," she intoned. Her voice was flatter than usual, more ominous. "There is something among you already." Her head swiveled around in a limp circle.
"What?" Luan asked. "What is here with us?"
"It who comes from beyond the stars. It whose very life comes from the void of nothing."
The table began to shake, and the crystal ball seethed with colored smoke, now purple, now green. Lola cried out in fear Leni squeezed her eyes even harder, as if to blot out the terrible vision before her. The atmosphere quickly grew leaden with dread and Luna could hardly draw a breath. Her stomach clutched and some deep primal instinct told her to run, to flee before -
Before what?
She didn't know, but she was suddenly certain that she wasn't safe here, that she had to get away to protect her…self. She yanked her hands away from Lola and Leni's, breaking the circle, and all at once, it was over. The draft subsided, the dread was gone, and Lucy was bent over panting for air. Luna jumped to her feet and rushed out, retreating to her bunk where she hugged herself under the covers. It was fake, she decided, all fake; Lucy was pulling their legs and putting on a show. It was easier to believe that than it was to accept that something supernatural had occurred.
Something supernatural that, she believed deep down, involved her.
In the coming days, she pushed the seance to the back of her mind and went on with her life, eating massive amounts of food, mainly raw meat. One day, Mom and Dad called her into the living room, their expressions grave. They sat on either side of her and got really close, as if to offer her their strength. That made her mega uncomfortable, and her stomach twisted with something akin to fear. She had some idea what this was about, but she decided to play dumb. "Is there anything you want to tell us?" Mom asked.
Luna made a show of thinking about it, then shook her head. "No. Why?"
"Are you sure?" Dad asked. "We won't be mad at you."
"For what?"
"If you're pregnant."
Even though Luna was most decidedly not pregnant, a lump of ice dropped into the pit of her stomach, and a ripple of dread went through her. She didn't know why; no matter what was wrong with her, it sure wasn't that. She kinda sorta liked guys, but she was way more into girls. She'd never even had an actual boyfriend, unless you count Tommy Miller in third grad, and all they did was hold hands.
Once.
That was a long time ago. She had been with Sam almost four months and she genuinely loved Sam. She told her parents all of this, and though it took a little grunting ans straining, she got them to buy it. They still wanted her to see a doctor, and while Luna tried to get them to reconsider, that was a battle that she did not win.
Oh well.
Mom and Dad weren't the only ones who thought she was pregnant. Rumors swept through school, and she got a ton of funny looks and heard all sorts of whispers whenever she passed through the hall. Sam never said anything, but Luna caught her looking at her stomach from time to time. Luna was getting tired of people thinking that about her, so she simply ignored it. Out of sight, out of mind. There were more important things to worry about.
Like eating.
On the day after Mom and Dad's talk with her, she, Sam, and Lincoln were hanging out in the living room of the Loud house. The previous night, Luna's stomach swelled even bigger than it had been and now she looked like she was pregnant with triplets and getting ready to burst. She was trying to tune her guitar, which was no longer an easy task thanks to her prodigious gut, and she caught Sam and Lincoln staring at her. If she didn't know any better, she'd say they were both kind of turned on by her state.
"Take a picture," she grinned, "it lasts longer."
Lincoln blushed and looked away, and Sam chuckled. "I dunno, honestly, you're kind of hot when you're as big as a house." She laughed to show that she was joking…or was she?
"I don't feel hot," Luna said. "I feel gross. And worried."
"Why don't you take a pregnancy test?" Sam offered.
"Because I'm not pregnant," Luna shot back.
"You could have fooled me," Sam said. "Look at you. There's being fat, and then there's…this. Normal fat people's stomachs are hard as rocks, and they don't eat the way you do. You also glow, which is another surefire sign of being pregnant."
Luna had obviously considered the possibility, but didn't want to, and had rejected it as impossible. How could she be pregnant? She'd never had sex with a guy. She said as much, but both Sam and Lincoln kept pushing.
"Come upstairs with me," Sam said.
Sighing, Luna got up and followed Sam upstairs. "Where are you going?" Lincoln asked.
"We'll be right back," Sam said cryptically.
Upstairs, Sam led Luna into the bathroom and produced a pregnancy test. Luna was hesitant to take it but Sam persuaded her. Luna sat on the toilet, naked from the waist down except for purple ankle socks. Her stomach was so big that she had to cock her butt asnd lean heavily to one side so that Sam could slide the test underneath her. "Alright," Sam said, "now pee."
The problem was, Luna didn't have to pee, so she strained and grunted for almost five minutes until it finally came. The stream splattered the test and Sam, kneeling before her, grimaced and looked away. Either she was completely disgusted by having to do this, or she was majorly turned on and didn't want Luna to know it. It could have been either one. When Luna was done, Sam carefully slipped the test out from between Luna's legs and carried it over to the sink. Luna struggled into her skirt and walked over, where they both waited. The lines in the little window on the test came into view, and Luna's heart dropped.
There was no denying it now.
She was pregnant.
Sam shot her a dirty look, and Luna grasped for words. "I-I swear, I haven't been with anybody. I promise you, Sam." Hot tears welled in her eyes and her lips began to quiver. "I swear to God, I don't know how this could have happened."
For a moment, Sam simply stared at her, looking for traces of deceit, then she let out a deep breath and raked her hand through her blonde hair. "If you say so, fine. But people don't just magically get pregnant. Something had to have happened. Maybe Lincoln jerked off on the toilet seat and you sat on it…"
Luna started to sob.
"Or maybe it happened some other way," Sam said and wrapped her arms around Luna. She held her as closely as Luna's bulging stomach would allow and rubbed a comforting circle between the rocker's shoulder blades.
Getting hold of herself, Luna sniffed and said, "Please don't tell anyone. I-I can't deal with it right now."
"I won't," Sam promised, "but we can't just act like nothing. What do we do next?"
Luna thought about it for a second. "I need to see a doctor."
"Alright, yeah," Sam said, "that makes sense. Come on."
Sam helped Luna into her boots and then they went downstairs, where Lincoln was sitting on the couch. He looked up when they came into the room. "Well?" he asked.
"We gotta run to the store," Sam lied.
Before Lincoln could protest, they were out the door and on their way to the local free clinic. It was partly run by Planned Parenthood so Luna had always assumed it was an abortion mill, but apparently they offered prenatal care as well. That'd be like if you could get fried chicken and pet chickens at the same restaurant, but whatever, Luna was happy she had the option.
The clinic was on the corner of Forest Lawn Drive and Park Place. Screened behind a white picket fence and a veil of trees, it looked like a normal old house from the street. Tall and stately with yellow siding, white trim, and bay windows, the only indication that it was anything but an ordinary residence was the hinged wooden sign out front, gold writing on a green background. FREE CLINIC. A door led into a hallway that serviced a kitchen at the back of the house, and an archway to the right opened onto a sun-dappled parlor where a few people waited in kitchen chairs to be seen by the doctor. A woman sat behind a desk and smiled at Sam and Luna when they walked. "Hi," she said.
"Hi," Luna said nervously. "I-I think I'm pregnant and need to see somebody."
The woman's eyes flicked down to Luna's stomach, her painted on smile never faltering, even as she spoke. "I think you are," she said. She grabbed a clipboard and handed it to Luna along with a pen. "Fill this out, please."
"Do I bring it back?" Luna asked uncertainly.
"Yep. The bring it back when you're done, the doctor will see you."
Cool.
Luna took the pen and clipboard and then sat in one of the chairs, Sam sitting next to her. Luna filled out the forms while Sam looked around, her hands tapping restlessly on her knees. She was clearly getting bored, which wasn't much of a surprise. Luna loved Sam to pieces, but she had the attention span of a goldfish. As Luna filled out the forms - which asked for every shred of information about her, her medical history, and her family that whoever wrote it could think of - a nurse called everyone in the room one by one until it was just Sam, Luna, and the receptionist. Finally, Luna was done. She handed the clipboard to Sam and asked her to take it up for her, which Sam did. The receptionist got up, took the clipboard, and left the room with it.
For a while, Sam and Luna both paged through six month old magazines, waiting for something to happen. The receptionist never came back, and Luna had no choice but to assume that she had gone on a lunch break. Sam closed her magazine and sat it aside. "Do you know what you're going to do yet?"she asked.
"What do you mean?" Luna asked.
"Like…are you gonna keep it or…?"
She trailed off, leaving the thought unfinished between them. For a second, Luna stared at her blankly, then Sam's meaning dawned on her. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again because she didn't know what she planned to do. The thought of having an abortion had never crossed her mind, and she doubted that it ever would have if someone else hadn't planted it there (looking at you, Sam). Luna was pro-choice all the way, but she 100 percent was not into killing babies.
A spasm of pain wracked Luna's stomach and she grimaced in pain.
"You can give it up for adoption, I mean," Sam said quickly. "If you want to. I didn't mean to freak you out or anything."
Another burst of pain erupted in Luna's midsection, and she gritted her teeth. "No, it's not that," she said, "it's -"
Her words turned into a moan when her stomach clenched. It began to rumble sickly and Sam's jaw dropped. Luna's stomach was visibly rippling underneath her shirt. It shook lightly and started to swell, as though it were being pumped full of air. Her nipples were suddenly hard and achy and the graze of the cotton fabric against them made Luna suck a silent intake of breath. Her stomach shook and bounced as it expanded, and finally, it fell still, sticking out much farther than it had a few minutes ago. Sam let out a soft "Wow" of wonderment and Luna slumped back in her chair, exhausted.
This had happened a dozen times before, but this go around was different. Not only did her nipplesw hurt, but they felt kind of…sticky.
"What the fuck?" Sam asked.
Luna looked down at her shirt and saw two dark patches spreading out from her breasts. Luna almost panicked, this she remembered Mom being pregnant with Lily…and Lisa…and the twins…and Lucy. She didn't remember her being pregnant with Lynn and Lincoln too well, but all the other times, her nipples leaked, and she would have to wear a special bra to keep the milk from seeping out. "I think I'm lactating," Luna said, a touch of amazement in her voice.
"What? No way."
Not caring who saw - even though the waiting room was empty - Luna lifted her shirt up over her swollen breasts. Clear, runny liquid disgorged from her milk fattened nipples and dribbled down her massive boulder of a stomach. Sam gaped at them, and Luna moaned. "They feel constipated," she said. And they did. Her breasts ached for release. Her body was ready but there was nothing here to suck the milk from her boobs. "I need to go milk myself," Luna said. "I don't even know how to do it."
She turned and noticed that Sam was staring intently at her breasts, the tip of her tongue unconsciously licking her bottom lip. Luna called her name, and Sam looked up at her with a wicked little glint in her eyes. "I'll do it," she said.
Luna started to protest but Sam latched onto her nipple like a kitten at its mother's teeth and began to suckle. Instantaneous relief came over Luna's left breast as her overfull milk ducts began to flow. Sam licked Luna's nipple and coaxed the milk out, a look of bliss on her face. The sweet nectar filled her mouth and splashed warmly down the back of her throat, rich and warm and heavenly. It tasted like no milk she had ever had before - sweeter and fuller - and a shiver of delight went down her spine. She massaged Luna's other nipple as she sucked, then moved onto that one. The second produced far more than the first. It filled her mouth like a cup and then spilled over, coursing down her chin in whitish rivers and dripping over the front of her shirt. Sam threw her head back and swallowed, then went back for more.
This whole time, Luna gripped the arms of her chair, rubbed her thighs together, and stared up at the ceiling through slitted eyes. She took deep breaths and tried to quell the fire rising in her loins. Her pussy was so wet that her panties and inner thighs were soaked, and her clit tingled insistently, begging for the same attention that her nipples were getting. Luna desperately wished that Sam would finger her while doing this but the pleasure she was already getting was so great that she couldn't even speak. Imagine the feeling you get when you finally pee after a long, long time waiting - that bladder emptying moment of utter bliss - combined with the strongest sexual stimulation imaginable. Even without Sam touching her between her legs, she was hurtling toward orgasm. The only thing that stopped her was the sound of the front door opening and closing. Sam pulled away from her in a flash and Luna quickly covered her breasts and snapped her legs closed. Moments later, an old couple came in and sat down, then, as if on cue, the receptionist returned.
Damn.
She was so close too.
Luna debated going to the bathroom to jill off real quick, but it was too late; the nurse was leaning out of a door to the back and calling for her.
The nurse led her to a room in the back and had her lay on a padded table covered with that awful doctor's office wax paper shit. She laid a sheet across Luna's lap and had Luna pull her shirt up over her belly. She wheeled over an ultrasound machine, smeared the corded detachable paddles (and Luna's stomach) with cold jelly, and switched the machine on. Sam sat in a chair at Luna's left and watched as the nurse glided the paddles over Luna's stomach. The nurse looked at the screen in confusion, and pressed harder. Luna didn't know what she was looking at, so she waited patiently.
"Huh," the nurse said.
There was something in her tone that Luna didn't like.
"What?" Luna asked.
Instead of replying, the nurse moved the paddles slightly to the left. Her look of puzzlement deepened. "What is it?" Luna asked again.
Taking a deep breath, the nurse said, "There's nothing there."
That statement made such little sense that Luna's brain refused to process it. "What?" Sam asked in her stead.
"I'll be right back."
Setting the paddles aside, the nurse left the room, and Sam and Luna looked at each other. "She said nothing's there?" Luna asked, confused.
"That's not possible," Sam said. "You're definitely pregnant."
Momentarily, the nurse came back with a doctor. "I'm sure you made a mistake," he was saying. He introduced himself, put more jelly on Luna's stomach, and had a look for himself. He moved the paddled around Luna's stomach in a wide circle, getting as high and low as possible. Luna studied his face for some clue as to what he was thinking. "Huh," he said in the same tone as the nurse.
"There's nothing there?" Sam asked.
The doctor shot her a dirty look. "You know there's nothing there. You two are playing some kinf of twisted prank."
"No we're not," Luna said.
"Yes you are." He stepped aside and pointed at the door. "Leave my clinic now."
Heads down and shoulders slumped, Luna and Sam trudged out.
As soon as they were gone, the nurse took out her phone and shot off a text.
We got another one, it said.