Reus Village

Chapter 1

"So let me get this straight," began Lauren, towering up to her full 10'2 height as she put her hands on her wide, full hips, glowering down at the 5'8 Kevin, her recently-avowed ex-boyfriend, "You are gonna break up with me...heheh...because you don't like how I treat you!?"

"Th-that's...that's right, Lauren!" Kevin stammered timidly, though he was making his best effort to project confidence and resolve. He had rehearsed this scene many times to himself already. "You...you t-treat me like crap and...a-and I've had enough!"

Lauren made a point of slowly shifting her weight over to one hip, knowing full well how the alluring angle of her curves would tease and taunt the poor man. The fact that she was decked out in a sexy, dark-red skirt, with black tights outlining her huge, shapely legs, was icing on the cake. She didn't really care if Kevin was breaking up with her or not -- she could take him or leave him. It wasn't like she couldn't scoop up some other submissive sap off the street whenever she felt like it. What irked her in the moment, though, was that he had actually had the balls to go through with the break-up. Lauren had known for a while that Kevin was miserable in their relationship, but the truth was that his happiness just didn't matter that much to her. He was the one who should be feeling lucky, scoring a bombshell like her.

"You've had enough," Lauren repeated, spearing the inside of her cheek with her tongue as she stared down sarcastically at her overmatched former partner. She brushed her shoulder-length dark brown hair out of her teal-colored eyes, tilting her head slowly to the side. She was savoring the effort of his rehearsed break-up speech. "Hmmmm, you know, Kevin, I think you've got it backward -- you're the one who's been dating above your pay grade this whole time. And then you have the nerve to break up with me!?"

"Y-Yes!" exclaimed Kevin. Lauren immediately burst out laughing, making him blink rapidly in embarrassment. He had tried to sound brave...he really had. But when Lauren's crotch was a full 6 inches above his head, his attempts at presenting a confident visage dissolved in the wake of the sheer size comparison before him. His entire body was smaller than one of Lauren's legs.

"Ahahahaha! Oh...oh that's...that's just rich!" Lauren intoned, pretending to brush a tear out of her eye as she leaned down over Kevin, engulfing him completely in her shadow. Her big, strikingly-teal eyes bored down into him, causing him to back up into the wall, where he couldn't escape. Lauren just stood there, relishing the power she had over him, enjoying the sight of his measly little body squirming around in her shadow. In times past, she would probably say a few degrading things to him, pick him up, boss him around, and show him how much bigger and stronger she was.

But really, if she was actually being truthful with herself, Lauren wasn't enjoying herself right now. It annoyed her that Kevin was leaving her, just because it was his last desperate act of independence. It wasn't even worth trying to keep him. That would mean she'd need to take the trouble to wrangle some other dude...but that would be a pain in the ass, and in any case, how on earth was anyone going to measure up to her!? Even the tallest "hottest" guys were only like 6'5, 6'6 -- they came up to the top of her hips! No one could match her...no one. When she had started growing, it had been a powerful feeling. But now that she dwarfed everyone so completely, it was just annoying.

*WHAM*

Lauren smacked her hand into the wall, high above Kevin's head, making him flinch. Her mouth curved into a disdainful grin as she chuckled above him, pushing herself off the wall and turning on her heel to leave his apartment. She didn't even give him one last look -- she was already out the door, flicking him off with a long finger, her huge, juicy ass shaking and gyrating back and forth in her tight red skirt as she left.

"So long, pipsqueak," she called over her shoulder, "You just never measured up. Good luck finding someone like ME ever again."

She slammed the door behind her, cracking the drywall, and a few seconds later she was striding out of Kevin's apartment building. Scowling at the normal-sized people staring at her blankly, she put on her sunglasses and stalked down the street, towards her own apartment building a few blocks away. She hadn't walked more than a block's distance when she heard an audible rip around her legs.

"Oh for fuck's sake...!" she complained out loud, bending down to inspect the damage. Sure enough, her black tights had started tearing, and the ones on her right leg had started ripping all the way down the middle.

"I just bought these!" Lauren huffed to herself. And now that she was bending down low, she felt the tightness of her red skirt against her big ass. She straightened up, knowing that if she stayed crouched down in that position, her skirt would start to tear too.

"And if THAT wasn't enough," Lauren sighed out loud...and she held her feet, one after the other, as she tried to wiggle her toes inside her black flats, to get them some extra room. But there wasn't any extra room. Her feet seemed to be constantly constricted these days, to the point where it was actually starting to make her crazy.

"You know what...screw it!" Lauren exclaimed out loud, and one by one she ripped her shoes off, exposing her pantyhosed feet to the bare sidewalk. It didn't surprise her in the least to see her purple-painted toenails poking through the torn hose fibers. She felt a surge of anger, even as she knew that it was cover for the sinking feeling that was dropping down in the middle of her stomach. She was still growing, and showing no signs of stopping.

Sensing the attention, she jerked her head up, catching a group of young adults who were staring at her from across the street.

"What are YOU twerps looking at!?" she barked out at them. Her loud, sonorous voice carried powerfully on the air, and they all scattered immediately. Lauren chucked to herself, trying to find some solace in the effortless power she had over these little punks...but she just couldn't cheer herself up right now. It felt like every atom in her huge body was buzzing with irritation. She just wanted someone to walk past and insult her, so she could lash out at them. But fortunately enough for any people who passed by her, they were much too intimidated to say anything. A few minutes later she reached her apartment, and, with an annoying amount of effort, managed to squeeze her way inside.

"Pssh, look at this crappy little place," Lauren muttered to herself, flinging her arms at the slightly-disheveled apartment. At first glance, her living area looked like it was cluttered, and hadn't been kept up well, but upon closer inspection, it became clear that this was no ordinary "clutter." The splintered remains of two wooden chairs lay heaped up unceremoniously in one corner, while the unsightly mess in the middle of the room turned out to be a caved-in coffee table. The refrigerator was missing its handle, which had apparently been wrenched off and broken in two, and several cabinet doors were loose and crooked, with one of them barely hanging on by its hinges.

"What a dump!" Lauren huffed, collapsing her huge body down in a giant, purple bean-bag chair, the only item of furniture left that she could sit on without breaking. For a few silent moments, she surveyed her cramped apartment with a sour, surly expression, scowling with evident bad-temper at the piles of broken furniture. She hadn't asked for this...she hadn't asked for ANY of this. A few months ago, she had just started growing...and growing...and growing...and it hadn't stopped. No one knew what was wrong, not even the three separate doctors she had been to. And what's worse, the bigger and taller she got, the more annoyed she became at everyone. Even the most basic errand inevitably involved a whole host of unwanted ganders from the tiny people she had to deal with. At first, some of the stares had been mocking, and even aggressive, but once she had grown past seven feet, they had quickly dissolved into meek and awestruck glances.

But Lauren was so sick of it all -- the unwanted attention, the clothes that wouldn't fit, the furniture that kept breaking, the people who just wouldn't get the hell out of her way. She knew that she hadn't always been this much of an arrogant bitch, but she just didn't care anymore. She moved faster than them; she was stronger than them; she could do everything quicker...she just didn't have the same hang-ups that ordinary people had in their day-to-day lives. In pretty much any sense she could think of, she was superior to them. And so, after all, in her mind, it made sense that she came off as arrogant and bossy. How could it be any other way!?

"Speaking of which..." Lauren said out loud. She picked up her phone and, with effort (since it was so tiny now compared to her huge hands), dialed the number of the furniture store that she had ordered from the previous week. Well-aware that her order wasn't past due yet, Lauren just felt like right now, she needed someone to yell at.

"Haverty's Furniture," answered a crisp and professional voice, moments later.

"Hello, this is Lauren Albrecht," Lauren announced imperiously into her phone, holding it between her thumb and index finger, "And I was just calling to check up...again...on my order."

"Oh! Oh...y-yes, yes of course, Ms. Albrecht," stammered the employee quickly. "Let me, u-uhm...let me check on that for you."

Lauren had paid the store a personal visit a few days before, and none of the employees, including the one on the phone, would soon forget the imposing and angry giantess who had stalked around the store, loudly complaining about why she wasn't getting special treatment. If it had been a normal person behaving that way, the store would not have hesitated to call the police, but with a 10-foot giantess, it was just different. Everyone had been afraid of escalating the situation, and had instead placated Lauren with simpering gestures of apology.

"I thought I made it clear before how URGENT this order is," Lauren persisted, taking absolutely no pity on the wretched man on the other end. "I'm literally staring at a pile of broken furniture that my fat ass snapped last week, and I'm reeeeeally starting to get tired of not having anything to replace it with."

"I--I understand, Ms. Albrecht," stammered the man, "B-But...but you see...uhm, w-well, your, uh, your special order...it has to be custom-made, especially given the uhm...the dimensions you sp-specified, and so, uhhh --"

"So you're saying this is all MY fault, huh?" Lauren snapped back, kicking her feet up into the air and wiggling her toes through her torn pantyhose. She was enjoying taking out her frustration this way.

"N-no! No of course not, Ms. Albrecht!" returned the sales rep quickly. "I just...I j-just wanted to explain to you why, uhm, you know...your order still hasn't arrived yet."

"Am I going to have to come back down there?" asked Lauren ominously, "To speed things up?"

"Oh...no, n-no, please, Ms. Albrecht, that, uhm...that won't be necessary -- I will make sure that, uhh, that I notify the manager that...that you called, and h-hopefully that will...a-as you said, speed things up."

"Well it better," Lauren finished decisively. "Otherwise I WILL come back down there. And I won't be as nice as I was last time."

She abruptly hung up and took a few deep breaths. For a minute or so she felt a little better, basking in the afterglow of bossing that little guy around, but soon the irritated restlessness returned. Her stomach growled. She was always hungry these days, and the more she grew, the worse her hunger became. It wasn't enough to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, even if each of those meals had become a 2,000-plus calorie binge for her -- starting about a week ago, Lauren had started having to supplement her three giant main course meals with large "snacks," usually ordered en masse from one of the local fast food restaurants. As soon as her stomach had growled, Lauren huffed out an annoyed sigh, rolling her eyes as she opened her phone again and called the number of the local burger joint, which she had on speed dial. When she heard the click of the person on the other end answering her call, she didn't even wait for them to start speaking.

"Three number 5's, extra large fries, hold the mayo and pickles...and make it fast," she muttered into her phone.

"Right away, ma'm!" exclaimed the teenager on the other end, who was used to Lauren's orders at this point and knew exactly where to deliver them.

Lauren hung up and tossed her phone aside, sighing out again as she tried to spread her huge body out on the purple bean bag chair. She looked up at the ceiling, blinking at the white, artfully-spackled caulk. A few months ago she hadn't even noticed these little details about the ceiling -- but now she was all-too-familiar with ceilings in general, since she spent much of her time crouching to avoid smacking her head into them. Those ceiling designs weren't made to look at up close...they weren't made for her. This room wasn't made for her...nothing was made for her. In every sense, Lauren was completely displaced and untethered: a giantess freak who couldn't go anywhere or do anything without breaking something, without making people stare. She hated it all with every fiber of her being, to the point where she didn't care how much of a bitch she was to other people. At least she could obtain some sort of smug, cheap, fleeting pleasure by lording herself over all those "normal" people...but deep down, Lauren knew that she was just using them as punching bags to vent her own frustration. She was totally, inescapably miserable.

Lauren didn't know how long she stared up at the ceiling like that, zoning out, and letting herself sink down into a gloomy, catatonic stupor. These brief spells of bodily dissociation were the rare moments when she actually felt like she could catch a break from her predicament, when she could just "float in the ether" and forget that she was 10'2, and getting bigger. It wasn't a particularly pleasant state of mind, but at least it wasn't outwardly wretched -- it was just nothing...gray, blank, nothingness...

A knock on her door suddenly startled Lauren out of her reverie. She bolted upright, the little mesh beans in her beanbag seat hissing against each other. Her eyebrows creased together as she reached over for her phone to look at the time...yes, she had only ordered ten minutes before. How on earth had they prepared her food and brought it over in that amount of time!?

'They must have already had it pre-made,' Lauren thought to herself, standing up and beginning to stride towards the door, 'Knowing that I'd order...huh...it better not be cold.'

She felt a certain sense of satisfaction, knowing that the restaurant feared her wrath enough to pre-make her orders, but she was not going to accept sub-quality food.

'I'll test the food before the delivery person leaves,' she thought, putting her hand on the doorknob, 'And he better hope it's hot, or else I am NOT going to be happy.'

She wrenched open the door, opening her mouth to say something like, 'Record time! You all didn't pre-make this, did you?' and expecting to watch the poor little delivery guy stammer and stutter his way through a response. But Lauren just stood there with her mouth open, with no words coming out. It wasn't the delivery guy standing in front of her, as she had expected. Instead, it was a small, middle-aged woman, professionally-dressed in a smart-looking black blazer, with black dress pants to match. Her blond hair was done up in a tight bun, and her piercing blue eyes stared straight up into Lauren's, showing absolutely no sign of intimidation. She held a black leather briefcase in her right hand. Lauren also subconsciously noticed that this woman had not taken a step back when she opened the door...something every other person had been doing for weeks, ever since she got above 7 feet.

"Hello," intoned the woman pleasantly, inclining her head slightly to the side as she looked up at Lauren, "Are you Ms. Lauren Albrecht?"

Lauren was so discombobulated by the appearance of the unexpected visitor, by the visitor's composure, and by the fact that this woman knew Lauren's name, that she couldn't answer for several seconds. She simply stood there, blinking down at the woman, who continued to stare back at her coolly, patiently waiting for an answer. Eventually, Lauren regained her composure and put her hands on the door frame, leaning down towards the woman in an effort to intimidate her. She figured this was probably the new burger joint manager or something.

"Yeah, that's me," she replied, in her best attempt at gruff offhandedness. "Where's my food?"

The woman blinked slowly a couple times, maintaining her patient demeanor, even as she inclined her head a bit more to the side.

"I'm sorry...your food?" she asked simply.

"Food...yes," Lauren replied rudely, now taking a step outside her apartment so that she could stand up to her full height and put her hands on her hips, to make herself seem even larger. But the woman didn't budge, and instead just kept staring up at her inquiringly, as if asking for an elaboration. When she saw that her ploy at intimidation hadn't worked, Lauren felt herself becoming frustrated, even as she was inwardly impressed at this woman's apparent bravery.

"I ordered from you guys," Lauren explained, "Where is it?"

The woman broke into a smile and laughed...a light, amiable laugh that puzzled Lauren further.

"Ahh I see now!" the woman chuckled, "You're expecting a delivery -- that explains the mix-up." She straightened her head, staring up at Lauren as her blue eyes twinkled. "I'm sorry, Ms. Albrecht, but that's all just a coincidence. I'm not here to deliver food; my visit concerns a much more important matter."

"That's hard to believe," Lauren remarked dryly, hands still on her hips, unimpressed. "And whatever you're selling, I don't want it. So get lost before I lose my temper."

She turned around and ducked her head back into her apartment, and would have shut the door behind her without even turning to look. But something about this woman intrigued her, and she turned to glance back at her. And then, against her instincts (which were exhorting her to slam the door in the woman's face), Lauren asked:

"How did you know my name?"

"Mhm, that's the least I know about you, Ms. Albrecht," answered the woman genially. "We've had our eye on you for some time, ever since you got past 7 feet."

"You've had your...what!?" asked Lauren severely, now turning back around completely as she stared aggressively down at the woman. "What the hell is going on here?? So you're saying you've been...spying on me!?"

"Well, keeping tabs on you, yes," nodded the woman. She stepped forward, but not far enough so that she was actually in Lauren's apartment. "Allow me to introduce myself -- my name is Gail Farnsworth, and I work for the National Institute of Auxology and Endocrinology."

Lauren blinked a couple times, not moving.

"Never heard of it," she retorted sharply after a few seconds. She did not at all appreciate learning that people had been watching her without her knowing about it, but at the same time, Lauren could feel herself warming to some strange feeling that had taken root inside her. This woman spoke so confidently, and held herself so naturally, that Lauren couldn't help but be intrigued. Still, though, she maintained her usual brusque and unpleasant aura, out of habit more than anything else.

"Well, we do try and stay out of the spotlight, it's true," smiled Gail, as she shifted her weight to one leg, leaning casually against Lauren's door frame. "It's best for our compound's residents that they don't receive too much media attention, given that the main reason they all agreed to be there in the first place was so they could have some semblance of a normal life."