FEF Origins: Rachel, Pt. 1

PREVIOUSLY…

Rachel, a nondescript young woman—she’s literally given no descriptors other than the chubby—wakes up one morning hungry, her only immediate food source being eaten by her nameless housemate. Naturally, Rachel eats her. She’s then confronted by her other housemate, named Lauren. Rachel comes clean, and they decide to feed Rachel a (stuffed) third-party, Sharona. Lauren, deciding now is a good time to try vore herself, tries to eat Rachel, but slips on errant pizza grease, leaving her easy pickings as well. Stuffed with threeish people, Rachel is soon found by the final housemate, Grace…

GRACE, THE ENORMOUS

Rachel had been chubby at first. The two roommates she had eaten were both fatter than her; Lauren in particular by a good bit, and third-party Sharona had outweighed Lauren by a at least fifty pounds. Sharona was also among the heaviest people in the complex.

“Oh, geez, Rachel…” Grace began.

Grace, however, was the heaviest person in the complex, present company included. Even Rachel, with five-hundred pounds of fatty in her gut on top of her already-fattening frame, was dwarfed by Grace’s general… bigness. And, clad in mammoth shorts and a perfunctory bra, that bigness—all 800+ lbs. of it—was  on display, with cellulite-studded columns for legs that brushed against each other hopelessly, a butt-shelf deep enough to hold a dinner plate, four-feet wide hips, a knee-knocking belly, and bowling-ball tits. If Rachel wasn’t so stuffed and pinned by her own bulk, she might have considered having one more bite. Hell, she still might.

Grace waddled her way over to her bloated roommate…

TOO FAT, TOO FULL

Rachel positioned her arms back and palms to the tile floor, ready to launch herself at her next meal. But opening her mouth in preparation for her lunge revealed not a maw ready for more but a kitchen-shaking “OOOUUURRRRRAAAPPP!!!”

And then there was an awkward silence, as Rachel, shocked from the belch that had unexpectedly ripped out, abandoned her plan immediately. That was a belch of ‘too much for now.’ There was no way she could eat Grace with her stomach the as full as it was. Speaking of Grace… she stood motionless nearby, just out of reach, staring at Rachel and her girth curiously.

“Uh…” Rachel babbled, “we’re, uh, out of food in the apartment. Sorry, Grace.” She rubbed her stomach meaningfully. “I was really hungry.” God did she hope Grace bought that.

“Yeah, sure.” Eyes still on Rachel, Grace opened one of the two fridges in the kitchen—it was a fat girl apartment, after all—and found it well-stocked. “You missed a fridge, then.”

“Oh—urp!—imagine that.”

Grace sighed as she offered the grounded babe a hand. “I knew one of you three would eat the others, but I always figured it’d be Lauren. Not you, Rachel.”

Rachel did her best to hide her shock. “Eat the others? Grace, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Grace shook her head, brown curls bouncing along. “Oh, c’mon, Rachel… Your belly is bigger than you are, for pete’s sake! And even if I did believe that you somehow managed to get that big off of normal food, a)we still have plenty of it, and b) there’s no one else in the apartment, and I don’t think I would be the first to find you like this. Now are you gonna take my hand or what?”

Rachel, confused and beaten by the larger woman’s inescapable logic, relented and accepted the hand. With a few grunts of exertion, Grace managed to help Rachel on to her feet.

Rachel groaned, sore from the ordeal. Her butt, slowly growing and stretching her sweats, hurt, and her boobs were beginning to feel constrained by her bra. And her belly, magnificent thing that it was, did not appreciate it or its contents being bent and pressed like it had been.

“You’re going to want to avoid falling over,” Grace said helpfully. “It gets really difficult to get back up.”

HELPFUL GRACE, CONFUSED RACHEL

In part due to her size, Rachel figured, Grace had seldom interacted with their roommates. It wasn’t like they never saw her, but whatever it was Grace did, she did by herself. And so Rachel realized she knew nothing about the enormous woman who had helped her up.

“So you’re not, uh, surprised by me eating the others?” Rachel asked.

“Yes, I mean, no. Like I said, I would have pegged Lauren the feedee to have tried to wolf you two down. You doing it though? Not so much.” Grace patted Rachel’s engorged middle, which sloshed to the touch. “Still, I’m glad it was you—Lauren kinda got on my nerves.”

Rachel shrugged. “She tried, you know. And she was alright. Although,” Rachel licked her lips, “She was better as food than a friend.”

Grace nodded. “I could see that.”

“But I meant about the eating people thing in general.”

Grace laughed, her entire body jiggling with her. “You think I got this big without munching a person or four?” Suddenly Grace’s size had a new meaning. Rachel backed away apprehensively. “Oh, don’t be that way. I already said I liked you, and besides, if I wanted to eat you, I’m pretty sure you were helpless just moments ago, never mind having known you for as long as we’ve lived together. Use your head and not your stomach, Rachel!”

She had a point, Rachel was forced to admit, though she still felt a need to be wary. But another concern crossed her mind. “So, then, if you’re not going to eat me, then now what? How do we explain the missing people, or the fact that I’m, uh, huge? Now what?”

Grace looked at her, a smirk daintily resting on her fat face.

“HOW ABOUT WE GRAB SOMETHING TO EAT?”

Our portly protagonist stared at her elephantine remaining roommate. “Now, when you say ‘something,’ what do you mean by that? Something McDonald’s, or something more, uh…” She placed her hands on the far curvature of her belly, which even as she spoke was softening and dispersing its tens of thousands of calories to the rest of her body. “…more complicated?”

“Hmm… Well, what would you like? I’ve worked up an appetite helping you up, regardless, but I’m cool with whatever you choose.” Grace answered.

Rachel fidgeted embarrassedly. “Today started with me being really hungry, and thinking we had no more food… and then I ate three people. So, uh… I wouldn’t mind holding off eating anything, for just a little bit.”

Grace chuckled. “Ha! I bet they wished you had held off eating in the first place!”

“Yeah, probably.”

Grace nodded as best as she could with her plethora of chins. “Alright. Well, I’m gonna go change. You rest up and make some room, okay? When I’m dressed, we get to do what I pick.”

“Okay.” The two waddled off to their respective rooms, and Rachel soon found herself where it had all began. Rubbing her belly lovingly, she eased her bulk gently onto her mattress, and before she knew it, had fallen asleep.

“ARE YOU READY?”

Rachel was dreaming.

She dreamt she was eating. Eating food, glorious food. Heaps of the stuff. Pounds. Tons. And no longer was it just food; it was people, too. Her roommates, Sharona, Grace, her fat friend Heather, her skinny friend Sarah, her co-workers Sandy and Rick and the rest… Everyone she knew. Everything. And she was enormous, a stomach with no limit, her fat surging up and out until there was nothing left, till she no longer resembled a person but a blob in the shape of one, till she could no longer move her head from the encroaching fat, still she ate and ate.

And then she was thin again, or at least, small and mobile, as she ran for her life from other enormously fat women, stomping after her in ungainly waddles like obese T-rexes, unrecognizable women who grew taller than buildings and whose names she somehow knew. Marissa? Cassandra?

And she stumbles, and one of them bends down and picks her up, lifts her higher and higher and higher until she’s over their open mouth, tongue lolling, lips smacking, and she’s dropped, down, down, down into the dark---

With a gasp, Rachel woke up, and noticed two things. One, she had tried to sit up when she awoke, and couldn’t, because of her new fat. Second, she was significantly fatter now. “Oh my god,” she muttered, examining herself. Her lower half had swelled so much as to utterly stretch her sweats taut; between her thighs and basketball behind, there had ceased to be and kind of give in the waistband, almost painfully so. Three-inch deep lovehandles hung from the side, connected to her pudgy back and jutting belly, the remnant of her first feast. As she had laid down, its gelatinous mass had spooled out onto the bed, but upright, she found it to completely fill, then overflow, her lap, spilling over the sides to mid-thigh. The t-shirt she had worn was bunched up around her breasts, swollen to cantaloupes size; a little fidgeting revealed to her that her bra had since broken, the back clasp having snapped free. Her upper arms, now the size of a loaf of rye bread and resembling a pale jiggly sausage, were trapped within the confines of a smaller person’s sleeves. Reveling and wincing at the tightness her upper body felt, she moved her arms about as hard as she could.

There was almost immediately a satisfying rip, and soon she had both torn shirt and broken bra off. Going through her clothes for a replacement top, she settled on the biggest “boyfriend” shirt she could find, a 4XXL. God, who wore that, she wondered. No matter. She pulled it over her girls, not bothering with a bra; she knew she had nothing that’d fit, and didn’t yet trust Grace enough to borrow one of hers.

Speaking of Grace, the wide woman now stood in the doorway. “Oh, good,” she said, earnest. “You’re awake.”

“Yeah,” Rachel muttered, “awake, and dealing with all of this.” She ran her hands down the new curves of her body.

“Both you and your body get used to it all, after a while.” Grace said. “But you also need to show some restraint, or else you get caught or stuck or, you know, whatever.” Their bellies grumbled simultaneously and almost frighteningly loudly. “You hungry?”

Rachel mulled a second before breaking out in a grin. “Star—ving.”

“Good, then you’ll like what I have in mind.”

HUNGRY GRACE, OFFENDED RACHEL

“I think I’ll show you where and how I hunt.” Grace said.

“Hunt? You still eat people?” Rachel asked.

Grace laughed. “Hon, just because I didn’t eat your scrawny behind doesn’t mean I’m a vegan. I kept you gals around because one really fat girl by herself is suspicious when people go missing, especially when she’s never seen. But an apartment full of fatties? Visible, social fatties who are seen to eat food? Well, that’s just that, and people move on.”

“So that’s why you put the apartment ad on Craigslist,” Rachel realized. “You needed cover.”

Grace shrugged. “And friends. Or, well, semi-company.” She grinned evilly. “Or emergency snacks.”

“Hey!” Rachel frowned.

“I’m kidding, mostly.” The fat woman chortled. She wore an enormous dress that did little to restrain her boobs, with so-tight-they-must-be-painted-on leggings underneath; consequently, when she moved, from, say, laughter, so did the rest of her, swaying and bouncing and undulating. It made Rachel hungry just looking at her. “Now we’re equals, in fat and hunger. And I gotta say, your feat of gluttony today has inspired me, alright? You should be flattered.”

Rachel grunted neutrally, still bothered by Grace’s blasé attitude towards her once-consideration of Rachel-as-meal, ignoring her own devouring of three women.

“Anyway, here’s where we’re gonna feast:”

THE KEY TO IT ALL

“We’re gonna eat in—literally! Let’s eat the neighbors!”

Rachel cocked an eye at her roommate. “That’s it? That’s your big plan?”

“Yeah?”

“It seems, I don’t know, unoriginal, don’t you think? I mean, sure, eating the neighbors is a fine and dandy idea if you’re just, like, ravenous, but here I assumed you had put like actual thought to your plan.” Rachel put folded fat arms across her bulbous chest.

Grace leaned her bulk against the doorframe, which creaked unhappily. “Oh, yeah. I guess you’re right,” she said in a feigned voice. “It’s an awful plan.”

“Grace…” Rachel said reproachfully.

“Rachel, do you know the name of this apartment building?”

“What kind of question…” Rachel shook her head. “This is the Montalban Towers complex. We live in Building One.”

“Correct.” Grace nodded, her chins burying themselves into her cleavage. “And, wouldn’t you know it, my name happens to be Grace Montalban.”

“What? You own this complex?” Rachel exclaimed. No way would that be the case. And yet…

“Sorta. Well, no. It’s my Uncle’s. But I do live rent-free, and more importantly…” She turned around and picked something up from behind her girth, then presented it to Rachel. “More importantly, I have the keys to every single apartment in the complex.”

Oh my god. “You’re joking.”

“Nope.” Grace said proudly. “My uncle looks the other way while I deal with people behind on their rent. Or, you know, just look delicious.”

“Jesus.” The keys were in a binder, with each one clearly labeled to not only what room, obviously, but also identifying who lived in what apartment number. A thought crossed Rachel’s mind. “Your uncle knows you eat them, you said?”

“Eh.” Grace shrugged. “He knows they’re gone, that’s it. He doesn’t really care about the specifics. He thinks I intimidate them away or something. Close enough.”

Jesus. Jesus. This was—

This was perfect.

“Grace?” Rachel asked. “I’m fucking starving.”

INTERIM: Another author

Wherein Rachel and Grace clear out some apartments without effort or incident

THEY MEET SOMEONE INTERESTING

The next apartment contained an elderly couple, whose eyesight and hearing was so bad that they had no idea the women were even there. Grace refused to touch them, but Rachel, the newbie predator, couldn’t see why—it was like shooting fish in a barrel, wasn’t it? As small and light as they were, food was food, and she downed the two of them with ease. And immediately regretted it.

“Ugh,” Rachel grimaced in disgust, “it’s like eating socks. Musty socks.” She stuck out her tongue and tried to wipe off the taste, in vain.

Grace handed her a glass of water she made in the kitchen. “Here, rinse with this. And yeah, as someone who’s eaten quite a few people wearing musty socks, I can assure you old people taste actually worse. But thanks for taking them. You can have the opposite apartment to make up for it.” Rachel made a whining sound, which Grace heard and understood. “Fine, and I’ll eat the next set of old people, too.”

“Yay!”

The opposite number, as it turned out, was the three-person Chan family. Rachel had babysat their elementary school-aged daughter, Mei, a few times. Immigrants, they didn’t speak English very well, but had paid Rachel decently each time she helped them.

Such thoughts crossed her mind as Mr. Chan’s legs flailed out of her mouth, while Mrs. Chan watched in horror, babbling in Chinese Rachel didn’t understand. She swallowed the rest of the man like lo mein, her great stomach swelling further, knocking the wife over. Rachel quickly reached around her engorged middle for the widow and pulled her into her maw as well. Well, ‘as well.’ As if Rachel would have done anything else. Her roaring stomach demanded to be fed, more and more.

Her hungry eyes fell on Mei. Cowering, whimpering Mei. “Miss Rachel?” the girl said, confused. “What’s going on?”

Rachel hesitated.

Grace, who had been busy clearing out the kitchen, suddenly swooped in from behind and snatched the girl by the ankle. Before Mei could utter another “Miss Rachel,” she was lowered into Grace’s mouth, with her ankle and tiny pink sandals all that remained.

“Grace!” Rachel said, upset.

Grace, her mouth full, looked confused and shrugged. She swallowed the rest of the little girl. “Wha-urp-what?”

“I… You said I could have the apartment!”

Grace massaged her stomach gently. “Ooh, yeah… Oh, c’mon, you clearly weren’t gonna eat her.”

“I, well…”

Grace shrugged again. “And I don’t know why, I mean, it’s not like we didn’t just eat that family, or those grandparents, or, hell, her parents…”

“I didn’t know them!”

Grace eyed her slyly. “Or, you know, our roommates…” That shut Rachel up. Grace sighed. “Look, I know this still hard to, uh, swallow.” She snorted. “Sorry, pun. But you’re a fat girl now. One of the fattest. And fat girls like us can’t afford to flip-flop like you’ve been doing. We’re gonna eat a few kids. Shit, we’re gonna eat a lot of kids. And a lot of people. People you know, people you don’t. It doesn’t matter, they don’t matter. They’re all just food to us. Food for us fatties. Understand?”

Rachel nodded, still bothered, but acknowledging Grace’s wisdom. People she knew were still technically food, and she was still hungry. Still… “Maybe we shouldn’t eat everybody. Leave a couple. People we like, or something.”

“I like people who taste good, and add to my waistline.”

“Seriously, Grace!”

Grace fondled herself idly. “And do what with them? ‘Sorry for eating everyone you know, no hard feelings?’ I get where your coming from, but let’s be realistic, Rachel. We’re eating machines.”

“Let’s try to spare a few depending on the circumstance, Grace.” Rachel said firmly.

Grace rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. Let’s just move on already. Friggin’ Chinese food didn’t fill me up at all.” She waddled towards the front door. “I swear, Rachel, don’t you screw up this buffet for me. I haven’t pigged out like this in a long time. If this goes south because of you I will not hesitate to eat every inch of you, even if it kills me.” She glared at Rachel angrily, before breaking out into a silly grin. “Just playing.”

The next apartment was empty. Grace looked at Rachel, confused. “Sorry, I already ate Sharona.” Rachel admitted.

Grace shook her head disapprovingly. “I was saving that big-bootied snack for a time like this.”

And then there was one unit left on the floor. Roomy and large, the counterpart to their own apartment. Inside, they found someone ‘interesting,’ someone… fat.

MELANIE AND HER MELONS

The apartment register listed four college students, all men. After squeezing their people-fed girth inside, Rachel and Grace proceeded to find only two: a hapless, meaty young man, and the bulbous girl who had swallowed him up to his waist. The predator pair watched the girl slurp the man up with interest, in part due to the new wrinkle in their plan to empty the apartment building, and also due to this new pred’s appearance.

She had short, short black hair—a pixie cut—and an excess of freckles over her face and body. Her nose, right eyebrow, and ears were pierced with a mixture of rings and studs. She was, naturally, a fatty, with Rachel estimating that, based on her body, she was at least 300 pounds. She wore a pair of boxers on lower half, white with cartoony red hearts, that tried desperately to contain her growing bottom and cheesecake thighs. Her belly was understandably swollen, given that she was in the process of eating someone, but the multiple rolls on her side indicated it was never particularly big when not full with a person. What was most notable, however, were her breasts. Massive bags they were, each one needing both hands to fully grasp; together, her full arm span could not wrap around them. They hung just to the sides of her gut, too heavy to support themselves but not so large as to pass her belly completely.

The new girl slurped up the rest of the guy and belched before addressing the predators. “Shit, you two are fat as fuck!”

Grace and Rachel exchanged glances. “It takes one to know one.” Rachel shot back.

The girl grinned. “I know, I just thought it needed saying. You two are really, really, fat. I guess you eat people too, huh?”

Grace chortled. “You guess? Girlie, you’re looking a two-woman purging crew. We’re gonna eat everyone in the building!”

“Really?” the girl said. “That sounds really cool. Can I join? My name’s Melanie.”

“Figures,” Rachel muttered to herself, considering the girl’s impressive melons.

Melanie continued. “I was always kinda chunky, especially in my boobs. Anyway, my boyfriend lived here, and last night I came over, and we like, fucked a lot, and I realized I was super hungry. So afterwards, while he was asleep, I went into the kitchen and, like, ate everything, I was so hungry. But it wasn’t enough, you know? And when his roommates came out to see what the noise I made was, I was just so hungry, so I like, ate them. My stomach was huge! So, full, I went back to my boyfriend’s room to sleep it off. He was real surprised, of course, and freaked out, but he gave me my space. When I woke up, I was fat like am I now, and super hungry again. My boyfriend, though, he thought I was so hot, he insisted we bang again, and we did, but, well…” Melanie shrugged. “He should have gotten me something to eat first.” She belched again. “So yeah, I guess I wanna keep eating. And people taste pretty good.”

Grace nodded, slapping her bulging belly. “Delicious and nutritious. Or, you know, super fattening.”

“Yeah! So, can I join?”

TWO IS COMPANY, THREE’S A CROWD

“Sure,” Grace said, shuffling over to Melanie, hand reaching as far past her own fat as she could manage.

Melanie grinned. “Awesome, I’m really looking forward to all of the great meals in store for me.” She took the offered hand.

Once again, Grace displayed unlikely speed, pulling Melanie in close to her blubber and wrapping her in a fat, smothery bear-hug, not enough to knock the girl out but certainly enough to disorient her. Fortuitously, Melanie’s own massive boobs served as airbags in the bad way, as their sudden presence in her face denied her oxygen just long enough for Grace to pull the smaller girl up over her belly (and comparatively-smaller breasts) and into her maw. Melanie didn’t even get a chance to utter a sound, it was over so quickly. The only thing that gave Grace pause were Melanie’s tits, which needed to be swallowed individually.

Finished, she sighed in contentment. “Sorry, girlie, but we’re not accepting applications at this time. Please try again at a later date.” She laughed at her own joke.

Rachel frowned. “Why’d you eat her?”

Grace shrugged. “So there’d be more for the two of us, you know? And besides, she was the first fatty I’ve gotten to eat—if you remember, the others ended up inside you.” She laughed again. “Come on, Rachel, let’s start the next floor. It’s not going to eat itself.”

Rachel watched her roommate shift her bulk, distrust growing in her mind. It wasn’t that Grace had eaten Melanie—Rachel would have if she hadn’t—but that Grace did so by lying. Grace had also said she wouldn’t eat Rachel—was that just a ploy too? Was she just letting Rachel fatten herself up for a better meal later? She shook her head. That didn’t make any sense, though, seeing as she had eaten Melanie… Her stomach growled. It didn’t care about plans, it just wanted more food. Rachel sighed heavily. She’d think better on a full stomach.

Rachel caught up with Grace at the stairwell, with the blubbery brunette deep in thought. “Hmm. I hadn’t really thought about it, but if we continue at our current pace, we’ll probably be too big to use the stairs after the next two floors. Hell, maybe even just the next floor, depending on how full it is.”

“Then we’re screwed, right? Because it’s not like we can use the elevator!”

Grace clapped her hands together in realization. “Oh shit! Rachel, you’re a genius!”

Our predatory protagonist was confused. “Huh? Why?”

Grace grinned. “We’ll be able to use the heavy-duty freight elevator once we get too big. The thing’s huge. And I doubt there’s enough people in the building to make any one of us too fat for it at once.”

“Well, why don’t we use it now?” Rachel asked, clutching her grumbling stomach.

Grace shook her head. “It’s the one key I don’t have. But I know where it is—the maintenance office two floors down—and I have the key to that, so…” She shrugged. “Let’s just stay the course, you know?”

BUSTED

The girls proceeded to binge on the building’s inhabitants, emptying three units of everyone who lived inside as well as, out of habit, much of the food as well. Why wouldn’t they? They were fat women in need of food; it wasn’t their fault that definition had expanded to include other people. So casual they were about what they were doing, so indifferent to the consequences (other than their own increasing girth) that Grace exited their fourth hit on that floor with someone’s calves and feet sticking haphazardly out from her plump lips.

Surprisingly, the duo were still clothed, albeit technically. Rachel’s 4XXL shirt now covered only her breasts, leaving her occasionally thrashing belly exposed, and her sweats had burst off as they finished the last floor, showing off her glorious ass and thighs to all of her impending meals. Grace, meanwhile, still had her very roomy dress on, though it failed to cover the entirety of her people-filled gut, because how could a plus-size designer have even imagined such a thing; her leggings, surprisingly were largely in one piece, although unsurprisingly, holes had torn every which way, allowing the predators tree-trunk leg fat to poke out.

As it was, anyone who might encounter the pair in the hall would only see two massive, partially-dressed women instead of two naked ones, which was an important distinction if you thought about it. And also, because someone saw the two from behind, and recognized one of them.

“Grace?” a voice said, with disbelief.

Grace paled and turned her head back as far as her fat neck could go, embarrassedly slurping her prey’s legs when she realized she hadn’t finished. “Oh, hey…”

“…MOM.”

The predator duo turned around clumsily, only to discover that their engorged bellies were too protruding to allow them both to do so simultaneously—it wasn’t that the hallway was too narrow, but that the girls were so large and bulky.

The woman Grace identified as ‘Mom’ sighed heavily as the pair maneuvered themselves around like one would a vehicle. “Gosh, Grace, don’t scare me like that,” her mother said, indifferent to their size.

“Scare you like what?”

“Walking around when you’re on a binge with clothes on. It makes me worried that it’s someone else, and maybe I’m in danger, or someone’s eaten my baby.” Grace’s mother shook her head. “I’ve seen your butt so many times, I’d recognize it anywhere, but with clothes on you’re just another big fatty.”

“Okay, moommmm.”

The woman spied Rachel, partially obscured by Grace’s body. “I’m sorry, I haven’t introduced myself,” she said, offering a hand. “My name is Charity Montalban; obviously, I’m Grace’s mother.”

“Uh, Rachel. Rachel Lanton. It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”

Charity beamed. “Ooh, now you’re a nice one! Who is she, Grace?”

“She’s a roommate of mine, mom.”

Charity Montalban was of a similar build as her daughter, with particularly wide hips and a general amount of body fat that put her, Rachel guesstimated, at around 425 pounds. Like Grace, she had curly brown hair, although hers was shoulder-length and touching on gray in spots. She had a round, happy face, somewhat sharply contrasting with the scenarios Rachel had experienced.

Charity gently hit Grace on her belly. “So, tubbo, why didn’t you tell me you were gonna pull clearing duty for your Uncle? You could have invited your sister, you know!” She turned to Rachel. “Grace is so greedy sometimes. Did you know she ate her brother? She didn’t even bother telling her sister Purity or I until after we had bought him Christmas gifts, too!”

“Yeah, she mentioned eating her brother.”

Grace made a sound of annoyance. “This wasn’t planned, mom. And it’s not for Uncle Will this time. Rachel discovered how tasty people were when she ate our other roommates, and I was so impressed with it that I suggested we just pig out on the neighbors.”

“So, what, everyone on this floor?”

“Uh…”

“Your top floor as well?”

“Already ate ‘em.”

“So finish up here and waddle your butts back to your apartment before anyone sees you. Especially my brother. You don’t know how many favors I had to do get you this place.”

Grace rubbed the back of her fat neck, embarrassed. “Actually, we intended to eat everyone in the building.”

MOTHER’S BLESSING

Charity paused. “Excuse me? I don’t think I heard you correctly, missy. Mind repeating that for me again?”

Grace hesitated. “Err…”

Rachel rolled her eyes at how easily Grace was cowed. “Look, Mrs. Montalban. You seem super cool with the whole ‘eating people’ thing, and the ‘incredibly fat’ thing… We’re gonna eat everyone else in the building, okay? We started at the top, and we’re working our way down to the bottom.”

Charity sighed. “That’s what I thought she said.” She looked at her enormous daughter, and reached over her belly with some difficulty to place her hands on Grace’s flabby cheeks. “Fattycakes, you don’t wanna do this! It’ll be so much work to explain this away, and while we’re rich, we’re not that rich. We won’t be able to just sweep it under the rug like we did when you ate your brother, or when Purity ate your cousin, or when I ate your father. This will require a lot of work on my part to deal with your uncle, and even more work for you two to get everyone without drawing attention to the fact. Like, you can’t even imagine how heavy you’ll get after a few more floors, girls.”

Grace looked at her mother pleadingly. “Yeah, but mom… I’m actually really hungry. No joke.”

“Yeah, Mrs. Montalban. You don’t know how hungry I am.” Rachel chimed in. “I’ve never wanted to do something so much before in my life.”

Charity sighed wistfully. “Oh, I know that hunger, alright. First-hand. But I also know the work and the struggle at the end. I just wished you had, I don’t know, called me or texted me a heads-up before, Grace!” She shot her daughter a glare.

“Er, sorry. My bad.” Grace said, ashamed. “I got caught up in the whirlwind of Rachel’s hunger.”

“Hey, don’t go blaming me!” Rachel protested.

Charity smiled. “Girls, girls, don’t fight. It’s fine. I’ll work on a cover for you, and even arrange your transportation out of here when you’re through.” She frowned. “But if you do this, you have to promise to spare no one,” she said. “Other than your Uncle, because the building is in his name. Everyone else has to get eaten—there can be no loose ends.”

“What if we meet another, uh eater?” Rachel asked, curious. “Grace ate one recently, but we didn’t really care for her. But what if we met someone we actually liked?”

Charity shook her head. “We call ourselves preds as shorthand. And especially no to another one. Two of you girls will be trouble enough, I don’t think you could pull three without causing a mess. And again, another loose end, only this one is as dangerous and possibly hungry as you two. But,” she said with a wink, “if you found a man or two willing to look the other way, then no big deal. Men are easy to deal with.”

Rachel and Grace both grinned.

“Thanks, mom.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Montalban. Er, uh, Charity.”

Charity nodded and stepped back. “I need to make some calls, then. I’ll be staying in your apartment, girls!” She waddled off.

Rachel watched the wide woman’s backside as she left. “Wow, your mom is so cool.”

“I know, right?”