User blog:MrTyeDye/Fanfiction: A Load of Bulk (Chapter 5)

[Part 1]

[Part 2]

[Part 3]

[Part 4]

The next few days were a blur for Lana. She spent all of them lying on her bed drifting in and out of consciousness, to the point where it was hard to tell when she was awake and when she was dreaming. Occasionally she'd be jolted awake by a nightmare and arise with a yelp, only to drift right back to sleep moments later.

Gradually, though, her brain recovered. Her thoughts became clearer, she regained the capacity to form sentences, and the memories of what she did since Lisa left came back to her. Of course, those memories only made her heart ache with guilt. Lincoln's screams of agony, Lucy's sobbing, Lynn's humiliated whimpering, Lola's despair over losing her twin... the clarity of a mind freed from the formula's influence let Lana see just how monstrous and cruel her behavior was. Before, she couldn't have been happier to have 180 pounds of muscle; now she felt like all 180 pounds of her should be put in jail.

This was made evident to the family once they decided to give her that long-overdue lecture. Upon being woken up, Lana was greeted with the sight of her entire family gathered by her bedside. Right afterwards, she shrunk into the mattress and averted her eyes.

"Lana, sit up," said Lynn Sr. "There are a few things we'd like to talk to you about."

Lana sighed and propped her muscular back up against her bedpost, with her eyes still pointed down. It was then that she noticed that she was completely topless; apparently, nobody had bothered her to give her a new shirt after her old one was torn up. She didn't feel that she was in a position to complain about anything, though, so she just kept her mouth shut.

"First, let us explain to you what's going on," said Lynn Sr. "We've been taking care of you for the past few days. Lisa told us that it would take a little while for you to recover from that fit you had."

Lana shuddered, as that agonizing experience was vivid and fresh in her mind.

"In another day or so, you should be well enough to get out of bed and go back to your normal life. Okay?"

"O-okay," said Lana, nodding her head.

"Good," said Rita, her voice hardening just a tad. "Now, we'd like to talk to you about your behavior. I think you owe quite a few people here an apology."

Lana knit her brow and clasped her hands in front of her, locking her fingers together and squeezing them uncomfortably tight. "I'm sorry," she whimpered. "Really, really sorry. I-I don't know what came over me. I thought you all were jealous of me and out to get me."

"Lisa said that that was a side effect of that formula you drank," said Luna. "So we ain't happy about what you did, but we know you weren't all there."

"But you were all there," said Lori, "when you drank that thing in the first place. Honestly, Lana, what were you even thinking?"

"I-I don't know," said Lana, her voice crackling and her body squirming. "I just drank a little bit of it. I thought it would be harmless."

"HARMLESS?!" yelled a shrill, nasally voice from down below. Lana gulped, knowing all too well who that voice belonged to. She had hoped that it would be a few more days before Lisa came back; alas, she wasn't quite so lucky. Now, bedridden and surrounded, she had nowhere to run or hide as the young genius cornered her and chewed her out.

"You thought that sampling a highly experimental formula that was still in the testing stages would be harmless?!" Lisa continued, climbing onto the bed. Lana shrunk into her pillow as Lisa stomped across the bed towards her. Lisa's eyeglasses magnified her enraged eyes, making them look nearly twice as big as they were and making her fury all the more palpable.

"Do you know what could have happened if your growth continued without someone to supervise and regulate it?!" she yelled, buffeting Lana with flecks of saliva. "Your muscles could have outgrown your skin! Your heart could have given out from the strain of supporting your massive body! Your skeleton could have collapsed under your own weight! You could have been killed!"

Lana froze up. In her six years on earth, had never been forced to confront her own mortality before. She knew what death was, and she knew it happened to everyone eventually, but she understood it as something she wouldn't have to worry about for a long, long time. She was scarcely able to process what Lisa just told her, and responded to it by going into a brief spell of near- catatonic shock.

Once that was over, out came the tears.

"I'M SORRRRYYYY!" she bawled. "I DIDN'T KNOW! I'M SORRY! I DON'T WANNA DIE!"

Lisa, taken aback by Lana's outpouring, stumbled back and fell onto her butt. While Lisa tried to pick herself back up, Lori stepped in and gave the enormous youngster a hug around the neck, while using her free hand to stroke Lana's hair.

"Shh, sh-sh-sh," she whispered, as Lana's crying started to peter out. "It's okay, Lana. You're not going to die."

"It is most certainly not okay," Lisa said sharply. "And that formula was clearly labeled as a prototype, as I recall."

Lana, clinging to Lori for comfort, choked back a couple of sobs before replying to Lisa. "Y-you mean the B?" she asked. "I... I thought that stood for 'big'."

"No, you dunce!" cried Lisa. "It stood for beta! Beta! Meaning it was still in the testing stage! If you just stopped to think about it for one measly second, maybe you would..."

Lisa's rant started to trail off and the indignation in her eyes faded away once she got another good look at Lana's face. The musclebound girl couldn't have looked more pathetic, burying her face in Lori's chest while shivering and sniffling all the while.

"You're all right, Lana," she said in a gentler tone. "I'm sorry I yelled at you like I did. In all honesty, I deserve some of the blame for leaving the formula out on my table. I should have kept it locked away, or at least given it a more unambiguous label."

"Yeah, a 'do not touch' sign would have been nice," said Lynn, who got an elbow in the ribs from Luna.

"Perhaps," said Lisa. "From now on, I'll make more of an effort to keep my more potent compounds out of reach."

She crept closer to the weeping Lana, her magnified eyes now displaying tenderness rather than fury. "All I ask is that you learn something from this experience," she said. "Please don't touch any substance or compound in my room before asking my permission first."

"O-okay," whispered Lana. "I promise."

"And that goes for the rest of your siblings, too, by the way," said Lynn Sr, taking on a firm tone of voice. "You have to learn to respect other peoples' property, Lana. You can't just go around grabbing things that aren't yours. How would you feel if someone took one of your things without asking?"

Lana sighed. "Not good."

"I didn't think so," said Lynn Sr. "So from now on, I want you to ask before you touch anything in this house that doesn't belong to you. Understand?"

Lana wiped a couple of tears away from her face and nodded.

"Good," said Lynn Sr. "Now, there's one more person here who has something to say to you."

Right on cue, a watery-eyed Lola pushed herself to the front, jumped onto the bed and threw herself on top of Lana, wrapping her arms around her bullish neck and burying her face in her beefy chest. Lana felt a couple of stray tears trickling down through the crevasse between her pecs.

"I love you, Lana. I don't care how big you get. I love you and I always will."

Lana wrapped her powerful arms around Lola and pulled her in close. "I... I love you, too, Lola."

The rest of the family let out a collective "aww" and took a step back, letting the two twins have their moment. During the embrace, Lincoln shuffled closer to Lisa and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, Lisa?" he said. "I'm just curious; what's gonna happen to Lana now?"

"What do you mean?" asked Lisa.

"Well, you know, her body. Is she going to stay that buff?"

Lisa pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Well, that depends, Lincoln. Without the formula fueling and sustaining her growth, it's going to be extremely difficult for her to keep her size. A figure like that can only be maintained with an intense exercise regimen and a strict diet. So, no, I don't expect her to retain all of the muscle she's gained. But with enough regular exercise, it is possible for her to retain some of it."

"Hear that, Lana?" Lynn said with a smirk. "If you want to keep those muscles, you're gonna have to work for 'em! Think you're up to the challenge?"

Lana chuckled, cracking a smile for the first time in nearly a week. "Maybe, Lynn," she said. "Maybe."

August 7

''A week ago I did something realy bad. I went into my sister Lisa's room and I took something that didn't belong to me. I did it becaus I wanted to get strong.''

''I got realy strong and got big mussles but I also started acting like a meen bully. Then I got realy sick and had to stay in bed for a week. It hurt so much.''

''I'm verry sorry for what I did. From now on I won't touch my brother and sisters things without there permishin. And I will be verry carful about what I eat and drink becaus it culd be dangerus.''

- Lana Loud