Groaning, Sarge lifted himself back up and wiped the drool from his mouth. “Gosh… why does that feel so good?” He looked up at where he thought Charlie was, but he didn’t see anyone this time. The only thing he could see was the empty guest tables around him with the buffet across the way.
 
Sarge lowered his hands to his belly. Placing a hand over his stomach, he pressed in as hard as he could… there was no firmness. His belly sank it deeply now. Pulling his hand away, Sarge looked down at his belly. He could see that the wall of muscles he had seemed to be… missing. His belly was now lapping over his pants in a subtle manner, covering up the unfastened button with ease.
 
He felt his eye twitch as he placed both his hands under his belly. Hefting it up, he was dismayed to feel it had a lot of heft to it. It felt heavier than it did before, yet now his stomach was emptied… again. He couldn’t pull his shirt back down anymore. It kept riding up and showing his belly hair constantly. “I feel mortified,” he said. Looking from his table to the buffet, and then to the exit, he gritted his teeth. “I… I think I wanna get going. I’ve had enough food… ha...ha.”
 
Sarge kept pulling his shirt down as he walked toward the front desk. He could see Charlie was standing at it. Charlie had both his elbows on the front counter with his head resting on his hands. When Sarge walked by, Charlie perked up. “Hello there, guest, enjoying the food?”
 
“Ahh yeah, it was all uh… really good!” Sarge said, whizzing past Charlie. “Unfortunately, I gotta get going! But I’ll be sure to be back again. Just… uh… charge the rest of the payment to my account-”
 
Sarge took one step on the welcome mat and his body froze. Try as he might, he couldn’t get himself to move. He could feel a set of hands rubbing his belly, but they felt different… cold. They weren’t warm and relaxing like Charlie’s hands, they felt almost… metallic.
 
He stood there, helplessly, as the arms rubbed his belly up and down. They then grasped portions of his belly, seeming to pull it outward as far as it could go. They then shook his belly which, to his chagrin, had grown a “jiggling” quality to it. After a few minutes of this… odd set of hands jostling his midriff, a digital-styled light popped on the glass door in front of him with the text, “0.00 lbs.” on it.
 
“Oh, no can do, big guy,” Charlie’s familiar voice said from right behind Sarge. Jumping, Sarge turned around to face Charlie.
 
“What do you mean? I can’t leave?!” Sarge screamed.
 
“Relax, big guy,” Charlie said, placing a hand on Sarge’s belly, causing Sarge to freeze up again. “You agreed to the Fat Man’s Eating Challenge. As you can see, the challenge says you’ve eaten zero pounds of food. All you gotta do is get to twelve pounds and you’re good to go.” Charlie took his hand off Sarge’s belly.
 
Sarge felt panic rise inside him. “Zero? But I literally just ate three platefuls of meat! Even just lifting it up was difficult! I thought that was like… six pounds!”
 
“If you ate it,” Charlie said, placing his hand on Sarge’s belly again, but firmly pressing into Sarge’s stomach area, “where’s the food?” He took his hand away.
 
“I… uh… I dunno! I thought you told me that massage made it easier to digest the food. It’s probably in my intestines somewhere!” Sarge groped at his belly, lifting it up as high as he could. “YOU even saw the food I ate! Why are you doing this?”
 
Charlie tilted his head to the side. “Welcome to Grand Surprises. Again, gimick for this week.”
 
“What even happened to me? Why is my stomach so… flabby?” Sarge whined.
 
“Nothing wrong with being fat,” Charlie said. “I think it makes you look cute.”
 
“Fat? I’m not fat! I’m rather well-built, thank you!” Sarge protested.
 
“Oh really? And what was your name again, big guy?” Charlie asked.
 
“My name? What does my name have to do with this?” Sarge asked.
 
“Your name?” Charlie asked.
 
“It’s S-” Sarge tried to say his name, but the moment it came to his mind, he lost it. “It’s… uh… what is my name?” He scratched his head. “Why can’t I remember my name?”
 
“Sarge, if I recall?” Charlie Chided.
 
“S-” Sarge tried to repeat what Charlie said, but he just couldn’t get himself to do so. “Is it?”
 
“No, well… not anymore. You don’t have a name,” Charlie put a finger to Sarge’s nose and poked it. “You gave it to me, remember? Right before the massage.”
 
“I only told you my name! I can say it! My name is-” ... tried to say it again, but this time, he felt something in his mind rip away.
 
“From now on, you’ll be called Big Guy,” Charlie smirked. “That alright, Big Guy?”
 
“That’s not my name,” Big Guy growled.
 
“Then what is it?”
 
“It’s… uh,” again, Big Guy tried to think of his name… but the only thing coming to mind was Big Guy. “It’s… Big Guy?”
 
Charlie giggled, patting Big Guy’s head. Big Guy felt a strange sensation of chills move from the top of his head, down his spine, and into his stomach. The chills began to intensify until his stomach began to growl. He felt hungry again… and he wanted more food.
 
“Now, go get more food, Big Guy. I’m sure you’ll find that you’re oh-so-close to reaching that twenty-four pound goal.
 
“Twenty four? Wasn’t it twelve?” Big Guy asked, looking down at his belly. “Big Guy can’t even fit-”
 
“Well, if you want your name back, Bug Guy, then you better get to eating! Twenty four pounds. No less.”
 
Big Guy whined again. His mind was swimming with confusion. Looking outside, he could see his car in the parking lot. It sat there, alone. No one else was coming in any time soon…. He was stuck here.
 
Helpless, confused, and scared, Big Guy went back to the buffet and filled up his plates. His stomach seemed to growl when he was close to the pasta bar, so he loaded up on different pastas. Lasagna, spaghetti, cavatappi…. He used to favor only marinara, but his stomach seemed to be craving every type of sauce there. He had to make a few trips, filling up six plates of food by the time he sat down to eat.
 
The pasta tasted divine. With each successive bite, he felt his worries melt away. The food here was amazing! A few more bites and Big Guy realized he was now completely done with his six plates of pasta. He wasn’t sure how much it all weighed, but he knew it was certainly a large volume of carbs he had ingested.
 
With a few huffs, Big Guy scooted his chair back, allowing his belly to breathe more. He didn’t even need to feel his stomach with his hand to know he was nearly bloated now. Much like the previous few times, Big Guy felt like he didn’t want to eat another bite. He groaned and started to rub his belly, as per usual. “Urk, Big Guy feel like…” Big Guy stopped cold, immediately realizing what was about to happen. Pushing against the table, Big Guy shot himself backward, almost knocking his chair over as he did. He tried to get up, but the girth of his belly caused him to lose his balance. He wasn’t expecting such a weight difference. Surely this was enough to meet the-
 
A pair of hands caught Big Guy. “Oh, careful now, Big Guy… you wouldn’t want to fall, would ya? For a man as fat as you, that’d be quite the fall!” To no surprise, it was Charlie.
 
“Big Guy isn’t fat!” Big Guy retorted, trying to wrestle himself free of Charlie, but found his efforts to be useless, as he was fighting against both Charlie and his own belly. “Wait… did Big Guy just say name in third person?”
 
“Indeed you did! Forgetting how to use ‘I’ are you? So focused on keeping your name in your head you barely notice if other bits of information slip away!” Charlie chuckled, already wrapping his hands around Big Guy. The moment they touched Big Guy’s belly, he expected to be completely frozen again. However, this time, he noticed he was able to move his head a bit. Looking down, Big Guy could see the pair of hands rubbing over his belly again. Even though he was watching the hands press firmly into his stomach, the need to upchuck never came.
 
At one point, one of Charlie’s hands pressed into Big Guy’s belly until it hit Big Guy’s muscular wall, which was further destended than he had ever seen it before. When Charlie went over this same spot again, Big Guy noticed that the hand pressed in a lot deeper. Both the hands inched downward and hefted up Big Guy’s belly. With a quick drop, Big Guy felt his gut wrench, as if it was being changed from the inside out…. He felt his stomach begin to growl again. The food was no longer there… but why was his stomach still so big?
 
(Part 3 of 6)
 
Artwork/Story/Characters (C) Pikminpedia