Emmas Growth Spurt Ch 15

The next day, an utterly bewildered representative of the local fire department was sitting in Emma's and Daniel's living room, going over the stunning and unprecedented particulars of this mind-bending emergency situation. Emma was sitting in the corner, wrapped in a collection of large bedsheets, looking completely miserable as she stared straight ahead, unable to participate in the conversation.

"So we're thinking," said the firefighter, casting another astounded glance in Emma's direction, "That the easiest way for us to, uh...to solve this issue would probably be to remove a portion of the roof so that, uh...so that Emma here can just, um, you know...step out."

"And you think that'll be easier than knocking one of the walls in?" asked Daniel anxiously, leaning forward in his chair. He hated how miserable all of this was for Emma, but he needed to make sure that everything important was being covered.

"Cheaper too," nodded the firefighter. "If you knock in one of the walls, the roof for that portion will have to come down too. Better to just take off a portion of the roof and be done with it."

"I see, ok, um, yeah that makes sense," replied Daniel, nodding as he too cast a look in Emma's direction. It had been an extremely hard night and day since Emma's last spurt, which had put her a few inches over 12 feet tall. For the first few minutes after Daniel had returned home with the bags of Chinese food, they had both just exchanged a variety of incredulous one-word questions and answers...was she ok?...how did she feel?...was it hurting at all?...that kind of thing. But after a few minutes of apparent shock, Daniel's heart had melted when he saw Emma's lower lip beginning to quiver, as big wet tears began bunching up in her eyes and streaming down her face. Daniel had felt helpless, and he ended up doing the only thing that he could think of, which was to climb up and stand in her lap, wrapping his arms around her as wide as he could, and hugging her for all he was worth, as her tears splashed down on his head.

Now, the day after, she had spent much of her time sitting in the same corner of the living room, covered in blankets, staring straight ahead with a kind of blank, doomed expression on her face. She only really moved to eat, which Daniel had more or less been spending all his time providing. In the 12 hours since her spurt, she had consumed enough Chinese food, vegetables, cold cuts, bread, protein bars, milk to feed dozens and dozens of people three times over. And yet...she was still hungry. A bottomless pit had seemed to have just opened up in the middle of her stomach, which mirrored the unfathomable pit in her mind, which seemed to envelop her completely, and make her distant...remote.

"Emma?" ventured Daniel gently, his voice tinged with caution. "H-How...how does that sound? The fire department's gonna come over here and...and raise the roof for you, haha. And then...um...and then you can at least, you know...stretch your legs and everything."

Daniel and the firefighter waited for Emma's response, but she gave no indication that she had heard Daniel, or in any case, that she cared to respond.

"So, uhhh...do you all have, like...a plan for where you're going to go?" asked the firefighter, turning away from Emma and addressing Daniel, in an attempt to break the awkward silence.

"Yeah, we've...um, we've agreed to go stay with...um, with Emma's family out in the country. Heheh, as luck would have it, they have a pretty sizable farm out there and...well, we just thought that, you know...we could use the room."

The firefighter nodded and had opened his mouth to answer when Emma suddenly spoke. She wasn't speaking very loudly, but her voice vibrated powerfully off the walls, and penetrated into the cells of the two men present. The china and dishes in the cabinets rattled loudly against each other.

"We didn't agree," she pouted.

"But Emma..." said Daniel, making a real effort not to sound either tired or annoyed, "We talked about this last night...for a long time...and...and you said that you would be ok with --"

"I said we didn't have any good choices," countered Emma, looking miserably at the floor. "It's gonna suck going over there."

"But...yes, I know it's not an, um, an ideal situation," said Daniel, treading with extreme care, "But...your parents are...are nice people. And Daisy, Emma! She'll, uh...she'll be there too! It...it'll be like a fun little homecoming!"

Emma turned her head slowly to look directly at Daniel. She had stopped crying a few hours ago, and somehow, the vacancy in her eyes now was more concerning than it was when she was crying. Daniel had been trying his best to make things seem light and ok, but one such look from Emma was all that was needed to sink any kind of buoyancy he was trying to maintain.

"Just...stop it, would you?" she asked suddenly, her voice completely flat.

"S-stop, Emma?" asked Daniel, his heart rate starting to go up. Emma blinked for a long moment, and when she opened her eyes again, there was finally something there...something smoldering, that made Daniel and the firefighter extremely uneasy.

"Stop trying to cheer me up," she said bluntly. Her words, even though she still wasn't speaking very loud, were like a series of sledgehammers flying through the air.

"Nothing you say is going to make me feel better right now, Daniel...nothing. Do you understand that? I don't WANT to call my parents and tell them that I've grown into a 12-foot-tall freak of nature. I don't WANT to deal with my sister's reaction to seeing me like this...and I'm not even THINKING about how my parents are gonna react. I don't WANT to go live on their farm, Daniel! I left to go to the city for a REASON, you understand!? And I definitely...DEFINITELY...do NOT want to sleep in their FREAKING BARN!!"

"Ok!! Ok!! E-Emma!!! Emma p-please!!!" cried Daniel, holding up his hands in a gesture of pleading. Both he and the firefighter had involuntarily jumped to their feet as Emma's voice had become louder and louder, and more insistently angry. The firefighter, whose face had gone white as a sheet, looked like he was a few seconds away from running out the door. Daniel looked up into her eyes desperately, hoping that his raw vulnerability in this moment would be enough to calm her down. Emma was breathing hard now through her nose, so hard that, even though Daniel was standing a good fifteen or twenty feet away from her, it ruffled his hair.

Emma looked down at her boyfriend as she breathed in and out through her nose, her mouth pursed shut after her diatribe, fuming. She felt one hundred percent crazy right now. Her big growth spurt the previous night had dissolved any foundation or connection she felt like she had with the real world. The pleasure of being back in their house, the joy of being back with Daniel, the comfort of food, the new clothes and boots that Ms. Bisset had made for her...all of that felt like nothing now. It felt like her condition had wiped the slate of her life clean, leaving her only with the horrible, lurid, blank reality of her freakishness. And it didn't seem to be letting up. Even though she hadn't experienced a second spurt like the first, Emma could tell, by the dull aching in her muscles and bones throughout the day, that she was still growing here and there. The spurts were much smaller comparatively, but they were still there -- she was getting bigger.

And yet still, somehow, Daniel was down there, trying to cheer her up, trying to negotiate arrangements with this tiny little firefighter (it meant nothing to Emma that he was actually 6'4), trying to pretend that everything was still somehow normal. It made her mad. It was all well and good for Daniel to carry on as usual, even as he tiptoed around her with that irritating...no, that sickening degree of gentle caution that made her feel like she was a powder keg, ready to explode. HE wasn't the one who had to deal with this condition! HE was the one who was just fine living in a miniature little house, with tiny little pieces of porcelain for plates, and little pricks of metal for forks and knives. HE was the one who could change the channels on the TV, sleep soundly in the bed, take a shower, wear normal clothes, go out to the store, drive the car...EVERYTHING A NORMAL PERSON COULD DO. Did he really need to just rub her face in it by being so obvious with it all!? By being so...so CAREFUL and CAUTIOUS around her!? Didn't he even realize how tiny and irritating he was??

'Treating me like I'm some sort of ticking time bomb,' she fumed to herself, staring down at Daniel viciously. 'Fine then...if he treats me like I'm about to explode, maybe I should just explode then, and save him all that trouble he's taking being so CAREFUL around me.'

Emma didn't realize it, but her breathing had become quicker and quicker, and heavier and heavier, the longer she turned all these thoughts over in her head. Her face was beginning to turn red, and tears were again starting to pool in the corners of her eyes. The firefighter backed away towards the door; the only reason he didn't bolt immediately was that he was worried that quick movements might somehow upset her more, and cause her to get violent quicker.

"Emma...Emma..." begged Daniel, his hands still up in a motion of surrender and placation. He had never been so terrified in his life...and suddenly, something snapped in Daniel. His sympathetic caution, his gentle intonations, his assuaging gestures, all seemed to seize up inside him, and were instantly replaced by an entirely different emotion: anger. Daniel didn't get angry often, and right now, it was entirely due to feeling like his life was in danger.

"Emma!" he barked out angrily. The gigantic girl blinked rapidly a couple times. She had no idea what she had been about to do, but she had never really heard Daniel talk like that before. His tone distracted her from her own anger for a few moments, long enough for her to take stock of her boyfriend's figure in front of her. Daniel was shaking, and his hands were balled up by his side.

"What?" she asked, her voice more normal.

"D-don't...don't do that to me!" said Daniel shakily, breathing in and out rapidly.

"Don't do what?" asked Emma.

"Don't...look at me like that!" Daniel burst out. "Y-you...you were freaking me out there, Emma!"

Emma looked to the firefighter, who was standing there frozen by the door, his hand on the doorknob, and then back to Daniel, who was visibly shaking, though the anger had quickly faded from his face.

'Geez, they're both terrified,' Emma thought to herself, with a surprising degree of detachment. Ordinarily, Emma would respond to any distress in Daniel (or pretty much anyone else for that matter) with empathy and warmth. Her anger had been doused a little by the surprise of Daniel's reaction, but it had been replaced by that same strange, expressionless void. The afterglow of her own anger, however, felt a little pleasant to her. At least it was something that she was feeling.

"Uhh...ok, well, sorry I didn't mean to be all freaky here in the corner," she remarked dryly. When she saw that the firefighter didn't seem to react to her words, she took it upon herself to take control of the situation.

"Hey, don't leave," she said, extending a huge arm and beckoning him back with her massive hand. "Er, sorry that I made you feel scared or something. Here, uh...you all keep talking."

The firefighter made a kind of jerking motion back towards her, and Emma saw that he had made the motion simply because of the force of her presence -- he was still terrified, and so he was doing whatever she said, in an almost-animalistic urge to placate her. For a moment, as she stared down at the small, scared little man, Emma felt something huge and indistinct well up inside her, something that felt incredibly vibrant and energizing...and powerful. For this quick snapshot of a few seconds, she realized the extent of her clout, her power, her potential to dominate her surroundings. All she had to do was raise her voice a little bit and all of a sudden these little people set to scurrying around, doing what she wanted. All she had to do was express a hint of frustration or anger, and she immediately set all the little people around her on edge. Her voice vibrated the walls, the furniture, the ceiling...she suddenly realized that she could just tear a hole through the ceiling herself if she wanted to...she could punch out one of the walls with her own fists without too much trouble. She wasn't really a captive here. She was just patiently biding her time for Daniel, letting the fire department do its thing, in order to keep up the pretense of something. Without quite delving into why, Emma knew that she had to keep herself under control for Daniel; she knew that he could not see her lift the roof or punch her way through a wall without looking at her differently. And Emma didn't want Daniel to look at her differently.

She looked away from the firefighter, and back to Daniel, who had lowered his hands and was staring up at her. His anger was gone, but that same apprehension remained, stretching across his face.

'God he's so tiny,' Emma thought to herself. She suddenly felt a crick in her leg; she needed to stretch it out. But she also wanted to just see...what Daniel looked like next to her leg. She slowly extended it out from beneath the mound of blankets, its bare alabaster length looking solid and well-formed in the daylight. Daniel made a motion to avoid the incoming leg, but he had seen the softened look on Emma's face, and realized that her anger had passed away as well. still though, it was more than a little intimidating as, quite deliberately, Emma put her leg down right next to him, her bare, upright foot rising all the way up to his knees. Emma wiggled her toes playfully next to him in an attempt to lighten the mood, and she found her face upturning itself into a strange, toothy grin.

"Hey! Look at that!" she chuckled out into the room, "My toes are as high as your knees, haha!"

"Uhh, heheh, y-yeah...they are," replied Daniel, forcing something of a chuckle out of his own tight diaphragm.

"I just...haha, wow," laughed Emma, feeling a bizarre sense of lightness lifting her spirits, "I know that I'm the one who's, uh...the freak here...heh, but...geez Daniel...I just can't believe how small you look right now. I, like, wish that you could see things from my perspective right now. Haha, I know it sounds crazy, but...you guys just look like little kids to me right now."

"Y-yeah...haha, yeah I...I bet we do," forced Daniel.

"Wanna say hi to my toes?" giggled Emma, moving her foot closer to Daniel, wiggling her toes up against his leg. Daniel actually stumbled backwards a little bit from the force of her toes, but he quickly righted himself, allowing Emma to tease him with her foot. Somewhere in his brain, he knew that he really, really needed to humor her right now, despite the craziness of the situation itself; it was not lost on him how drastically Emma's mood had shifted.

"Um...hehe, uh, hello there, little toes," Daniel joked, looking down and waving. He felt surreal.

"Little!?" laughed Emma, rearing her toes back in an indication of attack, and then pointedly smacking them with force into his lower legs. Daniel stumbled again, and this time he did actually fall backwards, landing lightly on his back. In an instant, Emma's bare foot was on his chest, not pressing too hard, but nonetheless applying enough force to prevent him from rising again. Her toes kept wiggling against his chest, forcing the air out of his lungs in wriggling increments.

"Little??" Emma repeated. "Haha, well if MY toes are little, what does that make YOU, Daniel? Come on, try to get up!"

Daniel made several attempts, again just to humor her, and each time, Emma pressed him back down with her toes.

"Oh!" she said mockingly, each time he tired and failed. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Can't get up, huh? Guess my "little" toes are too much for you, haha!"

"Y-yeah...heheh...o-ok...ok Emma," laughed Daniel. If the situation had not been so bizarre (and embarrassing in front of the firefighter), he might have actually been able to enjoy himself. As it was, though, he just wanted her to stop, and was relieved when, a few seconds later, Emma relented and let him stand up again.

"S-so...um," came the firefighter's hollow voice from the doorway, "So we'll just...get the department over here, uh...this afternoon, alright?"

Daniel and Emma both turned to look at him, and saw that he was thoroughly weirded out, and desperate to leave.

"O-ok, um, thanks...thanks so much!" said Daniel, lifting his hand to wave. Emma lifted her hand as well, accidentally bumping it into the ceiling and sending the whole house shaking, like a tree limb has just hit the roof.

"Uh, byeeee!" she called as the firefighter hurriedly turned and fled through the door. "Sorry if I scared youuu!"

A few moments of silence passed.

"I really did scare you guys, didn't I?" asked Emma quietly, looking at the door the firefighter had just closed.

"Yeah...you really did, Emma," said Daniel gently, but matter-of-factly.

A few hours later, the fire department was just about ready to lift off a big chunk of the roof that they had just cut into. Emma had crawled to the far corner of the kitchen, to give them some space, but even then, the stunned firefighters who came into the house couldn't get too far away from her outspread limbs. She was simply too big to avoid. Miss Bisset had arrived, responding immediately to Daniel's emergency call, and she was able to quickly sew together a quick, impromptu dress from their bedsheets. Miss Bisset's calming, empathetic presence made Emma feel a little better, as did the elderly fashion designer's reassurance that Emma would look good in this short white dress when she stepped out of the house.

"You're sure I won't look like some kind of...of sheet-wearing freak?" she murmured as Miss Bisset sewed quickly away.

"Of course not, dear," intoned the venerable old lady, "Everyone is different in their own way. You just happen to be different in a way that is...a lot more obvious than most."

"That's...actually a pretty good way of looking at it," said Emma, scratching her chin. Daniel, who was on the phone with the fire department (covertly assuring them that Emma would stay under control), couldn't help but notice how, even when Emma moved her hand and fingers slightly like she was doing now, the muscles and sinews in her forearms moved powerfully. She was undoubtedly proportional, and quite curvy and pleasant-looking, in fact...but it was just...that she was so huge.

When the fire department arrived, they were conspicuously accompanied by several police officers, armed with guns, and their faces hard-set. The lead officer, however, appeared to be more casual and lighthearted. Daniel knew, however, that he was just doing his best to diffuse the whole situation -- everyone had seen Emma's reaction when the cops came walking in, ahead of the firefighters.

"So, what...what are you guys doing here?" Emma had asked, sitting up a little in her corner, next to Miss Bisset (who had been sitting in Emma's lap).

"Well hello! You must be Emma!" the lead officer had said brightly, as he wordlessly pointed around the house, stationing his men around at different points. It immediately became clear that all of this had been pre-planned.

"Yeah, that's me," said Emma, warily eying the police officers.

"No reason to be alarmed!" the lead officer said pleasantly, noticing how Emma's eyes flit from one officer to the next. "Everything's all a-ok."

"Then what are you doing here?" asked Emma flatly. The way that the other officers were looking at her was starting to make her feel like she had done something wrong.