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[Story] Size by Samhain (Halloween Stories 3/7)

Published: October 30th 2024, 3:05:01 pm

Hi Hi ✨

Day 3 of our halloween story week! Added some extra images for this one too! Still cooking up the rest of the week's stories, so if you have any spooky ideas, drop them in the comments! 👻

📦 Grab the full res images from the attachment section of this post. ⬇️

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Size by Samhain

"Come on Sandra, cheer up! Mark was a jerk anyway," Ana nudged her friend's shoulder as they hiked through the darkening forest. "Besides, what better way to spend Halloween than camping under the stars?"

Sandra adjusted her backpack, trying to force a smile. "I know, I know. It's just... three years is a long time, you know?"

"Three years of him being an absolute tosser," Cassandra chimed in from behind them. "Remember when he forgot your birthday and tried to convince you it was next month?"

Jack, Ana's boyfriend, snorted as he cleared some branches from the path. "Or that time he tried to convince everyone at the pub that he was a professional cricket player?"

"When he'd never played a day in his life," Nathan, Cassandra's boyfriend, added with a laugh. "Face it, Sandra, you dodged a bullet."

Sandra couldn't help but crack a genuine smile this time. Her friends were right – Mark had been a walking red flag, and she was better off without him. Still, spending Halloween weekend camping with two happy couples wasn't exactly her ideal way to move on.

"Here looks good," Jack announced, stepping into a small clearing. The full moon cast an ethereal glow through the branches overhead, illuminating a perfect circular space. "We can set up the tents around the edge and have the fire in the middle."

As they began setting up camp, Sandra noticed strange markings carved into some of the trees. They looked ancient, Celtic perhaps, but she couldn't make out what they meant. "Hey, guys? Have you seen these?"

Ana wandered over, her torch beam dancing across the bark. "Weird. They look like some kind of ritual symbols."

"Ooh, spooky," Nathan wiggled his fingers dramatically. "Maybe it's a druid burial ground, and we'll all get cursed."

Cassandra smacked his arm playfully. "Don't even joke about that. This forest is creepy enough without you adding to it."

Once the tents were up and a fire was crackling merrily in the centre of the clearing, they gathered around it with beers and marshmallows. The autumn night was surprisingly mild, though Sandra noticed an odd electric feeling in the air, like the calm before a storm.

"Right then," Jack raised his beer. "A toast to Sandra's freedom from the world's worst boyfriend!"

"Here, here!" they all cheered, bottles clinking together.

As Sandra took a sip, she felt a strange tingling sensation throughout her body. Looking across the fire, she noticed Ana and Cassandra shivering slightly too.

"Does anyone else feel... weird?" Ana asked, rubbing her arms.

Before anyone could answer, Jack let out a startled gasp. "What the hell?"

Sandra watched in amazement as Jack seemed to be shrinking, his clothes becoming looser by the second. At the same time, Ana was growing taller, her jacket sleeves riding up her lengthening arms.

"Oh my god," Cassandra exclaimed, her voice a mix of shock and excitement as she too began to grow, while Nathan diminished beside her.

Sandra felt the tingling intensify, and suddenly she was growing as well – but faster and more dramatically than her friends. She could feel strength flooding into her muscles, her clothes straining to contain her expanding frame.

"This is insane!" Ana laughed, now eye-level with the trees that had towered over them moments ago. She looked down at Jack, who had shrunk to about 5'4". "You're so tiny!"

"Speak for yourself, giant woman," Jack retorted, but he was grinning, clearly not too bothered by the change.

Nathan had shrunk to a similar size, while Cassandra stood proudly at about 7 feet tall. But Sandra kept growing, surpassing both her friends as the strange energy seemed to pull size from everyone present.

"Um, guys?" Sandra called out, her voice steady despite her shock. "I don't think it's stopping."

She was right. While the others had settled at their new sizes, Sandra continued to grow, drawing more and more mass from those around her. The others began shrinking again, even Ana and Cassandra, as Sandra shot past 7 feet, then 7'6", her clothes stretching to their absolute limits.

"This is... wow," she breathed, watching as her friends dwindled to barely waist height. When the transformation finally stopped, Sandra stood at an impressive 8'3", while everyone else had shrunk to about 4'6".

"Well," Jack said, craning his neck to look up at them all, particularly Sandra. "This is certainly one way to get over a breakup."

Sandra carefully sat down, trying not to accidentally knock anyone over with her now massive limbs. "I feel amazing," she admitted, flexing an arm experimentally. Her bicep bulged impressively, stretching her sleeve to its limit.

"You look amazing," Ana agreed, still adjusting to her new size – considerably shorter than before but still taller than Jack. "Mark would have a heart attack if he could see you now."

Cassandra, now the same height as Ana, laughed. "Forget Mark. Half the town would have a heart attack seeing this."

"So..." Nathan looked around at their transformed group, "does anyone else think those tree carvings might have had something to do with this?"

Sandra stood up carefully, now able to touch the lower branches without stretching. "Probably. It is Samhain after all – the night when the veil between worlds is thinnest."

"The question is," Jack said, "is it permanent?"

They all looked at each other, a mix of excitement and uncertainty on their faces. Sandra felt a smile spreading across her face as she looked down at her new body.

"I kind of hope it is," she admitted. "I mean, this definitely beats moping about Mark."

"Definitely," Ana agreed, playfully flexing her own enhanced muscles. "Though maybe next time we should check for ancient Celtic symbols before setting up camp."

As they settled back around the fire, adjusting to their new proportions, Sandra couldn't help but feel grateful for her friends – and for whatever ancient magic had given her this unexpected Halloween gift. Sometimes, she realized, the best way to move forward was to grow far beyond what you used to be – in her case, quite literally.

"So," she grinned, easily picking up a log to add to the fire with one hand, "who wants to help me shop for a whole new wardrobe tomorrow?"