Gabriella walked at a brisk pace through the crowded streets of bustling Cartagena, careful not to trip on the uneven cobblestone walkways as she made her way to the Hotel Junto al Mar, the Hotel by the Sea. She needed to retrieve something incredibly precious to her. The former monastery had been turned into a luxurious hotel, the finest in Cartagena, back in the early 20th century, and she had worked at the historic landmark as a housekeeper since she was 15. Suddenly, it dawned on her—after today, she would probably never return here again.
So many thoughts raced through her head as she neared her destination, as twenty-five years’ worth of memories and experiences flooded her thoughts simultaneously. I was just a young girl when I started here. Both of my parents were still alive as well and they were so proud of me for getting this job to help the family. I got married while I worked here. I even had my baby girl, the happiest moment of my life.
It was sobering to reflect on not only how fast the years go by, but how much life can change in that time.
One final thought—a terrible thought—unfortunately came to mind as well, pushing the pleasant ones aside. The love of my life was taken from me during this time… Her eyes filled with tears as she remembered the worst day of her life. With a shudder, she took a deep, cleansing breath to try and wipe this horrific memory from her mind. Then she reminded herself, that was why she was here today. To retrieve the final gift her husband had given to her before he had died.
For her 38th birthday, he had made her a mug for her tinto, the black coffee that she loved. Every morning, Fernando would expertly brew her tinto, adding the perfect amount of panela to make it as sweet as she liked it. He always teased her for preferring it to be so sweet, affectionately calling her “mi carina”, my sweetie, because of it. He had written this on one side of the mug. On the other he wrote, “siempre en mi corazón”—always in my heart. She brought this mug with her to work every day. As much as she loved it when he gave it to her, it grew even more meaningful once he was gone, as if through the piece of glazed pottery, she was able to hold onto a piece of him forever.
Gabriella was lightly perspiring as she entered the hotel lobby. It was an abnormally humid day even by Colombian standards. Glancing around the vast space, she stopped to admire how breathtaking it was, something she never normally took the time to do. Usually, she was in a rush, either coming or going to or from work. Gabriella cursed herself for taking all of this for granted and not appreciating its beauty before today.
It was a partially covered courtyard; a large, warm, open space that fostered feelings of tranquility and serenity in those who stood in its welcoming embrace. When you first entered, you were immediately greeted by an old stone fountain that was rumored to be centuries old, built by the original monks that had constructed the entire compound. A pineapple finial sat atop its three tiers, allowing the water to fall into two different basins, enhancing the soothing sounds that it provided.
She looked up at the soaring wooden ceiling, arranged with the perfect number of skylights, allowing ample natural light to filter in, drawing the outside in. Large wooden beams in each corner of the room provided not only support for the ceiling but added a nice rustic look as well. Stunning bougainvillea vines spread out all along the interior, their rich green leaves and gorgeous purple blooms providing striking color against the bare white stucco walls.
Each of the three adjacent walls featured curved archways at their center. They were edged with decorative brick and led to different parts of the hotel. The one to her left was over the entrance to the restaurant and bar, which faced the ocean and provided breathtaking views for the guests. The archway that was straight ahead directed you to the guest’s rooms as well as the housekeeping and supply rooms, which was where she would find her beloved coffee mug. The one to her right guided you to the pool and gardens. Over the years she had been there thousands of times to bring fresh towels and retrieve the guest’s used ones. Regretfully, in all that time she had never used the pool, as it was off limits to the employees.
I should transform right now and go in the pool naked, she smiled at the thought of doing such a thing. They couldn’t stop me if I did, which made her chuckle out loud, as the thought of this just a week ago would have been absurd to even consider.
The floor consisted of the same type of cobblestone used in the streets outside the hotel. However, unlike the bumpy and rough surface that existed there, inside the hotel, each one was perfect. Level and smooth, a testament to the painstaking care that the original monks had laid down by hand, brick by brick. The cobblestone walkway led straight ahead and circled around the fountain like a rotary. Two paths branched off, the one on the left leading to the restaurant, and the one on the right leading to the pool. It looped around the fountain from both sides and continued along the remaining length of the room, leading to the main part of the hotel, the guest’s rooms.
This strategic layout divided the courtyard into quarters, with each section covered in grass to go with strategically placed small flowering trees. In addition to adding more natural beauty to the room, it also provided a wonderful fragrance. All four sections also included an ornate wrought iron bench that faced the fountain on an angle. They were painted in an eye-popping turquoise that matched the ocean waters just outside the hotel, providing guests a place to relax and enjoy the magnificent scene. Many guests would just linger here to gaze at the fountain and be lulled to sleep by the soothing, serene sound it produced.
She approached the fountain and stopped to look at all the coins that had been thrown into the basin over the years. Much of the currency was foreign, but other than the American coins, she did not recognize the others. She took notice of how few Colombian coins rested inside the fountain, most likely because of how poor most of the country was. As a result, most of the guests were foreigners, as the majority of Colombians could not afford to stay at a hotel as expensive as this. Gazing into the basin, it angered her that people would callously throw so much money into it, like it was worthless trash, when just a handful of these coins could feed a family in Colombia for a week.
Because of that, she was embarrassed about what she was about to do. She dug into her pocket and pulled out a one centavo Colombian coin. She was saving it for a special occasion.
That occasion was today.
She held it to her face, examining it as if it were the first time she had ever seen the coin, despite the fact that she had looked at it hundreds of times over the years, dreaming about this day. She had memorized every engraved contour of each of the coin’s twin faces and could describe every detail without looking. The front of the coin had the Jacobin liberty cap within a bay leaf wreath at its center, the symbol of Colombian freedom. On the perimeter it read “República De Colombia''. At its bottom, the year 1955 was inscribed—the year she had begun working at the hotel. She flipped it over. In the center was the Latin symbol for the number one, flanked by coffee bean sprigs with a cornucopia above it.
Gabriella closed her eyes and sighed. In all these years she never entertained the possibility of retiring at such a young age. She had just turned forty! She always thought she would be forced to work for another twenty-five or thirty years, if she even lived that long. But circumstances had changed very quickly over the last week.
Tears began to well as she fingered the coin with lightly calloused fingers. This was—-on the day that she was finally able to throw her coin into this fountain, to mark the day that her work here had come to an end. The idea that Fernando would not be here with her on this day had never been a consideration, even in her worst nightmares. That it had come so much sooner than either of them dared dream only made it that much more painful.
Pausing as her unfocused eyes gazed into the rippling water’s reflective surface, it suddenly dawned on her that perhaps the other coins that rested within its shallow depths were there under similar circumstances. Maybe each coin was a symbol, commemorating a special occasion. Maybe they were tokens marking the memory of loved ones that had passed. It made her feel guilty for thinking the way she had moments before, not giving the benefit of the doubt to strangers, not knowing their intentions. True or not, the shift in perspective was a relief.
Coin still in hand, she hesitated. The wrestling emotions of sadness and empathy gave way to something else as she continued to stand before the pool. Resolve.
Her trembling lips thinned, growing steady as the muscles in her jaw tightened. Gabriella would not make a wish. The only thing she truly desired was not possible. Instead, she would make a promise.
“I promise you that I will continue to take care of our daughter,” she whispered within a shaky breath. “I will love and protect her with all my heart, and I will not stop from doing so until I take my final breath.”
The sudden well of emotion that accompanied her solemn vow shattered the brief moment of control she had managed. This time, she couldn’t hold the deluge back. Salty tears gathered into fat drops before they fell in straight paths down her quivering cheeks.
She stood unmoving, allowing her tears to fall for a long moment. When her thoughts finally returned to her daughter rather than her lost love, however, her strength began to return. Trembling fingers wiped the moisture from her face as she began to collect herself.
“Until we meet again, my love,” she breathed, as if saying it aloud would allow Fernando to hear it from where he waited for her to join him.
With those final words, she extended her right hand, then flipped the coin toward the pool. It tumbled through the air so ponderously that it felt as if time had slowed. The coin caught the light with each rotation, the flashes like reassuring winks from somewhere far above.
As it finally hit the water’s surface with a soft plunk, Gabriella shivered. She took a deep, shuddering breath, relieved that she was able to accomplish this without completely breaking down. Gabriella knew it was silly to think this way, but she was happy to leave a part of herself here, at the place that had been such a big part of her life, for good or ill. It felt as if she had just captured all her memories inside the tiny copper-plated steel coin that she had just flicked into the waters of this centuries-old fountain.
Personal ceremony accomplished, she returned her attention to her primary purpose. She walked around the fountain and towards the room that held her beloved prize. She hurried her pace now, keeping her head down. She had promised Dulce she would be in and out, back to the compound as quickly as possible. She clutched the three cleaned uniforms that she had brought with her to her chest, trying to hide her face in them as she did not want to be recognized. She only had one obstacle standing in her way. One very large—albeit, friendly—obstacle.
As she neared the front desk, purposely situated to the right of the entrance that led to the guest rooms, she saw that Andres had just finished checking someone in. He was the only person that had worked at the hotel longer than she had, and they had become very close over the years. As much as she cared for him, she hoped that he would not turn in her direction and see her. She was here for a specific purpose and didn’t need any unnecessary distractions. Dulce had something special planned this afternoon that she wanted her mother back for.
Unfortunately, fate had something else in mind.
“Gabriella!” he exclaimed excitedly, head swiveling in her direction. Where is she going in such a hurry? he thought to himself. As if I wouldn’t notice someone trying to slip past the front desk!
Part of his job was to be aware of all the people coming and going at the hotel, whether it was guests, employees, or anyone else. Unfortunately, the area around the hotel certainly had more than its fair share of the unsavory type. His partner, Luis, would always tease that he acted like he was guarding a national treasure, not just some old hotel. But to Andres, this hotel was a national treasure, so he manned his position at the reception desk accordingly.
“Shit,” Gabriella mumbled under her breath. She tried to fake a friendly smile and slip past her broad-shouldered friend without any conversation, but as she saw his brows knit together in an expression of curiosity, she knew she had failed to accomplish this.
“You haven’t been here in a week! I’ve been so worried about you. I figured something terrible must have happened to you!” His sharp features showed genuine concern as he made his way out from behind his desk and towards her. Unfortunately, terrible things did have a way of happening to people in this city on an all-too-frequent basis.
“It’s wonderful to see that you’re okay,” he stated with relief, his beefy arms opening wide. “Come here!”
She dropped her uniforms onto the floor as he pulled Gabriella into his chest, wrapping them around her in a warm, comforting embrace. Gabriella did not resist, happy to be cloaked in her friend’s strong arms. Andres twisted slowly, ever so slightly, from left to right, as if he were trying to rock a baby to sleep.
The emotional reunion brought tears to both of their eyes, though for very different reasons. Andres wept tears of joy, relieved that his friend had not become another victim of the city’s senseless violence. Gabriella began to sob, the comfort she felt in Andres’ arms reminding her of how much she’d wished he’d been there for her a few days earlier. The past week’s events proved to be too much to hold inside any longer.
He held her firmly, enveloping her much smaller body with his. His fingers reached behind her head, fingers snaking through her dark hair to press it gently into his chest. He held her as she shook, doing his best to silently comfort her and allow her the time she needed to release her pain and sorrow. Though he wondered what had caused this anguished display, he knew that this wasn’t the time for questions. He just needed to be there for her. To hold her. Gradually, Gabriella’s breathing returned to normal. As it did, Andres leaned away from their embrace, gently placing his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them softly to comfort her.
“I think we’ve soaked your uniform with our tears,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood.
It worked. Gabriella chuckled, creases forming at the corners of her amused eyes as they turned up toward his. She awkwardly sniffled back her final tears as laughter gurgled from the still-present lump in her throat.
Andres debated anew whether to ask her about the reasons for her emotional display, but based on her emotional state, but again he suppressed his curiosity. Now was still not the time to push her for answers. He didn’t want to upset her further. There was, however, one question he had to ask.
“Is Dulce okay?” he asked, correctly surmising that Gabriella’s absence—and her emotions—might have to do with her beautiful daughter.
Gabriella nodded her head. She’s more than simply okay, she thought to herself, but didn’t verbalize the sentiment, knowing it would only generate more questions from her well-meaning friend.
“Well, that’s a relief,” he exhaled, relieved that no harm had come to the girl he had known for all these years. After all, recently she had been hanging around some pretty unsavory types, he thought to himself, knowing that did not need to be said aloud.
Gabriella bent down to retrieve her dropped uniforms, she needed to finish this tear-filled reunion and get what she had come here for. Andres grasped her forearm to help her up, pulling her toward him one more time. “You know that Jorge terminated your position when you didn’t come in for a week, right?”
“I figured he would,” Gabriella sighed. “Probably couldn’t wait to do it so he could replace me with a younger girl,” she stated matter-of-factly. “It doesn’t matter, though. Even if I wasn’t fired, I would be quitting. It’s time for me to move on.”
“And yet here you are, returning your uniforms! Gabriella, Gabriella. Always performing your duties. This hotel will miss you. I will certainly miss having you here!” His eyes grew glassy with emotion as he spoke, the big man barely able to choke out the last few words.
“Let’s not start this again Andres. We’ve both cried enough today,” she said, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. The corners of his lips struggled upward, turning his frown into a smile. They both laughed.
He embraced her one last time, a quick hug, before offering some parting words of caution. “I know what you’re here to get. Just be careful, Jorge is in quite the mood today.”
Before her unexpected gift from Dulce, hearing this would have given Gabriella pause. Jorge was intimidating, unpleasant, and demeaning, and she had always feared facing this man. Now, however, she couldn’t care less about what kind of mood he was in.
Gabriella allowed a sly smile to curl her lips. In fact, he should be worried about her!
“When things settle down, you and Dulce must come over,” said Andres. “I know Luis would love to see both of you. He’ll make his famous arepas. Dulce loved them so much the last time you visited!” His confident grin told Gabriella that the big man knew that alone was all the enticement she would need to come.
“It’s been ages since I’ve seen Dulce. She must have changed so much!”
Gabriella almost choked at his words. That was the understatement of the century!
She turned back toward him and smiled warmly. “She certainly has. It sounds wonderful, I’m sure Dulce will be thrilled to see you and Luis.”
She took a deep breath, waved goodbye to Andres, and headed toward her intended destination, imbued with a sense of calm that did not exist just minutes before. It was as if the sudden and intense release of pent-up emotion had removed a hundred-pound psychic anchor that had been weighing her down both mentally and physically.
As she approached the laundry room, she heard Jorge before she even saw him. His loud, bellowing voice simultaneously barked out orders and insulted his staff, all within earshot of anyone in his vicinity.
I’m so happy that I don’t have to deal with his abuse anymore, Gabriella thought, relieved at her recent change of fortune. Still, she couldn’t help but feel guilty for the women that were still here that did have to endure it.
“What is taking so long? Why are these towels not folded?” Gabriella’s former boss demanded loudly. “Do it now or I will throw both of your asses out of here, do you understand me?” he screamed at two young women. They both backed away from him, scurrying to grab the towels that had just come out of the industrial dryer.
Gabriella walked up behind Jorge, his large, brutish presence still as intimidating as ever. He stood over six feet tall, towering over the women that worked for him. He always hired petite women, the younger the better, and he enjoyed his size advantage over them as much as he enjoyed belittling and insulting them, regardless of their performance. He thought that doing this kept them in check and made them work harder.
The two housekeepers noticed Gabriella standing behind him and froze in their tracks. This only served to infuriate Jorge. He was not used to blatant disobedience from his employees. When he told them to do something, they did it. Immediately.
He walked toward them menacingly. “Is something wrong with your hearing, or are you both just stupid? I can replace you in two seconds if you don’t—”
“Gabriella…” Daniela, the younger of the two women, managed to stutter out, speaking softly and with her head down, not daring to make eye contact with him as she pointed in her direction.
At the sound of her name, Jorge’s head whipped around. The look of rage on his face was normally reserved for only the worst of enemies. Gabriella’s newfound serenity was instantly wiped out, replaced by fear and uneasiness as she looked up at his contorted face, red-cheeked and twisted into an expression of obvious anger and indignation.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he snarled at her, as if she were an unknown intruder who had dared to come into his presence.
“You have a lot of nerve showing up here after not coming in for over a week. You no longer have a job here, coño. In fact, you’re trespassing!” Spittle flew from his lips as they quivered with barely controlled fury.
Gabriella clutched the three uniforms tightly to her chest, as if they were a shield to protect her against his attack. “I-I just came by to drop off my uniforms…”
“Your uniforms? Your uniforms?” he replied incredulously, as if she had just insulted him. “These are my uniforms. Don’t let your old, worthless ass ever forget that! I’ll throw you the hell out of here myself!”
He stared down at her, eyes locked on hers. She felt as if she would melt beneath his intense glare. She inhaled deeply, silently berating herself for allowing herself to feel like this. She wouldn’t allow him to do this to her again.
Not anymore!
Summoning her courage, she walked past him. She purposely brushed against him to place her uniforms on the shelf that held the housekeeping staff’s clothing. “I’ve come here to return these, collect my personal belongings, and then I’ll be gone for good.”
Her brash display enraged Jorge. Nobody brushed him off like this, least of all some old, used-up bitch. “Just who the hell do you think you are?” Scowling, he approached her with purpose, trying to intimidate her as he usually did.
This time, however, it wasn’t working.
He decided to take a different approach. “All your personal belongings are now property of this hotel,” he stated, a smug smile forming on his sneering face, almost daring her to reply.
It was Gabriella’s turn to stare into his eyes, and she did it with the kind of fury that she reserved for someone she truly despised.
“Don’t you even try that with me, or you will regret it!” she spat, anger seeping out of every pore of her body.
Jorge hesitated. He didn’t quite know how to react. None of the women had ever stood up to him before. He glanced over at his other two employees. They were staring at the scene unfolding before them with hopeful looks on their disbelieving faces. They seemed empowered by Gabriella’s unapologetic defiance.
Jorge’s jaw tightened. He knew that he couldn’t let this go unpunished.
The tall man casually reached up to open one of the cabinets. He grabbed Gabriella’s coffee mug between two meaty fingers. Smiling, he extended it towards her, taunting her with it. “This is what you came for isn’t it?”
Gabriella froze in place, instantly regretting the overconfident approach she had taken with Jorge. Eyes wide, she froze, unsure of what to do or say to him next.
He retracted his arm, curling the rest of his fingers tightly around the mug. The smug smile on his face grew larger as he examined it. “Oh, isn’t this so nice, ‘my sweetie’.” He laughed condescendingly at the heartfelt sentiment painted on its side, as if it was the dumbest thing he had ever seen.
Surely a man as heinous as him would never endear himself to anyone that they would do something as thoughtful as this for him, Gabriella mused, anxious to get it out of his hands and safely into hers.
Jorge looked over at Daniela and Carmen, the emboldened look each shared irritating him further. This will teach them both a lesson they wouldn’t soon forget, while also putting this bitch in her rightful place, he fumed. He knew that he had to reaffirm the pecking order that existed here at the hotel.
“Your husband was a sap and a loser. Why else would he stay with someone as pathetic as you!” he said, whipping the dual insults at her, knowing full well they would act like twin daggers ripping into her soul.
Before Gabriella could react to his hateful remark, Jorge cocked his arm back and hurled her most prized possession as hard as he could onto the cold, unforgiving floor, shattering it into tiny, unrepairable pieces.
Daniela and Carmen both screamed as if they had just witnessed an assault. Clearly, they had been startled by Jorge’s latest horrific act. The comfortable demeanor that they had been lulled into exploded like the coffee mug that laid in seemingly hundreds of pieces, strewn about the floor in front of them.
To Gabriella, the event seemed to occur in slow motion. In one instant, Jorge was insulting her and her dead husband. In the next, he had destroyed his precious final gift to her. It would have been less traumatic if he had stabbed a knife into her heart and ended her life, anything but this terrible, cruel act of spite.
Jorge looked over at Gabriella, excited to see the pained look of shock written across her features. His own face was a mask of sickening glee. A demonic smile plastered across his evil visage, the man cackled as he celebrated his sick, twisted accomplishment.
Gabriella’s pain was quickly replaced by searing anger. An anger that seemed to raise her body temperature by ten degrees within the span of a second. She felt her face flush, the cheeks on her mocha skin turning a bright, hellish red within an instant.
It was a rage so intense that in her forty years on this earth she had never felt anything like it before. She should have been uncomfortable feeling any emotion this intense, perhaps even frightened by it. Instead, she welcomed it.
She embraced it.
As combustible as adding an accelerant to a raging inferno, her fury provided the fuel needed to combine with the gamma charged blood surging through her veins to ignite the transformation that Jorge would soon come to regret.
“You…shouldn’t…have…done…that…” she fumed, her breath ragged, her voice shaky and unsteady, as her body readied itself for an onslaught of explosive growth.
It was Jorge’s turn to feel unsettled. He saw the feral expression that had washed over Gabriella’s twitching face. He stepped back, away from her, as he noticed that her skin had turned a pale shade of green, as if she were about to be sick to her stomach.
However, she was anything but sick as the wondrous transformation had begun. Gabriella smiled in anticipation of the otherworldly power increase that she was about to experience, due to the second-best gift she had ever received.
Her body began to convulse as it gained mass, warming and expanding as tendrils of dense sinew wound upward like climbing tongues of flame beneath her soft skin. Her shoulders grew wider, pulling her pink cotton blouse tighter and tighter as the fabric struggled to keep pace with the furious surge of her body’s expansion. Her slender arms began to fill the sleeves as her once non-existent biceps were rapidly thickening, stressing the soft cloth to keep them contained.
Her legs began to lengthen as she grew taller, the tiny bulges of muscle that were her slim calves fanning outward as mass seemingly grew out of nothing. Hard striations seared themselves into her thighs, as layer upon layer of curvaceous muscle erupted forth, waging a battle for space within her pants and pushing the denim to its limits. The sturdy material held its ground as long as possible until small tears began to form, revealing hints of green-hued flesh.
“Yessssss!,” Gabriella breathed, enjoying the rapturous feeling that accompanied the surge of power that was filling every fiber of her being. She glanced over at Jorge, trapped by her expanding body that was blocking the door, forcing him to witness her ascension. She was ecstatic to see a mix of awe and fear plastered across his face.
Perfect, she thought, knowing that this incredible transformation was far from reaching its epic conclusion.
The intensity of her growth showed no signs of stopping. If anything, its pace seemed to intensify. Gabriella’s lips parted, her chin tilting back as the tendons in her neck grew less pronounced, cords of firm flesh swelling around them. Her head twisted from side to side, her growing neck attached to the bulging slabs of rock hard muscle that grew like wings over her back.
Her blouse was at its breaking point, pulled tightly against her now significant sized breasts, each one larger than her head. Her nipples were aroused and threatening to poke through the front of the shirt, as their outline grew more and more pronounced with each passing second. A shutter of arousal shook her from head to toe as this inferno of growth had ignited a cinder within her improving body, and the fire had now spread to her furthest extremities.
Daniela and Carmen stood in rapt attention, transfixed by her stunning transformation. Daniela began to pray and make the signs of the cross, as if she was witnessing something miraculous and otherworldly. This pleased Gabriella. She was beginning to feel like a goddess amongst mortals.
“Don’t be afraid of me, girls. He is the one that should be afraid,” she said reassuringly to them, her voice a little richer now, the sound of it amping up her arousal even more. As her massive arm extended, her finger pointing in his direction, Jorge shrunk back. Panic began to set in as Jorge moved away from the huge woman as much as the cramped space in the room would allow. He leaned against the shelving across from her and slid down it, his butt hitting the floor, only amplifying the growing size discrepancy between them.
Gabriella looked down at Jorge with a menacing glare as she had surpassed him in height. Her lips curled into a smile as she towered above her former boss, now cowering beneath her in fear. The increase in height had caused the material of her shirt to rapidly inch above her waist, Climbing higher and higher, it caught under the growing curves of her breasts, exposing her rippling abs.
Her stomach had lost all of its softness as her bodyfat had quickly burned away, leaving only the unyielding iron of feminine might forged in its wake. Sculpted then re-sculpted into a chiseled core so defined that it would make a world-class bodybuilder proud, her cobbled midriff practically radiated inhuman power. As her skin began to turn a deeper shade of green, she heard the straining of fabric, stretched to its limit across impossibly large breasts. Try as it might, the thinning top wasn’t up to the challenge of keeping them covered. They burst through the taxed material, escaping their cotton prison with a victorious bounce.
“This feels soooo wonderful,” she breathed, punctuating the words with a breathless moan. Jorge and the girls gaped at her writhing, her obvious arousal. With the twirl of a finger, she played with her lengthening hair. It had grown just past her shoulders, deepening into an even richer shade of green then the one her skin was turning. She feathered her fingers through it, admiring how lush and full it felt as its strands fanned over her viridian skin.
With every twisting movement, the lines of definition between her thickening muscles deepened. Her thighs packed on pounds of powerful flesh, each now wider than the two girls combined, as unmatchable strength flared into her body with a flickering roar. She ran her hands down her enormous thighs, marveling at the steely ridges and iron swells that snaked and burrowed under her creamy skin as the transformation came to its climax.
Her shredded clothing lay in scraps at her feet, exposing her impossible physique in all its natural glory. Before she gained this ability, she would have been embarrassed to stand naked in front of anyone. Now, she reveled in it. Regardless if others were repulsed by it, she was proud of it. Women were not supposed to be built like her or built like her daughter. Muscles and power like this were normally reserved for men.
Not anymore.
Being in a room of this size made her realize just how large she had grown. The crown of her head sat just below the eight-foot ceiling, and her body now took up more than half of its open space. The girls were staring up at her in awe, each of them only coming up to her belly button. The girls hugged one another, unsure what was going to happen to them.
Gabriella smiled at them. If Dulce’s plan worked, they wouldn’t be this small for much longer. They wouldn’t have to be frightened by men such as Jorge ever again.
“Mis amigas, I told you both, you have no reason to be afraid of me,” she said, trying to ease their concerns. “But stick around. You’re going to want to see this.”
She shifted her attention to the whimpering man balled in terror at her feet. “You, on the other hand, should be afraid. Very afraid of what I’m going to do to you.”
Looming over him like a colossus, she stepped toward Jorge, causing him to jerk his head away, banging it into the shelving behind him. Gabriella smiled, he’s even afraid of my feet now! He should be!
Although they had grown larger and thicker like the rest of her body, strangely, they still had a petiteness to them, maintaining their feminine shape. She hovered her foot directly over his head and marveled at how much bigger it was when she compared the two. Based on her previous experience when her toes pressed through concrete like it was tissue paper, Gabriella knew she could easily crush his skull with barely any effort. If she just casually pressed down on it using a mere fraction of her strength, his head would pop like a grape. The power she now possessed was absolutely intoxicating.
She pushed her toes under his chin, forcing his gaze upward, the viridian hue smoldering within her pupils as she forced him to look at her. Their eyes locked in on one another for a single moment before he darted his own downward, unwilling to maintain direct eye contact with her for more than a second. In that fleeting moment, however, Gabriella thrilled at the look within them. She was overjoyed to see such a terrified and defeated look staring back at her.
Even though she had beaten him merely by making him look into her eyes, he would not be getting off this easily. She had so much more planned for this bastard!
Unexpectedly, he knelt before her. He bowed his head and began to kiss her foot, which initially repulsed Gabriella. Tempted to simply kick him aside like an insect, she stopped herself. While initially this behavior disgusted her, she realized this was an act of submission that completely took her by surprise.
“I’m so sorry Gabriella,” he mumbled softly. Slowly, he kissed the top of her foot, keeping his head down. He seemed embarrassed at being so helpless.
She paused for a moment before replying. Out of all the outcomes that had rushed through her head, she had never imagined this one. She had never imagined that this misogynistic pig would kneel before her and kiss her feet. It was almost too good to be true. It also elicited an unintentional response from her as her nipples hardened again.
Could this scenario excite her in more ways than one?
She gathered herself and barked out a response. “Sorry for what?”
He looked up to reply, however, his view was blocked by a calf whose muscles flared wider than his head, and looked harder than the stone floor on which he sat.
“Did I tell you to look up at me? Keep your head down!” she yelled at him, more than a hint of malice in her voice.
His voice quivered as he tried to reply. He tried to collect himself, but he began to sob and couldn’t reply. Gabriella stared down at him with a disgusted look on her face.
“Look at you! Crying like a baby. You’re pathetic. Where is the bastard that was always yelling at us? Barking orders at us like we were dogs. Nothing was ever good enough for you. Holding our jobs over our heads, knowing we all desperately needed to work to help our families.”
Her anger built as she listed his numerous deeds of misconduct, the large thick veins in her neck pulsing as she grew angrier and angrier. “Always trying to intimidate us because you were bigger and stronger than we were.”
She laughed bitterly. “Heh! Well not anymore.”
She looked over at the girls, who were both thoroughly enjoying the sight of their terrible bully of a boss being put in his place. “See? Didn’t I tell you—”
In a flash, Jorge, suddenly composed and not crying anymore, seized the opportunity and darted between her legs, lunging for the opening on the other side of the room in an attempt at an escape. The girls shrieked at this brazen act, but with lightning speed, Gabriella calmly reached down and grabbed him by the back of his neck. She held him in place with her vice-like grip, but being careful to not exert too much of her strength, as she did not want to crush his neck and kill him.
At least not yet.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she sneered at him, as she lifted him by the back of his shirt using only her thumb and pointer finger. Effortlessly picking him up off the ground, she let his feet dangle in the air, holding him before her as if he weighed no more than a piece of paper.
“You stupid green bitch!” he spat at her. The sobbing, sniveling coward act was all just a ruse, meant to distract her until he could attempt his escape.
Gabriella swallowed hard, disappointed in herself for letting her guard down and thinking a heinous person like this could ever show remorse. It was a mistake she would not make twice.
Anger surged through her body as she reached out with her other arm and wrapped her long, powerful fingers around his throat, he gagged as she squeezed with just enough pressure to prevent him from attempting to insult her again.
“I could snap your neck so easily,” she roared at him, unable to control her emotions. She wanted to kill him in the worst way. No one would miss him if she did.
She heard a noise coming from lower on his body. Looking down she saw that he was peeing in his pants, a large wet spot forming just below his fly. The spot grew as he continued until urine dripped down his legs. She would normally be disgusted to see a grown man pissing in his pants, but knowing that he was doing it because he was so scared of her filled the huge woman with a strange sense of satisfaction.
Slowly, she tightened the pressure from her powerful fingers, cutting off the oxygen supply to his brain. His face began to turn purple as she pushed her fingers into his flesh. He reached up with both hands to try to pry them away, but he would have better luck trying to stop a hydraulic press than moving just a single, power-laden digit.
His eyes began to bulge as he clawed at her hand. Desperate, he knew he didn’t have much time left as she continued to squeeze. Anger and pain were preventing any rational thoughts from permeating her brain.
“Ms. Gabriella,” Daniela called out to her, reaching up and to place her dainty hand on Gabriella’s enormous arm. Her splayed fingers looked incredibly tiny when compared to the hulking woman’s thick, rock hard muscles. “Don’t do this. He’s a cruel, terrible man, but he doesn’t deserve to die!”
Instantly, Gabriella snapped back to reality. Daniela’s words caused her rage to wash away, extinguished like a campfire in the rain.
What am I doing? she thought, quickly regaining her composure.
She's right. He’s a piece of shit, but he doesn’t deserve to die. I’m no murderer! I only killed those other men because they were trying to kill me, justifying her previous actions to herself.
She relaxed the pressure on Jorge’s neck, still holding him in place but allowing him to breathe again. He gasped for breath, attempting to gulp in as much oxygen as he could, unsure if she would cut off his airway once again.
Instead, she dropped him to the floor. His ass hitting the hard, unforgiving surface at an awkward angle, causing him to cry out in pain. Everyone in the room heard a loud, sickening crack. He writhed on the floor in agony, but each twist and turn only caused more searing pain to rack his body. Sharp japs jolted him like he was being pricked by a thousand needles at once. He stopped moving in an attempt to reduce the pain, but it only helped slighty, and he whimpered and moaned loudly. This time, however, Gabriella knew the sounds were genuine, which brought a satisfied smile to her face.
Daniela and Carmen rushed over and embraced her, each of their arms barely able to reach around just half of her enormous frame. They looked like small children greeting and hugging their mother after coming home from a day at school.
She placed a hand on each of their shoulders, gently caressing them and enjoying the heartfelt moment. She hadn’t had enough of these lately and it felt nice. She looked down at the two of them, still young and innocent. Neither one was too terribly scarred by the harsh reality that life in Colombia could exert onto anyone, especially young girls like these, but neither had they had an easy time of it.
They deserved better, and Gabriella would make sure they would get it.
“Listen to me. I’m going to be back here in a few weeks,” she promised, to them—and herself.
“In the meantime, this one over here won’t be bothering you anymore,” she motioned over in Jorge’s direction.
”He’s probably going to be out of commission for quite some time. It’s only fitting that this ass just broke his own ass,” the corny joke caused the three of them to giggle, which probably irritated Jorge to no end, even in the agonized state that he was in.
His moaning had abated to a tolerable level, as shock had probably set in, but he had begun mumbling incoherently now, most likely in trying to respond to Gabriella’s taunt, which prompted some additional giggling from the women.
She turned her attention back to Jorge, “Now you listen to me, I’m leaving now, but I will be back soon. If I hear that you are treating anyone with anything but complete respect, I will break so many bones in your body, you’ll never walk again. Do you understand me?”
Jorge didn’t respond so Gabriella nudged him in his ass with her foot, causing him to scream out in agony.
“I said, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” she repeated, loudly and firmly.
He nodded his head in agreement. Tears streamed down his face due to the latest surge of intolerable pain.
“Good. Very good,” she replied, relieved that this was finally over and she didn’t do anything that she would later regret.
Before leaving, she turned her attention back to the shattered pieces of her coffee mug that remained scattered along the floor. With everything that just happened, she had almost forgotten that this was the reason she had even come here today. Her emotions welled up again as she saw that it was indeed broken beyond repair. She would no longer be able to use it when she drank her Tinto, the daily reminder of her beloved Fernando gone forever.
However, no one could remove the place in her heart that she had reserved for him. All the kind gestures, all of the love they shared, the life they built together, the hardships and the joys, and most importantly, the precious daughter that they created. All those memories would forever fill that spot, day in and day out.
