Started thinking about ghosts and berry inflation, and put together a story involving a haunted bottling plant and plenty of bursting berries! Also includes perma-popping!

The Gaines Soda Bottling Plant is plagued by mysterious accidents as security guards keep swelling with soda and bursting...

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Berry Haunting
By: IndigoRho

The interior of the Gaines Soda Bottling Plant was eerily dark, only faintly lit by a handful of left on lights and the full moon visible through the large glass windows. And the shaky beam of a flashlight.

Wyatt had been working the night shift as security at the bottling plant for a week, but he was already thinking about quitting. Something very strange was happening there, something the plump zebra couldn’t explain.

It’d started with odd noises. He’d originally thought it was just mice, or the age of the machinery, but he swore there was laughter as well. Then random objects had gone missing from his office during patrols, only to turn up later on in areas he’d previously walked. Just the night before he’d found crates arranged in a circle.

No one else worked in the bottling plant at night with him, and Wyatt doubted his superiors would believe his story. He’d be laughed out of the office.

As ridiculous as it seemed, Wyatt was convinced the place was haunted. The sooner he found a new job the better.

Wyatt’s flashlight shone on the towering bottling machinery that dominated the main room. It’d been shut down for almost a month now after the company had been forced to initiate a major recall. A batch of their most popular product—Blueberry Blast Cola—had been contaminated somehow. Everyone who drank it swelled up like a blueberry, turning blue and filling with soda. Most had suffered permanent berrification due to how volatile the soda was. Quite a few had even burst either from drinking multiple sodas in short succession or because they were unlucky enough to swell into something sharp.

Needless to say it was a PR nightmare for the company, which was dealing with an onslaught of lawsuits. For all Wyatt knew they’d go bankrupt and leave him jobless anyway. Just another reason to find something else.

Suddenly the rest of the lights turned on, briefly blinding Wyatt. The bottling machinery whirred to life, the silence shattered as bottles started down the line. Wyatt’s heart raced as his gaze darted all over, looking for answers.

“W-Who’s there! Show yourself!” Wyatt demanded. It was probably just kids pulling a prank, it had to be. It had to be!

He got a response, but not the one he wanted. Cackling laughter echoed from all over. Wyatt couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from, and at that point was too afraid to care. He bolted for the nearest exit, small belly bouncing the whole way. Less than ten feet away the heavy doors slammed shut on their own. Wyatt pulled at the handles with all his might, but they were locked.

One-by-one the rest of the room’s doors shut as well, trapping Wyatt. With nowhere to run, Wyatt stumbled towards the middle of the room.

From a nearby case a half dozen bottles of soda rose into the air, floating on their own.

“You’ve worked so hard, you should really have a drink!” A voice insisted. Again Wyatt couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. “You’re guaranteed to have a blast if you do!”

The cap of one of the bottles popped right off, the bottle diving at the terrified zebra. It forced its way into Wyatt’s mouth, lifting afterward to force him to angle his head and chug. Wyatt flailed about, unable to dislodge the bottle. When every last drop of soda had been drunk the bottle finally hurled itself out of Wyatt’s mouth, who let out a short uorrrrrp.

Seconds later a second bottle swooped in. Despite swinging wildly with his flashlight and attempting to back away, each and every bottle managed to find their mark eventually.

Three bottles in, a transformation began to afflict Wyatt. His bright white hide steadily shifted to a deep blue, as did his mane. Even his black stripes were tinted to a noticeable degree. Once he’d finished changing color his belly wobbled, then started ballooning outward. Wyatt was becoming a blueberry.

Distracted by the assault from the floating bottles, Wyatt was oblivious to what was happening to himself. Not until the final bottle had emptied did the zebra have a chance to realize something was wrong. His belly felt far heavier than it should’ve, and he could hear muffled sloshing as he moved. The tightening of his uniform was also impossible to ignore.

A look of horror came upon Wyatt’s face as he saw how blue and bloated he’d become. The center button of his shirt popped off, revealing blue hide through a gap that was only growing bigger by the second. He’d seen people transform into blueberries before. Seen them burst like an overfilled water balloon.

“So, how did you enjoy the soda? There’s nothing more filling on the market, though some might say it’s a bit too filling.”

The voice was so close, but Wyatt still couldn’t see anyone or thing it could be coming from.

A rumbling buh-urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp popped a couple more buttons off Wyatt’s uniform. The swelling was showing no signs of stopping or even slowing down. Though always a bit on the pudgy side he was now sporting a sizable ball gut. It looked like he’d swallowed a beach ball whole.

Desperate to get away, Wyatt made a run for the doors again. He was waddling, belly swaying and sloshing loudly with every step. Moving caused the soda within him to bubble, making him belch and expand more than ever. His limbs were just starting to puff up. Eventually they would be enveloped, and the zebra would be helpless.

By the time Wyatt reached the doors, his middle was too big for him to reach around and his arms too stiff. Whimpering and wobbling, Wyatt simply didn’t know what to do.

“What, aren’t you enjoying turning into a massive, juicy blueberry? Feeling that building pressure as you fill with soda, hide growing taut. Oh, was that a creak!”

Wyatt’s clothes tore apart as he finally ballooned out of them. He couldn’t move anymore, arms and legs steadily sinking into his spherical body. His cheeks were round, and so were his hooves. There were indeed some creaks, though they were mostly drowned out by his belches. The zebra felt impossibly huge, and so, so heavy.

Suddenly there was an odd point of pressure on his middle, followed by a second next to it. It was like someone was pressing their paws into him. He grunted, then yelped as he was rolled right onto his back. The pair of invisible pressure points returned, rolling the defenseless zebra back to the middle of the room. Wyatt wiggled his hooves in fear, not knowing if he should be more afraid of his out of control inflation or the unknown force taunting him.

Despite being completely round, the swelling hadn’t stopped. The creaks were getting louder and longer, the pressure more intense. Wyatt felt so much strain in his sensitive hide, especially when the mysterious prodding occurred. If his blueberry transformation had been a normal one he’d have already ceased growing. Dread engulfed Wyatt as he realized he was doomed to pop.

“You look like you’re approaching your limit. I wonder if you’ll just abruptly go boom, or if you’ll spring a few leaks beforehand, really draw it out as your body tries to withstand the pressure?” The voice mused, still nudging and teasing Wyatt’s tender hide. “Don’t worry, when the big bang finally does happen it’ll be quick, you won’t feel a thing.”

The attempted reassurance meant little to Wyatt. He’d been reduced whimpering, the pressure making concentration nearly impossible. Fading in and out of a daze, Wyatt was only barely aware of the first leak that appeared in his side. A tiny stream of soda spewed out, but not enough to prevent the inevitable. A second leak appeared on the opposite side. Without warning they both expanded simultaneously.

Wyatt’s sides blew out, the blueberry zebra turning to flying confetti in the blink of an eye. Blueberry soda erupted from where Wyatt had been mere moments before, spilling onto the floor and raining down upon the machinery. The mysterious voice burst into laughter as the machines shut down and the lights flickered off, before fading into silence.

* * *
Days later a hefty blue jay sat in what had been Wyatt’s desk, unable to believe his good luck. Indi had only just started his job hunt when he’d come across the opening for a security guard. He didn’t have any relevant experience but was desperate for work, and fudged his resume just enough to make him a passable candidate. It’d still been a surprise to get the call back for an interview, and an even greater one when he’d been hired on the spot.

Of course, the person interviewing him seemed almost as desperate to hire someone as Indi was to get hired. All Indi learned was that the previous guard had quit abruptly without notice, and there wasn’t anyone to replace them even temporarily.

There wasn’t anyone to train Indi, just a bare bones training guide, a hasty tour, and some generic words of advice. Being all alone was both daunting and a relief; at least if he made
a mistake no one would be around to see it.

Indi’s very first patrol around the bottling plant was slow but peaceful. He jumped at a few shadows early on. Heard some things that clearly weren’t there. Almost tripped over a case that’d been left out. By the time he was heading down the corridor to the security office, though, Indi felt comfortable. The job really did seem to be a stress free one.

Behind Indi, a ghost leaned out of a wall, grinning as he spied on the blue jay. They were a slim lion, colored a transparent gray. In life his name had been August, and he’d been one of the many unlucky customers who’d met an explosive end drinking the blueberry blast soda. If he’d been out in the open when he swelled up he very likely would’ve survived, but instead he’d been at his desk in a cramped room. The transformation had kicked in so swiftly he’d barely had time to escape his chair, only to end up wedged between desk and bed. It’d been like getting trapped in a vice. A vice with pointy edges.

To add to the lion’s misfortune, he’d lingered on as a ghost, which had made him particularly spiteful. His desire for revenge—any revenge—was strong, and haunting the bottling plant had proven fruitful. It’d only taken a little supernatural terrorizing to get the place shut down—though of course management had made up another excuse. August hoped popping every security guard they hired would properly escalate things.

If anything he at least was having fun. The ghost slipped back through the wall, quietly cackling.

Meanwhile, Indi had just settled into his chair. In between patrols all he had to do was keep a casual eye on some security monitor. Other than that he was free to relax.

When August poked his ghostly head through the wall in front of Indi, the blue jay nearly fell over backwards in surprise and fear, shouting. August swiftly dove towards the open beak. Indi’s cheeks puffed out as he was forced to swallow the ghost, his belly swelling a little as well. He twitched in place, face twisting into a grimace and eyes looking in opposite directions. Eventually he grinned.

“Well that was a lot easier than I expected!” Indi laughed, his tone noticeably different. “Either I’ve gotten better at possessing people or you’re a bit of a pushover, bub~”

Within, the real Indi was trapped in his own mind. He could sense everything that was happening, but lacked control. Concentrating harder, panicking, shouting into the void—nothing helped. He was at the complete mercy of August.

August stood up in his borrowed body, smiling as he felt its belly wobble. He squeezed it with both talons, hefting it up and letting it drop just to watch it bounce.

“Whoa, I haven’t been this fat since college! I’d forgotten how it feels to be so...wobbly.” August puffed his chest out, watching the buttons of his uniform strain faintly. “Lot easier to adjust to than being a bird, though. As much as I’d love to play around all night, it’d be rude of me to neglect your needs as well, Indi. I think you could use a drink, something that matches this blue plumage of yours.”

August left the office and went down the hall, stopping at a case of blueberry blast soda he’d brought earlier. He felt Indi recoiling at the sight of the recalled soda. Good.

Returning to the office, August set the case down and cracked open a bottle, draining it in a single, satisfying gulp. Despite his past with the soda, he couldn’t deny how much he enjoyed the flavor. They’d undoubtedly played a role in his heftier college days. August slapped his gut to provoke a modest uorrrrrrrrrrp and immediately started on a second bottle.

While drinking, August noticed with delight that his talons were taking on a blue hue. Even his feathers were turning a lighter shade. When his belly finally began to swell he became elated. He jostled it, listening to the soda slosh and bubble within, watching his uniform grow tighter.

Another bottle was opened, August more eager than ever to chug.

Indi, understandably, was far less enthused by the sight of his middle ballooning out, knowing exactly what kind of danger he was in.

“You know, transforming into a blueberry is actually kind of fun when you don’t have to worry about the aftermath!” August said. “Just getting bigger and bigger by the second, hide stretching to contain all the soda. Knowing just how fragile you’re getting~” He firmly poked his belly with a talon, feeling the pressure. Indi winced.

The drinking and shaking was causing the blue jay to expand rapidly, his belly blimping against his chair. With joy August waddled around the office, purposely knocking over things with his massive gut. Pens, notebooks, a keyboard—all clattered to the ground as they were swept away by the sloshy dome. The uniform didn’t last long, and each burst button and torn seam made August laugh.

Three hadn’t been much room in the security office to begin with, and it was steadily becoming cramped as August took up more space. His waddle turned into more of a wobble, then a shuffle. Moving a spherical body was as hard as it looked when there wasn’t someone to roll you.

Eventually August couldn’t move at all, his swollen sides squeezed by the furniture and walls. He could feel the edges of the table and chair digging into his hide, increasing the pressure.

“Now there’s that pressure I remember! You never really know how small a room is until you’re as wide as you are tall and hide is stretched as thin as a piece of paper.” August almost moaned over the sounds of his body creaking. “So many ways to pop, so many sudden dangers! A pin, a claw, a misplaced set of keys. Even just being wedged too tightly in between things can spell your doom. You’ve probably only got seconds left before you become a flashy explosion~”

All Indi could do was caw in distress, knowing August was telling the truth. Sure enough, the immense sloshing borb came apart within a minute. The force of the blast rattled the walls and hurled anything not bolted down. Soda soaked the walls, the ceiling, the floor, leaving nothing dry. Feathers were everywhere, as if a mountain of pillows had been shredded. Indi’s beak had gone straight through a computer monitor and into the wall behind it.

In the very middle of the blast zone August was floating and laughing. Experiencing being a berry through possession had proven funner than he’d thought, and he was already planning on repeating the process with the next hapless security guard the bottling plant hired.

As the ghost continued to gloat and congratulate himself, his transparent body was slowly turning blue. The same blue Indi and Wyatt had turned. In his empty middle blue soda appeared, bubbling forth from the void.

The faint splashing didn’t go unnoticed for long. August looked down at himself, stunned into silence as he started to swell. It didn’t make sense, he was a ghost, how could he be inflating! He prodded his growing belly, but the soda persisted, remaining inside him. Could ghosts turn into berries? Could ghosts pop? What would even happen if a ghost popped?

Uncertainty overwhelmed August. He attempted to flee through a wall but the soda couldn’t pass with him, actively holding him back. The ghost was trapped.

Swelling out of control, August nervously floated back to the room’s center in an effort to avoid anything that could pop him. Every part of him was puffing up, rounding out, becoming a single, soda-filled sphere. There was a sense of pressure and what might have been the sounds of creaks, but it was different from what he’d felt when both he and Indi had expanded.

As August became an orb he saw his phantom hide was struggling to stretch. So even a ghost had their limits. The bravado he’d had before was gone, replaced by whimpering. His paws were almost completely sunken into his body, muzzle sticking straight up so he could barely see a thing. The soda hadn’t stopped.

There was a loud whine before the ghost popped, another wave of soda pelting the security office and adding to the pool made by Indi mere minutes before. The scraps of August’s hide flew through walls and furniture alike, steadily fading away. Aside from steady dripping, quiet returned to the office.

The disappearance of yet another security guard was unnerving but not unexpected, the mess cleaned up secretly just like always. After viewing the strange camera footage from inside the office and seeing the phenomenon of the floating ball of soda, management wondered if maybe their problems at the bottling plant were finally over. They’d just have to hire a new security guard and see...