On a sunny summer day in a small town off the coast of Florida, a young woman was making her way down the busy streets of the popular holiday getaway, glancing at the various stores that lined the shopping district. Most of them were tacky tourist traps, selling knick-knacks or beachwear for the many tourists that graced this otherwise boring backwater. Kylie had often wondered what the locals did during their off-seasons, but never cared enough about their lives to make it past that surface-level thought. She didn’t even want to imagine being boring enough to live in a place like this full-time. And the fashion sense! She cringed at a heavily tanned woman wearing a skimpy outfit with her gut hanging out, clearly headed for the beach. If she was that chunky then she wouldn’t be caught dead in an outfit like that! That was why she didn’t like going to the beach, too many ugly people who didn’t realise nobody wanted to see them in a bikini.

She, on the other hand, was practically built for the beach and was more than happy to show off her athletic body, with its graceful curves emphasised by her tight blue tank-top and short skirt displaying her smooth thighs. Her most distinctive feature was her bright red hair, fashioned into a stylish bob cut which practically glowed under the sun. She enjoyed the attention she got, although she would have laughed at any man brave enough to hit on her in a place like this. She wasn’t planning to stick around for very long anyways. She was going to be in and out, without any chance of a long-term relationship.

Her eyes were hidden under a pair of large sunglasses, carefully scanning and noting each store she passed by. Anyone watching would have assumed she was just another absent-minded tourist making her way downtown, although she kept far out of the way of any annoyingly loud families or obnoxiously lovey-dovey couples that passed near her. She avoided the crowded stores, whether they be souvenir sellers or well-known chains, her eyes eventually settling on one seemingly unpopular out-of-the-way store with a gaudy, colourful sign done up in bloated balloon-like letters. Madame Crowley’s Beach Boutique read the astoundingly tacky sign; she could only imagine what idiot would think that was a good name. It practically radiated a total lack of common sense, no doubt a necessary quality for anyone trying to start a business in a place like this.

She struggled to keep a straight face when she read the sign hanging on the door: “‘A purveyor of artisanal beachfront accoutrements, implements and articles of all shapes and sizes.’ Hey Madame”, she thought to herself with a derisive mental snort, “you’re in hicksville, get a clue!” It didn’t look like anyone was inside; hardly a surprise. Which meant…

“Hmm… This looks like a good place to start.” She smiled, deciding to go inside before her beautiful skin got any unsightly burns. A chime rang as she swung the door open, and she was thankful for the rush of cool air as she stepped through. She didn’t bother taking her sunglasses off, her gaze as deceptively attentive as always. The place’s musty scent and layout reminded her of an old bookstore, a guess that would have been correct if she had looked into it. The atmosphere somehow hadn’t faded, and the aged building felt like it could have doubled as a witch’s den. Perhaps that was what they were going for, given the name, although why was beyond her.

Now that she was inside, she was even more incredulous at the sign’s grandiose claim. Was it meant to be ironic, perhaps an attempt at crude humour given the product they seemed to be selling? Based on the name she had expected a general beach store, but instead this “boutique” was highly specialised: from top to bottom, from shelf to shelf, there was absolutely nothing but inflatable rubber pool toys, ones that had her curling her lip in distaste. The pool toys she was used to were simple, childish things. A flamingo-shaped floating seat, a rubber dolphin for kids to ride on, pool noodles for them to whack each other with, and so on. These were for adults only, and would have had most responsible mothers covering their kids’ eyes at the sight of the outrageous display. For all of the pool toys were, for some godforsaken reason, all very much human, and very much female.

With vacant printed faces and engorged proportions, they were all lewd women either naked or in swimsuits with their legs curled up under blown-up asses that thrust high in the air to form comfortable cushions for the snug little seats carved into their backs. Tubular arms with puffy mitten-like hands cradled huge breasts that looked big and buoyant enough to support the weight of ten men, or at least two of the fat slobs she’d passed on the way here. Their heads rested on their bosoms, simple rounded things lacking much in the way of detail - their only visible facial features where the simple printed eyes and grinning smiles that adorned each and every one of them. Their only appreciable difference between any of them was their hair; puffy masses of latex, some long, some short, all shaped into a variety of different styles which crowned the rounded cranium of every toy on display.

Kylie glanced at one of the toys sitting on a display off to her side. It’s bright blue skin glittered like a sapphire in the bright sunshine streaming through the storefront window. It’s head was crowned by a spikey blob of darker blue latex that implied a mop of short, messy hair. A plaque underneath the display identified it as “Cerulean Cassidy”, but neither the cutesy name or the flat beaming smile on its face did anything to detract from its offensively vulgar design.

Even the ones deflated and folded up in cardboard packages were off-putting. Their grinning technicolor faces peeked out from plastic film windows inset on the boxes that lined every shelf, looking more like packaged sex toys than beach toys. It was just as well that they were all brightly coloured rather than flesh-toned, lest they look even more like blow-up dolls. Kylie wouldn’t even begin to imagine why they existed or who they were for, let alone making an entire store devoted to selling them. Wasn’t this supposed to be a family vacation town? How was this place still in business?.

Kylie wandered through the store, taking note of the layout. Product here, shelves there, a camera hanging in the north-eastern corner, emergency exit there, and to the left of the entrance, a bored-looking girl working the register who hadn’t even lifted her head when Kylie went in. Not that she needed to keep an eye on Kylie, whose tall high heels made a loud clack on the wooden floorboards beneath her. The heels compensated for her rather diminutive height of five foot five, and it was clear that Kylie was the type of woman who preferred looking down on others over craning her neck upwards at them. Her sly smile only seemed to come out when she was pointed away from the camera as she meandered around the whole store with suspicious intent. What really caught her attention was a certain set of stairs in the back leading upwards to what she thought would be a second floor, but led only to a tightly closed door. Naturally curious about any place she wasn’t allowed into, Kylie kept it in the back of her mind as she tried to not linger too long on it.

Once she had the layout memorised, Kylie approached the store’s sole employee. She was sitting down with her head in a textbook, college-aged and no doubt taking up an easy part-time job while she worked on her degree. Kylie agreed that it was the perfect place to study, but she would have appreciated enough professional courtesy to look up at her. She seemed like the type to be able to put up with working here, with neon green streaks through her long black hair, wearing a shirt with the logo of some band Kylie didn’t recognise. The moody girl, if asked, would have said that there wasn’t much point in looking at somebody who wouldn’t even take off their sunglasses indoors in the eye.

“Um, hello?” Kylie asked in a vapid, valley girlish voice. The cashier reluctantly looked upwards from her textbook as she smiled and continued. “Is this, like, all of your stuff? I was, like, looking for a new bikini to impress my boyfriend, but, like, you know, something classy, and your sign seemed really fancy, so, like…”



“What you see is what you get.” The girl said plainly, looking back down so she didn’t have to see Kylie’s vapid grin. “If you’re looking for a swimsuit you can go across the street.”

“You’d, like, be more popular if you sold stuff that wasn’t for weirdos, you know.” Kylie remarked, unable to resist as she turned on her heel to leave. “Like, tell your manager!”

The employee didn’t even bother looking up as Kylie waltzed out of the store. She wasn’t joking either. This place was for weirdos, alright…

–

 “Two clicks… there!”

Kylie grinned as she pulled her lockpick free, the modern lock affixed to the old door of Crowley’s Boutique proving no match for her expertise. It was the dead of night, the whole town asleep at this hour save for perhaps some drunks dragging themselves home from the bar, and she had done it so quietly that you would have had to be standing over her to hear it. If she lived up to her usual standards, not a soul would see her come or go. She had singled out the Boutique as an easy mark, seeing that the building was old and unrenovated, lacking a modern security system or even an alarm. The cameras had obvious blind spots, and were a cheap brand with poor night vision to boot.

Kylie’s outfit was far from her attention-grabbing daytime getup. She was dressed in all black from head to toe, black boots, gloves, and a loose hoodie that obscured her figure and distinctive red hair. Not that her current getup wasn’t distinctive in its own right: anybody who got a good look at her would have pinned her for a cat burglar in an instant, not that a professional like her would ever get caught. Honestly, she thought smugly, she might have been demeaning herself by even robbing this place, it was so easy. But easy was what Kylie liked; she had no noble thief’s spirit telling her to take on greater challenges - low risk, high reward was best. Besides, whatever idiot ran this store practically deserved to be robbed, with their tacky sense and perverted product. They were probably loaded enough that they could run it as a hobby, that was the only way she could rationalise this place’s existence.

Kylie swept through the threshold, holding the door chime steady as she slipped inside. She made a beeline for the register, having scoped out her route earlier, staying out of the camera’s sight and her head down as she opened it, the lock on that taking mere moments to bypass. She didn’t even need a light, with the place being gently illuminated from the streetlights outside.

Her devious smile twisted into a grimace. There was nothing more than pocket change in there! It was barely even worth scooping up, but she did anyway out of resentment for their slim pickings. Then again, she was impressed that there was anything in there to begin with - Madame Crowley’s Beach Boutique certainly hadn’t seemed like the most bustling place in town. Low risk didn’t always mean high reward after all; that said, even the most run-down dives she’d hit usually had more than this.

She let out an annoyed sigh as she pocketed the change, feeling like she had wasted her time. Even if she stole the more expensive merchandise, who the hell was going to buy one of these blow-up bimbos? She was just about to leave when she happened to turn her head towards the staircase from earlier, and couldn’t help but notice that the previously closed door was ever so slightly ajar.

Her smile rose slightly. While she was here, she may as well sate her curiosity, right? Maybe if she was lucky there would be something up there that could make this trip worth her while.

–

The door swung open without so much as a creak, revealing an utterly dark and windowless chamber beyond the threshold. Too dark for even her night vision, she pulled a flashlight from her pocket and shone a faint beam into the room, revealing… Not much of anything, really. Kylie frowned as she waved the light about; the room seemed mostly empty, devoid of any furniture or ornamentation she could see. Strangely, the room seemed to be covered in soundproofing foam, like the type you would see in a recording booth. That couldn’t have been cheap; this place was clearly important somehow, barren though it was, though Kylie could not imagine what it was used for. She had assumed that the room was some kind of office or storage area, but right now its purpose seemed inscrutable.

The light bounced off two shiny objects in the back, Kylie squinting from the glare and seeing that they were, disappointingly, merely two more pool toys, one green and one purple, both in that familiar human shape. But there was something else that drew her attention, something dull and lumpy that had been heaped next to them. It looked like some kind of fabric or leather, she couldn't quite say for sure - not without getting closer anyways.

Kylie took one cautious step into the room, then another, and another, wincing as she did so. Not from the sound, but the lack of it - even the floor seemed to be soundproof. Her heart started to flutter in her chest as she crossed the darkened room in utter silence. This eerie place was setting off all sorts of alarms in her head. Instinct told her to run, to turn tail and get out of here before whatever trap this obviously was slammed shut and trapped her inside. But curiosity drove her onward anyways; curiosity, and the greedy hope that there might actually be something in here worth stealing.

Before long she had crossed to the opposite end of the room. The twin toys sat motionlessly off to Kylie's side as she shined her light down on the heap of what she now recognized to be clothing. A pile of torn and shredded clothing that had been gathered together into a neat little pile; but it was what sat on top of the pile that drew her undivided attention now.

Kylie smiled. It was a purse, and a pretty expensive looking one at that. Likely filled with enough petty change and valuable knick-knacks to make for a decent payday. Maybe she wouldn't leave this place empty-handed after all!

She reached out to the purse, pausing for a second. There was something familiar about these clothes, but she couldn’t put her finger on what, with the purse obscuring the shirt’s printed pattern. She reached towards the purse again… then froze in place as she heard a strange noise from somewhere off to her side. Her heart thumped as the sound repeated, an odd convulsing gasp with a rubbery squeak to it, like it was coming out of an aged squeaky toy. The sound was faint yet unmistakable, echoing rhythmically through the oppressive silence that otherwise filled the room. And it seemed to be coming from nearby.

Kylie whirled towards the source of the noise, the beam of her flashlight falling upon the green pool toy she had noted earlier. At first she thought she’d misjudged it, but the constant steady squeaking definitely seemed to be coming from over there. Kylie frowned as she squinted through the gloom, carefully scanning the area for any sign of abnormalities. It didn’t seem like an alarm - it was too subdued to be an ordinary one and too conspicuous to be a silent one. More likely it was just the AC kicking in and someone carelessly tossed the toy on top of one of the vents - that seemed like the most logical explanation…

Until she noticed the toy’s face.

Kylie nearly shrieked at what she saw, stumbling backwards and falling with a dull thump onto her behind. The flashlight clattered to the floor, rolling on its side until the cold beam of illumination came to rest on the green pool toy. She had expected to see the same grinning visage that had been plastered onto all the risque rubbery rafts that filled the shop.

What she saw instead was a very real, very human face, staring back at her pleadingly and looking horrified beyond belief.

Kylie blinked and rubbed her eyes, convinced it must have been some kind of hallucination, but the lurid sight refused to dissipate. The face hovered just a few steps away, seeming pale and haggard in the glare of the flashlights illumination; its eyes were red and bleary and its cheeks were stained with tears.

This was no hallucination; nor, Kylie realised as she clambered to her feet, had she imagined what she saw earlier. This was indeed another one of the store’s distinctive pool toy’s… it just happened to have a human face grafted onto its head.

Kylie edged forward cautiously, eyes darting from side to side as they searched for any sign of danger; the only other things she saw in the room was the pile of clothes and the second pooltoy, its motionless and - much to her relief - entirely rubber body glinting softly off to one side. A pair of triangular protrusions jutted from its head, a trivial factoid Kylie silently filed away as she approached the afflicted stranger.

From this distance, Kylie could see where the stranger's natural flesh transitioned into smooth latex, soft pink blending seamlessly into shiny green with no harsh divide or stitches that she could see. It ran in a narrow, fuzzy line below their chin and up to just behind the jaw, where it vanished into an unkempt mess of hair - black, with streaks of neon green that matched the colour of the rest of their body - which likewise blended seamlessly into a lumpy mass of rubber that cascaded down the back of their scalp like a glob of hardened wax.

Kylie’s brows furrowed as she examined that disturbing figure. There was something familiar about that face, that hair. Something familiar that she couldn’t quite-

Her heart skipped a beat; Kylie’s hand shot to her mouth, barely stifling a horrified moan. This was no mere stranger. That face belonged to a girl - a girl, she now recognized, who had been manning the till of this very store just a couple hours ago. Her eyes darted back to the pile of clothes - the same clothes the girl had been wearing earlier, torn and shredded almost beyond recognition.

“H-Help…” *SQUEAK*

The voice was feeble and faint, but the shock of it nearly sent Kylie jumping out of her skin as her attention whirled back down to the gruesome sight in front of her.

The cashier’s body appeared to have been warped and twisted to form the toy itself. She was lying down on the floor, propped up on her elbows and knees - or something that at least looked like a close approximation of them. Her still-human face jutted out of an otherwise featureless spherical head, like a volcanic island in the midst of a calm and glassy sea. There was a disconcerting disconnect between that human face and the rest of its exaggerated body, its smoothly rounded edges and absurd proportions making it look like something that had been dragged straight out of a cartoon.

Her breasts were bigger than her head, lovingly cradled in a pair of arms with mitten-like hands and shoulders that seemed to bend in a way that was no longer quite realistic, planted teasingly over non-existent nipples. Her legs were curled up beneath her butt, which thrust proudly and lewdly into the air. With porcelain-smooth ass-cheeks the size of medicine balls, her posterior was large enough that one could easily relax upright on it were they to plant themselves into the comfortably snug little recess that had been carved into the hollow of her back.

All in all, Madame Crowley’s cashier was now virtually identical to the rest of her store's flagship product… aside from her expression, a twisted mask of fear, sorrow and exhaustion that was nevertheless far more detailed and realistic than anything on the shelves down below.

The girl’s whole body shivered gently as she drew in one wheezing breath after another; her jaw moved robotically, her lips twisting wordlessly as if they were pulling against some unseen restraint. Quivering panicked eyes stared up towards Kylie, tears streaming down her cheeks. There was no sign of movement anywhere else on her form; her limbs didn’t budge an inch, despite her obvious distress, and it slowly dawned on Kylie that it likely wasn’t a matter of wouldn’t but couldn’t. As her eyes adjusted further to the gloom, she realised that the cashier’s rubberized skin had become slightly transparent; she could see the distorted outline of the opposite wall through the girl's oversized ass. There was no hint of muscle or bone that Kylie could see - her postier was completely hollow, a fact that likely held for the rest of her body as well.

She forced her lips open and a cracked, strained voice issued forth. “Help…” *SQUEAK* ” me…!” She moaned, the squeak again making it a darkly comical plea. Her weightless body shook with each word, unable to do more than rock in place. Kylie wasn’t sure whether to laugh, cry, or both, and let out a terrified, choked sob instead. The girl seemed to be struggling to speak; how she was even managing it at all was a mystery to Kylie - if her chest was as hollow as her ass seemed to be then her lungs must have evaporated ages ago. Clearly the girl was still fighting hard to resist this strange metamorphosis - a battle she was also clearly losing, if the current state of her body was anything to go by.

“Hey! What the hell happened to you!?” Kylie asked, her voice shaking. “What the hell’s going on in here?”

“Is…” *SQUEAK* ”Is that…” *SQUEAK* ”You, Madame? Please, h-help…“ *SQUEAK* ”Help me!” The girl wheezed deliriously, completely ignoring her inquiry. Kylie blinked in surprise, only now realising that there was just a smooth expanse of green where the girl’s ears should have been. But while she might not have been able to hear Kylie she had certainly seen her, and the sight of her approach must have kindled some small flicker of hope in whatever now passed for the poor girl's heart.

Partially blinded by the light in her eyes, or perhaps brought to the point of delirium by her transformation, the girl continued her plea, assuming that the owner had stumbled onto her.

“Please…” *SQUEAK* “I promise I’ll come in… ” *SQUEAK*  “To work every day now!...” *SQUEAK* “Every day f-from now on…” *SQUEAK* “Right on time and everything!” *SQUEAK* “Just p-please…” She couldn’t seem to go more than a few words without stopping to catch her breath, that horrible squeaking wheeze punctuating every inhalation. It was almost as if the mere act of speaking was exhausting her, as if stringing words into coherent sentences had become a herculean effort.

“P-Please! I didn’t…” *SQUEAK* ”Mean to! I…” *SQUEAK* “I know you said…“ *SQUEAK* “Not to! I-I just…” *SQUEAK* “I just wanted to know what was…“ *SQUEAK* ”What was in here!” *SQUEAK* “T-then, that…” *SQUEAK* ”That thing attacked me!” *SQUEAK* “I-it grabbed me…” *SQUEAK* ”And then…” *SQUEAK* ”T-then it…” *SQUEAK* *SQUEAK* *SQUEAK*

Her voice trailed off in a long string of squeaking sobs but Kylie didn’t need her to elaborate to put two-and-two together. The girl had been attacked; something ambushed her when she entered the room, and turned her into… this. Kylie’s eyes darted about in fear, but again she saw nothing but shadows and the faint glimmer of the purple pool toy nearby.

“Whaat’s…” *SQUEAK* “Haaassening to me!?” The cashier spoke again, her words now coming out slurred and distorted.  ”W-whaaa…” *SQUEAK* ”Why can’t ahhh moveeee!?” *HISS-SQUEAK*  “Wha ant ah…” A hissing noise crept into her wheezing gasps, sucking in more air than she was putting out. “Ohh..” *HISS-SQUEAK* ”Ohhh gohg nnnah!” The girl seemed to realize something was amiss as her voice took on an edge of desperation, her wheezing coming faster and more frantically. “Nuuh, nuuh…” *HISS-SQUEAK* “Uuuh, ahhh ahhn…” *HISS-SQUEAK* ”Ah eel et!” *HISS-SQUEAK* “Ohh uhnfing!” *HISS-SQUEAK* “eeease!” *HISS-SQUEAK*  “HeffFFFFSSSS!”

Rivulets of something shiny and green rose up over her chin, stretching towards her lips. Her eyes went wild with terror, the flow of tears intensifying as the realisation of what was coming next began to sink in. Her gaze locked eyes with Kylie, but all she could do was stare back - helpless to do anything but watch as the doomed girl's mysterious affliction closed in for the coup-de-grace.

“NOOOOOOHHHSSSS” the cashier wheezed hysterically, eyes wrenching shut as a wave of glistening green rolled over her face. The oval of healthy pink rapidly shrank as the wave closed in from all sides, rushing up past her brow, pouring over her lips and into her mouth, even her eyelids turning green and shiny. All her natural blemishes and imperfections were washed away, the last traces of her identity drowning in a relentless flood of latex.

The girl’s jaw snapped shut, her lips curling to form a small circular opening that lingered even as the protrusions that surrounded it sank and disappeared beneath the tide. Her nose and chin flattened against her skull as the last tiny patches of natural skin vanished with a sucking PLOP, leaving the cashier’s visage perfectly glossy, smooth and featureless - save for her eyes and the tiny hole where her mouth had been. There was a soft creak of rubber as her face bulged outwards until it blended seamlessly into the contours of the rest of her spheroid head.

“HHHHIIIIISSSSFFF!” A sibilant gasp whistled through the tiny aperture, the barely recognizable tenor of the cashier’s voice the only thing to imply that it might have been an attempt at speech. Her wheezing gasps gave way a constant hiss, a shrill inhalation that never seemed to end. That whistling hiss rapidly built to a raging crescendo as a huge quantity of air began flowing into the little hole. The soundproofed room filled with a cacophony of squeaks and rushing air as the objectifying cashier rapidly grew to nearly twice her original size. The soft rubber of her oversized breasts rubbed against Kylie’s shins, the thief nearly tumbling over again as she stumbled back in surprise.

She regained her balance just in time to see what was left of the cashier’s hair turn to latex, the last few hints of black swallowed by neon green as her artificial highlights became her natural colour, the individual strands merging together and puffing up slightly until they became mere extensions of the lumpy mass that crowned her rounded head. Her eyes were open again and darting about frantically - the only deliberate movement her body was still capable of - as if searching for something, anything, that might be able to save her. Finally her gaze seemed to settle on Kylie, who was so absorbed in watching her change that she didn’t even notice the cashier was staring at a point just over her shoulder. Had she risked a glance around her then, she might have noticed that the purple toy had vanished at some point…

Suddenly her gaze began to shift - involuntarily, Kylie realised, as the twin orbs slowly turned until they stared straight ahead into the empty darkness beyond. She blinked in surprise, or tried to anyway - the rubberized eyelids didn’t even close all the way before they were yanked open again. The dark pools of her eyes seemed to shimmer under the flashlight’s beam, their slight quivering the only visible sign that the girl was desperately trying - and failing - to will them into motion once again.

Soon even that feeble quivering came to an end, locking the cashier’s gaze into a vacant stare. The stream of tears that had flowed unabated throughout her whole ordeal sputtered to an abrupt halt, eyes becoming glassy and dull as they began to widen - no longer driven by terror but by something much worse. The orbs flattened and stretched as they expanded far beyond the limit of human anatomy until they became two round, flat saucers plastered flush against the smooth curvature of what used to be her brow. Her pupils grew to consume the irises, becoming flat disks of black surrounded by rings of solid neon white, a thin strip of black paint above each one being all that now counted for her eyebrows. A final salty tear issued from one of the unmoving disks, the glistening droplet sliding swiftly and silently down a burnished emerald cheek before dripping unseen onto the floorboards below.

The cashier’s eyes, now nothing but mere printed images, shone dully in the beam of Kylie’s flashlight. There was not even a glimmer of life remaining in those cold and glossy painted disks as they blindly stared onwards with the same blank expression that had been etched on all the other pool toys throughout the store.

Air continued to whistle through the tiny hole where the cashier’s mouth had been, the only remaining opening of any kind on the girl's transmogrified form. The rush had faded to a trickle, the shiny new toy shivering visibly as its inflation sputtered to a halt. Yet the shivering continued even as the hissing trailed off, a shivering that rapidly intensified to wiggling, then wobbling, then outright shaking. The screeching racket of rapidly expanding latex was replaced by a cacophony of rubbery squeals as the busty blow-up beach toy thrashed violently with a last desperate burst of strength. The near-weightless body floundered like a beached fish, bouncing against the floor in blind and aimless fury. The gigantic gleaming teats of its latex bosom jiggled and squealed as they smacked against the floor with reverberating hollow poms.

Kylie raised her arms defensively, her heart thudding in terror as the writhing toy seemed to wobble towards her. She stumbled backwards nervously, eyes locked on the squirming emerald mass. It probably couldn’t hurt her… probably. But at this point, she wasn’t sure what to expect anymore.

Its saucer-like eyes continued to stare ahead dumbly even as its head whipped about like a balloon on a string. Yet something of the cashier evidently lingered within that hollow globe as a few faint whistling exhalations managed to force their way out of the shadowy pinprick in its face. Kylie strained to listen, the cashier’s final words just barely audible through the din. Her voice had faded into a softly hissing moan that seemed to echo faintly, as if it had reverberated down from the other end of a very long tunnel. The sounds that reached Kylie’s ears were barely intelligible - they were not quite words anymore, merely gasps that were contorted to resemble them:

“HHHIIISSSS… SSHHHIIIINND…. HHHSSOOOOUUHH-”

The hissing voice was abruptly cut off by a loud POP as a flat cylinder of clear plastic - an inflation valve, Kylie realised with a start - forced its way through the hole. Globs of paint welled up around it, rapidly spreading from left to right to form a long, narrow oval of white criss-crossed by black lines.

Kylie blinked in surprise as she realised what it was; a printed facsimile of a big toothy smile, stretched across the smooth expanse of the cursed cashier’s face like some kind of absurd rictus grin.

A booming rubbery groan emanated from somewhere deep within the toy’s body as its pathetic flailing suddenly thudded to a halt. Was that it? Was it finally over? The whole process had lasted no more than a minute, yet it had seemed to drag on for much longer as each change dovetailed into some lurid new process. Kylie eyed the toy warily as she slowly lowered her arms, not quite convinced that it was finished just yet.

Sure enough, no sooner had she let her arms fall to her sides did she notice yet another change beginning to take shape. The edges of the toy's eyes and grinning maw twisted slightly as the space between them became three-dimensional. Kylie started in stupefied horror as the cashier’s face - her real face - emerged from the toy’s head like a drowning man gasping for air. The smooth latex bulged and moulded itself into a perfect replica, forming a mask of flawless jade that stared ahead with featureless green eyes. Those glittering emerald marbles seemed to gaze right into Kylie’s soul, their stare a final unspoken plea.

A muffled howl slipped past her unmoving viridescent lips - a haunting, mournful wail that seemed to go on and on forever. The bloated latex shell that had mere moments ago been a living human being shuddered mightily under the cashier’s last futile show of defiance. But her efforts were in vain, and she seemed to know it too for the wailing that now filled the room was tinged with pure despair.

The wailing slowly faded away as the cashier's face sank into the toy’s head, vanishing without a trace as it was absorbed back into its rubbery tomb. For a split second, Kylie swore she could see a vaguely humanoid silhouette floating inside the toy, banging against the inside of its translucent skin even as it rapidly expanded to fill the insides of its unyielding prison. The outline grew hazy and indistinct as its edges pressed tightly against the interior of the wobbling latex shell - then it was gone. The wailing degenerated into a drawn-out, artificial squeal before trailing off in a series of convulsing squeaking sobs that were rapidly swallowed up by the soundproofing on the walls.

The cashier’s rubbery remnants, now driven solely by inertia, shook violently for a few more seconds as it burned off the last of its momentum. The voluptuous inflatable raft wobbled one last time, creaking faintly as its movements came to a complete halt. Then, at last, everything was silent and still once more, the newly christened pool toy staring off into oblivion with a vacuous smile. The only hint that it had ever been anything more were a few moist tracks below its eyes that were already starting to dry.

Kylie was unsure of what to do now, her mind unable to process what she had just borne witness to. She stared at the toy in mute awe, her ears still ringing from the poor girl’s death rattle - she certainly hoped she was dead, at least. The girl might have been a complete ass to her, but spending eternity trapped as an inanimate object was not a fate even Kylie would wish on her worst enemy.

Kylie shook her head as she slowly creeped backwards towards the door, nearly tripping over the forgotten pile of clothes as she did so. She didn’t even bother to glance at the purse, all thoughts of personal gain long since abandoned as she whirled around and prepared to bolt for the ex-

She felt something hit her shoulder, letting out a cry of pain as she was sliced through her thick hoodie, the searing pain enough to jolt her reflexes back to life. Kylie dived away, snatching up her flashlight, whipping around to see that the second pooltoy that she had hardly paid attention to had somehow sprung to life, very much animated unlike the unfortunate cashier and her now lifeless form.

Its appearance was as strange as the fact it was moving. It resembled something like a cartoonishly exaggerated catgirl, with inflated hips and breasts as big as her head, puffy pointy ears on top of its head and a wide, fanged grin painted onto its oval face. It had huge, puffy paws, although strangely its claws seemed dull, decorative at best. It had presumably hit her with them, and how they cut through to her flesh was a mystery. Whatever the case was, Kylie was in fight or flight mode now - and she was determined to fly.

The latex catgirl rushed at her, Kylie deftly dodging and sprinting for the stairs, just barely faster. She leapt down the stairs, not caring that she landed with a crash or that she was in the camera’s field of view. She rolled onto her knees and turned just in time to see the rubbery feline golem lumbering down the stairs after her. Kylie tossed her flashlight; the metal cylinder bounced off its head with a hollow pom, the beam of light vanishing into the shelves as it clattered down somewhere out of sight. The golem halted, wobbling under the sudden blunt force trauma, and by the time it righted itself Kylie was already gone. The door chime jangled fiercely as Kylie sprinted out of the store and into the street as fast and she possibly could.

“WELCOME TO MADAME CROWLEY’S BEACH BOUTIQUE!!!” a cheery helium-tinged voice cried out from somewhere behind her. She looked back just in time to see the inflatable golem stop in its tracks at the threshold. It made no effort to pursue, simply standing and waving merrily after her as the door swung shut.

–

Kylie ran until she was at least a few streets away, stumbling into an alleyway to lick her wounds and try to come to grips with the surreal experience.

“What the hell was that!?” She let out a choked sob, nearly crying as she collapsed down into a huddled position against the wall. She took deep breaths and tried to relax, the adrenaline wearing off and reminding her of the pain radiating from her shoulder. She hadn’t registered that she had been wounded, just that she had been hit, and then the panic had kicked in. The pain was already dissipating, but even in the dark alley she could see a shiny bright red coming from the torn part of her hoodie, and she quickly pulled it off to inspect the wound.

The ripped hoodie slumped off her shoulders and slinked past her arms, dropping to the dirty floor of the alleyway as she raised a trembling hand to her wound. She pressed on it, expecting to find it slick with blood, but much to her surprise it felt completely dry. Slick yes, but not wet or anything - rather, if felt distinctly rubbery to the touch.

Her hand sank in slightly as she put pressure on it, but in a rather unusual way she couldn’t put her finger on without looking at it. She turned with a grimace expecting to see a bloody wound, but instead found a glob of what appeared to be bright red latex poking up out of a tear in her shirt. The glistening globule covered nearly her entire shoulder; it looked almost liquid but it bulged like something more akin to a balloon. She rotated her shoulder experimentally, surprised to find it wasn’t painful other than the initial wound. But it did feel rather stiff and her range of motion seemed much more limited than usual. She pressed against the wound again, kneading it gently to try and massage some mobility back into her joint.

And gasped as she watched it collapse inward all the way down to the armpit.

She stumbled to her feet in horror as her shoulder bounced back into place. She squeezed it again only to confirm what she had just seen, finding it gave easily, sinking inwards when pinched as if… as if it were completely hollow.

More poking and prodding only solidified her conclusion; furthermore, she could see now that the red goo seemed to be seeping into her skin, being absorbed by it rather than dripping off. Her face lit up with fright as it became obvious what was happening to her: it was the same as the poor cashier. Whatever that thing has done to her, it had infected her with the same corrupting affliction. The rubber would surely spread, coating her entire body as it hollowed out and bloated up until…

Kylie gulped, her spine tingling with ice as she forced herself to confront that horrible, mind-numbing truth:

She was turning into a pool toy.

At the thought, no, the realisation that she was cursed, doomed to turn into an inanimate object, Kylie’s lip trembled and her legs shook - filled with a more pure fear than anything she had felt on jobs that had nearly gone wrong. Then, finally, she did the only thing she could do: run.

Kylie dashed out of the alleyway, cradling her wounded arm as she rushed headlong into the night. Somewhere further down the street, hidden in the shadows just beyond the range of the streetlights, a tall, pale-skinned figure in a long dark coat watched her departure. A hungry, expectant grin crept into their lips as Kylie turned a corner and vanished from sight.

–

A cacophony of squeaking sounds filled the night as Kylie rushed down the darkened street, the only sources of illumination being her own night vision and the occasional streetlight. One might have assumed from the sounds she was making that she was carrying a bouquet of balloons with her as she ran, but no such thing was visible on her person. The squeaks rang out in tandem with her strides, her thighs squealing every time they rubbed against each-other with the distinctive screech of rubber-on-rubber. Patches of shiny red glinted brilliantly across her body whenever she passed under a streetlight. No longer limited to the glob on her shoulder, those hints of burnished crimson could now be seen creeping into the palm of her wounded arm, reaching up past her collars and poking out in a thin line between her shirt and her pants - a line that was slowly but steadily growing wider.

Kylie gasped and wheezed as she was forced to stop for a moment, her legs threatening to give out from sheer exhaustion. Her thighs creaked in protest as she stumbled to a halt in the flickering yellowed circle of illumination cast by an old streetlight. She looked around and took in her surroundings, having absolutely no idea where she was. She had taken off in a blind panic, unsure of what to do, merely following her body’s instincts to run as far away from the threat as possible. What could she do in a situation like this? Go to a hospital? Was there a cure for being turned into an inanimate object? By the time they took her seriously she’d already be transformed.

Her arm had gotten worse; Kylie was no longer able to bend her shoulder at all, and the stiffness had spread to her elbow and wrist. The whole limb jutted out slightly, no longer hanging naturally at her side; now, unless she was actively holding it down, it would trail weightlessly behind her as she ran and stick out at an angle whenever she stopped. It looked impossibly swollen, like it had been stung a million times by a massive swarm of bees, stretching the dark fabric of her shirt sleeve tight across the limb. Kylie winced as she pawed at it, watching her fingers sink in readily wherever she probed. A faint creak emanated from her forearm as she pressed in a finger all the way down to the knuckle, feeling no resistance at all as the fabric bulged ominously around it.

It didn’t hurt, nor did it feel particularly uncomfortable; in fact, she barely felt anything at all. The limb had gone almost completely numb aside from a faint, peculiar sense of tension that built to a more noticeable tightness wherever she pressed against it. The twitching fleshy digits jutting from the puffy red palm were the last remaining sources of normal sensation on the bloated appendage. It was an utterly surreal feeling - almost like her fingers were floating in mid-air, completely disconnected from the rest of her body.

“Come on, god-damnit!” Kylie spat, gritting her teeth as she clasped down on the forearm with her good hand. “I am not a fucking object! People can’t just turn into balloons or blow-up dolls or… or f-fucking pool toys!” she whispered harshly, her voice cracking with barely-restrained hysteria. She began to squeeze - hard - her fingers tightening mercilessly against her afflicted limb. “I’m not…” She squeezed harder, desperate to feel anything at all underneath. “I… Am… NOT…” she exclaimed, her voice rising as she clamped down harder still. Thin tears appeared in the overtaxed fabric of her sleeve as the rubbery skin underneath bulged outwards, revealing tiny chasms of red that glittered in the dull light. “I. AM. NOT. A. FUCKING…” she practically shouted now as her fingers clenched into a tight fist, wincing as she dimly sensed the airy contents of her hollow limb rushing down into her-

“FUCK!” Kylie cried out at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing loudly in the silence of the empty street. Her eyes fluttered as she stumbled backwards, gasping like a fish as the fingers on her transformed limb - still very much flesh and bone - suddenly stuck straight out, each one swollen like sausages under the force of compressed air. A sensation of overwhelming pressure assailed her remorselessly as her digits inflated like balloons. Her back slammed hard against the lamppost as she released her grip on the rubberized limb, the awful sensation quickly fading as her fingers rapidly deflated back to normal size. She clenched and unclenched them experimentally, relieved to find they were still fully functional. Looking at them now one might think nothing had happened at all - but the memory was seared into her, a disquieting reminder that this balloon glued to her body was indeed a part of her anatomy…

“...I am NOT a fucking pool toy!” Kylie spat defiantly.

Almost as if in retaliation, that horrid sensation of pressure returned. Kylie groaned in dismay as it slowly built up within her, this time emanating an area just above her waist. Kylie grimaced as she let her hand drift down across her chest, her fingers squeaking softly against the line of red that now bulged out from under the hem of her shirt as she reached for her belt. She traced a path along the leather strap, noting how deeply it seemed to be digging into her increasingly squishy midriff.

“Oh god… I swear, if I make it out of this, I’ll never steal from anybody ever again.” Kylie muttered in a suspiciously insincere tone. She gulped down a breath of cool night air, another barrage of rubbery squeals ringing out as she pushed away from the metal post. The din was so loud she didn’t even notice how her breath had trailed off into a soft squeak. She stumbled slowly to the edge of the circle of light; her legs felt stiff and wobbly, but she wasn’t sure how much of that she could chalk up to exhaustion anymore.

She was running out of time, that much was certain at least. Kylie’s brow furrowed in thought as she looked around at this unfamiliar part of town, far away from the hotel she’d been staying in. Her eyes glared deeply into the gloom, her gaze lingering on every corner. It was natural to be a little paranoid in her line of work, but her bizarre ordeal had left her jumping at shadows. She could almost swear she was being followed, that someone - or something - was tailing her. She whirled around, half expecting to see that strange golem again, or possibly even the transformed cashier herself - reanimated into some perversion of life, reaching out to finish what her feline companion had started.

All she saw was an empty street stretching off into impenetrable blackness. Dark tenement buildings rose up to either side of her, not a single light visible in any of the windows. Kylie bit her lip as she stared up at the door of one of those buildings; should she even try knocking? Assuming anyone was actually in there what would they even be able to-

“What’re you doing up and about this late in the evening, young lady?” inquired a husky feminine voice from somewhere behind.

Kylie whirled back around to find an unfamiliar face peering down at her through the gloom. The stranger had crept up on her without so much as a sound, almost as if she’d materialised from out of thin air. She was hard to make out through the dark, not helped by her matching all-black getup. She could tell that she was tall, at least a foot taller than Kylie herself was, with long, flowing black hair and a long heavy coat that seemed rather out of place in this climate. Her face seemed to hover in the dark, a circle of brilliant porcelain-white that seemed to shimmer like a full moon.

“I’m… I’m…” Kylie gasped, having absolutely no idea what to say. The mystery woman had caught her completely off-guard. Where had she come from anyways? She swore there had been nothing there a moment-

“ARGH!” Kylie moaned, nearly doubling over as the pressure in her abdomen suddenly intensified. Sweat beaded on her forehead as her hand pressed deeply into her belly, her fingers squeaking loudly as shiny red flesh bulged around them. The stranger merely cocked her head slightly and chuckled, as if the sight of Kylie’s discomfort was somehow amusing to her.

“My, my…” she cooed in that deep husky voice, “you seem to be in quite the pickle!”

That much was obvious. The worst was still hidden under her clothes, but the grossly distended belly and the swollen limb bobbing weightlessly at her side were a dead giveaway that something was very wrong with her. “I, uhh… I had an… accident.” Kylie exclaimed haltingly, still unsure of what to say or how much she should reveal. Her story was bizarre bordering on absurd and she doubted anyone would take it at face value. Still, openly admitting that she’d been caught breaking and entering seemed like a bad idea.

“An accident?” the stranger replied, her tone sounding almost mocking.

“Yeah! I, uhhh…” Kylie stuttered as she tried to string together something halfway convincing. “I was working late and, uh… I, uh… Spilled something on my hand!” She snatched her inflated arm up with her good hand and wrenched it upwards with a piercing squeak, straining to bend her stiffening elbow and wrist so that her palm rested just under the stranger’s nose. “See! Got it all over my hand! Turns out I’m allergic to, uh…. C-cherry soda! Yeaaah…” Her nervous smile was only slightly less fake than the pool toys in Crowley’s shop.

“Of course.” The dark stranger drawled, flicking a casual glance towards the shiny palm before turning her gaze back on Kylie. “What happened to your shoulder?”

Kylie's smile twisted into a grimace as she side-eyed the large and rather obvious tear in her shirt. She’d never been very good at improv, and the worsening pressure in her gut certainly wasn’t helping her concentrate. “W-well you see, I uhh… I-” *SQUEAK*

Kylie’s good hand shot to her mouth; curiously, the inflated appendage she’d been holding remained suspended rather than snapping back to her side, the shiny red palm now hovering just a few inches away from her chest.

“...I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.” The stranger raised a curious brow as she stared down at Kylie with dark inscrutable eyes.

“S-sorry…” Kylie replied, ” I just, uh, had a frog in my throat, that's all…” She smiled tensely at the other woman as she tenderly kneaded her neck, wincing almost imperceptibly as her fingers brushed over a thin trail of something slick and smooth. “Soooo, I know this might sound a bit forward, but I’m completely lost right now and I really, really need a place to crash for a bit. You wouldn’t mind if I, uh… y’know.”

“You still haven’t answered my question, dearie.”

All the fake cheeriness melted from Kylie’s face as her gaze shifted to her bloated arm. Her elbow had locked up completely and she could just barely move her wrist. The redness had finally spread all the way down to the tips of her fingers, reducing them to blunted crimson poles that were slowly but steadily being absorbed into her increasingly swollen palm. Her body creaked audibly as the insufferable pressure in her belly continued to grow. Sweat was practically pouring down her forehead now as Kylie turned her gaze back towards the stranger, staring up at her with earnest, pleading eyes. “Please…” she croaked with more sincerity than anything else she had said so far.

The woman idly tapped a finger against her cheek as she stared silently down at Kylie. She seemed to consider her for a moment, her dark lips slowly curling into a mischievous grin. “Hmph… Well, you certainly look like you could use a place to stay for the night. Very well then.” She reached a hand out of the gloom and gestured for Kylie to follow. ”Come on dear, my place is just this way.”

The stranger turned and set off towards the other end of the street. Kylie nodded wearily, her heart thudding with relief as she stumbled after the woman. Her unsteady legs squeaked incessantly as she followed the stranger, straining to keep up with her long, sweeping strides lest she lose track of her in the darkness. She said nothing, nor did she look back towards Kylie as she staggered along behind her, the smooth and silent scissoring of her hips a stark contrast to Kylie's raucous and increasingly clumsy movement.

Her afflicted arm jutted out in front of her as she walked; the rounded curve of her palm now obviously devoid of any digits, its unnatural silhouette clearly visible even on this shadowy night. But if Kylie’s condition bothered her companion at all then she gave no sign. The woman certainly must have noticed, it wasn’t like she had made any effort to hide it. Kylie frowned; there was something very odd about this woman. Her demeanour was a bit too casual, her appearance just a bit too timely. Maybe it was just her paranoia getting the better of her again but - had she been the one she sensed following her? Could she really trust this woman?

The ominous creaking of her belly answered that question for her. Rubber was highly elastic, but even the biggest balloon had its limits. Like it or not, she didn’t have a choice. She had to find somewhere to lay low for a bit; a place where she could catch her breath, get her bearings and, most importantly, get out of this belt before the damn thing crushed her to death. And while she might have been loathe to ask this random stranger for help, it was the only opportunity to do so that had presented itself so far. This whole damn place might as well have been a ghost town for all that Kylie could tell.

The tall stranger strode purposefully towards one of the darkened tenements, the squat little building seeming otherwise identical to any of the others that rose up around it. She waltzed up the concrete steps and pressed gently against the front door, the heavy wooden portal swinging open silently at her touch. A brightly-lit hallway glowed warmly beyond the threshold as Kylie slowly fumbled her way up the stairs. The simple act of climbing the short flight proved a much harder task than Kylie had anticipated. She could raise her legs up easily enough - they just didn’t like coming back down anymore, seeming much more intent on curling up under her bulging belly instead.

Finally she managed to amble up to the landing, where the stranger silently ushered her through the door. Kylie stepped inside, feeling an instinctual sense of relief to finally be off the street again. “Make yourself comfortable, my dear!” The stranger exclaimed as she slipped past Kylie, striding quickly down to the other end of the hall where she disappeared around a corner. Kylie followed suit as fast as her stiffening legs would allow, soon finding herself in a comfortable and well-furnished living room, filled with what looked like antique furniture. The woman had vanished despite having not enough time to sprint out of the room, but Kylie barely noticed as she shuffled past a squat rectangular coffee table and collapsed onto the couch that had been laid out before it. She groaned in agony as she fumbled to loosen her belt. The pressure was becoming truly unbearable now; she had to get this damn thing off before she literally popped like a balloon.

Her belt had cinched so deeply now that she struggled to even find it, her fingers squealing as they probed frantically within the tight faultline that now encircled her waist. Her chiselled, toned abdomen had blown up into a huge potbelly that billowed out from beneath her shirt, the burnished rubberized flesh strained to translucency from the pressure within. The swollen hemisphere jiggled and groaned as her forearm rubbed against its taut surface, ringing with a resoundingly disconcerting hollowness.

She had become at least twice as large as the worst of the flabby hicks she’d passed on her morning stroll. Those chunky broads and their tacky fashion sense that she’d once looked down on so haughtily now seemed downright conservative to Kylie’s mind. She grimaced in disgust at the thought; that perfect figure she’d worked so hard to maintain was being plastered over by something even more vulgar and tasteless than anything those brainless cows could even begin to imagine. Ironically enough, she knew she’d be “blessed” with an absolutely flawless beachbody if she just waited a little bit longer for the changes to run their course - but Kylie had absolutely no intention of doing that.

Her fingers finally closed on the belt buckle, straining to force their way past the slick, clammy latex that billowed up around them. Kylie groaned in discomfort as she struggled to lean over for a better look, but her bloated belly was blocking the view. She could see her own face reflected in the polished ruby surface of that heaving dome; she looked pale, her eyes bloodshot and her hair messy and unkempt, but to her immense relief she saw no trace of the rubbery corruption ravaging her body. For now, at any rate…

She fumbled at the latch, but the damn thing just didn’t want to come undone. It would be easier with two hands but the other appendage bobbing uselessly out in front of her wasn’t good for much of anything anymore. “Come on, come on!” Kylie muttered as her fingers finally managed to lever open a space between the latch. “Come on, come one, come on already…”

*Click*

*FWOOMP*

“GYAH!”

*SQUEAK*

*THUMP*

*RIIIIP*

It all happened so quickly, Kylie could barely make sense of it. Without her belt to constrain it anymore, her compressed body had reshaped itself to a more even distribution of mass - and had done so with blinding speed. She hadn’t been prepared for the shock; the sudden rush of air slammed into her like a freight train and sent her tumbling back into the sofa. Both her legs and her one good arm thrust straight out as she desperately tried to right herself. The pressure in her abdomen finally abated as her belly rapidly shrunk to a much more manageable size - still a little larger than she would have preferred, but she’d take what she could get at this point. But before she could even manage a sigh of relief, Kylie’s attention was suddenly drawn to a new source of pressure - much further up her chest…

Kylie’s eyes bulged in alarm as she gazed down towards her bosom. Whatever her belt had been holding back, it seemed like a significant portion of it had been reallocated to her bust because one of her breasts was now significantly larger than the other. The already overtaxed fabric of her shirt was strained to the absolute limit by this new burden. The swollen breast looked strangely distorted as it billowed around the straps of her bra and mashed against the inside of her shirt. It loomed over the modest c-cup of her unaffected mammary, heaving and squealing like a chained beast struggling to break free.

“I-I… Gyah! N-nnnaah… Rrrrrrgh!” Kylie moaned incoherently as pure, crushing pressure worse than anything she’d felt yet assailed her senses. If felt like her chest was about to burst, an assertion that was probably uncomfortably close to the truth. Her heart was pounding, her mind was reeling and her shirt…

Her shirt was ripping.

“Nnnngh… Aaaaah!” Kylie cried out as she mashed her arm against her chest, desperate for any sort of release. Her swollen teat felt like an overfilled balloon, thrumming dully as her fingers smacked against it like the surface of a taut drum. The room was filled with the sounds of groaning latex and ripping fabric as countless little tears appeared across her shirt. The rifts grew swiftly under the force of the pressure underneath, rubbery crimson titflesh billowing through them like blood pouring from a wound.

“I-i’m-NGH…. Ahhhm n-not…” *squeak*

Kylie choked and sputtered as she struggled to force out the words, as if brazen denial would somehow shield her from the raging inferno. She gulped down one increasingly squeaky breath after another as she tried to compose herself again, but the pressure only seemed to grow worse with each inhalation. Her mountainous mammary jerked suddenly as her bra gave out with a muffled *SNAP*, bloating out further into a more spherical shape as its few remaining restraints were loosened one-by-one. Cold latex billowed around her fingers as more and more tears appeared around her shirt, slowly unveiling her warped body for all the world to see.

“I-I’m not…” *SQUEAK* “Ngh… I’m not…. Mmmmh….” *SQUEAK*

Through the squeaking and the ripping and the all-consuming pressure, Kylie just barely noticed as the now paw-like mitten of her transformed arm swung into action. The insensate limb moved of its own accord in a halting, jerking motion until it was positioned right over her engorged chest like a catcher angling to intercept a curveball. The boneless limb somehow managed to hold steady even as Kylie bucked and heaved with reckless abandon. Her shirt had been reduced to tatters now, the last few scraps cutting deeply into her unnaturally yielding skin as they fought valiantly to preserve her modesty.

“I…” *SQUEAK* “AM…” *SQUEAK* “NOT…” *SQUEAK* “A…” *SQUEAK* “P-P-PUH…” *SQUEAK*

“P-POOL…” *SQUEAK*

“POOL…”

*SQUEAK*

“POOL… TO-”

*RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP*

*BWOMP*

–

Kylie wasn’t sure how long it took before she came back to her senses. Blood rushed through her head and stars danced in her eyes as she drew in one wheezing, squeaking gasp after another. The pressure was finally gone, replaced with the same all-consuming sense of tension and emptiness that had swallowed her arm. She was leaning back heavily against the sofa, staring up towards a glittering crystal chandelier on the ceiling that had probably cost her hostess a pretty penny. Under better circumstances she would have merrily ransacked the place from top to bottom. Whoever this woman was, she was clearly wealthy if she could afford luxuries like this. The sofa she was sitting on felt comfortably posh and was dyed a brilliant shade of royal purple. Off to her side was a squat little table, exquisitely carved from solid mahogany. Something like that was much too big to swindle, but the flawless porcelain statuettes and jewel-encrusted bowls that graced its surface could probably snatch a fine price.

Her eyes darted to and fro as they searched for more prospective marks, her mind awash with thoughts of fortune as she fantasized about her next big payday and tried desperately to ignore the shivering wall of red that loomed menacingly at the edge of her view.

Kylie’s eyes wrenched shut; she sighed wearily and squeakily as she shook the last of the cobwebs out of her head and righted herself on the sofa. She couldn’t put it off forever. If she wanted to get out of this then she was going to have to confront reality sooner or later. Yet she still couldn’t bring herself to look at the damage even as she tilted her head towards it.

Maybe… maybe it's not as bad as I think it is… Kylie thought to herself as she reluctantly pried her eyes open…

And choked back a pained sob. She was right; it wasn’t as bad as she’d thought.

It was much, much worse.

Her shirt had completely disintegrated and her bra was nowhere to be seen, leaving her completely naked down to her waist. One of her breasts hung limply; that firm, fleshy mammary still dutifully obeying the laws of gravity - unlike its former twin. It had expanded to a truly colossal size, billowing out into a perfectly round, flawlessly smooth and laughably unrealistic-looking sphere that jutted mockingly from her chest. It looked like someone had scooped out one of her breasts and crudely stapled a beach ball in its place - then pumped it up to the very limit, just to really rub salt in the wound. Kylie glared at her own reflection as she stared long and hard into the shiny surface of that insultingly perverse globe. The image was stretched grossly across her bulging boob, her stony expression looking as warped and distorted as the rest of her body was becoming.

Her transformed arm had glued to its side, quite possibly literally. It certainly wasn’t moving anymore no matter how much she willed it. Kylie reached over with her good hand and tugged at the rubbery prosthetic, but it seemed to be firmly rooted in place. Her swollen teat stretched and jiggled in perfect sync as she pulled and squeezed on the rubberized limb, but its bulbous mitten remained fixed over her areola - or roughly where it had been at any rate. Kylie was fairly certain there was just a smooth curve underneath it now, just like all the other toys in Crowley’s shop.

“Like all the other toys in Crowley’s shop…”

Cold ice poured down her spine as the thought echoed in her mind. The cashier’s horrific transformation. Her own harrowing ordeal. That bizarre feline golem hidden away in that strange soundproofed room. All in a shop filled to the brim with nearly identical pool toys - all of them smiling and staring off into nothing as they sat on their bellies, cradling their enormous assets and thrusting their engorged asses. Each and every single one of them modelled to resemble some cartoonish facsimile of a woman. No, that wasn’t quite right; the thought seemed absurd but the evidence was undeniable, shining clearly in the polished mirror of her own transformed breast.

The toys in that store had not been moulded or stitched together. All those toys had likely once been human; living, breathing women who had been twisted and transformed into inanimate objects - and she was next.

Kylie grimaced as her afflicted body shuddered and creaked with dread. There had been dozens, possibly hundreds of toys in that store. How had nobody noticed yet!? Just how long had this been going on? How many innocent women had shared the cashier's fate, writhing helplessly in a dark room as their bodies succumbed to creeping latex until the only thing left was another mindlessly-smiling toy?

That brief pang of human decency was quickly drowned out by another, more personal yet far more urgent thought. None of those toys had been anatomically correct - and from the squeaking in her thighs, she figured the rubber had already spread down to her…

Kylie gulped, her hand shaking nervously as it slowly drifted across her chest - down towards her crotch.

By her estimate, it seemed like well over half of her torso had now been converted - the spreading latex stretched up to a narrow, twisting line that ran asymmetrically along her chest. On one side of that line, her fingers brushed over warm, natural flesh - and on the other side they squealed against cold, artificial rubber. The blurry transitional area that ran between them felt like the skin of a basketball, still distinctly artificial but firmer and rougher, with a lingering warmth that faded quickly as it merged seamlessly into a sea of clammy gloss. As she reached down past her abdomen the warmth and sensation of flesh gave way entirely to latex, her fingers sinking easily into the soft and yielding shell that had once been her belly.

Finally her fingers reached the edge of her pants. The once loose-fitting waistband was stretched tightly around her circumference, but otherwise the proportions of her lower half still looked mostly unaffected by the spreading corruption. The fabric of her pants still rubbed against a pair of legs that were, for the most part, flesh and blood - slender yet firmly-toned, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. She kicked them experimentally; her stiffening hips moved robotically and squeaked loudly as they rubbed together, but they still readily obeyed her commands. Maybe, just maybe, fortune would smile upon her for once this night and the latex hadn’t spread as much as she feared it had.

It was a hope that was quickly dashed as she wormed a finger down her panties. Kylie bit back a horrified sob as she probed the smooth expanse of her crotch. There was no sign of her vagina, not even a lingering pubic hair, just a featureless curve of soft rubber where her sex had once been. “No… Please…” Kylie murmured weakly as she slipped the rest of her hand past her undergarments, the fingers probing desperately for any sign that her pussy still lingered beneath the latex. But there was nothing to be found, her fingers squealing futilely as they pressed deeply into the empty expanse beneath that cold and bouncy membrane. Her once warm and sensitive genitals had gone as numb as her lost arm; the only thing she could sense even as her entire groin caved in under her grip was a nagging sense of budding pressure as the air that filled it swirled throughout her increasingly hollow chest.

Perhaps it was just exhaustion setting in, or maybe some strange trick of her fraying nerves, but that sensation was itself becoming strangely pleasurable in its own right. The thought filled her with disgust even as her probing intensified, her fingers tensing and relaxing over and over as they rhythmically squeezed her crotch. A strange sensation began pressing at the edges of her mind - a peculiar, exotic presence that seemed to grow in tandem with each pump of her groin as if someone was inflating a balloon inside her skull. Kylie moaned as her eyes fluttered shut, breathing heavily as the pace of her squeezing intensified. The room filled with the sound of squeaking rubber as she kneaded herself with silent intensity, that alien sensation filling her mind more and more, pressing her thoughts apart with gentle yet insistent force.

“Maybe this isn’t so bad…” Kylie mused dreamily. “Not having to worry about anything anymore. No more travel expenses, no more scurrying about in the dead of night. Just floating around all day, silent and unmoving as my body rocks gently on the waves. My big, soft, shiny body with my big, round, tight tits and my big, plush, squeezing ass. Big and soft and tight and squeezy and big and shiny and smooth and big shiny smooth big tight WHAT THE FUCK AM I THINKING!”

Kylie’s eyes shot open in alarm as she ripped her hand away from her crotch. *Ba-Thump* *Ba-Thump*; her heart thundered within the cavernous expanse of her torso, which creaked audibly as she furiously shook her head. “N-not a toy, not a toy…” she mumbled deliriously as she desperately tried to extricate her thoughts from the yawning morass threatening to swallow them. “Not a toy, not a toy, nice toy - NOT A DAMN TOY!” she spat as that alien force slowly, reluctantly withdrew from her psyche. Withdraw, but not entirely dissipate; it curled up into a dark corner in the back of her mind, remaining a faint yet constant presence.

*Ba-Thump*... *Ba-Thump*; her heartbeat began to slow down again as she allowed herself a shaking, squeaky sigh of relief. *Ba-Thump*... *Baa-thump*; Kylie sat in silence for a moment, simply listening to the sound of her heartbeat as she tried to recompose herself. “W-what the fuck!?” *SQUEAK* “What the fuck was that…” she moaned in a tight and shaking voice. *Baa-thump*... *baaaa-thump*; “I…” *SQUEAK* “I don’t want to be…” *SQUEAK*

*baaaaaaa…thump*...... *baaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwump*.............

“I am not…” *SQUEAK* “A fucking…” *SQUEAK* “Wuh-what the!?”

Kylie’s hand shot to her chest as her heat seemed to skip a beat… and then another… then two more. It was only after a solid minute of waiting that she was finally forced to admit that her heart had stopped beating - reduced to an inanimate lump inside her altered physiology, assuming it even still existed at all anymore. Amazingly she didn’t feel faint or dizzy or at all inconvenienced by the loss of that vital organ, a bitter mercy if ever there was one. At least she was still breathing - though audible squeaks now accompanied her every gasp while her inhalations seemed to last much longer and take in more air than her exhalations let out.

Kylie’s lips quivered and her vision blurred with tears as the gravity of her situation finally began to set in. Watching her arm transform was one thing, but her sex, her organs, that alien presence twisting in the back of her mind… It was clear now that this curse was not content to stop at her mobility - it was transforming her inside and out, warping her body and soul into something utterly inhuman.

“...I can’t…” *SQUEAK* “I can’t let it end like this…” Kylie exclaimed, wiping her face and forcing down her sorrow as she wobbled on the sofa. Her body creaked in protest as she bent down and reached for the coffee table, bracing herself with her oversized boob and one remaining good arm as she slowly shuffled to her feet. The alien presence stirred within her mind, gnawing at the edges of her awareness as her balloon-breast mashed against the table’s flat surface. She grunted with effort as she pushed herself upwards, the presence receding again as her boob bounced back into shape with a subdued *bwomp*. Her legs wobbled precariously as she struggled to right her posture; finally she managed to rise to her full height, vertebrae audibly popping as she straightened. She levered an arm around to massage her aching back, only to wince in dismay as her fingers plunged down into a deep depression. The changes had spread to her back as well, carving out a smoothly-textured convex bowl in the space between her flank and her spine.

She tried not to think about what that could possibly be as she lumbered away from the couch.

Kylie shambled slowly through the room, her legs feeling much stiffer than they had been when she first arrived. She knew it couldn’t be long now before they started to seize up and freeze in place, just like her arm had done before them. For better or worse, there was no leaving this place now. She might be able to make it back down the street if she ran as fast as her legs would still allow; more likely, she would be reduced to crawling before she even made it halfway. In any case there was nowhere else to go - every building she had passed by on her mad flight had looked dark, empty or both. Her hotel was somewhere on the other side of town but it might as well be on another planet for all that it mattered now.

Nevertheless, Kylie ambled onward purposefully, driven by a new thread of hope. It might be too late for her now - hell it probably was. Even she wasn’t delusional enough to think her chances were anything but razor slim at this point. But maybe she could at least get the word out, warn someone, alert the authorities, whatever. Kylie flinched at the thought of willingly turning to a cop for help, but desperate times called for desperate measures. There had to be a lot of missing person cases in this town if the size of Crowley’s stock was indicative of anything. Maybe they wouldn’t believe her story, but they might believe she had evidence or a useful lead or something to help them with their case. Whatever she had to say to get them down here - fast. Seeing was believing after all, and boy did she ever have something for show and tell right now.

If she could get them to believe, maybe they could bring her to someone who could actually help. Someone who could reverse these changes, or at least stop them from getting any worse… But that was one hell of a long shot. More likely, she was already doomed to turn completely - hopefully after the authorities arrived. But if she was going down then she was determined to go out swinging. She might be condemned to spend eternity as an inanimate object, but if that was the case then at least she’d be able to rest easy knowing the bitch who did this to her was safely behind bars.

Kylie scanned the room intently, straining over her own lopsided bosom as she searched for anything resembling a phone. She’d left her smartphone in her hotel room - ever the paranoiac, she never took it with her on a job just in case she forgot to turn the ringer off or one of the more tech-savvy precincts managed to get a lock on its position. The tables and shelves were covered with all sorts of strange knick-knacks and shiny baubles but nothing that really looked like a phone. Not many people kept landlines anymore but Kylie had hoped her hostess was an exception.

Where had that woman gotten to anyway? After the harrowing experience of her own latest ordeal, Kylie was only just now beginning to realise that she’d seemingly vanished without a trace. The last she’d seen of her was just after she entered the building. It had certainly looked like she’d been heading into this room, though admittedly Kylie had been a bit… distracted at the time. Maybe she had just slipped out while she wasn’t paying attention?

Her gaze passed from one end of the room to the other as she stared at her surroundings in thoughtful silence. The only sounds she could hear was the squeaking wheeze of her own breathing, the soft creaking of her pneumatic body… and a faint hiss of rushing air. Kylie frowned, straining her ears as she listened closely to that hiss. It wasn’t coming from her own body, she was certain of that. It seemed to be coming from somewhere further away - somewhere behind her.

Her gaze fell on a heavy-looking wooden door as she slowly turned towards the source of the noise. It was set in the wall just a few feet away, rimmed by dark planks of lacquered wood that had been carved all over with indecipherable flowing symbols. Kylie blinked as she stared curiously towards the door. Had that… always been there? She could have sworn she’d looked in this direction already and seen nothing but an unadorned wall.

The hissing was definitely coming from behind the door, becoming louder and more discernible as Kylie shambled towards it. Maybe this was where the other woman had gone? She reached out cautiously towards the handle, hesitating only a moment before twisting it open. Despite its apparent weight, the thick wooden door readily swung back on its well-oiled hinges.

The room beyond looked very dark, illuminated only by the light pouring in from behind her and a much fainter sliver emanating from another door on the opposite side. Her distorted shadow stretched long over a dull matte floor of varnished wood. She could hear the hissing very clearly now, but its source was hidden somewhere in the shadows that loomed deep and dark to either side.

Kylie strained to fit through the portal, her body squealing in protest as she shoved her one oversized breast past the threshold. The alien presence in her mind stirred hungrily as she forced the gleaming orb through, pressing insidiously at the edges of her consciousness as her rubber mammary mashed and bulged around the wooden frame. Her big, squeaky, shiny, soft, yielding, smooth, ginormous-

“Nngh!” she grunted as she finally stumbled into the darkened room, her hand pressing against the wall as it fumbled for a light. Her fingers drifted across soft padding, some kind of plushy substance that had been shaped into ridges of blocky, triangular bumps. Her eyes probed the shadows for any hint of the noise she was hearing, but the darkness held its secrets well. Finally her fingers brushed against a hard rectangle of solid plastic inset with a little switch, which she immediately flicked into what she knew would be the “on” position.

Kylie blinked as her eyes adjusted to the sudden change in illumination. She was standing in a relatively small, square-shaped room surrounded by grey padded walls and a low-hanging ceiling, its centre inset with a circular lamp from which light now flooded the chamber. A neat little pile of clothes topped by an expensive looking purse sat on the floor just off to Kylie’s side. And right next to that…

The body of the cashier buckled and creased as it deflated. The hissing was coming from its inflation valve, which had been popped open and was now discharging its pressurised contents into the room. Its smiling face collapsed inward as its bulbous head caved in, its burgeoning bosom flattening into a pair of floppy sacks draped limply before its sinking form.

Kylie’s mouth hung open as she stared about in utter, disbelieving terror. She was right back where she started - how was this even possible!? She was certain she hadn’t run around in a circle, the street and houses in this part of town were completely different! This place had to be miles away from Crowley’s shop, there was simply no way they could be logically connected together!

Yet the evidence was undeniable: the soundproofing on the walls, the pile of clothes on the floor. The objectified remnants of the cashier, its viridescent skin gleaming brightly as it deflated into a crumpled heap. And as the door at the opposite end of the room swung open, Kylie could even see the same darkened stairs leading down into the shop - and a familiar looking feline silhouette towering before the threshold.

“WELCOME TO MADAME CROWLEY’S BEACH BOUTIQUE!!!” a familiar helium-tinged voice cried out as the latex golem lunged towards her, arms outstretched and welcoming.

“NOOOOOOOO!” Kylie shrieked as she whirled around as quickly as she could, ready to bolt for the exit-

Only to find herself staring into the sneering face of the strange woman from before.

The woman had materialised without so much as a sound. She leaned casually against the doorway, blocking Kylie’s escape back into the living room as she stared at the thief with open contempt. Before Kylie even had a chance to react, the woman thrust out a hand and roughly shoved her away, sending her tumbling backwards into the golem’s waiting embrace. It’s arms closed around her like vice, holding her tightly in a cold, unyielding hug.

Kylie knew it was already far too late, yet she struggled nonetheless - her frantic movements already slowing as the feline golem’s touch rapidly accelerated her changes. Rubber coursed over her body at a breakneck pace, flowing down her legs and up her torso wherever the golem held her in its grip.

Her hips, which had already been reduced to limited robotic movements, locked up completely. Her ass wobbled as it ballooned outwards until it was as big and wide as the deflated cashier had been. Her black jeans and underlying panties snapped off, the rapid inflation of her body proving stronger than their seams, leaving her warping body almost totally naked. The meager earnings she’d pocketed earlier from Crowley’s till tumbled onto the floor, a few coins and crumpled greenbacks coming to rest amidst a heap of shredded black fabric.

Her legs no longer obeyed her commands, jerking and fidgeting defiantly as they curled underneath her belly before going totally still. Her socks and boots slipped off as her toes fused together and her feet melted into her ankles, wriggling uselessly one last time as they were reduced to a pair of motionless stubby clubs.

Kylie screamed as she writhed, her desperate cries muffled and absorbed by the soundproof walls as she felt cold latex flow over what remained of her chest. The presence in her mind roared furiously as it threatened to overwhelm her sanity. Clouds of numbing fog rolled into her psyche, twisting her desires into something inhuman even as Kylie struggled to hold on.

She jerked and twisted as she felt her back caving in, the hollow she had felt earlier expanding into a proper seat. Her unafflicted breast turned red and shiny, rapidly blowing up until it matched the size of its twin. She batted feebly at the engorged balloon in a pathetic attempt to squeeze it, driven by a desperate craving that was no longer entirely her own. Her fingers barely creased that soft, glistening globe before they turned as red and shiny as the rest of her body was becoming. Her sole remaining appendage twitched futilely as it bloated out into another useless mitten, smacking against her bosom with a hollow pom as it glued itself to its ordained position.

Within seconds her struggling was reduced to a feeble wobbling, her body reduced to little more than a human head propped up on a curvaceous mass of red vinyl. The last tattered scraps of her clothing fluttered to the ground, the dark fabric standing in stark contrast to the gleaming red that had displaced it. The feline golem stared ahead dumbly, unperturbed by Kylie’s struggling as she rocked her gently shuddering form in its loving embrace, like a beaming mother cradling an unruly newborn.

Finally, Kylie’s desperate wobbling shuddered to a halt as the last hints of human sensation below her head evaporated into the thin air that now filled her body. The only things she could still move was her face and her neck, and even the latter was already starting to stiffen. The woman cackled as she stepped into the room, raising a long nail to Kylie’s chin.

“How fortunate for me!” The woman spoke again, sounding smugly pleased with herself. “To acquire another toy no sooner than I was finished with my first! Oh, and you’ve no right to complain dearie, seeing as you broke into my store. Your parents must have raised you terribly, you little shoplifter! Even worse than my ex-employee!” She gestured roughly towards the deflated heap of green latex. “Such a shame what happened to her, but at least she’ll bring in more profit like this than any “work” she was doing before.”

The woman - Crowley herself, Kylie was now certain - turned her attention towards the golem. “Alright Jager, I think that's more than enough. I’ll take it from here.”

“If you say so Madame Crowley!” The golem - Jager, she had called it - replied in its cheery, high-pitched voice. Kylie yelped in surprise as Jager’s arms suddenly flung wide open, leaving her immobilised body free to tumble to the ground. She bounced against the floorboards with a loud squeak, collapsing onto whatever now counted for her hands and knees as she strained to look up towards the towering form of Madame Crowley.

 “There’s still a bit left to go…” Jager exclaimed. “But I gave her an extra-big hug, just like you asked, so it shouldn’t take long now!”

“That’s alright,” Crowley replied, “I wanted to have a word with our latest acquisition before she… finishes up.”

“Of course Madame! Is there anything else you need from me tonight?”

“Yes, you can apologise for acquiring my own employees!” Crowley spat furiously. ”Seriously, what the hell were you thinking!?”

“I’m sorry Madame, but as you already know, I’m physically incapable of thinking! All I can do is follow your orders, and you ordered me to give a friendly slap on the back or a great big hug to anyone who comes into this room!”

“Yes, I know.” Crowley drawled, her voice practically dripping with venom. “It's a good thing I had my wards up when I came in to check on you the other day. Otherwise you’d be out of a job right now.”

“I’m sorry Madame, but as you already know, I’m physically incapable of-”

“Yes, yes whatever!” Crowley waved her off, “Now go get the backup box from under the till and finish packing up my late cashier.”

“Of course Madame!”

“Oh and while you’re at it…” Crowley gestured towards the pile of torn clothing next to where the green toy’s deflated form lay draped on the floor. “Do something about that, would you? And be sure to make it inconspicuous this time! The last thing I need is another overly-ambitious beat cop poking their nose where it doesn’t belong!”

“Of course Madame!” Jager replied as she swiftly gathered the clothes and the deflated toy up in its arms before bounding off towards the stairs.

“She’s going to muck it up again, I can already tell…” Crowley mused as the squeaking of the golem’s movements faded into the distance. “Oh well. Maybe they’ll send another girl this time. I didn’t know women could even become police officers before that cute little thing waltzed into my shop!” Crowley grinned as she turned her attention down towards Kylie. “Cerulean Cassidy made such a fine addition to my inventory. I really must remember to thank the precinct the next time I pay them a visit!“

Crowley crossed her arms across her chest as she gazed down at Kylie. That porcelain face regarded her with cold indifference, any trace of humility or compassion having long since fled from those dark, soulless eyes. “You’ll have to forgive Gemstone Jager. She means well but she can be a bit… overeager, at times. A fact I am sure you are intimately familiar with by now.”

“You ugly old bitch!” Kylie screeched, ”You won’t…“ *SQUEAK* ”Won’t get away with this!” she spat, feeling her lips stiffen even as she spoke. “They’ll notice!“ *SQUEAK* ”People will notice!”

“You think they’ll really care about one petty thief?” Crowley gloated as she kneeled down to face Kylie in the eye. ”They didn’t miss the others and none will miss you, dear. Oh I’m sure someone will come looking eventually, of course. But a few bribes to the right people and a couple memory charms here and there should nip that little problem in the bud.” Her grin twisted into a smug sneer as she leered at the helpless thief. ”Oh but come now, don’t look so glum dearie! You should be honoured to be made a work of art by the great Madame Crowley!”

“You-” Kylie intended to spit out the foulest curse she could manage but her words trailed off into an inarticulate moan as Crowley jammed her fists straight into her boobs. Kylie’s eyes rolled in their sockets, the alien presence in her mind squealing with ecstasy as Crowley ruthlessly kneaded her bloated bosom. Her thoughts crumbled into a jumbled mess as the presence swelled within her, growing and growing until it threatened to swallow her completely.

“Oh you like that, don’t you?” Crowley cooed mockingly as she pumped her arms mercilessly into the yielding orbs, sinking almost up to her shoulders in the squealing rubbery tits. “I find my acquisitions tend to be much more accepting of their fates if you break them in a little bit first…” She grinned wickedly as she cocked her head at Kylie. “But I’m sure you already know plenty about ‘breaking in’, don’t you?”

BIG SQUEAKY BIG SQUEAKY NO NO BIG SQUEAKY ROUND SOFT BIG NO NO NO! Kylie raged within her mind as she battled for control, a raging typhoon reflected only in the sweat on her brow and the soft jiggling of her weightless body. “Nnnnnn-h… Nooooo” *SQUEAK* “S-stoooooop” Kylie meweld pathetically, her voice almost drowned out by the screeching racket of her bulging chest.

“Why should I?” Crowley inquired, almost sounding genuinely confused. “You are my property after all.”

Nevertheless, she withdrew from Kylie’s bosom, the pale white of her arms emerging from the ruby red of Kylie’s tits with the reluctant groan of stretching rubber. Kylie’s eyes wrenched shut as she choked down a squeaking sob. “I’m n-not…” *SQUEAK “Shiny… Not squeaky…” she murmured deliriously, lost in some other world.

“So shiny…” *SQUEAK* “S-so soft…” *SQUEAK* “So n-ni…” *SQUEAK* ”So n-i-i-i-oooooh nooooh!”

“A-hem!”

“W-wah?” Kylie’s eyes blinked open as she stared at Crowley, her expression seeming distracted and confused.

Where was she again? She’d been attacked, she’d been running, she’d stumbled into this place, and then…

“Aaaaaaand then I was squeezing my boobs, my big shiny air-filled tits filled to the brim with pure pleasure. Oh, I can feel it swirling in my body, filling my big puffy palms and my big soft ass and my… hard… flesh… head? No, wait a minute, something’s not right…”

“Are you still in there dearie?” Crowley inquired, snapping her fingers in front of Kylie’s face to get her attention.

“Where…” *SQUEAK* “What happened…” *SQUEAK* “So full…” *SQUEAK* “Toy…” *SQUEAK* “So soft…”

“Oof. Maybe I overdid it a little bit.” Crowley’s grin did not falter as she eyed the thief-turned-beachtoy with malicious intent. “Ah well, nothing for it now. At least you’ll spend your last few moments somewhat comfortably, unlike my former cashier. Honestly it's more than you probably deserve, but I am nothing if not merciful.” She exclaimed without so much as a hint of sarcasm. “Anyways I’m a very busy witch, and I have a lot of stops to make tonight unless I want people asking some rather pointed questions about the whereabouts of my most unfortunate employee. But before we wrap this up, I was hoping to ask you one last question before either of us forgets the details.” She leaned in close, to the point where their noses almost touched. “What’s your name?”

“Toy…” *SQUEAK* “Name…” *SQUEAK* Kylie wracked her head as she tried to remember, tried to force her way past the numbing fog that had filled her mind. “Kylie!” she proudly exclaimed in a sudden burst of inspiration.

“Kylie?” Madame Crowley cooed, pulling back into a crouching position as she rolled the sound on her tongue. “Oh my, that wont do at all. Too bland, too pedestrian. It's lacking a certain something, that indispensable hint of zest to really draw in prospective customers. Hmmm.” Crowley tapped a finger against her cheek as she thought long and hard on the matter. “AHA! I’ve got it. How about… Krimson Kylie!”

“Krimson…” *SQUEAK* “Kylie?”

“Yes; Krimson with a K, not that you’ll need to remember. Slight misspellings of random words are all the rage these days. You’re going to be a big hit with the 13-20 demographic, I’m certain of it!” Crowley prattled, sounding more than a little bit pleased with herself.

“Krimson…” *SQUEAK* “Kylie…” Kylie repeated, not fully understanding what Crowley was talking about anymore.

“You like it?”

“Krimson…” *SQUEAK* “Kylie…” *SQUEAK* “Good toy…” *SQUEAK* “So big… so soft…”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Sho big…” *SQUEAK* “Sho ohft…” *SQUEAK* “Ihg equay…” Kylie rambled, her speech growing more slurred with every word. Had she been in a more coherent state of mind, she might have recalled this stage of the cashier’s transformation, and what happened immediately afterward.

“Iche oyyyy…” *HISS* *SQUEAK* “Ah…” *HISS* *SQUEAK* “Ahn nhut…” *HISS* *SQUEAK* Kylie’s eyes widened in alarm as she suddenly recalled something vitally important. She struggled to form the words with her stiffening lips, suddenly finding it much harder to exhale as an ominous hissing sound began creeping into her breath.

“Ahn nhut…” *HISS* *SQUEAK* “Ahn nhut ah…” *HISS* *SQUEAK*

“What was that dearie, I didn’t quite catch that.” Crowley jeered as she raised a hand mockingly to her ear.

“Ahn nhut…” *HISS* *SQUEAK* “Ahn nhut ah…” *HIIIISSSSS* *SQUEAK*

“Oooohhhlllll…” *HIIIIIIIISSSSSSSS* *SQUEAK*

“Oooooooyyyyyyy…” *HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS*

“Ohhohohoho!” Crowley guffawed, hugging her sides and nearly tumbling onto her behind as she laughed riotously enough to nearly drown out the hissing din of Kylie’s rapidly-expanding body. “Oh my goodness, did I hear you correctly? Did you, of all people, honestly just try to say “I’m not a pool toy? Ahhahaha, oh hohoho, ah ha, ahh…” Crowley sighed, wiping a tear from her eye as she regarded Kylie with a darkly mirthful smile. “Well you’re right about that dearie. You’re not a pool toy…” Crowley’s eyes glinted with murderous glee as her mirthful smile twisted into a wicked grin. “But you will be soon.”

Kylie did not reply, nor would she have cared even if she had comprehended Crowley’s statement. She was in heaven now, squealing both internally and externally with delight as her body filled with pure pleasure. Her breasts had grown from enormous to ginormous, nearly obscuring her view entirely as the billowed out before her. The marble oval of Crowley’s face poked out at her over twin mounds of perfect, gleaming crimson.

?Crimson, just like my name - Crimson Kylie, such a perfect name for a perfect toy! Wait, wasn’t there… wasn’t there… A “K” in there? Like, “Krimson” or something… Nah, that sounds silly.”

“Crimson” Kylie stared ahead with eyes that were already as glassy and vacant as the toy she was destined to become, shivering - more internally than externally at this point - as she felt cool, inviting latex crawling over the last of her ugly, blemished skin. She could taste it as it filled her mouth, its rich aroma rushing over her taste buds just before they melted away. She could sense her gums fusing together, knitting her mouth shut save for a single narrow opening. She could feel air rushing past her lips into that deceptively tiny aperture, just before they too melted away to nothing. The delightful scent of rubber briefly wafted through her numbing mind just before her nostrils were plugged and her nose sank into her face.

Crowley’s shimmering pale face drew closer as Kylie’s inflation finally slowed to a crawl. She wished she could see herself now, how big she must be - big enough for two to sit on now, maybe even three! A strange sucking, squelching sound began to fill Kylie’s ears as Crowley regarded her like a farmer might regard a prized sow before the slaughter. “Marvellous, absolutely stupendous my dear, with a figure like that you’ll fetch a high price for sure!”

Kylie didn’t know why anymore, but for some reason those words filled her with joy.

“Well then…” Crowley beamed as she rested her arms lazily on Kylie’s soft and now stupendously oversized rack, “It’s been fun dearie, but I’d say we’re just about done here now. Any last words for the road?”

“BIG SHINY SQUEAKY HUGE SOFT SQUEAKY SHINY BIG-” The words trailed onwards unceasingly in her mind, filling her psyche with what could only be described as the simplistic desires of a toy. “BIG SQUEAKY HUGE BIG SQUEAKY TALK BIG - Talk? What’s… Oh yeah, right! I just have to push some air out of my… my, uh… hole? Yeah, right, I just have to…”

“Push a little bit…”

*POP*

Kylie blinked dumbly as something forced its way through the hole in her face. Something solid and firm that seemed to stick in place. Was that it? Was that how talking was supposed to work? In any case it seemed to please Madame Crowley, her beaming smile intensifying as she rubbed a finger around the… whatever was sticking out of her.

“Not exactly what I was expecting, but a fitting enough eulogy I guess. Goodby Miss Kylie. I can only hope you prove to be a little better behaved in your next li-”

Whatever she’d been about to say was drowned out by a piercing *SQRRRRRK* as Kylie’s ears were stuffed by a flood of latex. The last thing she heard before they melted away completely was a resounding *POP* - then, nothing. Crowley’s lips continued to move, but no sound came out of them anymore.

The sudden silence shocked Kylie back to awareness like a bucket of ice water to the face. The fog in her mind evaporated and for a few brief moments she was herself again - not Krimson Kylie the blow-up beach toy, but Kylie the cat-burglar, haughty and proud and utterly horrified by her situation. The memories rushed in as she recalled who she was, where she was and just what was really happening to her body. But it was a cruel mercy in the truest sense of the word, for that knowledge was useless to her now. Escape was impossible; she no longer had arms or legs or even really a body anymore. The only thing that she could still move was her eyes, everything else was long gone - replaced by an overinflated balloon that had been crudely shaped into a vulgar approximation of a human body. If Crowley noticed the glint of awareness return to her eyes then she gave no indication; she simply watched her with that evil beaming smile, flicking playfully at something just below her field of view. Her gaze was filled with hungry anticipation as she waited for the inevitable conclusion of Kylie’s ordeal.

She wouldn’t have to wait long now.

An errant lock of red hair drifted into sight, and as Kylie watched the individual strands slowly fuse together into a single puffy mass, the memory of the cashier popped unbidden into her mind. Somewhere down below, a heap of rubber that used to be a bright young college co-ed was being folded up and packed away for display in a nondescript cardboard box - no different from any of the others that lined Crowley’s shelves. For what might have been the first - and would ultimately prove to be the last - time in her life, Kylie felt a pang of sympathy for someone other than herself. Was this how the poor girl had felt in her final moments, helpless and immobilised while a complete stranger watched her bloat into an obscene sexual object?

Tendrils of red creeped into her view, tugging at her eyes and fixing them in place until all she could do was stare straight ahead. She could feel the orbs widening even as her vision faded, the edges of her view slowly fading as her sclera turned into latex and paint. The numbing fog returned, her thoughts growing sluggish and confused once more as the contents of her rubberizing skull evaporated to make room for more air. Just before she drifted off completely, she felt something within her shift as Crowley tugged at something on her face. Suddenly she was overwhelmed by a strange new feeling, a curious sensation that she could not help but liken to air gushing out of a balloon... or an inflation valve.

She had just enough time to realise that her body was deflating, before the rubber swept over what was left of her eyes and everything suddenly went very dark.

–

“And you two can go right… here!”

Madame Crowley had an innocent smile on her face as she carefully arranged her latest acquisitions next to each other on a display designed to greet newcomers as they entered the store. There was a piercing, drawn-out squeak followed by a few soft rubbery creaks as Crowley made some final adjustments before stepping back to observe her handiwork.

Two perverted inflatable rafts waited patiently on the display, their near-identical designs resembling some twisted mockery of the female form. One was bright green with what looked like a melted glob of latex for hair; the other was a brilliant shade of crimson, its round face framed by a puffy bob cut that was a slightly darker shade of red than the rest of its body. Both were propped up on their elbows and knees, cradling a pair of ridiculously oversized teats and thrusting their colossal asses into the air. They were pressed so tightly together that their bloated busts and behinds looked squished and deformed, their yielding latex skin readily mashing together. Their twin smiles seemed to blend into one-another and their round empty eyes pointed expectantly towards the front door.

They made for such a lovely couple. Crowley had just about filed them away on the shelves, but had decided at the last second to put them both up on display instead. Krimson Kylie had been such a fortuitous acquisition after all, it would be a waste to part with her so soon. And as for her former cashier, well, she had a lot of suspiciously short-notice “sick days” to work off. She still hadn’t thought of a proper name for her yet, but that was fine. She could worry about coming up with something snazzy when she took her down from the display - and that day was likely still a long, long way off.

Crowley’s smile deepend as she basked in the gleaming perfection of her work. Arrangement and composition was almost as important as the art itself, she would have told anybody if they had asked her - which nobody ever willingly had. The red and green toys shared the same vacant look on their faces, staring off into nowhere with those flat painted disks, just like the Madame liked it. She liked it so much that all of her toys were like that, a whole store of near identical toys diverging only in pose, colour and the original hairstyles of her victims, feeling no need to improve on perfection despite her claims of artistry. There were other witches who enjoyed transforming the unfortunate into inanimate objects, but Crowley wasn’t regarded very highly by most of them outside of a certain circle with rubber as their preferred medium. And really, who cared what those stuck-up wannabes thought anyway? Crowley knew she was a real artist, and her opinion was the only one that truly mattered in the end!

By now her innocent smile had given way to a smug, self-satisfied smirk as she happily reassured herself that she was doing just fine. All those other witches who constantly reminded her that her store hadn’t turned a profit since it opened - just like all of her other business ventures - simply didn’t get it. True geniuses were often unappreciated in their time, after all.

Crowley’s ego-stroking was interrupted by her door chime ringing, although she didn’t turn around to greet the newcomer. Customer service wasn’t exactly her thing, and she saw little reason to pander to those below her, which meant anybody without enough magic power to shrug off a scratch from Jager.

Like that nasty little thief… Or her own cashier.

Crowley flinched, her smirk quivering slightly as she glanced down at the green pool toy. The girl had never exactly been a model employee but at least she’d been able to man the till well enough. Unfortunately her recent… career change had left Crowley a bit short handed. She had to find some new help soon, lest she have to stoop to doing all the manual labour herself. Ugh! The mere thought of it disgusted her.

“Um, hello…? Are you Madame Crowley?” Asked a small, nervous voice, and Crowley turned dramatically to stare down at her. The girl she saw was quite small, much smaller than her own tall and rather imposingly dressed figure, her long coat a poor fit for the sunny weather outside.

“I am the Madame Crowley, yes.” She said, as if daring her to speak with anything less than total respect. “Purveyor of artisanal beachfront accoutrements, implements and articles of all shapes and sizes.”

The mousey girl cowered instinctively, but worked up the courage to respond.

“Um, yes, I, um, read your sign.” She said tenderly. “I also read your other sign, the, um, one saying help wanted…?”

The Madame‘s expression suddenly lit up, her leer twisting into a slightly too friendly smile.

“Ah yes, of course!” She said rather cheerily. “I was just in need of somebody to mind the store. My last cashier went and disappeared on me… Well, get to it!”

“Madame?” The girl asked, slightly confused.

“I said get to it! You’re hired! Our hours are very flexible, no qualifications needed!” She gestured towards the register, the girl lighting up on the spot.

“Oh, thank you, thanks so much! All of the other stores weren’t hiring, or said I needed to have experience…”

“You won’t need any of that nonsense here, as long as you’re a hard worker.” The Madame laughed it off. “And if you aren’t, well, I can certainly think of… other ways for you to turn in a tidy profit.”

“Uh, whatever you say, Madame!” The girl shrugged off her odd wording, figuring that whoever ran a place like this had to be a hell of an eccentric, and she was just happy that she had finally gotten the part-time job she needed. She scurried off to the register, the Madame following close behind. “Well, well…” she murmured to herself, “I can already tell she’s going to enjoy working here.”

Crowley grinned as she turned to give one last glance towards the inflatable twins on the display behind her. Their lustrous, polished bodies glittered in the sunlight, fully inflated and ready for use.

“Let’s just hope she lasts a little longer than her predecessor did…”