- 2 weeks later -

Julia stepped into the grocery store, the automatic doors sliding shut behind her. She couldn't remember the last time she went out shopping alone, it was usually the only way she could get Michael out of the house since he quit his job. But with her husband still dealing with the initial rollout of his project, that was left to her. She couldn't really complain with the amount of money coming in as a result, though. It had been a while since she could go into a store and not have to think at all about prices, and that was a feeling she missed.

What she was a little more worried about was her physical condition. Since her recent incident, she had only ever left the house to go to the doctors, where only a handful of people were usually around. Every test they could come up with had been done on her, all of which came back fine, if not better. Her blood tests came back flawless, her metabolism was working harder than it had in a decade, and she honestly felt the best she had since she was a teenager. She had started exercising again, and was putting on muscle easily without any real effort. She wasn't exactly built like a bodybuilder, but she looked like she lived in the gym while only doing casual workouts at home.

All that was great, of course, but it came with a caveat: she was still growing taller, with no sign of stopping. When she measured herself this morning, she was 6'8", continuing the steady pace she had been on since the growth started. Michael's income meant that keeping up with food and new clothing wasn't an issue, but just how long would this continue for? As she walked through the market, more and more pairs of eyes were drawn to her, some quick glances, others blatant stares. She didn't even really mind being so tall necessarily, but being looked at like a sideshow attraction wasn't the most comfortable. She couldn't really blame people, there weren't many women who were over 6 feet, let alone nearing 7. Not until recently, anyway.

If it wasn't for what had happened to her, Julia would have thought she had lost her mind when she saw the news. Dozens, soon hundreds, of videos of people morphing and changing right before your eyes. Men going from skinny and frail to a body of an olympian athlete within seconds. Women becoming supermodels at the press of a button. It was dismissed as an elaborate hoax at first, CGI videos designed to make a quick buck off some unsuspecting fool. But as more and more evidence came out, as more people had friends suddenly shoot up 6 inches in their 20s, it couldn't be denied. There were still doubters, of course, but it was a topic on the front page of every news site.

Julia knew that it had to be connected to her transformation in some way. Somebody must have used whatever was causing these changes on her somehow without her knowing, but why? What was the point of it? Who would even want to do this? All her friends lived in other cities at this point, and Julia hadn't told any of them what was going on, so they shouldn't even know. The only person who had any connection to her that could have done this was... Michael.

There was also the fact that her changes were different than what was being shown on the news. Everyone else would get the sudden physical changes, while Julia was just basically going through a monster of a growth spurt. If it really was Michael, he would have to have to somehow have much more control over it than everyone else, and have access to it before anyone else. The timing and details just didn't add up, unless...

The final piece clicked in her mind, and suddenly a whole lot of things made sense. Michael's project was finished just after this all started. It was so obvious. Had she just been in denial the whole time, trying not to confront the possibility that her own husband was behind all of this? Why would he even do this? HOW did he even do this?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the cashier calling her over. "Miss, are you okay? Your items are all scanned."

Julia looked down, and saw the contents of her cart on the belt, waiting to be paid for. Lost in her thoughts, she must have auto-piloted her whole shopping trip. "Oh, sorry, I just zoned out for a second. That's on card, thanks."

As she swiped her card, Julia's stomach sank. It had to be Michael, there was no other explanation. And if he was the one doing this to her, then he must be the one causing all the strange happenings lately. She could only imagine how much trouble he would be in once the world found out. The money she was using to buy these groceries was a direct result of the same thing. The groceries that seemed to be shrinking the longer she held them.

The sound a fabric ripping tore through the silence. Julia's jeans had torn, exposing a long section of her leg. In an instant, her perspective shot upwards. Her already slightly too small sweater was pulled tighter across her chest, the sleeves retreating up and up her forearms until it was halfway to her elbows. Her stomach grew more and more exposed, showing off an increasingly chiseled core. Despite the massive tear running down the side of her leg, her jeans felt like they were squeezing the life out of her legs, the cuffs barely reaching her mid-calf. By the time the growth stopped, Julia could barely breath in her constricting clothing. All eyes were on her.

"A-are you okay?" The cashier asked, eyes wide. She was a teenage girl, probably around average height, and now found herself eye level with the bottom of Julia's breasts. Julia tried to respond, but all that came out was silence. She grabs her bags and ran for the door, leaving a shocked girl and a dozen pairs of eyes in her wake.

Once she made it to her car, she took a few seconds to breath. Was this Michaels doing? Even it it was him before, this didn't make sense, this was too extreme. Looking down at her car, her hips almost cleared the roof. She didn't know exactly how much she'd grown, but she must be close to 8 feet tall. She wasn't going to fit inside, let alone drive this thing. Before she could even start thinking of a solution, Julia felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Michael was calling her. When Julia answered, her husband was in a panic.

~~~

- 20 minutes ago -

Michael had been staring at the same screen for hours now, with not a single line of code to show for it. He had been working on an update to the program for the last week, with no success. There was a problem that he couldn't manage to pinpoint, causing the server to seize up for a moment any time someone submitted a new request, and it was getting worse and worse as time went on. Throwing a few thousand dollars of computing power at the issue had helped at first, but had only delayed the inevitable if the source of the problem wasn't fixed. There was a brief moment earlier in the day where the whole system had to be reset, which was unacceptable if Michael was to keep this up.

But despite his best efforts, the problem persisted, and no solution came. He'd been holed up in this office all week, and needed to take his mind off of this for a minute. He hadn't eaten anything today, and that surely wasn't helping. Just as he stood up from his desk, a message appeared on his computer.

"New message."

Michael slumped back in his chair and sighed. He knew he should leave this for later, but it was a message from one of the users, and if they had a issue, Michael might get a clue as to fix the bigger problem he was facing. Opening up the message, it read:

"What the hell is going on? A few days ago, I used this website to give my girlfriend a little extra height. She kept was complaining about being short, so I figured it would be a nice gift. I paid to make her 4 inches taller, and it worked fine. But like an hour ago, she suddenly grew again! She's taller than me now, and her clothes are all torn and stretched out, and she's freaking out! What the hell did you do?"

Michael stared at the message. This couldn't be real, right? There was no way that could be possible. But if it was true, could it be linked to the server issues he'd been having? If the two were linked, then that could mean...

"Shit."

In an instant, Michael had grabbed his phone and dialed his wife. If his worst case scenario was the truth, then there was a possibility that Julia could be in trouble. It was unlikely, but he had to be sure. When she answered the call, his worst fears were confirmed.

"Jules? Are you there? Is everything alright?"

There was a brief silence, before a sigh echoed across the line. "I'm fine. But I need a ride home. And an explanation."