End: Lois Lane Grows Within Her Mother's Womb

Somewhere, a clock rang. Lois dimly counted eleven chimes. One hour until midnight.

Ella Lane lurched off the bed, a sheet dragged over her nakedness, one hand cradling her pregnant belly. She staggered past Blaze, who stepped out of her way. Unable to lift a hand to stop her.

"One hour," the demon hissed. "And every moment, your daughter grows within you. I grant you this power: at any moment, you may safely birth her, no matter how large she grows. Even though she be full-grown. But this power shall expire at midnight. You will have to choose, Ella Lane, how badly you wish to escape my grasp."

The demon's laugh haunted the older woman as she staggered forward. Already she could feel her burden grow heavier, skin stretching painfully as her stomach grew. Ella Lane could only imagine what she looked like...an older version of her daughter, silver strands among the dark hair, more crows-feet around those vibrant violet eyes, more lines on her face...skin a shade paler, a little thinner, but still smooth, still firm. Ella had known women of fifty or sixty who had given birth...

...but not to a child as big as this.

"Hold on Lois," she said as she rubbed her growing belly. "Just...need to get to a hospital. C-section...you're strong, and she can't hurt you. As long as my body holds out."

No one in the restaurant lifted a hand to stop Ella Lane as she trudged forward, the sheet clinging to her sweating frame. She had been a strong woman in life, and though she looked like a woman ready to give birth at any moment, there was a fierceness of will in her that would not be denied.

Out, through the black door. Into the elevator.

Ella had no memories of this place, but she knew she was underground. She had to get up, out, get help. Her fingers jabbed at the buttons, and the heavy cage of the freight elevator began to close.

The first pain brought the older woman to her knees on the metal floor of the elevator as it began to ascend. She tasted bile, and red spots danced before her eyes. It wasn't a contraction. After two pregnancies, Ella knew what those felt like. This was different. Her stomach distended forward obscenely, as though she was pregnant with twins.

A growth spurt.

The pregnant woman gulped air. Blaze hadn't been bluffing. Inside her womb, Lois Lane was growing...and she had already been at full term. Ella grasped the railing and staggered to her feet, back aching at the load. Yet she knew women who had been pregnant with triplets...quadruplets...one big baby was not going to stop Ella Lane!

The doors opened into madness. A riot of flashing lights, writhing young bodies, thumping pounding noise that was no music that the pregnant woman had ever heard of. She stared out in confusion, one hand clutching beneath her distended abdomen, and stepped out. Looked around to get her bearings.

The chaos resolved itself. She could hear the distant disco beat in the electronic noise pumped through the speakers, smell booze and sweat. A club. She was in a club. And clubs had exits...

A firedoor to her left, and Ella lurched toward it. Suddenly off-balance, she nearly went down, belly-first, but caught herself on a table, spilling drinks to a chorus of protests from young throats.

"Fat pregnant cunt!" One young woman said. "Get some dick at home, grandma!"

Ella ignored her, moved forward. She could feel Lois shift inside of her, upset by the sudden motion. The old woman winced as a hand or foot hit one of her ribs from within. People were watching her now, but no one in this corner of Metropolis was about to lend a hand to a silver-haired woman that looked overdue with triplets.

Through the fire door, out into the cold night air. Ella sucked it in, as much as she could. The swelling womb was crushing her diaphragm, making it harder to breathe. The weight...Ella remembered that Lois had been eight pounds even at birth. Yet as she stared down at her stomach, so much bigger than she had ever gotten during her normal pregnancies, the older woman knew that Lois must weight at least four times as much...that she was as big as a three-year-old...

And growing.

The pregnant woman went down again, her knees slamming into the cold brick of the alley outside the club. Her palms rested against the ground...and, she felt with an icy chill, so did her belly button. There was no way that Ella could stand up again...but she could crawl.

So she did. One hand in front of the other, only the sheet about her naked frame, the distended stomach seeming to grow heavier by the second as it dragged against the rough ground. Ella could feel the weight dragging at her shoulders and spine...and in a minute, she felt something else, some last cruel trick from Blaze's pushing the baby's growth.

Her breasts were growing too.

Large breasts didn't run in the women of Ella's family. She had been pleased to go up a cup size or two while pregnant and nursing, but she had seen how Lois had inherited her modest bust. Now, whatever hormones from her magical pregnancy were at work, she felt the other effects of her unnaturally growing gravidity effect the rest of her body.

Ella formerly modest C-cups were dragging at the sheet, soft and heavy, and there were damp spots where the swollen, sensitive nipples pressed against the fabric of the sheet. As Ella crawled forward, dragging her belly along, she felt the sheet fall lower and lower, her breasts getting heavier and heavier.

By the time she reached the mouth of the alley, Ella's nipples were dragging on the ground as well. She paused, light-headed, whole body wracked with pain, barely able to breathe. With wonder and horror she stared down at a stomach that had swollen to gross proportions, the skin so thin she could clearly see the veins through it, ugly red stretch marks all around the form. She could easily have fit her whole torso into her monstrously distorted abdomen.

The pregnant woman collapsed onto her side, cold sweat streaming down her body. Even in this position, her stomach towered over her. Her head-sized tits lay awkwardly atop one another, leaking golden droplets, the nipples bleedy-looked and raw where she had scraped them against the ground. Ella looked across the street...and saw a television running in a store window. Stuck on some news channel, too far away to hear, but there was a clock in the lower right hand corner.

Five minutes to midnight.

Ella closed her eyes. Her world was pain. Every breath hurt. A few more moments, and she wouldn't be surprised if the skin of her stomach just split apart, stretched so far beyond what it could be designed for. Every movement within her sent flashes of pain. It was as though Lois were kicking her kidneys, her belly, her spine, and there was nothing that Ella could do.

"Now that's not true, is it?" Blaze said gently, standing before her in the alley. "I gave you the power. Bear down, will yourself to give birth, and it will happen naturally, easily. Lois will be safe. The pain will be over."

Ella grit her teeth against the sound of the demon's voice. "No. I won't. Be yours. Again."

The succubus dropped to her haunches. This close, Ella could smell her. That familiar reek of sex, old and new. Blaze was a creature of lust and pain, and the grotesquely gravid woman could feel the dark figure drinking in the agony of her morbidly pregnant form.

"Are you really so self-centered, Ella Lane, that you would risk your daughter's life to escape the bargain that you yourself have made?"

The words cut to the bone. The older woman placed her hand against the skin of her belly, taut as a drum. For just a moment, her conviction wavered. Love and concern for her daughter washed through her. All she had to do was push down. All she had to do was...

A clock struck.

Blaze gave a little irritated sigh. Ella's eyes shot open, went wide as she stared up at the devil.

"Well, enjoy your victory Ella. You are one of those rare few who have beaten the devil at their own game. I take back the power that I bestowed upon you."

The demon stood up...and then a cold chill ran through Ella Lane as the devil gave her a little knowing half-smile.

"I wish you well...for the remainder of your pregnancy."

With that, the demon turned and vanished, leaving two lives behind her. One to ponder her words...and another, waiting at last to be reborn.