Winter's pursuit of female muscle triggers unprecedented growth. But she's caught in the crosshairs of a major tech acquisition with perplexing, mysterious and increasingly dangerous complications. Can an impossibly beautiful woman devote herself...
Days stretched into weeks and months. Occasionally Winter had lonely pangs of concern that she was becoming obsessed. Winter's dedication certainly devolved her into an almost hermetic lifestyle. Shouldn't she be out meeting people? She wasn't getting any younger.
Despite the self-doubt, Winter embraced the growing sense of worth and purpose. Certainly, her body had changed. However, in a way more transcendentally, her mind was exploring new levels of alertness. Thoughtful eating, sleep prioritization and meditation had hardened her resolve. Fleeing social media, a constant investment in knowledge and learning fed her attention to detail and focus. She couldn't deny she was becoming a practiced precision machine of a woman. It echoed the lines of her body. After the frustrating early months, constant variation in exercise, proper rest and complete exertion had started to pound muscle furiously onto her frame. As she moved into her second dedicated year of bodybuilding, her progress was mystifying for other practitioners. Hardly narcissistic, she marveled herself, helplessly touching, prodding and flexing her own evolving musculature curiously. Evening posing routines were a wellspring of joy as she feasted on her reflection in the mirror each night. Examining flexing curves and budding musculature. It was the physical manifestation of comprehensive soul, body, mind health.
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If only it were not for her financial dissolution. Living off credit cards had started to take a toll. With her advancement of knowledge came additional supplement acquisitions - always of the highest quality. If she was going to invest so heavily in recreating herself, it was an easy decision to align that investment with what she chose to put in her body. A diet conforming mostly to single ingredient foods (for example simple chicken breasts not packaged chicken fingers) had not exactly benefited the wallet. Her financial distress combined with an unwillingness to solicit help ate at her. It was becoming increasingly difficult as the months extended. Increasingly, she could not reconcile her financial destitution with the temple of proportionality she was building physically.
It was particularly painful when her breakfast perusal of google news highlighted a name she had worked so hard to forget. A simple headline shook her back to dark days. Two years to the day it felt more than a coincidence:
"Philip Barting and NanoAI Advances: How a Young Billionaire is Re-Defining what's Real"
She couldn't help clicking. It read like a piece of worshipful propaganda. Barting, a young genius, living on nothing, slaving away building a new molecular health revolution that would transform what everyone knew was possible. One excerpt was particularly person:
"Not a soul believed in his work. Alone, battling depression and loneliness, Mr. Barting risked everything to open a world of possibilities. In a sense, his dedicated solo efforts created a new Universe for all of us."
—-
For the first time in months, Winter was parking in front of a store that was not a grocery market. "Costumes-R-Us" the glowing rainbowed sign read. Minutes later, she emerged with a bag containing a mask and a hardening plan.
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She had barely recognized herself the last several hours. Years of frustration and self-compromising subjugation were erupting into controlled fury. She still had a key to the backdoor of Phil's mansion and she wasn't going to pause to examine her motives. Time to take something back from her former betrayer.
Headlights flipped off, it was dark when she pulled up a block away from Philipp's sprawling estate. Dressed head-to-toe in tight black gear, Winter flicked off the car's engine and exited silently. Pulling a mask out of a bag she looked down. She nearly burst out laughing at the Disney Frozen Anna mask she held in her hand. With a grin of steely determination, she slung it over her face.
Hopping the large stone fence and skirting the security cameras she had directed the technician to install two years prior, Winter swiftly moved to the backdoor. The key entered and spun, clicking the lock open in satisfaction. The monitoring system on the wall beeped expectantly. Holding her breath, she punched in the code and the alarm system double chimed satisfactorily. Some tech wizard. Winter thought, doesn't even bother changing the combination.
Barefoot, Winter silently made her way through the kitchen and sprawling foyer. She glanced towards the towering study door and shivered. Two years ago but a lifetime distant.
Softly padding up stairs Winter emerged into the long hallway lined with original paintings and renderings. The master bedroom door was flickering in the soft hallway lighting at the end of the long hallway. Looking to her right, she saw that her old bedroom door was wide open. Without thinking, she walked in silently.
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Soundlessly closing the door, Winter flicked on the light. She gaped, the room was precisely as she left it. Phil hadn't even bothered to change the comforter. Walking to her closet, she flung it open and found all the clothes she hadn't had the energy to retrieve that day long ago. Winter's eyes were drawn to the silk nightgown she had worn that last night. Yanking it from the hanger, she walked instinctually into the bedroom, stripping her clothes off as she went. Slipping the nightgown on she turned on the soft LED bulbs in the bathroom.
For a moment she saw her old self, hunched shoulders, heavy and tired after a long night fighting a fever. As her eyes adjusted, the image in her mind evaporated and gave way to a goddess of muscle and strength. She breathed in slowly, exhaling audibly. Snatching her phone that was stuffed between her hip and the tight black fabric of her leggings, Winter snapped photos from every angle, trying to recreate the same vantage point she remembered from that last day years before. That should be interesting, she thought with a smile.
Slipping the Anna mask back on and placing her phone in the silk nightgown's pocket, Winter flicked off the lights. Quickly and purposefully, in her haste forgetting she still wore only the silk nightgown, she exited her old room back into the hallway. A clock ticked silently from somewhere downstairs as she looked towards the master bedroom door. Clenching her fists, Winter walked deliberately down the hallway.
