chapter 5

...but he did!
A few days later, he had walked home after late night shopping. He was tired, his feet ached, his ears were getting used to the peace and quiet of the evening after the loud hubbub of the toy department near Christmas.
All he had to look forward to when he got in was a boring cheese sandwich.
But then he got to the end of the street. He could smell the aromas coming from the Chinese takeaway most of all. Oh it smelled good! But he could not afford to get any kind of takeaway. It was near the end of the month. He simply did not have enough.
He debated with himself as he walked along the street. As he grew level with the house, the deep voice came into his head and ordered him to go and get the Chinese!
As he sat in the queue, he looked at the menu. He knew he only had a few silver coins in his pocket. He could stretch to having a chop suey roll, chips and gravy. That was all. As he sat, he fantasised as to what he would buy if he had plenty of money. He heard other people ordering banquets for two. Yes the banquet menu sounded very nice indeed, but he was only one person and he could not afford all that. No, the deep fried sweet and sour king prawns sounded nice. Prawn crackers... curry sauce...fried rice... what was yung chow?
All of a sudden it was his turn. He ordered his basic chop suey roll, chips and gravy, but as he put his hand in his pocket to bring out the coins he needed to pay, he found a five pound note he did not know he had. Before he knew what he was doing he was blurting out an additional order and handed over the fiver.
What was he doing? He thought as he sat down on a bench, waiting for his order to be cooked. Where had that five pound note come from? He could have saved it. It was payday tomorrow, but with five pounds extra cash, he could get the bus into work instead of having to get up extra early and walk in. He ought to cancel his order, get his money back and go home to his sandwich. But he stayed put.
Half an hour later, in the flat, opening the bag from the takeaway, he could not believe how much greasy fried food there was. He could not eat all this! He decided to portion it off. He left half for his flat mate, half of the portion left could do for tomorrow's tea. That left a quarter portion for now. He still was not sure if he could consume the great big mound of food on his plate, but he sat down and started to eat.
The chop suey roll had a bit of everything in it - beanspouts, bamboo shoots, prawns, char Sui pork, beef, chicken, mushrooms, sweet corn... it was delicious! The deep fried prawns were so crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. He dipped them in the sweet and sour sauce as well as the Chinese gravy. Where had the curry sauce come from? When the prawns had gone, he used the chips to dip into the three sauces. When the chips were gone, he poured the remainder of his quarter portion of sauces over the top and finished that.
Then he went back for the other quarter portion... when that had gone, he returned to the kitchen and ate his way through his flatmate's half as well. She wouldn't miss what she didn't know she had right?
Somehow he forced his way through until there was no food left.
Oh! He should not have done that! Why had he done it? He looked down at his sauce stained shirt. His belly was HUGE! It put his hands on it. The skin was stretched tight and it felt very tender. He stood up, supporting the weight of it, feeling slightly nauseous at his sheer gluttony. He groaned as he held himself like a woman pregnant with twins and waddled into the kitchen. As quickly as he could, avoiding bending over as much as he could, he got rid of the evidence, then staggered into his room to have an early night.

That night, as he lay in that twilight time between wakefulness and sleep, he had a vision of his grandmother, telling him to be strong. She could only help him, if he allowed her in.

In the clear cold grey dawn of the next day, Justin did not know what to do. Even the simple fact that his dead grandmother was visiting him was terrifying! She might be there to try to protect him, but what was she trying to protect him from? What it that dark presence that put words into his own head and made him overeat?
The concept of it was mad! No one would believe him! Maybe he was going mad! Hearing voices, seeing things that weren't there. Believing the voices were real when no one else could hear them. If he had a friend coming to him with such a confession, he would think they were completely bonkers!
So he kept it to himself.

On Friday night, Justin got ready to go out. He ignored everything else that came into his head. Positive and negative. He had to pretend everything was normal. He was normal.
His jeans were much tighter than he remembered them, the zip was much more difficult to fasten. He might try to hide from the weird goings on around him, but there was no escaping the fact that his waistline was considerably thicker. The patterns on his shirt could not hide how tight it was around his middle.
He looked at himself in the mirror. He was disgusted in himself and pulled on a jumper over the top.
He had just been paid. Tonight he was off to the pub with his mates and for once, he was not going to go there just to get warm. Tonight he was going to get absolutely bladdered!
His freinds welcomed the chance to party! It was not like Justin to drink so much. He was usually so conservative. But, hey! Everyone had to let off steam sometimes. They imagined it was the extra stress of working in the toy department so near to Christmas. It could not be easy working amongst so much chaos!
There was something different about him though. What was it?
It became very apparent later on. As the heat rose and he became more inebriated, Justin removed his jumper. He had put on a lot of weight recently! His shirt barely fit anymore!
At the end of the night, Justin staggered home. He'd had a great time, but he wasn't half hungry! Fish n chips would be just the thing! ...x2!