Chapter 3

Asmodeus watched through the painted slats of the closet as Damon found his sleep change from peaceful to inconvenient. His body now needed something different. Damon tossed and turned as his belly growled over and over and his lips felt as if they were missing something.
Eventually, after what seemed like hours to the impatient demon, but was really just a few minutes, Damon woke.

“Fuck,” Damon muttered under his breath as he pulled off his bedsheets. He rubbed his lips over one another and looked around his room for his bedside clock. The green digital numbers blinked 02:00 to which Damon gave a big sigh. His belly grumbled again, loud like Damon had never eaten before.
Grabbing his mobile, Damon began looking for something, his tired eyes narrowed as his sluggish thumb flicked away. Asmodeus pressed his face right up to the slats, desperate to see what his quarry was doing, without interrupting it. It was no use though, the phone, though shining like a headlight, was facing away from Asmodeus as Damon scrolled. Though now Damon seemed to be doing something else with his phone.
Continuing to press harder against the closet door, in vain, Asmodeus made it creak a little.
Damon looked up from his phone and peered bleary-eyed at the closet. Asmodeus swallowed, it had happened a few times, but it was never fun being discovered by your cursed mortal. He cautiously moved back his head from the closet door and held his breath.
After a moment Damon shrugged and looked back down at his phone and did a final couple of taps and then set down his phone again.

Asmodeus pouted. Why was nothing fun happening yet?

But just then Damon swung his legs out of his bed and stood up and began stretching, all the time his belly rumbling away. He kept patting it as if he was reassuring it about something. After a few minutes of sleepy stretches, Damon padded out of view of Asmodeus’s hiding place.

Waiting a little longer to make sure the coast was clear, Asmodeus cautiously pushed the closet door open and slipped out into the bedroom where he could now see an open door and a lit hallway. Asmodeus glided over the varnished wood floors and reached a flight of stairs leading down. Asmodeus’s foot twitched as it hovered on the first step and he peered down through the bannisters to look for signs of Damon.
Eyes were not needed though as Asmodeus heard the pleasant sound of the seal cracking open on the fridge door. He waited with bated breath, unsure whether to stay upstairs, hidden or spy on what could be happening and risk being spotted.

However the sound of a moan as some taste hit Damon’s tongue made up Asmodeus’s mind and he sprinted down the stairs, not caring if Damon heard. After all, now food had hit Damon’s lips, and the curse was sealed along with Damon’s fate.

Asmodeus beamed as he saw what a fate Damon’s promised to be. Through the kitchen door Asmodeus watched as Damon didn’t seem to register the noises Asmodeus knew he had made, his back to the doorway. He was too lost in a world of pleasure Asmodeus had made Damon finally recognise. In one hand Damon clutched a bottle of milk and in the other was a slice of ham, picked from a packet still in the fridge. The yellow warm light of the fridge lit up Damon’s face as his eyes rolled back as he crammed in the ham slice like it would be taken from him. Next, he gulped down half a pint of the milk as his now free hand patted around in the fridge for something else.

Asmodeus stepped through the threshold and into the kitchen. The air felt electric to him. He was in the same room as his victim, fated to fatten. Again, his heart fluttered.