Chapter 2

I woke up in the morning to the sound of my alarm, I got out of bed and began to get ready for my first day of college, it felt weird to finally be back in a more normal way of life, sure, there still were posters plastered all over the place of social distancing and hygiene but the classes and day to day life were finally back to what we can consider normal. The day went by fairly quickly and soon enough we were on the lunch break. So I headed to the cafeteria, used my lunch card, and got a meal. I sat alone at a table near the edge, looking around it seemed that some groups were already beginning to form but for the most part, it was people on their own.

While I ate, it was then that I finally had some time to clear my head and think, did that really happen yesterday? Did I really accept a deal with a succubus or was it all a dream? I looked into the backpack and pulled out the ‘tome’, sure enough, I couldn’t find the ‘JANE’ page but I remembered her instructions, I ripped a page out, crumbled it in my hands and thought of a muffin, I uncovered my hand and to my surprise there it was, a relatively plain looking muffin. I inspected it for a second, it looked normal, it smelled nice and the texture was what should be expected from a muffin. I was about to try it out before remembering the part about this being a calory-dense conjuration, so I left it at the table and continued to eat my meal while I thought about what to do with it.

A girl approached my table and said:
“Hey there! Do you mind if I sit here?”
“Sure, go ahead” I replied
She placed down her tray of food and sat down in front of me, she extended her hand and began saying:
“I’m Heather Brooks, how are you doing?”
“Call me Jane, I’m doing fine, thank you.”
We then began to talk about various details of our new college life while we ate. I gave her a look, Heather was very slightly shorter than me with an average body build, she was wearing glasses, black pants, and a white shirt with a plaid blue tie. In short, she looked like what you’d call a dork or a nerd. She seemed nice though, so I appreciated her company. As we finished our food she blurted out:
“Is that yours?” While pointing at the muffin “Looks good”
“Yeah it’s mine” I said, and thinking on my feet I continued: “Though I’m not really in the mood for something sweet, do you want it?”
“Wow, sure! Thanks, Jane” She grabbed it and began to bite into it “Wow, it’s great! where did you get it?”
“Oh… I ba– no, my mother baked it and gave it to me yesterday, I was too tired yesterday so I saved it for today” I replied
“I see, it really tastes good, how did she make it? are you sure you don’t want some?” She questioned
“Yeah, don’t worry, I’m fine. As to how she made it, it’s… uh… it’s a family secret.”
“Aww, that’s a shame. You’ll have to invite me to your home one day! Well, Jane, I have to get going, it was a pleasure to meet you. Let’s meet here again, what’s your phone number?”
We exchanged phone numbers and she headed on her way, I took another look at her, she seemed about the same, I wasn’t expecting her to suddenly balloon up to a ridiculous size in front of me but still, the task ahead of me seemed daunting.

When classes ended I went back to my dorm, I took out the tome and opened it to a random page and sure enough, the ‘JANE’ page appeared, the letters began to glow purple and Lilith appeared.
“Aww, your first baby steps! I know it may seem like a tall order at first but I assure you, it will only get easier, just try to be creative. Now then, let me show you something fun, turn over to the next page”
I followed through and turned the page, written on it was the name Heather Brooks and written beside it “Initial weight: 135 pounds – Current weight: 135.5 pounds – Gain 0.5 pounds” on the bottom of the page there was a number and a measurement “Total weight gained all across: 0.5”
“And don’t you worry, just like you couldn’t find the ‘JANE’ page, the tome knows when to hide its contents” Lilith clarified
“So you’re telling me that the reason I spent so much time unable to find that page was that you just didn’t want to see me?” I questioned
“Don’t be silly, I was very excited to finally meet you! The tome, however, has a will of its own, it acts in mysterious ways. Learn from it, treat it well and it will take care of you. Or as much as it’s able to anyways being a book.”

I began to do some recap and studying, Lilith hung around the room looking at my things and occasionally blurting something out. Time passed and after doing enough studying to feel satisfied, I began to focus on Lilith and the task she gave me.
“Finally! So, have you thought of something?” She asked me
“I’ve thought of something, I’ll need a lot of pages though, in the meantime can you fetch me a box or a bag? There should be one in the closet” I requested
Lilith headed to the closet while I began to rip pages off the tome, once I had a good number of them, I got to work.

The next day, I was at lunch break once again, I sat at the same table as the day before, and shortly after Heather came too. She placed her tray down, sat down, and began to talk:
“Hey, did you hear?
“Hmm? No, what happened?” I replied, feigning ignorance
“They gave out free cupcakes near the reception! On the main table there was a sign that said “Take one 🙂” and a tray filled with cupcakes. I managed to grab two, hehe.” She explained
I smirked on the inside, the first stage of my plan was successful, after making a bunch of pastries I snuck out at night, wrote a quick sign, and left a tray filled with delightfully fattening cupcakes.
“Ah yes, that, I did hear in fact, must have been a kind gesture from the college staff to give us a warm welcome. I figured they’d run out fast so I grabbed two, one for myself and one for you, here, have it.” I lied while I handed her the cupcake
“Aww, thank you! You didn’t have to, you know?” She thanked me while beginning to take a bite of the cupcake
“Hmmm, these are delicious!” She smiled as she ate the pastry
I smiled too but for a different reason.
“By the way” I began to speak “Remember that muffin yesterday? I forgot to tell you but my mother didn’t make me just one but a whole box of them! I can’t really eat them all before they go bad, so, would you like to take half?”
“Oh my god, you’re so kind Jane! I’d be glad to help you go through your supply!” She replied excitedly
“Well then, after finishing lunch I’ll return to my dorm and I’ll bring you half the supply, can you text me your dorm number?” I asked
“Sure thing! You’re so kind Jane” She thanked me
Little did she know the true nature of those muffins…

After classes had finished, I headed to the number she provided me, I arrived at her door and knocked on it.
“Come on in! The doors unlocked!” She shouted
I opened the door with one hand while balancing the box of muffins on the other.
I entered Heather’s dormitory, it was the same kind of private dormitory as mine, she had some boxes on the floor still left for her to unpack, and the bookcase was filled with all kinds of books. As for Heather, she was sitting at her desk using her notebook, it seemed to be one of those high-performance models, though she was only using it to play some sort of pixelated old game.
“Hi Jane! Oh my, that’s a lot of muffins! Does your mother run a bakery or something?” She asked me surprised
“Haha! No, it’s just that she really likes baking and she kinda got carried away, I’m an only child so I’m guessing seeing me leave the home made her emotional.” I replied
“I see, well, sit wherever and make yourself comfortable,” she said while reaching out to the box and grabbing a muffin
I sat down on her bed and we began talking for a while about college life and the current courses, all the while she was snacking on that conjured muffin. Not long after she even reached out for a second one while she asked me:
“So, what do you do in your free time? What kind of hobbies do you have?”
“Well, I, uh, like to use social media and…”
see my classmates slowly and unawarely balloon up
“...keep up with my high school friends! I also like to use my computer to browse the web for pictures of…”
fat, plush, curvy, filled-out women to save to my ever-growing collection
“...cute cats and dogs! Fairly recently I bought a notebook and I’m using it to…”
conjure food and keep track of the people I make gain weight for the deal I made with a demon
“...keep a dream diary!” I finished blurting out
“Just that?” She asked, looking a bit confused
“Yeah, fairly regular stuff” I replied, doing my best to hide my nerves
“Don’t you get bored or something?” She questioned
“No, I have a pretty good time throughout” I told her “So what about you? What kind of stuff do you do?”
“Well I have a wide range of pastimes, I like to play video games, board games, card games, miniature games, board games, role-playing games, I like to write fan fiction, I like to listen to music, watch TV shows, anime, and movies, I like to keep up with the latest news in technology, and computers, and while I’m not a very social person I still like to hang out in various forums, communities, subreddits, and Discord servers.”
“Uh huh” I replied, pretending to have understood everything she has just said “very cool”

After some more chit chat, I returned safely to my dorm room, grabbed the tome from my backpack, opened the ‘JANE’ page, and summoned Lilith
“Good job Jane! I didn’t expect you to be quite so creative!” She congratulated me
“If you think that’s all I can do, then watch this” I said
I ripped out a page of the tome and tore it into smaller pieces, I gathered the pieces in the palm of my hand and covered them up with my other. When I uncovered it, I had a number of M&Ms in my hand.
“Interesting, very interesting, what do you plan to do with this new discovery?” She asked me
“I’m not sure yet, but I’m sure it will come in handy” I replied
“Well, anyways, turn over the page and see the fruits of your labor” She tasked me
I did so and observed the weight log page, there were 6 new names I didn’t recognize, surely unaware victims of my cupcake scheme. Next to them, I could already see their blossoming weight. half a pound, another half pound, one pound, oooh, three pounds, they must have taken several throughout the day. I shifted my eyes to the top name, Heather Brooks, she had already gained a hearty 6 pounds, perhaps this would be easier than I had anticipated.

I kept staring at the numbers, they would occasionally shift by very small margins, was it digestion? perhaps they ate something more? Or–
“By the way…” Lilith interrupted my train of thought
“Something the matter?” I asked
“Here, take these” She said as she tossed me… some jewelry?
I nearly missed them but I managed to catch them, it was a pair of earrings. They looked like they were made of silver and had a small crystal each, one blue and one red.
“What’s this? Some earrings? Where did you get them?” I asked her
“They are not just any earrings but some magical earrings, I was handed them by the higher powers, you’ve successfully earned your second artifact, congratulations!” she said “You’ll earn artifacts each time you reach a milestone in your fattening quest”
“Nice, hmm, red and blue, mixed they form purple, very clever” I pointed out
“So the way these work is that they have to be worn by different people, the blue one stimulates the appetite, absorbs the excess calories consumed by the host, and sends it to the person wearing the red one.” She explained
“Hmmm” I mumbled
“Let me guess, you have an idea” she said
“I have a hell of an idea”

The next day, step by step, Jane was patrolling the cafeteria. Her objective was to find a fitting victim, Heather was good and all but she wanted to start fattening up someone else, if Heather grew too fast she would start to suspect me and we wouldn’t want that, do we? Now then, who do we–
“Oh, excuse me” a girl bumped into me and apologized
“Don’t worry about it, I was walking absent-mindedly” I replied
She continued walking, I took a look at her and recognized her, she was named Casey I believe, and she sits next to me during some of the courses. She was quite an athletic girl, she had short hair and usually wore some shorter or rolled-up pants with a t-shirt, she had a fit, nice body, well, not nice for my tastes but you know what I mean. I thought about giving the red earring to her, the receiver as I called it, but as she sits next to me, I didn’t want to be seen as suspicious so I decided against it.

Not long after, a girl caught my eye, she must have arrived late because she still had half her tray filled with food, she was sitting alone so I decided to approach her. She had black hair and she was wearing an all-black outfit, she was looking a bit thin for my tastes though, perhaps she could use a bit more meat on her bones, unfortunately for me, I got ahead of myself inspecting her and slipped on the floor, the earrings fell out of my pockets and under the table. I reached out and picked them up in a hurry.
“Sorry about that, do you mind if I sit here?” I asked
“Sure” She replied
I sat next to her at the table and asked “So, what’s your name?”
“Amelia” She simply replied
“I’m Jane, uh, how are you doing?” I continued asking
“Fine” Amelia replied
“Hmm, not very talkative are we?” I questioned
“No” Amelia replied bluntly
I wasn’t getting to where I wanted to I skipped the semantics and went straight to the point
“Here, I wanted to give you this” I said while handing her an earring
“Why are you giving me this? You don’t know me” She questioned
“Well, I have a spare one and I don’t really want it, so I thought it’d make for a nice gift, what better way to start a new friendship?”
“Sure, whatever.” She replied
It could have gone better but that was good enough, I did what I needed to do and I started heading in the direction of our next class.

I listened to the course the professor was giving and took notes in an absent-minded manner, this was the last class of today and I was quite excited for the next step of my plan, I’m thinking I would–
“Hey!” A girl whispered to catch my attention, it was Casey, she continue to speak once I looked in her direction “Sorry again about bumping into you earlier, I’m Casey, Casey Connors, what’s your name?”
“I’m Jane, and don’t worry about that, it was my fault” I whispered
“Alright. By the way, how knowledgeable are you about fat? she asked
My heart nearly skipped a beat, that was too specific to be a coincidence, did she know what I was up to? No, she’s an athlete, surely she just wants to burn off fat or something, though she did look pretty fit… I cleared my throat and began to whisper
“Umm, about as much as anyone else, why do you ask?”
“Huh? It’s the topic of today’s class” she whispered back
I shifted my attention to the professor and the whiteboard
“...in which lipids are stored in the body. During times of energy deficit, these stored triglycerides can be broken down through a process known as lipolysis, providing the body with the energy it needs to function…” he explained
“I didn’t quite get the last part, I was hoping you could lend me your notes for me to read and then it would click for me, you know?” Casey whispered
“Uh, sure, I’ll lend it to you after class”

After that awkward moment, I went back to my dorm and checked the tome, and sure thing, there she was “Amelia Kennedy” current weight: 112 pounds. I looked at the other names to see how they were progressing, then, I closed the tome and put on the remaining earring, Lilith appeared and asked me:
“So… what’s your plan now?”
“She now has the ‘receiver’ earring and I have the ‘emitter’ earring, I simply had to eat as much as I could and the results of my work would reveal themselves”

Author's note: I just realized now how hard it would be to gain 6 pounds of fat in less than two days, I originally intended it to be around a week when I was writing but forgot to fix that, guess it’s too late now. You know what they say, the only bad mistake is one where you don’t learn anything. About the plot, here we are introducing some of the main characters we’re going to see throughout the story, hope you like them.
Also shoutouts to Grammarly for not recognizing the word “tome” and wanting me to add commas everywhere.