But it growled nonetheless.

The pain was like nothing she’d ever known, and she would do anything to calm it. All she could think about was the Paradise Buffet and the succulent saucy meat and deep-fried treats they offered.

It’s not far from my house, she thought. I can just walk there. The bus didn’t run this late, so it was her only choice. Blood coated her pink nightie and bulbous black legs. She tried to roll into a position to stand up, but it proved to be a difficult task, and she held her breath as she rocked herself. Fufu’s bones lay in a heap by her side, all broken and strung together with gore.

“My stomach…” Just saying the words was exhausting and she had to take a break to breathe afterward.

It felt like rats chewing their way out of her. She got to her hands and knees, used the couch to get to her feet. Part of her wanted to sit back down and rest, but the demon in her gut urged her to go on.

Chandra knew this wasn’t right. She knew something was wrong. There was a small voice in the back of her mind, calling to her, faint as if it were in a cave off in the distance. It was her voice. Her real voice. Telling her to stop. Begging her to look at herself, what she was doing, what she had turned into.

But the voice was swallowed whole by her new ravenous self. All she could think about was her hunger, the pain throbbing in her mid-section.

“Ungh…” She winced as she shuffled her pink slippers across her carpet, the glittery poofs matted with blood and meat and crumbs.

The Paradise Buffet. She didn’t know which food she liked best. It didn’t matter. Everything they served became one smoldering, mouth-watering dish in her mind. She’d been going there everyday for a week. And ever since that first time, she couldn’t stop. It haunted her dreams, her every thought. She could smell the food wherever she was, her mouth salivating in preparation for it.

She’d always been a heavy girl, but since the buffet became her pastime, she nearly doubled in size. But no matter how much she ate, she couldn’t satisfy the hunger. It consumed her, it became her. Defined her.

She made it to her front door. It took her a few times to turn the knob since her hands were slick with Fufu fluid, but she got it open, stepped into the night, stared at the moon. It was a water chestnut in the sky and she actually reached for it, clawing at it with pink, bedazzled nails. The stars were sticky rice grains floating in dark sauce.

Her stomach twisted and she groaned as if in labor. She walked into the street, leaving her door open behind her, and headed in the direction of the buffet.

A jogger trotted by, bending his eyebrows at her as he passed.