Demon has a chaotic week. He picks up Maggot from Mrs. Peggot’s, only to learn Maggot is meeting Swap-Out; Demon ends up driving them behind a Walgreens where they smash the drive-through window and steal Sudafed. Shaken and nauseated, Demon drops them off and speeds away.

The next day Fast Forward calls, inviting Demon to ride to Richmond, but Demon refuses and asks about Emmy. Fast Forward says he and Emmy have split; alarmed, Demon calls June to check if Emmy is home, but June says she is not.

At the Courier, Tommy reports a surge of reader mail praising Demon’s “Red Neck” strip. Pinkie Mayhew orders Tommy to run it weekly and offers Tommy a bonus, assuming he drew it; soon the strip sparks a local craze of people leaving tobacco flowers on graves after Demon draws a tobacco-harvest storyline honoring Pappaw and Little Brother. Pinkie pushes for syndication and a formal contract, and Tommy reveals Demon as the creator.

Demon calls Ms. Annie and is invited to dinner with Ms. Annie Amato and Mr. Armstrong. They admire Demon’s opportunity, advise him to negotiate properly, and warn that addiction and “dopehead friends” will wreck his future; they also challenge Demon’s decision to quit school and live with Dori, insisting support must run both ways. Demon leaves angry and conflicted, taking a Xanax to steady himself while insisting he cannot abandon Dori.

With Ms. Annie negotiating, Demon and Tommy secure a one-year contract for fifty dollars per strip plus bonuses, splitting the pay and committing to weekly delivery as partners. Demon privately promises himself the contract will force him toward adulthood—getting clean, claiming his talent, and building a life with Dori—until, at 3 a.m., Rose Dartell summons him and claims Fast Forward used Emmy as sexual “bait” for drug deals in Georgia, then abandoned her. Rose leaves Demon holding a wet snake bracelet from Emmy.