Welcome to Stories from Among the Stars.

You're listening to The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean, narrated by Katie Eric.

Act 1, Dusk

Chapter 1

Devon by day

Present day

We have just begun to navigate a strange region

We must expect to encounter strange adventures, strange perils.

Arthur Matchen, the Terror.

These days, Devon only bought three things from the shops.

Books, booze and sensitive care skin cream.

The books she ate, the booze kept her sane and the lotion was for Kai, her son. He suffered

occasionally from Exma, especially in winter. There were no books in this convenience store,

only rose of garish magazines. Not to her taste, and anyway, she had enough books to eat at home.

Her gaze skipped across the soft porn, power tools

and home-living publications down to the lower strata,

where children's magazines glowed pink in yellow.

Devon ran short, ragged nails across the covers.

She thought about buying one for Kai,

because he seemed to like reading that kind of thing at the moment,

and decided against it. After tonight, his preferences might change. She walked to the end of the

aisle, linoleum squishing beneath her heel boots, and set her basket at the checkout,

...