Welcome to stories from Among the Stars.

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

Chapter 26, Something Rotten in Denmark.

Present day.

They call it mind-eating.

They look at me as a monstrous thing, a feaster of brains, something akin to the myriad flesh-eating and blood-drinking monsters of human legend.

My own family saw me as heinous.

But I know the truth now. This is not eating. This is sharing. This is communion.

What I do is the ultimate experience of divinity, the merging of two souls into a

single body, the partaking and elevating of life into new transcendent forms. This is a miracle.

I am a miracle. Bless me, Father, for I am divine.

From Killick's private journal.

Say something, Devon said into the silence that followed her story.

The wind picked up, scattering leaves and twigs, rattling the trees.

Please.

Say what?

Hester retorted.

Arms curled around herself.

That I feel angry.

Of course I do.

Everything was bullshit and you were here to get us killed.

That fiasco on the train, losing my gun, my purse.

...