The Centre(63)

“They choose to do it?”

“Of course! How else would we have access to their stories? Anisa, listen. You told me yourself about what Anna gave you. How life changing it felt. You need to think of it like … organ donation.”

My heart was racing, and my skin felt clammy.

“She donated her body?”

“Yes!”

“Knowing she would be consumed?”

“Yes. Of course. She worked there. She knew all about it,” Arjun said.

“To be clear,” Shiba added, “not all Storytellers know exactly what we’re going to do with their bodies. I think some prefer not to. But they all consent to their bodies being used posthumously, in some way, for the process. Anna, though, had full knowledge. She cleaned the kitchen every day.”

At Shiba’s mention of the kitchen, I saw in my mind’s eye once again the silver double doors at the end of that dark hallway. That room, I suddenly and inexplicably knew, was a kitchen. I saw that Arjun was studying my reaction carefully.

“There’s a long history behind this, Anisa. It’s something humans have always done. You know, people used to drink the blood of their enemies during wartime—they said it gave them the strength and knowledge to defeat them. That’s how nations were conquered, back in the day.”

“I’m not interested in conquering nations.”

“You’re clearly interested in some kind of conquest, though, right? Even if it’s just taking control over your own life. Society has turned these practices into awful, disgusting acts that need to be hidden away. But it doesn’t have to be that way.”

I turned my gaze to the ceiling to field wave upon wave of nausea.

“We have tapped into something groundbreaking here. It’s clearly just outside the bounds of your imagination at the moment,” Arjun said.

“What about my consent, huh? What if I’d had a bad reaction and died?”

“There is no danger of that, my dear,” Arjun said. “We have the best scientists overseeing the process, neutralizing all potential toxicities. And we’re proactive. The specimen is treated for optimal ingestion even before the last heartbeat.”

“Oh god,” I said, bringing my hand to my mouth. My watering eyes darted toward the door.

“Anisa, calm down,” Shiba said, walking toward me and trying to place a placating hand on my arm. “You have to understand—”

“Stop!” I said, pulling away from her. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“She wasn’t ready,” Arjun said.

“She is, Papa. It’s shocking news. Give her time,” Shiba said.

“You’re right to say she’s smart. Curious and open-minded. But she’s too frightened of crossing a line.”

“I mean, no disrespect, but the line you’re talking about is pretty fucking out there,” I said.

“The truth is,” he continued, “very few people can see beyond their prescribed little boxes of good and bad, wrong and right. To digest an idea yourself—an idea that hasn’t been predigested—very few can do that. Maybe that’s the reason you like to translate. You can transmit ideas, but you’re too scared to come up with your own. Ultimately, you’re afraid of your own insides. That’s why the concept disgusts you so much.”

I looked from Arjun to Shiba, Shiba to Arjun. Their words were making me dizzy.

“You’re playing games with me.”

“I’m sorry,” Shiba said. It was unclear who she was addressing. “It’s a lot. Maybe we should have waited—”

“I … it’s not that I can’t … digest new ideas,” I sputtered and rubbed my chest, trying to keep the sickness down. “But let’s be clear. Cannibalism. That’s what you’re talking about. That’s what you do.”

“Just listen to how you say it. Cannibalism. Tell me, what image pops into your head when you hear that word? Cannibal?” Arjun asked.

I stumbled, “What … I don’t know—”

“These are age-old rituals, Anisa. And they can be incredibly powerful. Absolutely transformative,” Shiba added.

“But it’s disgusting,” I said. “You can’t deny that it’s disgusting.”

“But that’s what I’m trying to explain to you. It’s not inherently disgusting. Our bones and muscles, they carry unimaginable wisdom, immense capability. It’s for that very reason that these practices have been demonized, made to seem primitive, barbaric. But there is nothing inherently revolting about flesh and blood,” Shiba said.

“In the animal kingdom, this is a commonplace interaction,” Arjun continued. “Underwater, in fact, over ninety percent of organisms engage in the practice.”

“What?” I asked, feeling disoriented.

“It’s a perfectly natural strategy employed often, across species. For nutrition. Or population control. And perhaps other reasons we’re not yet aware of. And then, of course, there is also sexual cannibalism—this is usually when the female consumes the male, either during or after copulation.”

Shiba smirked when Arjun said this, but quickly wiped the expression off her face. Her reaction amused me for a second before I remembered what we were talking about.