Prompt: The hero kills the princess and frees the monster.
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She stared at him with cold, unseeing eyes. Her grin showed her sharpened teeth. “Go on, kill me,” she said mockingly. “I’m in such misery.” She cackled. “You can’t do it. You love her too much.”
Angry tears ran down his face, but he pinned her firmly against the ground, his hands on her arms, his legs on either side of hers. The stench of the barn wafted around him. He tried to focus on it, forget that the face in front of him was once his true love. They had had such plans together… But she was changed now. This evil spirit had entered her body and had made her kill his own brother. He knew of no other way to deal with the situation. She would kill others if he didn’t do it, and he couldn’t allow that.
“You’re wrong.” He swiftly let go of one of her arms, pulled the knife out of his belt with his free hand, and held the tip of the blade above her heart. He hesitated, and she reached up with her unnaturally long arm and gripped his neck. The second he felt those long, hard nails biting into his flesh, he knew he couldn’t afford to hold out any longer. He plunged the knife into her body.
She screamed in anguish, the sound filling his ears, echoing strangely. For a brief second, he thought he saw her true gaze in her eyes.
Before the horror of what he had done had fully registered, the voice was in his head. “You are an imbecile, just like her.” That otherworldly cackle filled his mind. “Your body is so much stronger. Think of the things I’ll be able to do.” Before he could resist, he felt the grin on his own face. His consciousness seemed to melt away.
Now, his only thought was to feed. And the body before him would do nicely.