alimento mori

something i did in english

The gate opens and a tiger comes out, mouth open in a loud snarl that sends the crowds into cheers. They live for this, and the princess does too, for the fear that shows in her love's eyes and the way his hands tremble because this—this will be his death and not even true love could save him.

There is resignation in his eyes, too, acknowledgement that this is his end, but he still tries to run. Tries to scale the walls like so many before had done. The princess laughs at his futile efforts. She visualises herself as the tiger, prowling, a great beast watching its prey like entertainment.

She pounces, canines sharp like fangs that tear into his throat and her perfectly groomed nails slice at his chest like claws, tearing through muscle and sinew and bending back bone to find a heart. It is warm, still, from the life it used to beat for. She grins, bloody and feral and there is nothing that she will not do.

The lady screams at her when the princess orders her to be killed, lazily, with the flick of her wrist. "How could you!" She shouts over the din of the crowd, who watches as the tiger lunges and blood is spilled.

Princesses never have to be unhappy. She is the predator and the world is her prey (and her teeth will always be stained with the blood of those who dare to love the beast). She is like—no, she is the tiger.

The princess chooses the lady and watches, detached, while the two are wed. Her blood sings for revenge, and screams at the way they kiss, so chastely, in front of all of her subjects. But she waits, and sharpens her claws, because she is savage and barbaric but she is smart, too.

The celebrations last throughout the night and the blushing lady's cheeks turn even redder as people give her more and more drinks. The men laugh and say, "Better take her before she is nothing more than a warm body," and the princess smiles from her seat and drawls out, "Wasn't she always?" with innocence that chills every man.

Later, when she is alone in her bedchambers, her love joins her. She kisses him, bites his lips and sucks bruises onto his neck. She is on top of him, her hands splayed out on his chest but her nails dig into his pale skin. He whispers a litany of "I love you, I love you, I love you," with reverence, like she is his god and he is a drowning man asking for mercy.

She swallows his prayers and tucks them into a hollow inside her ribcage for safekeeping.

In the morning there is a dead man and a dead girl. In the middle of the carnage is the princess, who has a bloodstained smile and holds a heart in each hand.

She is a tiger wearing a princess's skin, and she will maul the world and take what is hers.

[we had to write the ending of a story and i chose both endings]