The beast roared as it lunged forward, its mismatched limbs clawing at the ground, its massive circular maw gaping wide. The sound reverberated through the cave, a bone-rattling cacophony that sent Jenny’s heart hammering in her chest.

“Run!” Reed yelled, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the cave’s entrance.

They bolted, dodging the scattered remains of the massacre as they sprinted. Reed kept glancing back, expecting the thing to close the distance in seconds, but the sound of crashing claws and wet thuds didn’t grow closer. Instead, it slowed.

Jenny risked a glance back, her breath catching in her throat. The beast wasn’t attacking. Its grotesque, multi-limbed body writhed and stumbled, but not toward them—it almost looked... excited. Like it was happy to see them.

It lurched forward again, its circular maw closing and splitting into jagged, tooth-filled smiles on the faces embedded in its mass. Heads and mouths twisted toward them, wriggling like worms trying to get closer. Its movements were horrifying, but there was no aggression in them. If anything, it looked like a grotesque puppy bounding after its owners.

“What the—” Reed muttered, stopping dead in his tracks. “What’s it doing?”

Jenny froze beside him, staring as the creature shambled closer. Her knife was in her hand, but it felt useless. How do you kill something like that?

Then she heard it.

A voice, or rather voices, echoing through the cave. It wasn’t coming from one mouth but from all of them, merged together in a cacophony of agony. The words were faint at first, but as the thing moved closer, they became clearer.

“Kill us.”

Jenny’s blood ran cold. She stared at the beast, her grip tightening on her knife. It wasn’t attacking because it didn’t want to hurt them. It wanted to die.

“Kill us!” the voices repeated, louder this time, desperate and pleading. The heads shifted and twisted, mouths curling into shapes that almost resembled sadness. Jenny took an involuntary step back, the knife trembling in her left hand.

“What the hell is this?” Reed said, his voice tight with a mixture of horror and disbelief. “What were those freaks doing here?”

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Jenny didn’t answer. Her eyes darted around the cave, taking in the walls, the piles of bodies, the scattered remnants of whatever nightmare rituals the cannibals had been performing. Then she saw it—a fragile column of stone in the center of the cave, its base cracked and worn.

Her mind worked quickly. The column was load-bearing, holding up the weight of the cave’s ceiling. If it went down, the entire structure would collapse. It would bury everything—this monster, the bodies, the horrors of whatever the cannibals had been doing.

She didn’t say anything. Instead, she dropped her knife and reached for her rifle, slung over her shoulder. Her left hand fumbled awkwardly with the strap as she struggled to bring it around. Reed noticed and stepped forward.

“Jenny, what are you doing?” he asked, his voice sharp.

She didn’t answer, her focus locked on the rifle. She knew what she had to do. The creature—whatever it was—was begging for an end, and this was the only way to give it one. She brought the rifle up to her shoulder, her left hand gripping it tightly as she aimed at the column.

The angle was awkward, the weight of the rifle unfamiliar without her right arm. She adjusted, leaning her body to compensate. Her breathing slowed, her heart pounding in her ears as she lined up the shot.

Reed realized what she was doing. “Jenny, wait! If you bring this place down—”

“It has to be me,” she said, her voice quiet but firm. “I won’t miss.”

He fell silent, watching as she steadied the rifle. The creature stood still now, its twisted heads watching her with a kind of sad, grateful silence. It made no move to stop her.

Jenny exhaled and pulled the trigger.

The rifle kicked hard against her shoulder, the recoil sending a jolt through her body. The shot rang out, deafening in the enclosed space, and the bullet struck the column dead center. The crack spread instantly, a jagged line racing up the stone as the structure began to buckle.

“Run!” Reed yelled, grabbing her and pulling her toward the entrance.

Behind them, the creature let out a low, mournful sound, a mix of relief and sadness. The cave began to tremble, chunks of rock falling from the ceiling as the column gave way entirely. Dust and debris filled the air as they scrambled out into the wasteland, just barely clearing the entrance as the entire structure collapsed behind them.

They turned back, coughing and shielding their eyes from the dust cloud that billowed outward. The cave was gone, buried beneath tons of rock and rubble. For a long moment, they just stood there, catching their breath.

“Is it... dead?” Jenny asked finally, her voice shaky.

Reed nodded, his expression unreadable. “If it wasn’t before, it is now.”

Jenny lowered her gaze to the rifle still in her hand. The weight of what had just happened began to sink in, but she pushed it aside. They’d done what they had to do. Whatever that thing had been, it was at peace now.

“Come on,” Reed said, his voice softer now. “Let’s get out of here.”

Jenny nodded, slinging the rifle over her shoulder as they turned away from the rubble. Behind them, the wasteland stretched on, silent and vast. But as they walked, the echoes of the creature’s sad, grateful voices lingered in her mind.