Rhys

I was once cursed by a witch.

From that moment, I was torn away from my human form and twisted into a faceless, blackened entity—an unrecognizable shadow of what I used to be.

The curse was cruelly precise.

Within one year, I had to make a woman fall truly in love with me. When I kissed her, my human form would be restored.

But there was a condition—

she had to love me without caring about my monstrous appearance. Only then would the spell work.

And yet… there was a price.

The woman I kissed would not leave that moment alive.

Her death would be slow.

Painful.

Unforgiving.

Cause uncontrollable bleed from their mouth.

To reclaim my humanity, I had to deceive and sacrifice twenty women—pretending to love them, earning their trust, and killing them through that final kiss.

So far, I had already condemned nineteen souls this way.

Still, my curse remained.

For a long time, no woman crossed my path.

One night, as I wandered aimlessly through the forest, I saw her.

At the river.

A woman bathing in the moonlit water. I only saw her from behind; her face was hidden from me. When she stepped out of the river, a white dog waited faithfully on the riverbank, its tail wagging as if it had been guarding her all along.

I could not take my eyes off her.

Something about her felt… different.

She dressed quietly, then sat beside her dog, speaking to it as if it were human. She laughed softly. The sound echoed inside me—aching, unfamiliar.

After a few days, I spoke to her for the first time.

She did not scream.

She did not flinch.

She did not fear my form.

When she asked my name, I hesitated. When I asked hers, she smiled and said,

“Gloria.”

From that day on, Gloria and I began meeting often.

She would come into the forest just to see me, always with her dog by her side.

And for the first time—something stirred within me that I had never felt for the others.

Her innocent smile.

Her playful nature.

The warmth of the affection she showed me.

None of the women before her had ever made me feel this way.

Months passed.

Now, there was only one day left before the year ended.

Tomorrow, she would come to see me again.

If I wanted my human form back, I had to kiss her.

I waited for her near the riverbank, my heart torn between desire and dread—uncertain of what I was about to become.

She arrived smiling, sat beside me, unaware of the fate waiting on my lips.

And I did not know whether I was more afraid of losing my humanity…

or of killing the woman I truly loved.