Lady and the Tiger Entry

Just for contest, nothing else.

The man started towards the door, his heart beating in his chest like a hummingbird. His hands trembled as the grazed the doorknob. Death or a life without love, there was no choice. The world was cruel, and the fates crueler. 

He sent a final, pleading look at his lover, memorizing the beauty of her face and the every contour of her cheeks. His death would be on her hands, and she knew it. But how could she bear to let him live with another lady? He understood completely, that no matter what was behind this door, his lover would hate the result. 

He opened the door, unshocked by the result.

Out sprung a tiger, the beast beautiful with rippling muscles and ethereal grace to rival even the most exotic of the princesses. It's amber eyes locked with the man's for a split second before it pounced. 

Claws tore across his skin and agony pounded through his skull like nails. He screamed. The crowd screamed. His lover screamed and wept. The man thought the agony would never end as the tiger tore into him, biting and scratching and aiming for a kill. 

Numbness sank over the man's body as his wounds were too grave, his heart too big, and his lover too cruel. 

As the finality of death took its toll, the man sent a last glance at his lover. He wanted his final words to mean something, no, to mean the world. 

But all he saw was the coldness of a woman trying to forget, her beauty transformed into that of an icy statue. Her lips trembled only once before she regained composure, sitting rigid in her chair. 

And as it was, the man's last thoughts were like father, like daughter. 

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I really wanted to come up with another ending where he escapes (or doesn't have either of the doors) but I saw the awards for your competition and decided just to write the ending above. I'll include my own ending below.

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The man sent a final look at his lover. Her beauty was heart stopping, truly. He wondered how no other man could see her fairness the way he could. 

The right. She had pointed to the right. A code.

The last night she had seen him, her lover had made him a promise. A promise that she would never let harm come to him unless it would also come to her. The night seemed so long ago, their words long forgotten in the wind. 

The right. 

The fingers on one hand grazed the doorknob on the right. The fingers on the other grazed cold metal pressed into the pocket of his trousers. His heart was racing at the speed of light, his thoughts blurring as he held his hands steady. 

He met his lovers eye's again. They welled with tears, filled to the brim with sorrow. 

His fingers clasped around the cold blade in his pocket. The right. 

Heart thumping, he withdrew his hand from his pocket. 

The right. 

Up above, in the box where her father sat, his lover did the same. 

The right. 

In their identically shaking palms were two identical silver knives. 

The right. 

His lover stood, stiff, determined, and beautiful as ever. He admired her bravery. 

The right. 

The met gazes, eyes meeting from across the way. 

The right. 

Together or not at all. 

The man plunged the dagger into his chest, screaming as he fell. Above him, he heard his lover doing the same. He could feel her presence beside her as their last breaths fell into sync. Opposites, yet the same. Her, dying surrounded by loved ones. Him, dying alone on the ground in front of thousands. 

Together, the man and his lover were welcomed into deaths embraced. 

Together, their souls fled into the afterlife or the underworld or into whatever laid beyond life. 

And together, they died. Together, or not at all. 

The right ... the right choice. 

Author's Note

I barely took time on this, maybe half an hour. Hope you enjoyed anyways!