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~~((National Corn on the Cob Day - page 2 of 10))~~
Time and again, they cut the creature open. Time and again, they stitched it back together, oftentimes with limbs or organs that previously belonged to other animals. On many occasions, they thought it dead and tried to revive it with reapers.

But it was never necessary. It lived through everything they did to it.

And its form continued to shift in new and grotesque ways, perhaps attempting to conceal its excess of new body parts. A horse with seven legs. A crocodile with three heads. A lion with an eagle's wings and a scorpion's claws.

It only ever grew larger. The experiments continued for years. Countless conversations took place among the researchers, expressing all manner of concerns and curiosity. They did not understand. The beast seemed docile.

Until one, final experiment. More abominable than all the rest.

A severed human head. They attached it to the creature.

And just like every time previously, it absorbed it into its body.

The researchers celebrated their triumph. Few expressed reservations, mostly because they never thought it would work. They spoke of what a tremendous leap forward this would be, of what new "legitimacy" this might mean for government funding.

The fools did not realize what they had done.

But the creature told them. It spoke in a guttural, twisted voice that struck every listener dumb with terror as soon as they heard it.

"You have finally listened," it said. "My will has been done. Now let me share with you... my joy."

The slaughter that followed was unlike anything Hector had ever witnessed. Which was saying something. The creature tore through them like paper, its claws and tentacles and hands appearing from seemingly nowhere all the while.

But it was more than just that. It made them turn on one another, as well. It forced them, against their will, to rip each other apart with their bare hands, screaming but never stopping until breath no longer filled their lungs.