Death would have been kinder than letting her live down there in the well as some half-drowned thing that still managed to call him dad through lungs full of muddy water. Death would have been kinder but his heart was too weak and she still knew who he was so she couldn't have been too changed when he lowered her down and cut the rope.
He brought her food every day, using her old toy drone to lower a plate down and take it back up again. Sure her dietary requirements changed as quickly as the rest of her, going from her favourite home-cooked meals to raw fish and nothing else but he'd always loved to fish so it was no trouble at all.
No, the only trouble came when she decided she needed to leave for the river. When she said that the well's water was too shallow, too stale for her gills. When she begged for his trust and he had to choose between keeping her close and keeping everyone else ignorant of the monster she'd become, or setting her free to thrive where she was best suited and ignore the fact that her claws were as long as his forearm.
His heart won in the end and he kept her down there, feeding her fish until she stopped eating.
As she stopped moving and started gasping for air, for water, for help, for the river.
When she grew quiet and the well began to reek of rot he simply boarded it up and claimed she ran away.
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