Ouroboros
Novella 18,368 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"I know only an irrational panic. I try to collect myself only to find my faculties are not my own but that of an internal imperative guiding my, quite incomprehensible, actions. Run a parallel diagnostic, recalibrate magnetic relay B4, load the ballistic rod, I don’t understand but feel compelled to act."
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.