Centaur – Short Story

Chet sighed, looking into the mirror. “My head’s been transported onto a bull’s body… again.” He mumbles.

                The year is 1923 and Chet is locked in a maximum-security prison. A prison that uses advanced technology to torture their prisoners and prolong their sentences. Chet stares at his chiseled jawline and young appearance despite being nearly seventy-six years old. His gaze drifts down his attractive pectoral muscles that fade into dark, brown fur. He turns to the side and examines the muscle of his four large animal legs. Chet signs as a heavily armored guard approaches him. “You ready for your weekly punishment?” the guard taunts.

                Chet’s head turns toward the large metal door in front of him, his eyes narrowing. There is a loud scraping sound and the doors slide open. Chet stares at the small arena packed with guards and residents. He listens to the taunts and cheers of the packed room. Hundreds of spectators present for a show of humiliation, unaware the show will be short.

                The guard pokes Chet with an electric wand and he walks into the arena. The crowd cheers as a large man with an electric baseball bat approaches the bull-man. “You messed up,” Chet taunts, arrogantly.

                “How so?” the equally arrogant tattooed man asks with a malicious grin.

                A loud whistle echoes through the room, and Chet charges toward his challenger. The man grins, ready for a fight, instead watches as Chet launches himself into the air. He flies above the awestruck crowd and smashes his front hooves through the bulletproof windows above their heads. The force of Chet’s hooves shatters the glass and he slips through the opening.

                Before the guards or spectators process the event, Chet lands outside the prison building and clears the ten-foot-tall barbed wire fence outside. He sprints through the wide-open field and disappears into a line of trees. Prison guards and Wyoming police scour the fields and surrounding towns, but Chet vanishes. The prison covers up the escape, though sightings of a mysterious half-man, half-bull pour in for years. “Centaur!” many exclaim, deeming the escaped inmate an unexplainable legend.

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