One Brazen Boy

The Brazen Bull in antiquity was a large bull made from bronze. This torture device was a grand monument to deter crime.

Solo Arnett was a young boy craving some Skittles. His whole day was awful. His mom woke him up and spanked him for not waking up for the bus, this was after the police raid and shooting that kept them up till 3. He later was bullied in school for wearing only one shoe, he came back home to his mom shoeing him away so her and her new boyfriend can have alone time. Now Solo was by himself in the rundown supermarket across from his project. The incandescent lights flickered annoyingly above him as the upbeat artificial music sauntered around him. The cold air froze Solo to the bone despite his oversized hoodie, though the fact that he had only one shoe with his foot directly on the grimy checkered floor might've had something to do with it. The chill crept into his soul as he realized he had no money. The voices at school echoed in his mind.

“I steal from the grocery all the time… It's so easy.”

“I found this nice pair of Nikes for free… Hehehe!”

“I swear they want you to take it cause it’s so empty...”

The Brazen Bull would be filled with criminals in it's empty center and then a fire would be set underneath it to slowly roast it's victims.

Mr. Arnett was sentenced to five years in prison. His mother was crying as the now older Solo was taken by the officers after the gavel fell. His eyes were unrepentant to the offenses raised against him. The fetters weighed heavy as he walked with the guards. Though new shoes covered his feet. He didn't feel cold because of the shoes he stole months ago.

In the Brazen Bull the screams of its victims would be pumped through tubes to it's nose that would make it sounds like a writhing bull.

Solo years later walked out of prison taller and stronger than he was when he went in. Tattoos covered his body from head to toe. His mother, looking older than her actual age, came to pick him up. The connections he gained in prison taught him how to steal more and easier. With the conviction haunting him there was no real job he could get that would make him any money to support him.

Within the Brazen Bull the scorched bones it's victims are shown bright like diamonds. Citizens would wear them like jewelry to remember and fear the cost of breaking the law.

Mr. Arnett looked at his golden watch for the time. His nice clothes and new car shined in the light in his old run down neighborhood. He was waiting for his elderly mother to join him so they could leave this place. Soon police cars pulled up similar to how they'd pull up to the house next door so long ago and kept him from sleeping. The middle aged man surrendered peacefully as the police cuffed him and put him in the back of the police car. His elderly mother watched wearily from her room, knowing this would happen and eased back into her chair.

The Brazen Bull was eventually used on the leaders who created it. This tool of fear consumed the cities that used it as dictators were toppled by usurpers and classes were reversed by the class it was oppressing.

Solo Arnett bones creaked as he sat down in his chair that his mother used to sit in. He still wore the gold watch that gleamed in the light as he waited for his mother to leave with him so long ago. The shoes he stole still hugged his feet and kept him warm but the chill from long ago still haunted house bones and kept his core cold.