Microfiction: Beast in a Cage

A terrorist is wandering in a desert. He is traveling in the night and it's a full moon. It seems there is a monster following him, something human in shape but with grotesque elements. The monster disappears in the distance and the terrorist sees the creature no more in the night. He falls asleep in a cave and awakes to see a large statue that had been obscured by the night's darkness, standing before him in the cave. He comes out of the cave to find a caravan setting up camp outside in the daylight. A traveler sees him and yells to the others that it is the one who has been following them in the night. The travelers attack the terrorist. He is grabbed hold of and brought to the center of their camp. There, sits a wagon with a cage on it, containing a bear-like animal, covered in what looks like camel fur. The travelers throw the terrorist into the cage and he is torn apart by the creature. All the bits of his body fall out onto the dust below through the bars of the cage. The statue becomes animate and emerges from the cave and flies over the camp, scattering the terrified travelers. It gathers up the pieces of the dead man and puts him back together. He awakens, having passed out from fear. He sits in a square where he had planned to blow himself up with explosives. There had been a crowd. Now he is alone.