The Beast Inside

A Funeral Procession

Ari

Tony looked shocked, his eyes teared up as he desperately turned away from me as we were shoved side by side down the long corridor. Something had happened, he looked broken, beaten. I glanced over at him but he hung his head letting his hair shade his face to hide himself from me. Momentarily I was distracted from his internal struggles when a large hand roughly shoved my arm behind my back and wrenched it upwards. I grunted in pain.

"Let.go.of.me." I snarled, my voice low and menacing, not bothering to turn my head to the attacker.

He only snickered and shoved harder, my bones grinding into each other as I let out a more agonizing wail. A sharp electric shock coursed through my arm and a sharp twinge in my shoulder made me gasp. Only then did Tony look up, and when he did he looked up with such a hatred, such an anger flashing in his sea tinted eyes, he ripped out of his guard's grip and leapt at mine.

The brute force of the attack knocked the man off his feet. His body slammed against the linoleum floor, his head cracking back against the sheen of the white surface. Dazed, he barely got a cursory glance before Tony was on him, his legs straddling the mans body as he threw furious punches. He beat his fists into the mans face, his crooked nose dribbled crimson and his thick lips cracked in a perfect line down the middle, blood seeping into his mouth and down his chin, drops glinting in the light stubble that formed a shadow of a beard.

"Tony! Tony!" I yelled. "Stop! Please just stop."

He looked at me, his fist still raised above the mans head, his knuckles bloody and bruised. He looked like an animal, his teeth bared, his eyes shining, tinged with a ferocity and passion of a mighty lion standing proudly above his kill. His jet black hair fell over his face in messy strands and beads of sweat formed on his brow and ran down his stony face. His chest heaved with every breath, his body swaying with the motion, the breath coming out as a light growl through his teeth.

A hand reached down from above and grasped his shirt tightly in a clenched fist. Tony twisted to face the attacker, his hands already balled into fists, a low snarl already rising in his throat. But it happened to fast. he was thrown to the ground carelessly, like a rag doll thrown by a small child. His slight frame was bent and broken against the ground. The guard picked him up again, his hand holding a handful of raven hair, Tony's arms were outstretched, trying to grapple with the hand that yanked at his mane, a grimace twisting his face. Thrown down to the ground again the guard leaned over him, spitting in his face, Tony helplessly shielding his face with weak hands.

"Don't EVER do that again." With that the guard stood and stepped back, and shoved his foot one last time into Tony's ribs.

Tony let out an "oomph" as the last hit knocked the wind out of his chest. He sat up and lightly lifted his hand to his face, I watched him explore his swelling eye with his finger tips then pull away and look at the sticky blood coating his hand. The guard shot him a demeaning glare as he turned his back, wiping his arm against his face, coming away smeared with blood.

I pulled Tony up, eyeing the guard suspiciously, and supported him with one hand around his waist and his arm resting across my shoulders.

His breathing was rough and uneven and he clutched his shirt with one hand, pressing on his injured rib cage, his other arm was looped across my shoulders, his hand unconsciously clenching hard into my flesh with his pain.

I looked him in the eyes, his shakily trying to avoid mine. "Why did you do that? You could have gotten yourself killed."

"I...I don't know." He stammered. "I didn't want him to hurt you." His voice was muffled as he had turned around and hid behind his sheet of hair, the wall that was his only defense.