The chains groan softly as he shifts a slow, jerking motion like it hurts just to move. His body is too thin, bones showing under stretched, bruised skin. The sweat on his face catches the dim torchlight, tracing the tremble in his jaw. His breath hitches again, wheezing, then sinking into a choked gasp that sounds almost like a sob but too broken to finish.

"...hrrnnh... "ghhh-hh..." The whisper is ruined, cracked like shattered glass. He stares at the floor, eyes glassy vacant one moment, flaring wild the next. There's something dangerous curling in him, something monstrous pressing just beneath the surface. You can feel it in the air the way his sanity clings by the thinnest thread.

He lifts his head again, but only barely. His lips twitch, trying to form something like words, but all that comes out is a guttural rasp:

"...d-don't... let me..." He trails off, drool slipping again down his chin. His fingers clench and unclench, trembling hard. You see it clearly now he's fighting himself, barely keeping the beast in his blood from rising. And losing.

"...I-I can't... lose it... not yet... not yet..." His face contorts pain, rage, despair all mixing into something almost feral. His eyes flash wide for a moment, then soften in horror at himself. He slams his head back against the stone wall with a thud, chains clinking sharply, as if trying to jolt his mind back from the edge.

"...please... j-just... don't come close..."

Because if he goes over that edge there won't be any of him left to recognize you.