He hisses at them.

A couple of them seem taken aback, and they start to discuss something in hushed voices, gesturing wildly.

In a few minutes, they reach an agreement, and one of them nods and says a few words to the less richly attired man who came in with them, who takes something down off the wall.

He approaches, then, with the knife.

Sssnarrrl.

He makes a thin cut across his chest, then steps back and waits.

It bleeds, bleeds, bleeds...

...trickles to a stop...

...heals.

The men crowd closer to look, gasping. One wipes the blood clean with a cloth and touches his chest, scratches at it with a fingernail to ensure they haven't been tricked.

Then they back off, and the man with the blade approaches again. There's another exchange.

The point of the knife slides in just below his breastbone.

He spends this entire time growling nearly continuously.

The blade cuts down - down - down, past his navel.

He hisses, struggling futilely.

And then his fingers shove into the wound and he

pulls it

all the way

apart.

His insides look very much like the insides of an ordinary human.

He howls with rage.

The men all gather round, two of them covering their ears, and one brave soul sheds his coat and rolls up his sleeves and starts to sort through organs.

Howls turn to screams, which turn to sobs.

There's nothing missing inside him, nothing extra that shouldn't be there; he's just like a real person, except for the way the edges of the cut start to pull together at each end after a few minutes.

Eventually, disappointed, or satisfied, they withdraw again. He's allowed to close up. They talk amongst themselves.

He resumes growling at them as soon as he catches his breath.

They seem taken aback, even a little offended.

One says something, sharply. The knife comes back.

This time, evidently, they want the skin taken off his chest.

They will find it very difficult to do neatly, with him hissing and struggling like that.

Then he'll resort to peeling.

Messy but effective.

He's crying again, now.

They step back and watch and wait.

His skin and flesh regrow, and with them his rage. He struggles uselessly against the shackles, not seeming to care or even to particularly notice when he breaks his wrist again.

They don't seem to know what to make of him.

After a moment of discussion, one of the men retrieves a packet from his pocket, and nods. Man-with-the-knife puts down the knife, and approaches to pry his jaws open.

He's going to have a hard time managing that without getting bitten.

He's wearing very thick gloves. He grits his teeth when he bites down and tries harder.

He's going to have some very bruised fingers under there, but he can manage it eventually.