The Dragon Inside: Dark Fantasy

Pain swelled inside his heart, and he felt the dragon uncoiling and rising up, its teeth bared in a bloody grin. Scales rubbed against the inside of his skin. He cried out, but not from the knife shredding his flesh. He cried out because he knew the dragon was working its way through his veins to the break in his skin where it could split the puny shield of flesh that kept it bound. It had always been a risk, and he'd known it when he agreed to be the bearer of the dragon. He'd been guarded and protected. Every minor scrape had instantly been treated and covered, sewn tight to keep there from being a gap large enough for the dragon to escape. His flesh was puckered and seemed from all the places where stitches had been sewn into place around small scratches. No split of the skin--

Inspiration: "Pain" by Three Days Grace
Story Potential: High.
Notes: A very sheltered existence, to keep the dragon inside. And then he's kidnapped and tortured by those with Very Bad Motives. But the unexpected happens--the dragon doesn't *want* to come out? Or only a little, and without killing its host? The apocalypse is deferred? Or something, but now he must come to terms with the dragon inside. It would need to be written dark, but I can do dark....