A slight breeze fluttered in between the trees, lifting dry leaves into the air and ruffling Beyond's dark hair. For an autumn day is was fairly warm, but soon the leaves would turn brown and die from the cold. Whether it actually snowed here during the winter was up for speculation. To Beyond, winter meant boredom, since he was not allowed outside during that season.

He took a deep breath of air, inhaling the scents of the forest and strode down the small dirt path that wove in between aspens and cottonwoods. His walk ended too abruptly, for nearly as soon as he had begun, he came to the end of the path. A tall chain link fence which gave off an audible hum of electricity cut the path in half, separating this side of the forest from the other. While there was no visible difference between the forests, Beyond knew what lay after the fence. Sighing, he turned around, then decided to take a detour back. He walked off the path and into the trees.

Beyond had taken a walk because he had felt a need to reflect in privacy, and the outdoors usually helped him think calmly. He was angry; at his current situation, what had happened in LA a few years ago...But especially at L. L was the greatest source of stress and fury for Beyond, and no amount of time would heal this wound. Beyond's one wish was for L to be dead, whether it be by his own hand or another's, though he would prefer it be his doing.

Old emotions showed themselves, and Beyond's breathing quickened. He felt himself getting dizzy. The forest floor looked like it was crawling with insects, while only a minute ago it had been barren and clean, which meant that he was hallucinating again.

"...now...NOW!" He needed a fix before this got out of control. Looking around frantically, he spotted a bounding rabbit, and ran after it. He quickly caught the small creature by its long back leg. He lifted the struggling animal to eye level and watched it wriggle and screech in fascination. The rabbit was a tawny grey color, with strangely blue eyes. After a moment, Beyond became bored, so he broke one of the rabbits legs. The animal screamed even louder.

While Beyond was not fond of the sounds of a dying rabbit, he knew that torturing and killing the creature would put his unsettled mind at ease, at least for the time being. Snapping another one of the rabbit's legs, he remembered rather fondly his past victims. None of them had been able to struggle, as they had all been drugged, and Beyond made himself a promise that he would try killing a person who wasn't unconscious. He paused between breaking each of the animal's legs, to let it suffer more. Once all its legs were broken, he set the rabbit down on the ground and began beating its body with a stone. A jagged edge of the stone dug into the flesh of the creature, which was still screeching in agony, bloodying its fur. Beyond felt his excitement grow at the sight of the blood. A wild grin spread across his face.

His next move was to to tear off the rabbit's limbs, one at a time of course. He pulled one of the front legs until it dislocated, and continued until he could see muscle and tendon ripping. With a final tug, the limb came away freely, leaving a gaping bloody wound. Beyond proceeded in the same manner with the other limbs, until the poor creature was nothing more than a head with a body.

"Bunny! What evil could have possibly done this to you? You sad, pathetic animal!" He clutched the dying rabbit against his chest and stroked its bloody fur. "I will protect you Bunny, I will protect you from harm and keep you safe!" Twisting the rabbit's head, he started babbling insanely to himself.

"Keep you safe, protect you...You're stupid. You're pathetic. Your life is a waste! What have you done with yourself?..." Beyond did not realize that the head of the rabbit had been torn from its body, and still clutched the bloody mass of fur in his hands.

"Everything you worked for...Everything that was important to you...Destroyed! You weren't good enough! You useless piece of shit!" In his rage, he threw the rabbit at a tree. It hit with deadly impact, and exploded against the tree like a firecracker. He yelled at the mess on the tree.

"You're fucking worthless! WORTHLESS!" He stood glaring with his mouth slightly open, breathing heavily. Looking down at the blood on his hands, he stuck his tongue out and tasted the red liquid. Immediately, he spat it out, and stared at the crimson that stained his hands and shirt. While he enjoyed the taste of human blood, animal blood was never very palatable. Blood, at its best, had a strangely sweet and metallic flavor, and possessed an unusual intoxicating effect on Beyond. He licked his lips and shivered with pleasure.

Just then, he heard a loudspeaker call for him. "B! It's time to come in for tea!" Tea? Is that what they call it now? He thrust his hands in his pockets and strode out of the forest towards a cement building in the middle of a grassy field. The back door was wide open, with two grinning female nurses waiting for him. Staring at them apathetically, he was ushered back inside where he was at once overwhelmed by medicinal smells. Hospital smells. Everything was too clean and everyone was too cheerful for it to really be an insane asylum. Mental hospital. Funny farm. Whatever you wanted to call it.

Beyond was led to his room, a barren cell of sorts with only a bed and desk. There were no windows, no pictures, no decorations of any sort. A fluorescent light fixture lit the room with a garish white glow. He stood in the middle of the room a moment, his back to the nurses, when a light haired man in a white coat came in bearing a tray. This tray was not short in its array of goodies, with a plethora of pills and syringes. Some were vitamins, but the majority were antidepressants, antipsychotics, relaxants, tranquilizers, and other mood stabilizers. They had tried giving him just antidepressants early in his stay, but that ended in failure as his mood and behavior became too unpredictable and he nearly strangled a nurse to death. They were careful now. But since Beyond came to stay at Liam Caan Hospital a few years ago, that had been his only breakdown.

The doctor, whose name tag said Jeremy White but who Beyond saw his name as Daniel McLaughlin, proceeded to set the tray down on the desk. He put his hands on his hips and gave the raven-haired man a once over. 'Jeremy' shook his head.

"B, B, B, what are we going to do with you? We let you out on your own for ten minutes, and you come back covered in blood. What exactly were you doing out there?" Beyond stared at the blank wall, silent. Sighing, Jeremy came over and rested his hand on Beyond's shoulder. "I know, I know it's been tough for you here, but everything we do is for your sake. To make sure you're safe, from harming others and from harming yourself. You are our Number 1 priority." With that, Jeremy turned away and picked up a cup of pills from the tray.

Under his breath, Beyond made a comment as a retort, "Riiiiiiight. You're not doing this for my sake, you're doing it for yours. All of you are terrified of me, and this is the only way you can ensure your safety. You assholes." The doctor looked over his shoulder.

"What was that B?"

"Nothin'."

"Really? Are you sure? I could have sworn you just called me a liar." He set the cup back on the tray and walked right up to Beyond. "Do you know why you are here? Hmm?"

Beyond rolled his eyes.

"Answer me! Why are you here?"

"Because I'm 'sick'." Fucking asshole you are.

"Yes. You are ill and in need of help. That is our job here. If you have any snide comments to make, please do so now, while I'm listening."

At this point, Beyond was getting very pissed off at the doctor, and so decided to see how far he could get this to go.

"OK, Danny Boy, do you want to know what I was doing out in the lovely woods just now? I had myself a marvelous time killing a helpless bunny-rabbit who seemed to have a death wish for crossing my path. It was so small and fuzzy, perhaps only a baby, and I tore its limbs off with my bear hands." His head was tilted to one side and his eyes were wide open with an insane glint. "I don't much like the taste of rabbit-blood, you know? It's too gamey."

He put his index finger to his lips as though pondering. "I also don't enjoy the sounds a dying rabbit makes. Too screechy and noisy. Well, I admit I've never killed anything that made that amount of noise..." Beyond rushed up to the doctor, grabbing his collar and staring at him with a huge grin on his face. The grin faded and was replaced with a dark, sinister look.

"How about you Doctor? What kind of noises would YOU make if I killed you? I'd love to hear them! I really would! Hahahahahahaha!" Before either the doctor or the nurses could react, Beyond had the tray of drugs in hand and swung it at Doctor Jeremy's head. It hit with a satisfying crash, and the pale-haired man fell to the ground.

Stooping to the floor, Beyond picked up one of the syringes and stared at it. His glance shifted to the nurse closest to him. Grace Feehan, a tiny woman with short red hair, who couldn't have been older than 20. He advanced towards her and jabbed the needle into her neck, injecting the contents. She fell to the ground and started convulsing.

"Whoopsee! Looks like you got an air bubble!" The other nurse, named Leah Riccardo, ran into the hallway trying to reach the phone to alert the hospital. Beyond just walked slowly towards her.

"Aww, c'mon! Don't you want to play with me?" Then he stopped with an almost dumfounded and disappointed look on his face.

"Do you not like me? Is that it? Is that why you won't play with me?" He picked up the other two syringes from the floor.

"You fucking bitch!" Beyond threw the syringes, both of which hit their target with deadly accuracy. The nurse collapsed in heap near the phone which was dangling by its cord. Stepping over the nurse, Beyond picked up the telephone and put the receiver to his ear. He heard on the other line, "Hello?...Hello?" In a mocking voice, he replied.

"Hello? Hello? HELLO? HELLO! I'm right here you fucker! Hey, how's 'bout you let everyone here know what I'm up to, alrighty? Two nurses and Danny Boy here are unconscious, MKAY? YA LIKE THAT? OH YEAH." Beyond started making pelvic thrusts for the hell of it, then tore the phone from out of the wall. Letting it drop to the ground, he strolled down the hall of the hospital, aware of the sound of running footsteps nearing him. As much as he wanted out of this place, he really just was not in the mood for making an escape.

"Let them catch me, I could care less." With that, he walked over to the front desk and motioned for the guy to get out of his seat. The man, named Richard Hertz, was a middle aged person with a receding hairline, and had a bewildered look on his face. Rolling his eyes, Beyond picked up a stapler and began slamming staples into the man's head. He then shoved Richard out of his chair and pushed the computer monitor off of the desk and onto him. It crashed and the screen shattered. Beyond took up a large piece of the broken screen in his hand and dug it into the balding man's eyes. Once he had successfully gouged out his eyes, he kicked the guys head in to make him shut up.

"Huh, you know, I guess I prefer killing people who don't make as much noise." With a loud crack, Richard's skull fractured and his screams faded into gurgling. Satisfied, Beyond then sat down in the chair with his legs folded in and spun around as quickly as he could in it.

He had only made three full rotations when a large dark hand, owned by a man named Grayson Andrews, stopped the spinning chair. Beyond stared up at him, then folded his arms on his knees and set his chin down on top. Immediately, several other doctors came running and knocked Beyond out of his chair, holding him to the ground so they could administer an anesthetic. He didn't struggle. There was no point. He had been curious to see how far this would go, that was all. Whatever happened now really didn't matter to him.

The sleeve to his bloodied shirt was rolled up, and the syringe plunged into his arm. The contents were injected, at which point most of the doctors stopped restraining him, waiting for the drug to kick in. Beyond counted out loud for fun.

"Ten...Nine..." His eyes fluttered and then shut.

When they were sure he was knocked out, a gurney was brought in and Beyond was placed on it. A nurse wheeled him into the special isolation chamber. They had been careful, but not careful enough. The patient known only by the letter B would be placed under 24 hour surveillance. Everything he did would be monitored. He would not be allowed to go outside, have any direct contact with people, or be by himself for the remainder of his days. Everything being done was, quote Doctor Jeremy White, "For your sake. To make sure you're safe, from harming others and from harming yourself."

I had this idea swimming around in my head this morning, so I decided to write it down. I really, really like how it turned out. Honestly, I don't know that much about Beyond Birthday, since I haven't read Another Note yet. So if he seems a little OC-ish, that's my fault for not knowing how he acts. I used my intuition on this mostly. Oh, and a couple of other things were going on in my head as I was writing. The scene with the bunny made me think of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac. Nailbunny. Ahh, Nailbunny. Same sort of situation. This story goes well with the Neuroticfish music video of "They're Coming To Take Me Away". Haha. Love that song. Anyways, I had planned on making this longer but ended up only posting this part, so if anyone REALLY likes this story and wants to see more, please let me know. Comments, as usual, are always welcome.

C. Vincenti