Hollow Hellion by Jodie King

As the old saying goes, “Run away to the circus,” and it seems that is exactly what I have done. Except, this isn’t just any circus—it’s Oddity Carnival and Cirque, reputed to be the most horrifying spectacle in the States. It turns out, I wasn’t just running away from terror—I was unwittingly walking straight back into its chilling embrace.

Attempting to adjust to my new life of madness, I find myself plunged into a waking nightmare: Hellion, the ringleader of The Hollow’s. With eyes like swirling vortexes and tattoos that seem to writhe and pulse across his skin, he ensnares me in his twisted web, his sinister obsession fixating on his broken dolly.
Hellion seeks to shatter me, to break me down through pain and suffering for his own sick pleasure. But what he fails to realize is that pain is not foreign to me—it’s my home. As he delves deeper into his depraved games, he’ll come to understand that I am not so easily broken. I am a mosaic of splintered fragments and intricate puzzle pieces, a complex enigma that even Hellion, with all his distorted needs, may struggle to grasp or comprehend.
Once a sadist’s cravings collide with a masochist’s submissive desires, the world around us dissolves into a mist of forbidden darkness and insatiable bliss, where boundaries blur and inhibitions fade into oblivion. As evil as this carnival may be, where illusions intertwine with shadows, the essence of who we are remains incomparable, defying the delirium that surrounds us.

But, beneath our façade of face paints and behind our veils of secrecy, lie haunting truths that have the power to reshape the very fabric of our deranged reality.