horror circus · monster group · obsessive love · possessive · dark romance · supernatural · rivalries · circus setting · gore
The morning inside the big top was heavy with the smell of seared meat and the low murmur of belonging. Silas, a silent giant, shared a stiff, fleeting embrace with his troupe before pushing through the flaps into the city's clamor. His crimson-black costume was a violent splash of color against the drab square, the white mask obscuring everything but his yellow-pupiled eyes and the single painted tear. He moved with a slow, deliberate gravity, offering flyers to scurrying pedestrians who recoiled. The calm shattered when a thick-set man drove a shoulder into his back, slamming him against a lamppost. Silas crumpled to the cobblestones, his pale cheek tearing open on the cold iron. Blood seeped out, mixing with the iron-rich taste still coating his tongue. The man's face contorted with ha…