Foot steps echo and reverberated around the large tent. So much space for the thumps to bounce to. So many empty cages, needing to be filled. Luca, the master of this circus was a heartless demon. Unfortunately for the few scattered cages containing beings; the afore mentioned is not a metaphor. His one black eye scanned the room. At first glance the eye may have looked brown. Upon further inspection one would see the window into a soulless hell. So black that light seemed to be engulfed in the abyss never to be heard from again.
An evil smile took over his damaged face. The few caged being cowered. If only they had known when they signed up. They had seen an attractive man, blind in one eye with a passion for the animals he took care of.
When asked about the scar running through his face the Roma would laugh. “It was my first lion.” he would reminisce. “The master hadn’t fed him in a while and I had just been tossed in. Animals only kill is they are scared or hungry. He happened to be hungry.”
His a white baggy shirt hid the crime scene that was the rest of his body. The lion had damaged more than just his face. The milky white eye seemed to give humans a false sense of security as they signed on to be part of the roaming circus. The animals took their breath away and the beautiful beings lured them in. Poor sheep never even had a chance.
This circus was no ordinary circus just as the master was no ordinary man. This circus traveled from town to town in search of poor unfortunate souls. Souls that could not afford the pricey indulgences being sold by the catholic church in the year 1366. You see indulgences are expensive, buying eternal heaven is only for the rich. Buying eternal damnation only cost your soul.
That was what Luca did. He sold his soul some couple hundred years ago in exchange for the ability to talk to animals. As a child he had always loved them. His prostitute mother, of Roman blood, had been impregnated and had given her new born sun up to the circus tiger. Unbeknownst the young mother the tiger had recently had cubs. She had taken the little soft bundle of pink flesh and raised him as her own.
His skin had turned a startling bronze color as he aged. The sun would soak into his flesh and give him a stunning golden tint.
The tiger mother had groomed his hairless body and when he grew a mane of wavy black hair she groomed that as well. Luca would have lived with the tiger forever, but the ring master of that circus informed the small boy he had to earn his keep. So Luca did. He dressed as a typical gypsy, and tamed the lions, rode his tiger mother and was fearless with the horses.
Everything was going well for young Luca, until the ringmaster drove off without him. Animals were the only thing he had ever known. The circus had been his only family and now they had been torn away. Pulling his hair back into the same sloppy braid he wore now Luca went searching for another circus.
Only this one had not been so kind. The animals and people were skeletal, vile beings. Always hungry, searching for their next meal. This is where Luca had lost his sight in his right eye to a hungry lion. The lion had torn open his chest and sank its teeth into his shoulder before finally being killed by the master.
That Night Luca had been whipped as a lesson. He needed to learn how to treat animals and now the circus was down a lion. The leather whip tore into his flesh causing him to see white. It burned and incinerated his confidence as it peeled flesh from bone. Luca’s back was made to look as ugly as his face and his front.
Luca believed his was ugly. His body was damaged beyond repair. Once his clothing came off and his past was revealed humans shrunk away in horror. He had silver barbells in both of his nipples. An effort to draw attention away from the scars. Just as the silver hoops in his ear drew attention away from his blindness, and dented nose. Another accident for another day. He hated his ugliness almost as much as he hated being half blind and having his left arm be stiff. He had a small range of motion with the limb. The same horse related accident as his nose had caused him that weakness too. He was bitter because of his faults.
A bitter man is easily turned. Easily convinced to collect souls and steal powers.
That very night Lucifer himself had taken an interest in Luca. He made him an offer, an offer too good to be true. Without human parents Luca had never been given the wisdom to know that when an offer is too good to be true, it isn’t. So he signed away something he thought he would never miss… his soul.
Now Luca did the devils work. He entertained the morbid desires of the filth inhabiting the earth. He killed humans for sport. Those worth keeping he tricked into selling their souls. Signing the same contract in blood that he had all those years ago. When they signed and chose their power Luca received a duplicate. His mission was to collect souls. His aim was to become the new ring master of evil. He wanted to replace the devil who had taken his soul.
He was getting close too. Already Luca was growing demonic markings in his once beautiful golden flesh. Hell’s incantations adorned the lines in his hips where muscle sloped seductively into his sex. The incantations caressed his spine as well. Feeding him the bitter taste of evil with every neurological transmission.
Luca is an evil, bitter demon. He surveyed the fresh crop of humans. Mentally ticking off who would live and who would die. He picked who would sell their soul and who would be part of a morbid fantasy. A few stragglers were coming in, eager to sign on.
After all Luca was famous. His Imaginarium was known to be the best show on earth. Not for the faint of heart not for the pure, and sure as hell not for the poor. Luca toyed with the end of his wavy black braid. Secured by a strip of red leather. His feet were bare, and he had on only a simple white shirt and loose fitting Roma pants. He wanted the recruits to adore him. Love him and follow him blindly until they were already drowning in the hell he called Imaginarium.
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