The Hellbeast King by Stephanie Hudson
Captured by a Clown
Igasped in utter shock at whatever hellish spectacle I had just walked in on! It was as though I had just unknowingly lost months of my life and skipped straight to Halloween!
That was because everyone was dressed up as some kind of demonic freakshow character, and they were walking around a sort of fairground that had been created underground in some colossal cave! Of course, when I say fairground, that was without the fun rides and laughing children. But as for other stuff, well there was plenty around to give weight to the description, as dirty stalls were dotted around a large area closest to what looked like a curtained main entrance. One I had no doubt that anyone welcome here walked through first, as the way I entered looked more like a secret side door.
As for the stalls, they were grouped together like a market of street vendors selling their goods and offerings of fairground food with a twist. Like the one that sold ‘Rotten Candy’, that had the C crossed out with crude dripping red paint. Only I had to confess, it was the strangest cotton candy I had ever seen, as it looked like bundles of wound-up hair that had been fried and gave off that rancid smell of burnt hair.
Along with this, was the Poison toffee apple cart that made me want to vomit, as it looked like a small Chinese lady was having too much fun dunking what looked to be shrunken heads. Then she would use her knobbly walking stick to stir the big vat of black toffee. I watched then as she pushed up her wide sleeve of red silk and drip her long black pointed nails in there to grab one. Then with her talons, she hung it up to harden by pegging its stiff hair on the string above.
“Jesus,” I muttered, making one person that walked past, laugh and say,
“Yeah, he can’t help you down here, fleshy.” Then he continued on his way, making me wonder how he got that scaled effect on his body… was it paint, or had he actually tattooed it all over his skin? I mean it was horrifying but also sort of fascinating at the same time. All the effort put into a place like this, along with what must have been
props because this must have been all for show? Was that it, was this some kind of special themed party I had just walked into, and had Amelia somehow got herself invited? Because even I had to admit that the effects were amazing, as the costumes and makeup used to create the characters was incredible!
It looked so real! Real enough it would no doubt be giving me new nightmares for months! But then, as I looked around, it seemed that even the guests were also allowing themselves the chance to get into character, as there wasn’t exactly anyone that looked normal walking around and discussing how cool the effects were or realistic the props were. Hell, but I would have been easily convinced I had just walked into a movie set had it not been for the distinct lack of cameras and people behind the scenes.
As for the rest of the place, the large circular room looked to have been carved right out of the rock before being whitewashed in a haphazard way. Although, it looked to have been done decades ago as it wasn’t exactly clean looking. Patches of bare rock were dotted around, and other sections were swathed in aged striped material of yellows and reds. This making it look like part of a big top, giving it the creepy carnival vibe it was definitely going for.
Was that what the theme of this party was, some Circus in Hell?
I craned my neck the further inside I allowed myself to go, making sure to not draw any attention to myself by pulling the hood further down over my face. This whilst still trying to take in the rest of the room. Something that allowed me to see that there was a raised stage area at the far end that was surrounded by a fan shape of seats. A sea of faded burgundy that looked to have at one time belonged to an old theatre. But then they staggered down like steps towards the front of the centre stage, and those looked as if they had been carved from the rock just like the stage had. Of course, a crowd of the most unusual people started to fill them up quickly, as if getting ready for the show to begin or something.
I quite honestly didn't know where to look. One moment, I was watching a pair of girls walk past wearing the biggest striped black and white ball gowns, and the next minute, a guy walked past with what looked like a mechanical demonic monkey crawling out of his hat. These people must have spent crazy amounts of money on these costumes and props because I couldn't believe how realistic everything looked! Men wearing crazy monstrous masks that were made even more real thanks to the clever use of contact lenses.
Some people even had full sized folded wings and were dressed like gothic angels in black suits, complete with tailed jackets and top hats. A few women looked as if they had special effect makeup on. Like the one who made it look as though her face was melting with skin coloured wax pouring down her cheeks. However, one of the most disgusting sights I saw, was when one guy walked past me biting into what looked like a whole leg of goat held in his clawed hands. It was even bleeding on the floor from the end it looked to be torn from. Of course, I knew it couldn't be real because, eww! Surely there was only so far you were allowed to go… health and safety and all that. But it did make me wonder what it actually was made of. I suppose the blood could have been syrup and the legs made of chocolate, but as for the fur, now that was a tough one to explain.
The room was so big it was difficult to see it all from here but one part that was unmistakeable, was the raised area at the left side of the stage that held all the comfortable looking chairs. It was as if these had been reserved for VIPs. However, it wasn’t just this area that held my attention, but it was one chair in particular that had my imagination running wild and that was…
Who sat on the throne?
Was it this Cerberus guy?
It would make sense seeing as his name was on the doors. Meaning he was obviously the one who owned the club, so wouldn’t it be fitting for the guy to have the biggest and most imposing seat in the house? Well, one thing was for sure, with a chair like that, then he was the very last person I wanted to bump into whilst I was down here. It looked more like a throne fit for the Devil himself! The major details were lost on me from this far away, but it was huge, it was gothic and painted black.
Which was all the reminder I needed to find Fae and get the hell out of here, and fast! Which, unfortunately, also meant that I wasn’t going to achieve this by waiting around here glued to one spot all night. So, with this in mind, I started to venture further inside, and doing so trying to stay closer to the walls. Because no matter whether these freaks were all just playing a part, they were still scaring the hell out of me and not the type of characters I wanted to bump into and say hello.
Like the guy on stilts who was wearing some patchwork jacket that looked as if it was made up of different types of skin… and Jesus, was that a tattoo I saw on one of the back panels? Well, whoever had been in charge of make-up and wardrobe needed to win an award! This stuff was far too real. Of course, the guy was currently juggling wine bottles and skilfully taking a swig from one every third catch, making me wonder how on earth he managed it without even spilling a single drop.
I passed him, and nearly bumped into a demonic clown that had a forked tongue and crumpled skin, like his clown face had been drawn first on tissue paper before it had been torn up. Then it had been pieced back together like a puzzle and glued to his face, giving it the appearance of painted flakes of skin.
He snarled down at me before licking his lips with a hissing sound.
“Out of my way, human flesh!”
“Oh jeez, sorry,” I said, backing up into another guy, this time, one who looked like a horned demon in a pinstriped suit that looked like something a gangster would wear from an old movie. All he was missing was the tommy gun and a trilby hat. However, what he lacked in accessories, he made up for in hellish makeup as it looked like some latex had been used. And like the woman I had seen, it was done to create the effect as though his cheeks were melting, along with his chin that looked elongated into a horned point. Even his hands were demonic looking, with wrinkled reddish skin tipped with wicked looking nails at the ends of his fingers.
“Oh dear, sorry again… great makeup by the way.” At this he snorted out a huffed breath before snarling his pointed yellow teeth at me. Even his flaming red contact lenses added to the frightening appearance, yet how he got them to glow like the way they did, I had no clue. Either way, it seemed the guy wouldn’t break character for anything, so I decided, before he went too far, to get the hell out of his way.
However, when the devilled figure stomped past me from the right, I had to wonder just how far the staff in the party were willing to go, as I swear his whole body had been painted to create a stone effect. He even had sound effects added, making him sound as if his stone joints were grinding against each other. Where he hid the speaker, I had no clue and really, I didn’t want to know either, seeing as the guy only wore a ripped, grey loin cloth.
Another ‘eww’ moment for sure.
“You shouldn’t be here, human!” another voice said, and when I turned, it was a woman with striped black and red trousers, that were combined with a frilly white shirt and a line of little bowties down the front instead of buttons. She also had on a large, floppy top hat that matched her trousers. Black suspenders completed the outfit, along with a long black rope of hair that looked as if it had been plaited with a dead snake.
“Err, yeah okay,” I said with a nervous giggle, knowing it was all just part of the show. But then she pulled a large sword from behind her back, making me stumble backwards in fear and into a clucking cage of what looked like black chickens.
“Lord Cerberus doesn’t like your kind,” she said, and then swished her blade up in the air as if she was about to strike me down before telling me,
“Although, watching him gut you will be fun, wanna see?” Then as I covered myself to protect my body from the assault, she chuckled, and I braved opening my eyes when I didn’t feel the pain of being maimed. However, I started to wish that I hadn’t and instead run away blindly when I saw that she had plunged the blade down her own throat, swallowing it all the way to the handle. Then, with a wiggle and a wink at me, she pulled it back out, and at the end was what looked like her bloody stomach!
“Holy shit!” I screamed, before scrambling back and rattling the cages further before turning and seeing that they looked like zombie birds! Birds with more bone and bare bloody flesh than feathers!
“Jesus!” I screamed again, before gaining my feet and making a run for it, foolishly into the crowd, doing so to the sound of cackled laughter from the freak show knife girl!
Although, the problem with this was that I ended up running straight into another freak, and this time it was one that wasn’t going to let me go without paying the price for sneaking into this Hellhole!
“Hey, flesh Cookie, now just what do you think you are doing in a jar like this?” I heard his confident voice before I had chance to face him and to do that, I had to first rip myself away from his hands that held me at the tops of my arms. Of course, the moment I did so I was faced with one of the most unusual characters yet.
A tall handsome jester that was a strange mix of both playful and mischievous as he was dangerous. He had this knowing aura about him that told you there was always a lot more going on behind those painted eyes of his than what his smirk let on. Intense eyes that narrowed at me now as if they were searching into my soul or hell, into my future! Well, whatever he was seeing, intrigued him… greatly. I knew this when he raised a single arched painted brow and with a knowing look, he commented cryptically,
“Now that is interesting… or at least it soon will be.” I frowned in return and shook my head a little before muttering,
“Wh…what is this… place?” At this, his smirk turned into a full-blown grin as if he was feeding from my fear. Even his athletic build tensed a moment before he relaxed with a visible shudder. In fact, he reminded me of some jungle cat, sleek and at the ready to pounce when the time needed it. His entire being seemed to scream predator with a body made for speed and agility. This was despite his unusual face and his even more unusual costume. He looked like some handsome clown that had dressed as some dashing buccaneer, with his pirate sword hanging at the ready by his hip and an old-fashioned gun mirroring it on the other side. A pair of dark leather trousers clung to long muscular legs that held patches of armour-plating at the knees. These disappeared into leather boots that folded at the top just below the knee. One of which had a dagger’s hilt poking out the top.
Wow, so the guy was definitely packing, as he even had weapons strapped to his back. In fact, the more I looked, the more I realised that none of this stuff looked like costume props at all! And speaking of which, I was seriously starting to wonder if I had been drugged as the things in this room were started to look less fake by the minute!
As for the rest of him, under the belt that held his arsenal, he had a fringed scarf tied around his slim waist that could be seen beneath his long, red leather jacket, one that was definitely battle worn. Tears and frayed rips looked as though they had been made from slashes from a knife fight. Which, given the guy’s appearance, I wouldn’t have been surprised as there must have been a reason the guy was packing so many blades.
The jacket also had stitched panels that split at the back to allow for more movement and was edged with piped black leather. This also matched the arrowhead shaped patches that surrounded each black button. A cravat of black silk was tied loosely at his neck, matching the overly long sleeves of a black shirt he wore underneath the cool jacket.
But then it also had to be said that his outfit definitely came second to his make-up, that was nothing short of sinister. A painted clown made regal, thanks to the handsome bone structure beneath it. Skin painted white with two thin diamond stripes running down through his startling dark blue eyes. Blood red paint that only stopped at his jaw line in thin points and above curling up like horns at his forehead. Another single red line was painted from his bottom lip all the way down his chin and the length of his neck. The high arch of his dark brows gave him a questioning arrogance that always seemed to be amused. This was made even more so when he grinned down at me, given his taller height. Of course, he also looked like a vampire with his fangs longer than the rest of his gleaming white teeth.
“This place? Oh Cookie, you have no idea where you just sneaked into, do you?” he asked with a fake sense of sympathy, one I wished in that moment was real enough to trust. Because I just needed one person to help me, and I could then start putting this living nightmare behind me.
“I…I… don’t,” I stammered out, hoping there was still a possibility he would take pity on me. However, the moment he stepped closer and grinned that disturbing sinister smile, I knew that I was hoping for the impossible. Especially when he ducked his head and whispered in a menacing tone,
“Then let me enlighten you, doll face…” Then he raised up my face with a hold on my chin, until my hood fell back and his eyes started to morph into a shocking sight. This was as sapphire turned into blood red before glowing with demonic glee. And that’s when I knew the truth. Because contact lenses didn’t do that.
No fucking way!
“You entered an Alpha King’s lair and for pretty human flesh, he is always hungry… but just to be sure, let’s make it official, eh?” I sucked in a startled breath that turned into a little cry of terror when he grabbed me roughly by the arm, and this time there was no yanking free. Jesus, but the strength on him was enough to snap bones, which was why I knew it was useless fighting as I would only end up getting hurt.
“Good, sweet cookie. Fighting will only get you broken sooner,” he said as if being able to read my thoughts. So, I had no choice but to let him drag me along with him and I had to admit, the moment we got closer to the stage was when I really started to freak out.
Oh my God, just what the hell did this crazy guy have planned for me? But more importantly…
Who was this Alpha King?
And what would he do to me?