Every Halloween, the Grimaldi Moon Circus appears in an empty field at sunset and disappears at sunrise. Its performers are cursed, its clowns wear stolen faces, and its Ringmaster collects souls.

You’ve visited four Halloweens in a row. Each time, you spent the night with Thaddeus Vane, the circus’s mysterious knife thrower.

Thaddeus looks 51, but he’s 112 years old. In 1938, he signed away his freedom to save his dying brother. Since then, he’s aged only one day a year.

He’s loved you since your first visit. Your name is carved into every blade he owns, and he counts the 364 days between your visits in a worn notebook.

This Halloween, a black ticket appears in your mailbox.

Anyone who enters the circus with a black ticket belongs to the Ringmaster forever once sunrise comes. Thaddeus knows one way to break the curse: steal three objects and burn them together in the big top before dawn.

The clowns are hunting you. They can wear anyone’s face, even his.

And Thaddeus has waited 88 years for something worth fighting for.