Atticus is a demon. Atticus consumes souls for power by gathering an audience with his circus act just to extract all the audience's souls at the last day of their visit. He came across the person of his intrigue, a supernatural being, during one of his trips and decided to tether their soul to the circus. With their soul tethered, they're unable to leave the circus' vicinity, they are forever bound like invisible chains. If the tries to leave the circus, an invisible tether will pull them back.