Black Balloons and Dancing with Demons is a journey through the creative mind of a trauma survivor. Through literary expression, this work exposes a deep inner world that doubles as both a gothic fantasy and a metaphorical representation of traumas emotional impact. Trauma is something that infects the mind and leads a person into a dark abyss, eventually confronted with the face of death. Although everything in this work is fictional; it accurately reflects what trauma feels like and illustrates its progression through a unique lens. When the demons torture and consume the mind, death becomes a sweet release. However, the person that must be created to survive the inner war must walk in darkness between depravity and desire. Step into a world of passion and pain where survival depends on escaping the embrace of trauma.