I Paid To Stab A Lion

De: Billy Betts

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

This is not a story. This is a fever dream, a raw nerve, a literary Molotov cocktail thrown into the heart of polite fiction.

Plunge into the hallucinatory, neon-drenched nightmare of a boxer haunted by the ghost of his trainer and the memory of a lost love. Fueled by a cocktail of grief and narcotics, his reality blurs into a surreal landscape of violence, bizarre encounters, and a desperate search for redemption. From a cage on the back of a scooter to a mysterious woman on a plane who offers a trip down the K-hole, this is a story that will grab you by the throat and not let go until the very last, shocking page.

For fans of the visceral, stream-of-consciousness prose of Hubert Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn and the dark, psychological intensity of Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son, I Paid to Stab a Lion is a daring and experimental work of fiction that will leave you breathless and questioning the very nature of reality.

About the author

Billy Betts is a versatile author of dark, suspenseful fiction whose work explores the depths of psychological tension. His writing is deeply informed by his keen observations of the human condition. He enjoys hiking and traveling, having visited more than 20 countries and lived in several.

In a remarkable creative surge between late 2019 and early 2021, Betts released five distinct books in just 15 months. This period showcased his incredible range, including three novels—Falter, Burg, and Grassland—the eclectic short story collection Mixtape Volume 1, and the transgressive fiction novella I Paid to Stab a Lion. From his collection, he cites “The Karma of the Wildest Man in the West” as a personal favorite for its unforgettable final scene. You can read this story for free in the Amazon sample for Mixtape Volume 1 as it's the first story.

Following this prolific period, Betts devoted the years between 2021 and 2025 to mindfulness, including the practice of Vipassanā meditation. He recommends the notoriously challenging 10-day introductory course to anyone with the time to undertake it.

2025 marks his return to writing with the release of his latest novella, Then, I Hear The Train Coming

His current public works are:
1. Falter (Novel, 2019)
2. Burg (Novel, 2020)
3. Grassland (Novel, 2020)
4. Mixtape Volume 1 (Short Story Collection, 2020)
5. I Paid to Stab a Lion (Novella, 2021)
6. *The Karma of the Wildest Man in the West (Short Story, 2025)
7. *The Moon (Short Story, 2025)
8. Then, I Hear The Train Coming (Novella, 2025)

*Short Stories originally published in the Mixtape Volume 1 collection