The Phantom Nightmaren
Chapter 3
Vidcon was created by the Super Edwards Brothers. The Edwards brothers consist of Elliot and Ian Edwards. Elliot is the author of a lot of Young Adult books, and had recently had one of his books adapted into a movie. Ian is a scientist and musician, but most of his work is on YouTube to educate people, and to showcase his Sparklerock Band named: Bella and the Swans. The two brothers live apart from each other, but record conversations to each other on YouTube. These conversations could go from telling jokes, analyzing books, to very important things that were going on in the world. These video had inspired young people to help change the world to make it into a better place.
Both Ian and Elliot admit that they were both awkward and scared kids when they were in high school. Elliot often said that teenagers need to find that inner courage to do great things, just like a friend of his once did for themself. Elliot was just passing this courage along to thousands of people just like what this friend did to him.
William Taylor was one of these people. William got a spot in AFC Wimbledon, which was a team that was pushed to the minor leagues. Thanks for support from Elliot's fans; they were restored to former glory. Will began to watch the Super Edwards Brothers' video, and became very prominent into the Nerdfighter community.
The Super Edward Brothers found that YouTube was a good outlet to a lot of change in the world in many ways, and YouTubers need to network as much as everyone else. So Ian got to work to create a convention for YouTube called: VidCon. VidCon has been going on for many years, connecting more and more YouTubers together.
Although Ian has discovered that his convention has connected to another world.
"Hey, Ian, this registered guest has a strange address," his secretary, Mindy, had noted.
Ian adjusted his hipster thick rimmed glasses to look at the address, "I never heard of this, 'Night Dimension' country. It must be a troll. He won't be able to get the pass if the address isn't on his ID."
Mindy shook her head as the curls in her hair swung around, "it's trolling a tad bit too far if he's getting out of the way to pay money to go to VidCon."
"But with a name like, 'Phantom Jackle?' it's kind of too weird," Ian cocked an thick blonde eyebrow. He looked through the information, "Ze's from the province of 'Nightmare' in 'Night Dimension,' with the gender, 'unspecified.' Ze made a comment that ze would also like to meet Helen Cartwright."
"That dubstep violin girl?" Mindy asked, "She is kind of cool. Maybe ze's a music fan."
"I'm going to consult Google's search engine about this," Ian said, "I have a few minutes for a lunch break."
It was the weekend of VidCon, and Ian took a few breaths. Elliot pat Ian on the back, "you're doing good."
"Hey Elliot," Ian gulped a pill from his orange prescription bottle, "we are ready! Everyone is in line for their prereg."
"Great! I can't wait to announce my next book." This book was a tad autobiographical and a fantasy for once in Elliot's publishing career. No one had to know the autobiographical part.
"So you did a lot of research on dreams for your book?" Ian asked.
"Yeah, a lot of Freud I may say," Elliot nodded, "yet I made up most of it."
Ian pushed the nose of his glasses upwards, "Ever heard of 'Night Dimension?'"
Elliot's face became red, "where did you hear about this?"
"Oh Mindy found a guest who came from, 'Nightmare, Night Dimension,' we thought it might be a psychology joke, but I didn't find anything liable from a simple Google search rather than a couple of online dream journals."
"Um of course not, it's just that's the location of my book. I hope nothing is leaked without me know it," Elliot noted, "even if it could only be the first draft."
"Oh, great, you think that might have happened?" Ian sighed, "I hope no one knows about your new book already."
Elliot knew it wasn't a leak, but that there might be danger up ahead if he doesn't do anything fast. He has to find Claris Sinclair if he's going to assure safety to his attendants.
Helen waited in line for her pass. Since everyone just had to flash their ID, it is going very quickly. A woman with long pink dreadlocks pulled into a ponytail and aviator sunglasses was behind her. Helen knew who she was, but she didn't say anything because of Reala's warning.
But the woman spoke up herself as she excitedly pulled her glasses off, "oh, you're Helen Cartwright, aren't you? I tweeted about your latest video!"
Helen really needed to ignore her, but it was indeed the case that the condition of Helen's latest video being viral was because of Claris. Helen took a risk and spoke, "yes, I had a lot of album sales from that video. I'm going to make another one from another song from the album."
Claris smiled, "awesomesauce! It's kind of lucky that we're standing next to each other, I want to talk to you about something."
"Um... sure," Helen hesitated. This cannot be good; this must be what Reala warned Helen about.
"Yeah, so in my musical Trilogy: The Divine Opera, I have a character named Georgia Jeanie, who lost a fiddle match with the Devil and has her soul damned to Hell."
"Wait, what does this have to do with Dante Alighieri's poems?" Helen asked.
"It's a loose adaptation," Claris noted, "but I want you to play Georgia Jeanie. You have that really good dance style which will go well with her song. You don't have to sing at the same time, we always record you lip synching."
Oh, great, this is an awesome opportunity, but Helen had to reject it, "I don't know how to play in that style." Of course she does, she's played fiddle in secondary school in her band class of that very song Claris was parodying. A good musician can adapt to different styles. Why else would she research jazz music for a Fallout based video?
"Oh I bet you can learn! The movie's producer knows a guy who teaches fiddle to classically trained violinists like yourself."
Okay, this is really a too good of an opportunity to pass up! If Helen gets into an independent movie from a playwright who is known by the alternative music community, she may never have to work at that vinyl shop again. She needed to sound unappealing to Clairs, "Okay, but the song needs to have a mix of dubstep to it." Awesome excuse, Helen! If there's something everyone hates, its dubstep.
"That was the plan already," Claris noted, "if you're going to be in this movie, the dubstep has to come with your role, no excuses."
Oh great, she's open minded. Claris is making this offer nice and juicy. She has to do something else, "but if I'm doing a contract for your movie, you have to get my song mixer, Natalie in the movie. I won't play if she doesn't mix."
"Well, we were looking for an editor for the musical portions," Claris implied, "let my producer look at a portfolio, and we can see about hiring her as well."
"Oh, and only my public relations office, Lucy, can mention about me being in the movie," Helen tried to make things harder; "none of your public relations can mention that I'm in the movie."
"You really know how to argue a contract. I didn't expect this from a YouTuber without a lawyer," Claris said, "but I think we can agree to these terms. Meet me in Room 555 at the Hilton and we can discuss everything else."
Helen was in the front of the line, and she took out her wallet to show her ID, and got her Guest Pass for the convention.
Helen walked away to look for Lucy and Natalie until the person behind Claris screamed.
A big light shot out of Claris' head and a creature emerged from that light. He had a dark red jester like cap, an invisible body, a cape that was patterned in diamond shapes, and an elaborate golden mask that covered half of his shadowed face that only visibly showed his eyes and mouth. Helen recognized what Reala warned Helen about, and ran.
This is not what I feared.
But now that it is here,
I don't know what to do.
The Phantom Nightmaren is present.
Everything will now be unpleasant.
For me, and everyone VidCon represents.