Versatile Superstar Rise In Hollywood

by Stayrr

"To be a star is to own the world and all the people in it." ... Two years ago, Aiden came to the United States to experience the American Dream. But after sleepless nights of struggle, just when he was on the verge of giving up, a translucent screen flashed in front of him - it was a System! A System that would make him embark on a journey to Hollywood. And today, he takes his fir

14. 417 - 440

Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood #Chapter 417.A Nice Date - Read Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood Chapter 417.A Nice Date Online - All Page - FREEWN

The first few years, Aiden had been living here in America, it was extremely hard for him to familiarise himself with things and everything was very expensive.

There were a lot of failures in his life and sometimes, he would just come across a rude passenger while driving his taxi.

In those times, this theatre was a place of calm for him, the doorway to a lot of movies that he was only able to watch on his TV or laptop screen. Watching them in a theatre, even with a low occupancy, was an experience in itself.

For his first date with Ava, he chose this place because of how memorable it was for him.

Moreover, Ava always asks him about his experiences when he first came here and his past. So, he thought it would be a place she would enjoy, especially as someone who loved movies.

"So, how many movies have you watched here?" Ava asked, looking at Aiden as they walked towards the ticket counter. He pulled up a mask just in case and she smiled seeing this.

"Around 40-50. Most of them were old ones or classics. Sometimes, they would get those B grade movies. Apparently, the projectionist really likes them and once in a while, he would talk about the B grade film business and how they would spread through DVDs. Good times, he would call them."

Aiden kept talking about it and Ava just listened, enjoying the tales from his past. Something he would seldom talk about and it was also the thing that she was always curious about.

'He's doing his best to open up to me.'

She thought in her mind and felt nice.

They reached the ticket counter and the employee there quickly got them two tickets for the next show of [Love Today, a 1987 rom com that Aiden had never seen before.

Apparently, it hadn't worked at the box office but the critics liked it. That's what he got on the internet.

"Here are your tickets."

The employee said that and After getting the tickets, they waited till the current show was over. According to the employees, there were only a small number of people inside.

"Have you watched it before?"

Aiden asked when he saw that Ava was looking at the poster for the film. She seemed a bit zoned out suddenly.

"I have a history with the movie."

"Like what?"

"Well..."

She was about to answer when people came out of the screening. Without answering, she gestured to Aiden to enter the hall and he decided to ask about it later.

Ads by Pubfuture

There were not a lot of people in the hall and it was mostly empty. People weren't really fans of the movie and a few of them have just come here to pass time because of cheap ticket prices.

There were even a few couples who came here to just makeout with each other in peace. Both of them just ignored the others and waited for the movie to start while whispering among themselves from time to time.

"You know when I used to watch those old movies here, I used to wonder which one I would do if I became a movie star. Back then, it was still a dream. I used to imagine myself in the roles and write them down, thinking that I will do this type of role in the future no matter what. Those were my dream roles."

"Did any of those roles come true? Was Kai one of them?"

"Well, playing a psychopath isn't a dream role. It just happens. It's weird if I dream of playing a crazy murderer. Then, something is wrong with me."

Ava laughed at that and soon, the movie started and they stopped talking.

The movie plot was very simple and it revolved around a man who had just lost his wife in a car accident and was going through depression. It was actually a plot point that was used often.

But in this movie, it was executed extremely well, going deep into the mental health and how it affected the person. The story starts when the main character meets a girl in a help program who had been abused since childhood but always came across as a bright person.

As they got closer, the main character started to wonder why the girl was always so bright despite so many bad things in her life. It made him get closer to her.

That was the crux of the story.

The theme of seeing things from a different perspective was really binded well together and it was something that everyone could relate to.

Aiden was a bit surprised when the movie had flopped. He realised halfway through that it was very good. It had even aged well.

Something that a majority of hit movies from the 80s and 90s can't say in the modern world where themes of women empowerment and other ideologies have taken over.

As the third act of the movie started, Aiden whispered.

"I really wondered why it didn't work at the box office. This movie is a very good rom com and the underlying themes are much more than that."

Ava heard him and couldn't help but ask, "You like it?"

"Yeah, if I was offered the script of the movie, I would have done it."

"Maybe if you have done it, then it won't be a disaster."

Hearing that, Aiden found it a bit strange and looked at her for a second. How did she know that it was a disaster?

"You have watched this movie before right? And there's something more than that too."

Ads by Pubfuture

Ava smiled hearing that and after thinking for a bit, she nodded.

"My dad produced it back in the day."

Aiden widened his eyes hearing that. He hadn't expected something like this. He had just come to watch the movie with her randomly but it was produced by her father! She rarely talked about her family and although Aiden had hunches, he had never asked.

This was the first time she was openly talking about her family.

"He was very excited about it and used to talk about it daily. I can see his enthusiasm and it reflects everyday. It was an extremely important project for him as it was the first movie he was producing after working as a screenwriter and an ad director for years."

She talked and Aiden just listened, finding it very interesting.

"He will tell me the story of Love Today daily, in parts, like they were small stories before bedtime. He even got a moderately successful actor and a very beautiful newcomer for the movie. Everything was set up but when it opened up, it wasn't good."

A dark cloud covered her stiff face as she thought of those times.

"The opening was low but the critics liked it, so he was expecting it to earn more and more as it goes. Several indie hits are like that but it didn't grow. Then, just a week later, an action movie opened at the box office. It was an instant hit. One person fighting against the whole army. Critics gave it bad reviews but the audience loved it. Completely opposite of Love Today."

"The losses would be huge."

Aiden muttered. Looking at the whole production cost that had gone into the movie and how good everything looked and sounded, he was guessing that the cost of making it was at least in the range of 5-15 million dollars.

Not easy for just one person who was producing his own movie.

"They were huge. He was depressed with the failure. I remember how it was back then but we needed money and he needed to work overtime to sustain everything. He wrote scripts day and night and even started to hate his writing. It took him years before he recovered from the loss. In those years, he always did one thing."

"What?"

Aiden raised an eyebrow, seemingly curious. Ava smiled, liking the fact that he was interested in the story.

"He used to take me to the theatre every week. Apparently, his friend was the projectionist so it was free. We will watch from his room and he will write down things."

"What things?"

"Things like which scenes got the best audience reaction and what story kept them glued to the screen. The scenes that elevated the atmosphere and the jokes that landed. And those that didn't. He was studying all the time."

"He produced another movie?"

"Yes."

Aiden didn't ask whether the movie was a success or not. He already had an idea about it and there was no need to ask any further.

But it was interesting how a person studied audience reaction to grasp what will work and what will not. Her dad changed his whole perspective after facing failure.

The movie ended soon after that and when they got out of the theatre hall, both of them seemed to have a good experience.

It was that Ava asked.

"There's a park close to here. Want to take a walk?"

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

Ads by Pubfuture

The park near the theatre was just a small park that was frequented often by the people who lived in the locality. As it was almost on the outskirts of the city, it was less famous but it was still clean and had a comforting feel to it.

As they walked, they could see some people playing American football on the side. They looked like high school kids who were having a lot of fun.

There were also couples like them around but thankfully, no one focused on them. Although Ava hadn't done anything to hide her face, she still attracted a few glances due to her beauty.

On the other hand, no one noticed Aiden who was wearing a mask. They just thought that he was someone with a cold.

If they knew who he was, then there would be trouble and both Ava and he would make up on the front page of some entertainment gossip magazines and a group of women on some TV show would be talking about them, claiming it as one of the biggest gossips in Hollywood.

He wanted to avoid all that if he could.

'I feel good today after a while.'

Aiden thought in his mind. For years, he had just become a robot. Wade would often label him as that too and he was right as Aiden had only worked or rested.

There were no vacations nor he had wasted any money on things he wanted to buy.

There were obviously reasons behind that as Aiden wasn't a natural workaholic. He had forced himself to be one and it had never been easy for him.

Though, it was a necessity. The results were also there for everyone to see. It was the reason why his career was doing so well!

People are social animals, so it would be wrong to say that he was satisfied. But today felt like a day that he had not experienced in years. A nice, warm day.

As he thought that, he glanced down to look at the hands of Ava. Naturally, he moved his hand to interlock it with her.

Ava looked up, a bit surprised by this but she didn't seem to mind it. Instead, she smiled and they kept walking for a bit before she opened her mouth.

"You know I never thought you would ask me out."

"Really?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"Yup, I mean we only talked about work aside from a few other instances. You never really asked me anything about my personal life either."

When Aiden thought about it, it was true. Now that he thinks about it, there were chances that Ava was already in a relationship as he hadn't even tried to find out if she was single. After deciding to ask her out, he had directly called her.

In some alternate world, Aiden would have been left embarrassed but it didn't happen fortunately.

"I could get to know you now." He said, looking at her. She stopped and their eyes met.

"Are you sure? What happened to your 'no dating' clause?"

"I didn't have a clause like that."

"Are you sure?" Ava smiled. "There's a rumour like that in the parties. They are pretty heavy on detail coupled with the rumours of you being asexual."

"People have a lot of free time on their hands."

"In this industry, yes."

They both laughed together and soon, the atmosphere turned a bit awkward. Before it could get ruined, Aiden opened his mouth with conviction.

"So, what do you say?"

"About what?"

"You know it."

He looked at her and she thought for a bit. It wasn't an easy decision at all and looking at Aiden, she knew that he was serious. Very serious about the prospect of them being together.

Ava had rarely seen him like this. There was a fear in his eyes that he was trying to hide. The fear of rejection that everyone has somewhere in their mind. That alone proved that he wasn't playing around and was indeed serious.

"Okay."

She said and nodded her head.

For a moment, Aiden felt like his soul was leaving his body as he let out a huge sigh. Although he wasn't showing it, he was extremely nervous that he was going to get rejected.

In a way, it was valid.

Ava was the most beautiful woman he knew. She was even better looking than most actresses and was an executive in a Big 6 studio. He was sure that she would get attention from a lot of places, so in his mind, he had prepared himself for rejection.

But it went well.

"You don't know how scared I was that it would be a rejection."

He said after calming down a bit.

"Really? When you called me to ask me out on a date, you looked confident."

"It was an impromptu decision and I was much better because it was on call."

"Actually, I wouldn't have agreed to the date if I wasn't interested."

Ava suddenly said and Aiden looked at her with interest.

"I thought a couple of dates are normal for people these days even if they are just friends."

"I don't do that. I have already gotten a lot of offers like this but it's not my thing."

Aiden nodded hearing that. Ava always seemed like a cold person when she talked to others. But to him, she was surprisingly warm. Their relationship started with favours as they both needed each other but it had developed into much more.

Slow and steady, he thought in his mind.

"Anyway, let's go see the lake."

Ava suddenly said, pulling Aiden out from his thoughts.

Their date continued like that.

After his successful album and a return to his singing roots, Aiden Silvereye prepares for the release of his next movie [Hex - Part 1]. The fantasy action movie would be released on November 14.

Apparently, rumours of an internal screening with Titan studios producers and executives are already there and they seem to be extremely positive. The movie is going to make it or break it for book adaptations.

The marketing for [Hex - Part 1] will only start three weeks before the release of the movie. A teaser was launched in September and although it didn't show a lot of footage, whatever was shown was enough to excite the fans of the book.

A look into the career of Aiden Silvereye - How he had made a mark in Hollywood and introduced new trends in his short career, defining a new brand of stardom that Hollywood lacked, but will he be able to do the same with [Hex - Part 1].

Although Aiden's personal life had been great recently, his professional career was still something he couldn't ignore for long. After every break, one needs to go back to the long schedules and get used to it as it continues for months.

He was supposed to promote [Hex - Part 1] and after that, the first schedule of 'Project Dream' would begin. With that, he also needed to give enough time to his relationship.

Though for that, he knew that he would handle it.

Anyway, Ava was herself busy with a lot of things, so both of them could only meet once in a while.

[Ava: Are you in the office?]

[Me: Yeah, on the third floor. Want to eat lunch together? The meeting will go on for a long time.]

[Ava: Come to my office. We can be at peace there.]

Aiden smiled reading that message. Alongside that message, there were a few heart emojis. Ava had started using it only recently but he felt nice that they were reserved for him.

'Well, it seems like it's going to be a nice day. Let's focus on the meeting for now.'

He thought in his mind and put the phone in his pocket.

Then he got into the elevator. There were already a few people inside of it and as Aiden was wearing a mask and sunglasses, no one recognised him. Two girls who looked like employees were whispering to themselves.

Surprisingly, it was about [Hex - Part 1].

"Was there really an internal screening of the movie?"

"I did hear about it but even if there was, it would be among the top brass. It's hard to know from just gossip but I heard the movie is actually very good."

"Really?"

"Yes, they are releasing it in two parts for a reason. They are very confident that the first part will get a good result and it will make the second part much more exciting."

"But I heard that Aiden didn't suit the role of the main character and how he and Olio had a fight on the set. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of rumours about the movie."

It was then that the lift stopped and Aiden reached the floor that had the meeting room. He got out of the lift with the two women being unaware of the fact that he was the one they were talking about.

'I wonder why there are so many rumours about the movie.'

He thought in his mind and headed for the marketing meeting.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

"So, do you all have any ideas as to how we could market the comic book? The plan is to release it three weeks before the movie premiere."

Sitting in the marketing meeting for [Hex - Part 1, Aiden felt a bit bored. Today was one of the days where he felt lazy but work was work.

You can't really escape it.

A lot of it was also because he was coming back after a week-long vacation that had become one of the most memorable memories of his life.

'I understand why office workers hate Mondays. It's tough to come back to work after vacation.'

Aiden thought in his mind and Wade shook him a bit, seeing that Aiden was not focusing.

"Focus a bit." He whispered.

"I will try."

Aiden frowned and rubbed his eyes a bit before looking at the marketing team head who looked a bit frustrated. Their marketing campaign until now had only revolved around character posters, billboards and some online fan interaction.

They have also released 1 minute small trailers, highlighting a bit of the story and the best parts about the movie.

That was fine on social media but they needed a way to get more neutrals in the theatres.

"The comic book is one of the main points of our marketing campaign and we need to promote it in a way that it reaches a large group of people."

The idea of an original comic book emerged then.

With the expanded world of Hex, they could tell a lot of stories and more people read comics than novels. So, their idea could work.

Samuel Davidson was writing the comic book and it was already completed. A three chapter comic book that has a completely original story.

Aiden had already read through it and it was pretty nice. At least it did what it was intended to do which was to show the world of [Hex].

"Can't we just promote it through those comic book apps? There are a few popular ones and then, I'm very sure it would sell well in stores."

"We have plans but our estimates say that it won't work as well as we think with that. The whole point is to reach more and more people."

Hearing that, Aiden thought that getting it on those comic book apps would be a bit dumb as he hardly knew of any that don't take money to read comics.

The sales will be good as Hex fans would buy it but it won't reach the audience it was intended to reach.

'Why not just make it free?'

Aiden thought in his mind.

He doubted Titan studios cared about money from the comic book sales or even Samuel focused on it. If the movie is successful, he would be very happy and a part of the profit would be donated to charities as the rights were sold with that in the contract.

The author of the books was a very charitable person.

So, that clause was added in the contract.

"How about we just make it free?"

He suddenly said, thinking up to that. Everyone in the room looked at him weirdly and the marketing head tilted her head.

"What do you mean?"

"You want to reach a lot of people right?"

"Yes."

"Those who aren't fans of the books or the younger audience. After all, Hex is pretty old."

"Yes."

"Then, make it free."

Aiden leaned against his seat, already bored of the meeting. There was nothing new and it was all the stuff that he had heard before.

Interviews, billboards, photoshoots, fan interaction on social media. Only the comic book part was something that needed to be talked about.

Even in it, these people were not using common sense.

"What do you mean by making it free? Upload it on the internet?"

"Yeah. and try to post them on every pirate site that has comics. Believe it or not, most comic book readers read them. Especially those from outside of America. Pirating is huge in lots of parts of the world and for a reason."

Aiden explained, then seeing that everyone was focusing on him, he continued.

"I don't see why we are trying to see profit in the comic book sales when it's a marketing gimmick. We could easily plan some events and give out the hard copies for the comic books, making it some sort of a premium thing and then, it would be extremely easy to just make the digital copies free for everyone to check out. Anyway, it's just my idea. I have a few interviews to attend, so I will leave now."

Saying that, Aiden walked away from the meeting. There was nothing else to do in it and even Wade understood that.

After he left the room, the marketing team head looked at the people in the room and muttered.

"Why did no one else think of that? Why are you all getting paid?"

No one spoke hearing that but they really wanted to say one thing.

'Not like you got that idea either! You just want to play safe then complain about a lack of innovation!'

Like Aiden said in the meeting, it was way better to make the comics free so that they could reach as many audiences as possible. Moreover, posting them on pirated sites was another good idea and it was maybe the first time anyone was doing it.

A lot of readers read regularly there and may not look for the Hex comic book themselves, so it was the best way to get them to read.

Maybe, they would like it and when someone asks them to come to the movie with them, they will have a better idea of what they were getting into and would agree.

Apart from that, Aiden's time was mostly spent giving interviews. Some with Olio and his other co-stars and some on his own. Today, he was doing a solo interview with a reporter that gave him a lot of bad vibes.

Just the stuff he had heard from Tom was enough for him to be a bit more careful.

'Someone who will try to focus on the negative rumours around you and even if you say anything simple, he's going to cut out things in his article and make a controversial headline.'

Aiden thought in his mind, looking at the smiling fan in front of him. He looked like someone who was always smiling and being happy. Even his tone was like that but all of it was just a facade to make celebrities let their guard down.

Tom had told him that once he had interviewed a female singer and she had said something like, "I think my music appeals to women more than men."

The reporter had made it "My music is not for man" in the article and it had given the singer a lot of unnecessary hate. Her agency even complained about it but nothing was done as these types of headlines get more clicks.

Not like people would bother to read a whole article anyway.

"So, there are a lot of rumours regarding the project and how some actors were not happy that it became a two part release. Wasn't that because of you taking that decision?"

The question was here.

Aiden got alert as he knew that whatever answer he gave, the article would come up with a controversial headline.

He took his time and thought deeply about each word before opening his mouth.

"I don't know which rumours you heard but most actors were happy for the two part release as their roles increased because of it and they would be getting paid more. Moreover, actors who read the whole script agreed that a two part release was necessary and it wasn't my decision but Olio's. He's the director, so he calls the shots."

He said and hoped that the reporter wouldn't find something odd in it.

The reporter just wrote something down in his notebook and moved on with the interview.

Aiden took a sigh of relief.

The interview went ahead and he just hoped that all the marketing campaigns for [Hex - Part 1] would go smoothly.

He could handle these reporters but didn't want any other problems.

Sadly for him, a problem was already brewing for a long time and was going to come out now.

In an office, a man was blowing out his tea. After it got a bit cold, he took a sip out of it and looked at the person in front of him.

"You are sure of it, right? You need to keep up with it no matter what. Otherwise, you're gonna suffer."

"I'm ready for it. It's going to help out my career, right?"

The person sitting in front of him asked. She had a very deep but resolute voice.

"I told you it will."

"Okay, then. I'm ready."

"Good."

The man smiled and asked his assistant to call up the reporters. It was time to get some spice in Hollywood.

'I will destroy you, Aiden.'

He thought in his mind.

The man was Franco Li, the star agent who Aiden had rejected.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

After deciding to make the comic book free for everyone, the marketing team for the movie worked fast and had internal meetings about the decision.

Realising that the decision would actually result in a better interest towards the movie, they went ahead with it.

The reception towards it was as expected — Overwhelmingly Positive.

No one disliked free things, especially a free comic that they could read at their leisure. So, the free comic spreaded fast among fans and even the audience that had no idea of the original novel and the hype around it back in the day.

It also did its work. A lot of people liked the comics. Although there were still people who didn't enjoy it, they couldn't complain as it was free.

The idea of making the hardcopies something that people could get in a fan event also worked extremely well with the collectors and people who were die hard fans of the original novel.

They all wanted to get their hands on it.

While all this was going on, Aiden was still busy in his interviews.

"Olio Fermen is known to be extremely strict on their actors. Do you face anything similar to it during the shoot? It was a very long shoot, so I'm sure you came across a few things."

The reporter asked and Aiden had to think before replying.

This time, he can't even say everything was great on the set and how they were all like a family. Actually, they were like a family but a dysfunctional and toxic family.

Olio was one of the best directors but it was extremely tough to work with him. He wasn't as nice as the person in charge and expected everyone to do everything perfectly.

"I believe every director has a work style of his own. You can't compare one with the other as all of them are different. With Olio, he tries to bring out your best as an actor, so he pushes you a lot. As shooting went on, I got more used to it and my performance actually improved."

Aiden said, giving a very ambiguous answer to the question.

"Can you elaborate?" The reporter pushed on but Aiden simply smiled.

"I think I have said enough."

No matter what the reporter said, Aiden didn't look like he would budge. In the end, the reporter sighed and moved on to the next question.

The whole interview lasted an hour and after that, Aiden was finally able to take a sigh of relief.

It was over and going by the frowning expression of the reporter, Aiden had not given him anything good as a headline.

He would probably get angry at a few interns today just because of that.

"You survived."

Wade came in through the door right after the interview ended.

"Yeah, it was pretty tiring. Do we have better interviews in line?"

"Anything is better than this." Wade said. "Well, I already talked to that guy's superior when you were in the interview. He would make sure everything goes right and there's no trouble. He was scared when I told him that you might not come back for an interview if the guy caused a controversy and even Titan studios might ban them."

He nodded hearing that.

With the scale of [Hex - Part 1, it was normal for a studio to be very protective about any controversy, especially if it comes because of a fake headline. In that case, the studio might even try to take legal action.

No publication wanted something like that.

Although media and studios work together in a cordial partnership, celebrities have filed lawsuits against them in the past.

Studios have done it too.

So, it wasn't unimaginable.

'Well, I doubt there's going to be any major controversy related to me. It's fairly calm these days from what I have seen.'

Aiden thought and stretched his body a bit.

In recent weeks, the only negative thing that ever happened would be Emilia Lander PR, trying to spread rumours about how bad he was to work with and other bad things. Not necessarily about the movie but him.

That was the reason why there were so many negative rumours related to the project.

Sarah and her team have obviously countered it and it was much better now.

But other than that, there was nothing and Aiden was happy about it.

The reporter who had just taken Aiden's interview was not pleased with how it had gone. It was one of the rare cases where a celebrity had hardly said anything that could be used to make up a spicy headline.

It was not like he could make up things from his mind either.

He needed to use something from the interview but there was just nothing.

Aiden had been extremely patient during the interview. That's why it had taken so long to conduct it. For each answer, he had taken a while to think of the answer and the reporter couldn't even do anything about it.

Not like he could tell him to say his answer quickly. He didn't want to face a celebrity's temper.

It looked like he had just had to put out a normal article this time related to the interview but he knew that he wouldn't get much views. No one would bother reading a simple article.

People needed spice in their lives after all. They aren't able to leave without it.

The worst thing out of this was that after the interview, his editor had called him in his office.

"Don't write any provocative article about Aiden Silvereye no matter what. We can't take risks this time and he's a rising star, not someone we should be on bad terms with. If you do something that he doesn't like, then you will be in trouble with me."

With that, his fate was sealed.

There was nothing the reporter could do. Or else he would be in trouble. Trouble that he would rather avoid.

Sitting in his office, he just decided to get on with his work and not think about it a lot. After all, it was only going to depress him more.

It was then that his phone suddenly rang.

He picked it up and a sharp voice came out from the other side.

"Hello, I'm speaking from SGA, I'm the assistant of Franco Li."

"Yes? What do you need?"

The man sat up straight and asked. SGA and Franco Li weren't ordinary names in the industry. If his assistant was calling him, there was definitely something important.

"We were hoping that you could come to our office for an interview."

"With who."

"You will know when you get here."

"Ah, I need to know more about it before conducting an interview. It's not as easy as you think."

Hearing that, the voice on the other side of the phone clicked his tongue.

"You don't have to conduct a normal interview. It's an interview to break out a scandal."

"A scandal?" The reporter raised an eyebrow, becoming more interested in it suddenly.

"Yes, a scandal that would probably become the most heated topic in Hollywood. Something that will make you famous if you help break this news."

"Can you tell me who is involved in this scandal?"

That was the only question the man had now. Depending on who was involved and what the scandal was about, the interest from the common public will vary.

"Aiden Silvereye."

Hearing that, the reporter widened his eyes and a grin appeared on his face instantly.

"I'm coming right away!"

Two days later.

"The shooting is finally done."

Aiden said as he sipped from his coffee tea. He was currently standing in the lounge area on the sets of a talk show. It was a small Zetflix talk show that airs every week and it was quite popular and unique in its style of news reporting.

He had been shooting it since the day and it had all ended well. After the shoot, he was now sipping tea with Tom.

"You did well today. The host seemed impressed."

"I think he's impressed by everyone. He gives off that professional diplomatic vibe."

Aiden said and just talked like that with Tom. He was done with today's work and there was nothing else to do.

It was then that he noticed something weird.

Someone was staring at him. He looked around and found that a guy was glancing at him while looking at his phone. Aiden found it weird as the guy was a staff member who won't be surprised with him here today.

But then, the gazes in the lounge area increased. From one to two to four and like that, Aiden felt like everyone was looking at him.

"What's going on?"

He muttered and even Tom noticed that there was something wrong.

It was then that a staff member came forward with his phone in his hand. He looked shocked like he had seen a ghost.

"You should see this."

"What happened?"

"You are accused of harassment!"

The man said as he shoved his phone's screen towards Aiden's face.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

"You are accused of harassment!"

When Aiden heard those words, for a moment, he really wondered if it was some sort of a prank. Accused of harassment? How can that be possible when he has never done something like that?

He had always strived hard to be as respectful as possible with everyone, especially women in case he was taken as a creep. He knew that his behaviour was going to be scrutinised always when he was famous, so he had taken care to always act properly.

So, how the hell can he be accused of something like that?!

Moreover, who had accused him out of nowhere?

All these questions were roaming in his mind but he knew that it wasn't a prank.

After all, there were weird gazes all around him. Gazes that have looked at him with admiration were now looking at him with contempt.

It had changed in a matter of seconds.

To know what was exactly going on, Aiden took the phone from the hand of the staff member and looked at it. Tom also took out his phone, getting a bad feeling out of nowhere.

In front of Aiden, an article was opened. It was from Hollywood Weekly — a reputed handle, so he could at least take their word for it.

Slowly, he started reading through the stock and the more he read, the widened his eyes became.

He couldn't believe someone had said this about him. And it was said to the same reporter he had given an interview to two days ago. Was it a coincidence? Or something else?

Aiden didn't know but he felt a sharp pain in his heart. Like someone was slowly piercing his heart with a knife. Every second, he felt more and more pain.

He had never thought such an article would come out like this.

It was fake, he knew it as Aiden had never done anything wrong like this.

But the thing was that rather than the fake accusation, he was more hurt by the person who had made it. It hadn't come from anyone who he had a bad history with.

He had a bad history with a few women who didn't like him but he had never thought that a fake accusation like this would come from someone who he considered to be a friend.

It was from Katie Brooks, his co-star from [30 days of Happiness] and one of his first friends in America.

She had given an interview to a reporter about how when they both were working on [30 days of Happiness, Aiden had molested her when they were both alone.

She had even gone into details, saying that it felt like a betrayal because she considered Aiden a friend.

Reading that line, Aiden really wanted to curse out loud.

It was not him but her who had betrayed him. And it was not a simple thing either. It was an accusation of a crime that could simply end his career, even if he manages to prove his innocence.

Media was extremely harsh on men in these types of cases. In his mind, Aiden became a mess when he thought more about it.

'Why had she done it? We have not met in recent times but the last time we did, she seemed happy and we even had a nice talk with each other. Then, why? I don't understand...'

"Aiden, are you okay?"

Tom's voice suddenly pulled him out of his thoughts and he looked up at him.

"Ah, no, I don't think I'm okay."

"I can see that." Tom said. "Your face has gone pale."

Aiden touched his face when he heard that. He did feel a bit weak at the sudden turn of events in front of him.

He was happily promoting his movie one second and the next second, he had been betrayed by a friend on the charges of something he had never done before. He felt like the ground was spinning and nothing seemed okay.

"I just don't understand it. I think I'm just too shaken..."

Aiden muttered and let out a frown. Tom nodded his head and looked around. Everyone was still looking at him.

"Let's go get in the car. It's not good to be out in the open."

He said and pulled Aiden towards the elevator. Everyone moved away while a few people were shooting all of this from afar, knowing that these videos were going to blow up on social media.

After reaching his car, Aiden took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. His phone had been vibrating all this time and he was getting messages from everywhere.

The news was probably blowing up everywhere.

'Other news websites would have picked it up and just copy pasted the whole article. They are experts in these things.'

That was how most news websites worked and Aiden knew that the internet would have already become a hot mess.

The question as to why Katie did it was still in his mind but currently, there was no answer. He first needed more information but he was not in the right state of mind for that. His hand was shaking a bit.

A betrayal wasn't easy to take at all, especially if it comes from someone one has good memories with.

"Aiden, let's go to the office. I think we need to cancel most things from your schedule."

"Yeah, the marketing team would be going through extreme disorder right now."

Just thinking about his movie that was going to release in a few weeks, Aiden felt like this was the worst time for such a news. But maybe, his movie was one of the reasons why it had come up at this time.

"Aiden, can I ask you something?" Tom suddenly asked and Aiden looked up at him.

"Were you close with Katie Brooks?"

That question was in his mind for a while now. Tom hadn't joined Aiden during the shooting of [30 days of Happiness]. He did know who she was as he had looked into the past of Aiden.

But he didn't know how close he was with Katie. So naturally, he had been curious.

"She was a good friend of mine. One of the first I made in America. We both were strugglers. Later, she got offered small supporting roles in commercial movies and it was then that we did [30 days of Happiness] together but after that, we seldom have any contact due to how busy I had been."

"Were you really dating her back then? I thought that was just marketing—"

"It was really just that. Marketing."

Aiden said and sighed. In the article that Aiden had read, Katie had even talked about that fake relationship but she had never talked about how it was a marketing gimmick and not real.

He understood that Tom had a lot of questions in his mind but for now, he had to trust him.

"Tom, please trust me. I have done nothing wrong. I never molested her or anyone else. It's all fake."

Hearing that, Tom nodded and started the car.

Aiden took out his phone to switch it off until he reached his office but before he could do it, another call came in.

The call was from Ava.

'What should I do now?'

Aiden thought as he looked at his phone. Will Ava listen to him or will she believe in the news that was going around? Aiden didn't know but there was only one way to find out.

In the office of Franco Li, Katie and he were sitting, going through the fiasco that was happening on the internet. Katie's name was being featured on every news portal and even major television networks were going to cover it tonight on their prime time news.

Franco Li had taken care of it.

"Now that the news is making a lot of noise, we would need to get the support from women's right groups and other feminist organisations. A lot of organisations in these movements are simply run on corporation's money, so it won't be hard to get their support."

Katie nodded hearing that. She had heard a line that every ideology ruins itself once it becomes mainstream as corporations start to use it for their own goals.

"You need to go on a lot of interviews and other things. Portray yourself as a victim and remember all the lines you have learned. Let my team handle everything else. This is surely going to ruin [Hex - Part 1] and Aiden's career but your career will be right back on track. A story of rising up after going through something like this would work well in garnering public support."

Hearing that, Katie's eyes shook a bit.

Franco noticed it and smiled. He stood up from his seat and walked towards Katie before asking.

"Are you feeling guilty about your friend?"

"N-no, it's not that."

"Even if it is, don't let those thoughts get in your mind. Remember, you need to sacrifice things in order to move up, even if it's your friends."

Katie nodded hearing that and took a deep breath.

'I can't back off.'

She thought to herself.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

Since the interview that Katie had given, news media were suddenly all after it.

Every single media house has released long articles on the interview that happened. Everyone was fighting to get more details about the accusations against Aiden.

The news was heating up minute by minute. So much so that even people on the streets were getting notifications about it.

The effect was so big mainly because of the image that Aiden had created in the minds of the common people till now. He was the man with no dark spots on his body who had never gotten into any ugly controversy and had always acted as a professional.

Those types of people are rare and although they might not be in the limelight all the time, they are always respected heavily.

So, this news was like someone had thrown dark paint all over Aiden suddenly.

People all across the world were shocked! Any person who had a slight knowledge on who Aiden was shocked! And the media didn't seem like they were going to stop talking about the news.

Breaking news! Katie Brooks accuses Aiden Silvereye of harassment and molesting when both of them were shooting and promoting [30 days of Happiness] together. She revealed it in an interview.

Actress Katie Brooks has come out with a harassment story of her own. She joined a big group of actresses that has accused someone from the industry of misbehaving with them.

The whole Hollywood is shocked as sudden news of molestation against Aiden Silvereye had come out. The news broke out weeks before the release of [Hex - Part 1]. The fans of the acclaimed novel seemed to already be lashing out on the film star.

The director of [30 days of Happiness, Leo Shaw said that he had no idea of it and he didn't want to go into any conclusions when asked about it. He further added that the atmosphere on the set was always good and it was the first time he was hearing about it.

Aside from these articles, Aiden and Katie were already trending on Sparrow alongside tags like molestation and Metoo.

There were a lot of comments and most of them were not in favour of Aiden. After all, something like an accusation of molestation was very common against men in the industry and it won't take a long time for someone to form their own conclusions.

[Mr. Deez Nuts: I always knew he was not a good person. I kept telling others that he just has a weird smile and how he's fooling but no one listened. Now, they know. He's just like the others.]

[Anime girl shagger: I always thought that he was too good to be true. He was doing everything so perfectly that it was just a matter of time until something like this breaks out. I hope he gets the equivalent punishment for this crime.]

[Never gonna give you up: I find it weird that the news broke out weeks before [Hex - Part 1] release. My conspiracy theorist experience tells me that this is some rival studio's attempt to sabotage the release of the movie. But conspiracies don't work in front of the law.]

[Tweeting from Romanian Jail: Ah, this is another fake news by all these 'Feminist' to destroy a good man's career. You will see that there will be petitions to not watch his movie soon and then, the law will continue to harass the guy while no one will have the patience to find out if it's even real.]

[Pussy hunter: I'm extremely disappointed as a diehard Hex fan. I don't know how true it is but I know it's going to severely affect the movie. I'm really worried about what I will do now. This will surely bring in a lot of negativity to the movie.]

[Cookie Hunter: When I read the news, I really wondered who Katie Brooks is until I searched a bit about her. Anyone else feeling like this is just a fake accusation of sorts? I mean, there's no proof other than Katie saying it out loud. I really want to know what Aiden says about it.]

As the issue was growing online, Aiden was dealing with an internal turmoil. He needed to make a decision whether to pick up the call from Ava or not.

He didn't know if she would understand his words or she would simply choose to believe the news that was going around. Or she would just be sceptical about everything.

He still remembered the gazes of people when he had first gotten the news. They were looking at him with doubt and contempt. He was sure that a lot of them have already formed a conclusion in their mind.

Was Ava going to do the same? He didn't know.

As he was having an internal dialogue, the call ended and he took a sigh of relief. But the next second, it came again.

'There's no choice...'

He thought in his mind and picked up the call.

"Aiden, are you okay? I saw the news online."

That was the first thing that Ava said and for a moment, Aiden didn't know how to reply but he tried to calm himself down.

"Yeah, it's all over the internet probably."

"Where are you right now?"

"I'm going to the office. Need to deal with this after getting there."

He said and tried to smile but no smile formed on his face. Even Ava could sense the frustration and sadness in his voice.

"Aiden, it will be all fine. I know it's a false accusation."

"You do?" He asked, his voice a pitch higher, causing Tom to look at him for a moment before focusing on driving.

"Yes, I do. I have known you for a while now and this is one thing you will never do. As for the person who accused you, were you two close?"

Ava asked suddenly and Aiden took a moment to answer her.

"She is... was a friend. We used to watch movies together back in the day as struggling actors."

"Must be hard on you. Well, I got something on her."

She said and Aiden blinked his eyes, wondering what it was.

"What?"

"I looked into her background a bit as soon as the news broke out and just a year ago, she changed her agency. It seemed like her previous agency failed to give her roles that she wanted to do and her career was also going nowhere, so she changed agencies."

"Which is her current agency?"

"SGA. You know what that means, right?"

Aiden had actually mentioned to Ava about what had happened between Franco Li and him, so it was easy for her to make a connection.

'Franco Li. No one else can do this other than him. He never liked me rejecting his offer and was always after me.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

He didn't know how he got his hand on Katie or what type of deal was made between them but he was sure that Franco Li was pulling the strings and using Katie as a puppet.

Of course, this doesn't lower his anger towards Katie. After all, she had betrayed him and there was no going back now. She had made her decision and every decision had consequences.

"I know what it means. Thanks for telling me this."

Aiden said and Ava replied quickly.

"No need to say that. I will try to see if I can get more information out of this. The news is spreading fast, so be careful of the media."

"Okay."

She cut the call after that and Aiden felt a bit better. He took a deep breath and tried to think rationally.

At least now, one of the fears from his heart was gone.

Ava hadn't doubted him in the least and had been supportive, even letting him know an important fact about Katie.

'I don't know how to get out of this yet but I will never let Franco Li win.'

Aiden thought in his mind and at that moment, the car stopped. They reached their office but when Aiden got out of the car, he saw that the whole office area was already surrounded by reporters.

Cameras were everywhere and reporters were rushing towards him to ask their questions.

'Do they have the power to teleport or something? Why are they so fast?'

He thought in his mind.

"Aiden, are the allegations against you true?"

"Were you really in a relationship with Katie Brooks? Please confirm it?"

"What really happened between you and Katie Brooks?"

"How many other actresses have you molested before?"

"There are rumours that she was pregnant after your relationship and you asked her to abort? Is it really true?"

Hearing those questions, especially the last one, Aiden really wanted to punch these reporters.

What do they even mean by how many actresses have he molested or if he made Katie pregnant? He had not even kissed her ever.

But he didn't say anything, knowing that an angry outburst would form a worse image in front of the media. But he didn't know how to get away from the reporters either.

They have completely surrounded him.

It was then that Wade came to his rescue.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

"Aiden, are you okay? Hey, give me some space. Being a journalist doesn't mean to intrude in someone's place like this. Get away from him a bit."

A loud voice struck everyone.

The reporter's gazes landed on Wade as they moved away. Seeing a bulky man with sharp expressions coming their way, they naturally moved away.

He looked angry and no one wanted to deal with someone like that.

"Aiden has a very scary bodyguard."

Someone muttered in the back and Wade heard it. He just gave a glare to the guy who had said that and reached Aiden.

"I was calling you but you were already busy with someone else."

"Yeah, Ava. Anyway, let's talk inside."

Aiden said, knowing that there were still cameras around and it wasn't wise to talk here. They tried to walk inside amidst being surrounded by reporters and cameramen.

It seemed like the reporters wanted to try one last time to get something out of Aiden and one of them, a bit bulkier reporter who looked like a bully from a movie, was the one with the loudest voice.

"You can wait a while and give us a few answers you know. Don't you think that will be a bit nice? Or are you really a molester who's too ashamed to show his face?"

Saying that, the reporter put a hand on Aiden's shoulder and tried to pull him back. It was then that something clicked inside of Aiden's head. He had heard what the reporter had said and he wasn't pleased.

Anger surged inside of him and a personality that he had always suppressed inside of him started to come out. A personality that he didn't like but the one that was best for people like the reporter.

'Kai.'

He thought in his mind and when he turned back, a smile was on his face and his eyes looked dead. A smiling face and dead eyes were the combo that could scare anyone off and with the sudden change of atmosphere around Aiden, the reporter widened his eyes.

He took a few steps back in fear.

"If you want an answer, learn how to show respect first."

After saying that, Aiden walked inside of his office. Outside, no one spoke a word. They all looked at the reporter who stood like a stone, like he was petrified.

"What just happened?" A cameraman asked as he looked at the reporter who was still shaking.

"I don't know. It's the first time I have seen Aiden being so angry."

As Aiden was dealing with the reporters, more and more people who knew him were finding out about the news.

Slowly, it was reaching every corner of America.

Uncle Sam was handling his customers in the restaurant when he got to know about the news.

Actually, it was from one of his customers.

"Hey, Sam, get my usual order."

"Sure. Go sit down. There's a spot empty for you right there."

Uncle Sam pointed at the seat in the corner that was empty and the customer that was a regular nodded his head. But before the customer could take his seat, he stopped in his tracks and looked back.

"Sam, did you hear the news?"

He asked and Uncle Sam looked at him in surprise.

"What news? There's tons of news daily and I don't know which one you are talking about. You need to narrow it down."

"About your nephew?"

"What about Aiden?"

When Uncle Sam said that, the customer was that he knew nothing about what type of mess Aiden was in right now.

"Just check any entertainment news channel. It's all over. I don't know if it's true as every time I talked to Aiden, he looked like a nice guy."

The customer said and took his seat while Uncle Sam stood there, confused. He picked up the TV remote and changed channels. On one of the entertainment channels, the anchor was talking about Aiden.

[Aiden Silvereye who was accused hours ago by Katie Brooks of harassment was found in front of his office. He had not said anything about the accusations against him but he looked visibly disturbed. Here are some photos we got...]

'What is going on...?'

Uncle Sam thought, looking at the news.

In the Titan studios office, the marketing team of [Hex - Part 1] was messed up after the news of the accusation came up. Just with one news, every plan of theirs was in gutter.

They were expecting an opening of at least 40 million dollars but now, the opening figures in their mind were going less and less. From 40 to 35 to 20.

There was a massive drop in their estimations.

In today's age, the impact of something like MeToo was huge and it would impact career's and projects that were associated with that person until unless the project was too big to fail which [Hex - Part 1] wasn't.

"What should we do now? The project is doomed."

"How can something like this come up just days before the release? Is any other studio doing it?"

"Is it true? We can salvage it if it's just an accusation somehow but currently, the public sentiment is with Katie Brooks."

"Hey, someone contact the head. We can't operate on our own. There's no way we could handle this."

"Also, call Aiden's assistant. We need to know whether this is true or not. We need to address it somehow. Leaving it be would only harm us as people would think of it as Aiden accepting the crime."

"I just hope the movie isn't a flop because of this."

All around the room, people looked worried and some even had those hopeless eyes like nothing could be done to make the situation a bit better. One might say that there was a bit of exaggeration in their reactions but the news has only broken out and it hasn't set in yet.

Moreover, this was the project that they were working on for a long time. It had been months since the marketing team had been assembled to handle it and if it fails just because of one man, then no one would be happy.

All in all, it was just a depressing situation.

In Aiden's office, he was sitting down on a table and trying to calm himself down. The effect of using Kai's personality had made him temporarily out of energy and he had to drink two bottles of water to feel alive again.

He was sure that the reporter would get nightmares of Kai tonight but he wasn't remorseful about it. He deserved it in his mind.

After all, there was a limit to anything.

"Aiden, do you have any idea of why Katie did it?"

Wade asked after a while. Aiden raised his head up and saw that everyone in the room was looking at him.

Most of his team was here and those who weren't here like Sasha and Tom were handling the calls that they were getting from various people.

"I have a few clues but I think Franco Li is the one who's pulling the strings. Katie is in SGA."

"Franco Li?"

Wade asked and Aiden nodded his head. Only he was the one who would plan something like this.

"That bastard. I knew he would do something like this but why is Katie helping him?" He punched the table in anger and asked.

"Probably because of the offer that Franco gave me. He probably gave the same offer to Katie and you do know that her career isn't really moving."

Aiden said as he connected dots in his mind.

After [30 days of Happiness, Katie's career had gone nowhere. Due to the success of the indie movie, her former agency had made her act in several other indie projects and all of them have failed.

She didn't even win any awards for that as no one really watched them.

She tried to do other commercial movies but never got a significant role. On the other hand, Aiden's career was moving up every few months.

If Katie was finding it hard to climb each step of the stair, Aiden was in a lift. At least it would have looked like that from her perspective.

'An offer of making her a Global star would have made her betray me. Desperation brings out the ugly side of humans.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

"What are we going to do now? Franco Li is in the shadows for this, so we can't take him on directly. I already contacted the lawyers and they would handle this matter on the legal side. But the media perception has become extremely negative towards you."

Wade said and looked worried. Aiden also frowned. All this had happened when he was least expecting it.

But he needed to fight back.

"First, let's give out an official statement and I need to make my stand clear that I did nothing and it's better if I talk about it in detail and come clean. After all, what Katie had said is baseless and there's no proof—"

"Aiden, we got more bad news!"

As Aiden was talking, Tom suddenly came out from the other room with his laptop in his hand. Everyone looked at him and wondered what had happened now.

"What happened?"

"Another news story about you broke out."

Tom said and showed everyone his laptop. They all read the news displayed on it.

Few people from the crew of [30 days of Happiness] have come out, saying that they witnessed Aiden Silvereye harassing Katie Brooks! This is another chapter in this recent scandal.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

On the screen, two people were talking to a reporter. The two people have blonde hair and a fat face, making them look like average Americans that would be found anywhere on the streets.

Currently, they were giving an interview to a reporter standing in what looked like a residential area.

"So, tell me about what you saw?"

"It's been a few years so I don't remember well but I remember we were transporting a prop for a scene when I heard a sharp voice. It belonged to Aiden Silvereye, the lead actor in the movie and the voice sounded angry."

One of them said and the other person nodded and continued on the story.

"We were curious, so we walked up to the direction the voice had come from and saw that Aiden Silvereye was shouting at Katie, abusing her about something she had done."

"Did you see him hitting her or abusing her in any way?" The reporter asked, squinting his eyes.

"I don't know but her face did look a bit red. Though, it could be makeup. Back then, we were on the final schedule and the rumours about Aiden and Katie were doing the rounds around the set due to how close they seemed with each other."

The blonde guy said, making a face that seemed like he was thinking back on the past days. He was finding it difficult to remember as a lot of time and movies have gone by after he worked in [30 days of Happiness].

"So, you are saying that they were in a relationship?"

"Didn't Katie Brooks confirm it?"

The blonde guy asked back and the reporter nodded his head.

"Yeah, but the director of the movie Leo Shaw had come out and said that it was a marketing campaign and we all know it's a common tactic. Moreover, no one saw Aiden and Katie together after the movie often, so there are doubts."

The reporter explained and both the men seemed like they didn't know what to say. They looked a bit flabbergasted but they still blabbered on.

"Well, we were only part of the crew for the European part of the shoot. I didn't know anything about the marketing campaign but I can say one thing for sure. They both were very warm and close to each other."

The interview ended there.

Someone closed the TV straight after that and banged the desk in happiness. It was Franco Li who was watching the news report with a grin on his face.

He had bribed a few members of the crew to say these things and although they needed better acting skills in his opinion, it was still fine as the job was done. According to him, every man has a price, especially people who are doing low end jobs.

He had just told his assistant to look for anyone in the crew who would be easily bought and the next day, a list was on his table. After that, it was easy as these people were just there to add some more petrol into the fire.

What the two men had said could be taken in any way as it wasn't like they had seen Aiden slapping Katie but the media would present it as evidence of the accusations to the common people.

That was the final nail in the coffin for Aiden's reputation.

'Now you will know that in this industry, you are either with me or against me.'

He thought in his mind and it was at the moment that the door to his office opened and Katie walked in with his assistant.

Looking at her, Franco frowned.

"Katie, why are you here? You should be going through the interviews and get into the public limelight. If you don't do that, then. your name will be out of the trending searches in a day."

"The interviews have already ended. Moreover, I'm saying the same thing to every reporter. After a while, it gets tiring."

"That's the life of a celebrity. You know that well."

Katie didn't say anything to it and just looked at Franco before talking about the thing she was here for.

"What happened to the movie you said you will get me? A lead role in a big commercial movie. I have not even seen the script yet."

"It's still in the planning. SGA is producing it and I can get you the script anytime but you can't do any movies at least for the next few months."

Hearing that, Katie was shocked.

"Why?"

"You need to let this matter die down. It would take at least three months for the media to find something else to talk about. You need to portray yourself as a woman who went through a lot of mental abuse till then. I will get you to appear on women oriented programs and talk shows. This is the image building phase for you."

Franco had made an entire plan for Katie as he genuinely sensed talent in her.

Though more than that, she was someone who was easy to manipulate. It was very funny to him that she had agreed to betray her friend when he had offered her big movies and a chance of becoming an A-lister.

"But you said before that I will get to act in—"

"Can't you show some patience?"

Franco suddenly cut her off and said, his voice high pitched. Katie was shocked at his sharp voice and wasn't able to say anything else.

"I have made a plan for you and you only need to follow it word by word. I don't need your feedback or complaints until you earn the right to speak up. Do you realise that If everything went wrong you and me both are fucked? Lawsuits are already gonna happen but my lawyers will handle it but if you suddenly start getting these big budget movies, then the media will try to look under the carpet and if even a whisper goes out, they turn towards us. It's a game of reputation, you see."

He said with conviction in his voice. Franco's assistant watched all of it with a straight face but he wished he could close his eyes at the moment.

But he was too numb to these things at this point.

At Aiden's office, there was chaos everywhere one looked.

They have worked fast and released a statement, saying that Aiden had never done anything like this and all the accusations were wrong.

Moreover, he had also talked about going to court and filing a defamation lawsuit against Katie Brooks. But all this was still in the legal spectrum.

The common people were already too used to it as normally, in every Metoo case, the same thing would happen. Someone would accuse, the one who was accused would send out a statement claiming it to be false, then legal matters would start.

Normally, in most cases like this, people would confess themselves after a while.

But for Aiden who was falsely accused, this was obviously not an option. He was still dealing with the massive drop his reputation was having.

He has curated a great reputation for him for years and in one day, it was on the ground.

It was a bit funny to him that one incident can change so much.

It reminded him of a soft drink company whose stock prices fell hard because a footballer told someone to drink water as it's healthy over the soft drink. Without doing anything, the company lost billions.

Aiden felt like that company.

The advertisements he was doing for different companies and brands were suddenly in jeopardy. There were phone calls from them, asking about terminating their contract.

His whole team was dealing with that.

Three brand deals were already over and three more have told him to meet with them, so they could talk about the recent accusations on him. They were probably looking to not attach themselves with him anymore.

Brands were always like this. They didn't like any controversy around the star they were in a contract with as it could negatively affect them too.

In the end, Aiden was losing money and the worst thing about it was that all of it was in the middle of the promotion phase of his upcoming movie. Because of this whole fiasco, that was taking a hit.

Alberto had already called him multiple times, threatening and cursing him. He looked like he would barge inside his office and punch him If he could.

The marketing team for the movie was trying to salvage the situation somehow by promoting the movie more on the back of other characters and taking Aiden entirely out of the promotions. That was fine with him as his presence would only hamper the movie.

The good thing was that Olio still believed that he was innocent.

The man had seen his fair share of accusations himself and actually believed that Aiden was innocent in all this. Not only him, others like Leo and Omar. Even other people he knew like his former co-stars.

There was at least a phone call from then and even though no one wanted to say anything in the public eye, Aiden was happy there was some support.

But the worst thing in all this was yet to happen.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

A lot of things happen to an actor when he loses his reputation. Getting stripped from brand deals and endorsements was just one thing.

An actor could still handle that with good investments and save himself from moving towards financial bankruptcy. In the first place, Aiden's spending habits were pretty good, so he didn't really care about all this.

It was just a couple of brand deals in his mind.

But the real problem was that his image in the public eye had changed and that meant that he was going to lose out on something that he can't afford to — Movies.

[Hex - Part 1] and [Hex - Part 2] were already done and dusted. Nothing could be done about them as both of these were already shot. Titan studios will lose more money if they don't release it.

The problem was 'Project Dream' and a few other projects that Aiden was eyeing. Only pre-production had begun on it and a serious loss of reputation meant that those projects were inevitably going to be affected.

Three days after the molestation news, he got a call from Timmy Button, the man behind 'Project Dream'.

"Aiden, can we talk?"

"Yes."

"I don't really want to talk in circles with something like this as I don't want to keep you in some sort of doubt. Things like this are better said straightforwardly."

When Timmy said that, Aiden understood what he was going to talk about. He frowned instinctively and told him to continue.

"Go on. I can already guess it."

"I don't think I want you to play the lead in 'Project Dream'. I don't want your involvement in it in any way after the controversy. We can terminate the contract as the shooting hasn't started yet."

For the record, there are always terms in contract that says that it could be terminated without any problems before the shooting if a problem comes up. Sometimes actors will leave due to dates or if the movie is pushed ahead while other times there will be controversy like this.

Hearing Timmy's words, Aiden only had one question in his mind.

"Do you really believe that I did something like that?"

"It doesn't matter. I don't believe anything here other than the fact that my dream project will be in jeopardy and it will get negative publicity if you are the lead. There are already nut cases on the internet who are trying to boycott your upcoming projects."

"I can understand that but you are rushing the decision. Moreover, most big actors already rejected the script."

Aiden tried to persuade but it seemed like Timmy had already thought about it.

"That's not a problem. I will just pay more money. Everyone loves it and as for rushing the decision, I don't think I'm. Let's talk in my office about it this week or the next. I have already started looking for another lead, so my decision is final. I'm sorry but I don't want anything to harm my dream."

The phone cut after that and Aiden just leaned against his seat.

His brows had ceased and he had an angry look on his face, like he was thinking of something deeply. No controversy had affected him this much till now. Even when he had gone against the press association.

But he guessed that back then, he had a solid plan but here, he was trapped in someone else's plan.

It was then that the door opened and Wade came in.

"You look angry. What happened?"

"Timmy called. I lost out on 'Project Dream'."

Hearing that, Wade looked shocked. He wanted to say something but decided not to and sat down in front of Aiden.

"Nothing can be done about it?"

"He looked firm on it and I don't want it now even if he asks me to come back."

Aiden said. It was a matter of self respect to him and he wasn't a newbie in the industry anymore that needed every project. He could handle losing out on one movie no matter how good it sounded.

Wade sighed hearing that but he could understand him.

"I was looking at a few other scripts and even those meetings stopped. Your reputation is at an all time low now."

"I know."

"What are we going to do now?"

Aiden went silent hearing that. The defamation and character assassination trial was anyway going to happen but it wasn't about that anymore. People would forget about it even if the court agreed to his charges against Katie.

After all, people won't be interested in this in a month or two.

The current loss of reputation would take a lot to recover. Maybe even years. He needed to get back at Katie and Franco Li and it couldn't happen with just using the law.

They have used the media to defame him and he had to do the same.

'I guess it's time to be on the offensive.'

Aiden thought in his mind and made a decision. It was now or never for him after all.

"I think I know what to do. Give me a minute alone."

He said to Wade who nodded and left the room. After he was alone, Aiden had two ideas in his mind.

'I can't do all this with my current personality. I need something more.'

He thought and there was only one character which could help him. Someone who knew how humans acted.

But he still needed something else other than that. Some luck.

"There's no better chance to use this."

He said and took out his 'Lucky coupon'. Then, without thinking, he stripped it and from that second, he was the luckiest man in the whole world.

A strange feeling seeped into his body like he could do no wrong. He felt like he could jump off a ten storey building and still come out with no broken bones or anything. He never felt so confident before.

He stood up and got his laptop and opened up Sparrow.

On it, people were still talking about him, cursing him. There were few that were defending him and he felt good about it but the majority of them had already considered him the villain.

He also saw a few clips of Katie on some talk show where she was talking about the abuse she went through. It looked like Franco was really trying to create a great public image for her by ruining his.

'If she can go on talk shows and talk about a fake scenario, then I can at least find loopholes on them on the internet.'

He thought and the next second, he felt his personality changing. A strange energy entered it but it wasn't overwhelming this time. He just felt cold like he had become heartless and cunning.

The next second, he tweeted out something that no one was expecting.

[Hey, I'm pretty sure a lot of you have questions about the alleged molestation case against me that Katie Brooks has made recently. I have already said in my statement that it's all a lie but I think I need to clear it up a bit more. So, ask away your questions about it.]

Such a tweet was something that no one had expected and it didn't even take ten seconds before it started blowing up. Normally, celebrities would be silent and let their lawyers handle it in these types of cases.

But Aiden liked to do it a bit differently.

If someone wanted to ruin his reputation, he at least had the right to protect it with facts.

Skyneves was the founder of Aiden's fan group and she was also one of his first fans, following him since the dawn of his career. She was one of his biggest fans and has watched every one of his movies in the theatres.

So, it was a big shock to her when the news had broken out that he had harassed someone in the past.

It has completely blown her away.

Online, it hadn't taken ten minutes before everyone had started thinking of Aiden in a negative life and then, articles have come out with the media portraying him in a negative light too.

It had forced a lot of pressure on her as a fan.

Should she believe him or not? Had he really done something like that? These were the questions in her mind but in the end, her heart was telling her that Aiden was innocent.

She had followed him for so long and knew that she wasn't wrong about him. That's why, even with all the backlash she had defended him.

She hoped that he would clarify things soon and it had indeed happened. He had released a statement, saying that whatever was said about him was wrong and he was going to court with it.

But despite that, nothing much has changed in the public view.

They all treated it as something that he was doing to save face. They still saw him as a molester and he was even removed from the promotions of his upcoming movie.

It was then that he had suddenly tweeted out something strange.

Looking at it, Skyneves had a feeling that things were finally going to change.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

[Hey, I'm pretty sure a lot of you have questions about the alleged molestation case against me that Katie Brooks has made recently. I have already said in my statement that it's all a lie but I think I need to clear it up a bit more. So, ask away your questions about it.]

Such a tweet from Aiden at this point of time was enough to garner a lot of attention from everyone. People were rubbing their eyes wondering if it was even real.

Some people literally checked if it was Aiden's account or some fake account impersonating him.

Others were wondering what Aiden was thinking in his mind. He had tweeted it like he was going to do a normal Q/A. The tone from the message wasn't from someone who had just lost out on movies and brand deals.

Still, it was enough to pique people's interest.

After all, everyone had already heard Katie's story but they have not heard anything from Aiden's side. Just after 15 seconds of tweeting it, several questions were raised.

Aiden read through them and picked a very simple question and it was even from Skyneves, a fan he was aware of.

[Skyneves: Were you and Katie really in a relationship? Can you please clarify it?]

He quickly typed out an answer.

[Aiden: No, the simple answer is a no. We were good friends and had a good time filming together but there was nothing between us. Not even one awkward atmosphere between us. If you don't believe me, you can ask Leo, the director for [30 days of Happiness] and Omar, the producer. They will clarify that. Whatever is said about an alleged relationship is false. Early on in my career, I have avoided any type of relationship.]

When he said that, several other questions came up. Aiden replied to them one by one.

[Yer a simp, Harry: Do you have any way to prove that you never harassed her?]

[Aiden: I don't need to give a proof because it never happened. In the first place, Katie had not provided any account of what happened or where it happened or how it happened. She just said I harassed her and that she was in a toxic relationship. Don't you think she would know more than that and could talk about it a bit more? You can't ask me for proof when there's no proof that it ever happened.]

[Sugar Baby consultation manager: Do you think all of it is a plan to harm your reputation?]

[Aiden: I'm not here to make up conspiracy theories but let's say, I can at least say that this is a false allegation on me for someone's benefit. After all, when one falls, someone is going up. In the end, people are smart.]

[LeBronze James: A lot of women organisations and other people who have a moderate following had said rude things about you after the whole controversy broke out. What do you have to say about it?]

[Aiden: It hurts personally because I know I have not done anything wrong but those women organisations are just doing their job, protecting women's rights and I understand that but they should really get some proof first or else they are going after innocents. The same is with people who have been calling me a woman molester without even looking into the matter.]

Aiden answered every question one by one and in just a while, the whole session had gone viral. People have asked questions to him about Katie and what had transpired and he had just picked out loopholes in what she had mentioned.

It wasn't hard for him at all.

People weren't expecting him to do something like this. No one had faced people like this after such a controversy. They would all hide behind their lawyers and not speak out.

Doing this gave Aiden more credibility than anyone else. After all, there were people who were simply hating on him without even looking at what Katie had said. With this Sparrow session, he had dispelled all doubts from their mind.

He had shown courage in answering the questions and that made him seem more innocent in this.

But no one knew that this was just the start.

As the Aiden Sparrow session was going on, Katie was on a talk show, acting like a lead figure in speaking out against violences against women. The talk show was something that was wholly women oriented and it was already in the third season which meant that it was a hit with lots of viewers.

Actually, Katie was just speaking out lines that were given to her by her agent, a list of topics that she needs to talk about, so people think of her as someone elegant.

The show was going pretty normally with the same topics that Katie had already talked about in other shows. So, there was confidence in her answers.

In the first place, it wasn't like she had no charisma or something. She was picked up by Franco for a reason, so she was able to attract the attention of a lot of people by her way of speaking.

It was proving to be effective to her career.

But it was then that the host asked a question that she had no idea about. The question had come due to the Sparrow session that Aiden had held.

"Katie, as if we are talking, Aiden Silvereye is hosting a Q/A on Sparrow and he had talked about a few points that I'm pretty sure you would be happy to discuss right?"

"What?"

When the host asked that, Katie was stumped. A Q/A session on Sparrow? She wasn't aware of that at all.

The host has brought it out of nowhere. Actually, the host, a former TV actress, had just got the message from the producer who had told her to talk about it. After all, something like that would mean more publicity for the show.

It didn't matter if it was an unexpected question.

Katie looked at her agent who was standing backstage hearing that question but even her agent looked shocked and was sweating, having no clue about it.

"Can you tell me more about that?" She asked, trying to get a bit more information.

"Aiden just hosted a session on Sparrow talking about the whole controversy and he had claimed that you have not given a notable account of what had happened between you two, claiming that there are a lot of loopholes into it? Can you go into more detail when the harassment happened and how?"

Katie wasn't able to answer that suddenly.

She had never gone into details because until now, Franco had told her to keep everything a bit ambiguous.

"Well, it was a long time ago."

"But you remember it well, right?"

"Yes, it happened when we were promoting the movie. One night, we were in a mall and there was an argument. He had hit me then. I remember it well. I have tried to patch things up and be better but he has become more and more toxic... I broke up after that."

"Then, why did you come out with this? You could have come out after all this happened too?"

Another question that wasn't in the script. Again, Katie thought about it for a minute before she was able to answer.

"I tried to forget about it. Aiden was still a close person to me but those scars kept bothering me and in the end, I had to let it out."

She said and thankfully at that moment, her agent came forward to stop the interview to go ahead. The agent asked for a break and Katie was finally able to take a breather.

Sadly for Katie, her answers were recorded by the talk show team and released as promo videos for the show broadcast. The producer of the show didn't really care about SGA or Franco Li and just wanted good ratings as they had gone stale.

So, he acted quickly.

He knew that those promos would help out a lot in getting more interest in the next episode of the talk show. That's what actually happened.

As soon as the clips landed on the internet, chaos began literally.

A lot of people had become sceptical after Aiden's Sparrow session, so when those clips landed, they began to analyse them and tried to find out if it had actually gone on like what Katie had described.

With Aiden's luck, there was surely going to be someone who would find the lie in her words.

Soon, a reply under the clips had gone viral.

It was a reply with a photo attached.

Actually, the event that Katie described had happened. Aiden and her had gone to a theatre together for promotions and it was then that they had taken a selfie with one of the staff members.

And that staff had suddenly seen the post and chosen to talk about what she had seen that day.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

Cassidy was one of the millions that were living just above the poverty line in America. Living in New York, one of the most expensive cities in the world, it was never easy to make ends meet.

There were no savings and just the rent was too much even if she was living in a one bedroom apartment that looked too small for anyone else other than her.

She had to do multiple part time jobs to pay the monthly rent and get herself food. One of those jobs was at a local theatre that ran most of the famous Hollywood movies and a few indie movies.

She had gotten a job there due to the recommendation of a friend who knew the manager of the theatre.

Her shifts were mostly at night and in her mind, it was boring. But there were still a few interesting moments that had happened with her, like watching a movie that she never thought she would like in the theatre.

But the most interesting moment was meeting Aiden Silvereye.

At that point, he was still a small movie star but before meeting him, Cassidy had watched his movie [30 days of Happiness] and had liked him a lot. So, it was a special moment for her.

That's why she remembered him.

There was Katie Brooks with her too but she had forgotten her as after that movie, she had kind of faded. She was in some movies but her role was too short that Katie drifted away from her memories.

It was until the recent controversy came up and she remembered her.

But still, having a busy schedule, Cassidy never really thought too much into it until one of her coworkers showed her a video of Katie talking on a talk show.

She had instantly realised she was talking about the day they had come to the theatre together.

Knowing that she had gained something big, she quickly went up to her Sparrow account and made a comment.

[Cassidy: Actually, I remember that Katie and Aiden had come to our theatre when [30 days of Happiness] had been released. I remember it very vividly. I don't know if they were in a relationship or not but I doubt anything bad happened between them. It was a very nice atmosphere and they took photos. I remember overhearing a conversation about them talking about the reaction to the movie by critics. All in all, I doubt Aiden looked even a bit angry. Actually, the whole crowd surrounded them but he handled it very nicely. Here's a photo so you don't think I'm speaking lies.]

She posted a selfie that she had taken with both Katie and Aiden and with that, the comment had all the recipe to go viral and it did.

A lot of people saw it and with that, the gears started to change. People who were on Katie's side started blaming her and calling her out for all the lies she had spewed.

It changed very quickly and it really proved that people's nature was something that would easily change towards someone.

It was then that a lot of men's right organisations came forward to show it as a casa of a woman trying to use a man for her personal goals. Although these organisations were not mainstream like this women's right organisation, they still have a good amount of power.

They started raising their voices for Aiden and like this, the whole controversy started shifting. Slowly, everything was going according to what Aiden had thought.

With the luck coupon in his hand, he was undefeatable.

But this was not the end.

In Franco's office, chaos had already started. He was looking angrily at Katie who was standing in front of him. His snake-like eyes were filled with an anger that his assistant had never seen before.

The assistant wanted to say something but he knew that staying silent was the way for him to keep his job.

"What were you thinking saying that?"

"I didn't have time to think. I told you to get the producer to edit it out. Why didn't you do it?"

Katie asked back but Franco still looked at her angrily.

"I tried to but that damn producer won't listen to me. That guy is just after the money and why won't he be? You spoke your damn mouth without thinking and now people are already being against you. You see the media outside the company. They are all here for you."

"I tried my best!"

"Your best ruined everything!"

Franco Li frowned. It wasn't the time to blame but he had nothing else to do. The public sentiment towards Katie was just changing minute by minute and he had to change it.

Otherwise, he will be in trouble and Aiden's career will get a new steam.

"Leave it. Scolding you won't do anything. Actually, nothing will do anything."

"Then, what are we going to do now?"

"I will try to create a positive opinion of you on the internet but apart from that, I can't do much. I will prepare a plan for you on what to do but please try to be lowkey currently. We need to hide when things are not with us. Don't speak out your mind no matter what."

"... I understand."

Katie just nodded. She wanted to say a lot of things. She was feeling disrespect ever since she had been signed by Franco Li.

It has happened a lot of times.

Just right now, she had felt scared that Franco would hit her out of anger. Her legs were already shaking. It was frustrating and sad to her.

She had entered a contract with him after a lot of struggles she had faced but it had not gone like she had thought. She felt like she was living the life of a liar these days, only pretending to face something she never did.

Only for her dream.

A dream that she wondered was even worth it now? Maybe? Maybe not? She didn't know.

After the talk with Franco, she just ran towards a bathroom to cry out her feelings.

Franco's assistant saw it when he came out of his office. Tears in her eyes, Katie was walking towards the bathroom. Seeing this, he felt anger, frustration, sorrow and another mix of emotions.

But there was no way to do anything about them.

They were just going to make him uncomfortable for a while until he learned to let them go. It has happened so many times now.

He had seen Franco being a scum to so many people. The bathroom in front of his desk had been the witness of a lot of people's tears in the last few years.

'I'm tired of this job just because of this negativity.'

The assistant thought in his mind.

He had contemplated leaving a job a lot but he was good at this job and it pays well. Moreover, it was one of the most relaxing jobs as Franco was very particular about his schedule, so his work was mostly to just remind him of what is when.

But seeing him being a human scum for so long, the assistant had feelings of frustration. He felt sad that he wasn't able to do anything about it and was just a silent spectator to him.

'Someone who doesn't talk about a crime that he had witnessed is akin to the one who had committed the crime.'

He thought about those words that he had read recently in a book.

For some reason, he wasn't able to get it out of his mind, especially after seeing how Franco had behaved with Katie. He wasn't able to get it out of his mind.

It was then that he got a message on his phone.

It was from someone who was very famous in the industry but not in the way people would assume. The person was famous for knowing about everyone in the industry. A true industry insider that knew everything.

[You should think about our deal again. I promise you won't be blamed for anything and nothing will happen to your job. Trust me.]

Seeing that message, the assistant wasn't able to ignore it this time and send back a message.

"Sister, you still have not got anything? This is the perfect opportunity to ruin Franco and shove him to the ground."

Tom asked as he frowned. He was on a call with his sister.

Once upon a time, she used to be a top paparazzi but now she is retired. Still, she had a lot of connections and was the only one he could trust at the moment.

When the allegations against Aiden came up, he contacted her. After days of trying to convince her, she has agreed to help but she has gotten nothing till now.

So, he was getting impatient.

"I'm trying to get something. Isn't Aiden doing better now anyway?"

A frustrated voice came from the other side.

"Yes, but it's not enough. He needs to properly clear his name."

"I'm trying to get something but it's not easy, especially against him. Wait! I got a message."

She said suddenly and Tom smiled.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

"You are a bit crazy, you know."

A happy voice came from the other side of the phone. A familiar voice that Aiden hadn't heard in a long time because of how busy he had been.

"I need to be, Omar. I had no other option. I thought if I didn't fear and faced all this straight on, Katie and Franco would make a mistake themselves because of how unexpected it would be."

It was the voice of Omar, a friend who was now slowly becoming one of the top indie producers in Hollywood. With [30 days of Happiness] and [Action Hero, he broke the 100 million club for indie movies.

Now, he was doing movies like [A man called Octavius] with a popular A-list actor and [Your Walls are Dark] which was the adaptation of a very famous horror novel.

These projects were all indie but analysts and critics expect them to be moderate to big hits as Omar already has a good flow as a producer and has the right amount of experience now.

"You thought the right thing. They clearly made a big mistake. People are doubting them online now."

"Yeah, the scrutiny on me is extremely low too and more and more support is coming. Even the brands that asked me to terminate their contracts now look to be apologising."

"Brands mostly go with the trends. They are very volatile to outside noise. Their shares fall even with small news daily."

"I understand that."

Aiden said. In his mind, brands and him only have a cordial business relationship and nothing more than that. He takes a lot of money to endorse them and they use his popularity to sell their products.

Purely a business transaction even though Aiden doesn't promote any brand he personally doesn't like.

"By the way, I heard you lost out on a movie with Timmy Button due to the scandal?"

Omar suddenly said. One of the reasons he had texted was due to this.

"The news already reached you?"

"It's famous in the inner circles. You know I am invited to all of their parties now, so I hear a lot. Timmy Button has apparently signed a newbie for your role in his movie and everyone is talking about it."

"Good for him. I did lose out on it but now, my schedule is at least free."

Aiden shook his head. He was not going to feel bad about it now. He had felt bad enough about it already.

"So, what will you do now?"

Omar asked and he took a moment to reply. A big part of his schedule had suddenly opened up, so he could do a majority of things.

"I think I will first deal with this controversy completely."

"Court hearings will take time, you know."

"I know but I'm talking in the public sense. I need to completely get my name off the mud."

"How will you even do that? You need more than just a twitter session."

Omar raised an eyebrow. He knew that Aiden had a knack of coming out of bad situations without any harm done to him.

It was to the point where he sometimes wondered if he should kick him off a building just to see if he's going to survive somehow.

But this wasn't that easy.

He would need a major proof to get out of this unscathed.

"I don't know that but I know I will get out of this. It's just a matter of time."

Aiden said and smiled. He had full faith in his Lucky coupon. There was still a bit of luck that was left.

He could feel it.

An hour later, it actually came through as major news broke out.

The LA Times was one of the leading newspapers that people read to get to know about film stars and singers. It would have interviews with major celebrities every week and even detailing about the industry was going forward which basically meant analysis of what movies were working and who were the upcoming icons.

There were of course scandals. From small to big. From rumours to made up facts — There was everything.

But no one had expected that they would get their hands on something that would create shockwaves across the industry.

On a Sunday morning, the LA Times used their social media account to post an article containing the whole controversy surrounding Katie Brooks and Aiden Silvereye.

It had detailed accounts of everything but in the end, they posted a recording of a call that had happened between Katie Brooks and Franco Li.

No one knew how they had gotten it but no one cared until it was not fake. It did look authentic and just ten minutes after it was posted, it blew up.

The recording went like this.

[Franco Li: Where are you? Did you get the shoot done? I have a reporter ready for you to give another interview.]

[Katie: Can't I not do it? I'm already sick of saying the same thing again and again. What if they ask difficult questions again? I will slip again.]

[Franco Li: You won't. That reporter is already instructed by me to not ask those sorts of questions and haven't you already learnt what to say? I prepared you for this.]

[Katie Brooks: I did prepare but it's hard when everything is a bloody lie. I can't lie about something that never happened with a straight face.]

[Franco Li: You are an actor, so you should know how to act. Don't give me an attitude. I have done all this to make sure your name gets in the news. You were going nowhere without it and now, at least your name is on some newspaper headlines. Actors live the life of lies all the time. You won't be the first and the last, so suck it and do what I say!]

The recording ended there as it was just a short 30 seconds recording but it had everything that the people wanted.

Katie herself says that all of it was a lie and Franco forces her to do what he says.

If it was true, then this was probably gonna be as big as when Katie's accusations first came forward. Maybe even more than as it involved Franco Li, one of the biggest agents in the whole of Hollywood.

His involvement in it meant that SGA would be affected and other agencies would try to take advantage of it.

Just half an hour after the post came, plenty of news articles have already been written about it.

Another major news in the Aiden-Katie saga. A call recording that might put an end to the whole controversy had leaked suddenly. This is the major development in this scandal.

Katie Brooks calls everything a 'Bloody lie' in her phone recording with Franco Li. Does that mean Aiden Silvereye was always wrongly accused?

Who is Franco Li? Find out about the star agent who might be the one pulling all the strings in the latest big controversy in Hollywood.

Men rights organisation demands legal action against Katie Brooks and Franco Li after the new set of evidence came out that clearly indicates that in the whole case, Aiden Silvereye was always the victim.

This news was not only on the internet but it even came on the morning news. Ironically, the talk shows and morning programs that Katie had gone to had talked about it and in the broadcast, they have roasted Katie and Franco, calling it one of the major hurdles to truth.

A lot of other famous people criticised Katie and Franco, going as far as to call their acts one of the worst in this decade.

One of the leading Hollywood journalists wrote in Sparrow, "In times where Hollywood rarely gets someone who can be called a star and shows a spark that says that he could go a long way, some people still feel like they have the right to destroy his career just for their personal gains. The industry has never been a fair playing field but when a leading star agent does something like this even with the resources in his hand, then you know that the person who they are against is not simple but special..."

The journalist went on to compare Aiden's rise to one of other superstars that have emerged in the 80s and 90s. Stars that have come out of nowhere and had given complexes to a lot of leading men of their time, so a battle had started.

But these superstars have always come out on the top like someone had written a script and everyone was just following it.

In the end, The journalist compared Aiden to the stars of those times and noted that although he wasn't at that position yet, he could one day with his skills that could easily transcend boundaries and reach every part of the world.

That was one of the qualities that he had over everyone else.

He also noted that this won't be the first time that Aiden would face something like this but he would come out of it unscathed every single time.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

Franco Li and Katie Brooks — How two people tried to sabotage the career of the most promising star in Hollywood.

-Hollywood Weekly.

Reading the headline, Aiden felt a gush of joy in his heart.

His eyes were waiting to read a news like that for days now. It wouldn't be wrong to say that this was truly out of his dreams.

It's been two days since the news of the recording came out. It's been chaotic all around Hollywood since then. It has been the talk of the town and even the whole country.

Even SGA was affected a lot by the whole controversy.

They had to put out a press release saying that they would be looking into it and a strict punishment would be taken against Franco Li.

Even the agent association put out a press release talking about this. The Actor's guild had done the same thing and other major associations have gone in their footsteps too.

This was the first time something like this had happened. So many associations come forward to talk about one single topic.

But in the end, this was about the rights of an actor and how easy it was to destroy a career.

Franco wasn't someone with a small time in Hollywood. He was the face of SGA and handled several prominent A-listers in Hollywood. Top stars would come to his office every day, so the scrutiny was on them too.

Taking this opportunity, a lot of these top stars broke their contract with SGA and Franco Li.

Top stars are majorly looking for an opportunity to go solo as they have earned enough and had investments to do it. It wasn't like Franco was a great person to work with anyway.

It was a clash of ego a lot of times with him.

SGA was facing the backlash and the loss of money and reputation. As for Katie, she was the one who was the most shocked.

She was hearing the worst kind of words from all people. There were several videos on MeTube against her and it seemed like she was public enemy number one.

A lot of men's right organisations have sent her a notice and she felt like she was in the middle of a witch hunt.

Even her family has stopped talking to her, calling her an embarrassment to them. In the end, she was lost and had no other choice as it was just the consequences of her decision.

"Hey, Aiden, come look at this."

As Aiden was thinking about the whole drama in his office, Tom suddenly opened the door and came in.

He had a tablet in his hand and it seemed like he wanted to show him something.

"What is it, Tom?"

"I was going through the comments of a MeTuber who talks about females rights? She was one of the few who talked against you a lot, even went on podcasts for it and now, she's trying to apologise. Just check the comments. The ones commenting are the same as her. People who opposed you and now, they are all sorry."

Tom said as he shoved the tablet on Aiden's face.

On it, the comments section of a MeTuber with over 3 million subscribers was opened. He read the comments one by one.

[Women Dater: I needed to delete my earlier comments about Aiden. Fuck Franco Li for real. I doubted a good man due to him and that bitch. I feel like I should go watch [Hex - Part 1] to compensate for it.]

[Darth Dancer: I feel the same way. I even booked my tickets for me and my girlfriend. I don't even like fantasy but I feel like I wronged a good guy, so I should help him a bit.]

[Obi Nan can blow me: Yeah, feel the same to be very honest. If the recordings hadn't come out, a good guy's career would have been over. From his interviews and character I always liked him a lot. The whole controversy made me turn against him and I even cancelled my plans to watch [Hex - Part 1]

[Talking Toaster: My favourite thing to do from two days ago is to go and watch the videos of people who were speaking against Aiden just a week ago. Those guys turned in an instant some don't even want to admit they were wrong. It's hilarious especially because I always believed that Aiden was innocent.]

[V1RG1N: I always feel ashamed. I will never believe media reports from now on until stuff is confirmed. The whole world doesn't feed the news. They feed whatever sells.]

Reading all those messages, Aiden felt like they were the same as the ones he had read on Sparrow. People who were against him were now saying sorry and blaming the media for all this.

"I have read hundreds of comments like this already. What are you trying to show me in it?"

Aiden asked as he looked at Tom and he hurriedly replied.

"Well, didn't you notice that a lot of these comments talk about going to watch [Hex - Part 1] just because they feel like they have wronged a good man unintentionally?"

"I did notice it."

"It's not just a few people. The advance booking for [Hex - Part 1] has significantly increased in the last two days. The movie was doing average numbers but after those recordings, it's doing the numbers of a blockbuster movie."

The advance booking for [Hex - Part 1] started a few days ago and by then, Aiden was still public enemy number one.

So, the advance bookings have been lower than expected. The whole of Titan studios was already extremely nervous about it. Alberto was apparently calling him several times daily but Aiden had told everyone to not take any call from him.

After all, no one wanted to hear curses from the mouth of a foul man.

"Really? It changed so much." Aiden asked. Although it was not good for a lead actor, he had forgotten about [Hex - Part 1] release in the past few days since he was in a lot of stress.

He wasn't even tracking the advance booking numbers.

"Yes and it's all because of you. The movie is surely going to do over a 100 million dollars just on the first day worldwide and at least 60-70 million dollars in North America. The opening weekend is 4 days before it goes down, so until then, people are expecting it to earn around 500 million dollars."

"That's already a big hit." Aiden managed to say.

From what he recalled, the marketing team head has told him that 400 million dollars for the first part would be considered a hit but like this, the lifetime collections might be double of that.

That was extremely good news.

'I guess everything is really back on line now.'

He thought in his mind and leaned against his seat with a smile on his face.

Good days always precede the bad ones and that's what is happening. The chances of [Hex - Part 1] failing at the box office were high after the scandal but now that everything was okay and people were in Aiden's favour, things have returned to normal.

He could even say that they were better than normal now.

'There's still one thing. I am not able to sleep well these days...'

The one thing that was like an annoying grain of sand in the back of his mind was Katie.

The reason she had deemed fit to betray him and if she had felt any remorse about it? The betrayal of a friend was something that was always going to be unexpected, especially when it came from one of his first friends in America.

He knew that currently, there was an almost witch hunt against her online and although he felt bad, he wasn't going to do anything.

Everyone was responsible for their own actions and for every action, the consequences are always going to come sooner or later.

He just wanted to know if she had anything to say about it to him.

Until he knew it, he doubted he would be able to sleep peacefully.

Ring!

As he was thinking about it, his phone suddenly rang. It was a notification. Probably a message from someone.

Tom passed him his phone that was on the desk and he looked at it. It was a message from an unknown number but reading it, he had a hard time believing it.

[It's me, Katie. Can we meet? Please.]

It was a small message but below it, there was an address and time given. Aiden recognised the address actually. It was Katie's old apartment.

He didn't know that she was still living there.

Reading the message, he wondered why she had decided to text him? Was it to apologise? Or she just wanted to request him to stop the witch hunt against her.

Aiden didn't know and he didn't care what the reason was.

He just wanted to ask his questions.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

"You know it could be a trap, right?"

Wade asked as he looked at Aiden who was sitting on the seat beside him. They were in a car right now and Tom who was driving it had perked up his ear to listen to their conversation.

"Yeah, I know. It has all the scents of one."

"Then?"

"Then, why am I going to meet her?"

"Yes."

Wade raised an eyebrow and Aiden looked outside the window. It was raining for some reason. The clouds were greyed out and wind was blowing, making it a great day to relax.

But to Aiden, it just looked a bit sad.

He didn't know why. Maybe because he was going to meet Katie today.

"Well, I just need answers." He said, turning back to look at Wade. "It was hard for me personally when this came out, just because me and Katie used to be close. I have a lot of unresolved feelings."

He said and Wade looked like he wanted to say something but he just shook his head and looked outside.

It was then that Tom asked from the driver's seat.

"But what about the trap? We need to be careful of that."

"For that, I doubt there will be a trap in the first place. Franco Li is too busy, trying to handle the mess of the leaked recording. He won't get anything out of trying to make me the villain anymore when it's already so clear that he's the main perpetrator. People are with me. Though, I will still be careful of what I say."

Aiden replied, having already thought of a lot of things.

After the recording had come out, the only thing Franco Li had tried was to get a fake internet trend going claiming that the recordings were false but the internet was a place with everyone in the world.

And a few of those people are extremely talented, so there were already those that have checked it and claimed that it wasn't any false recording and looked to be real.

'Anyway, Franco had taken a big hit this time but there's still a chance he will try to get back...'

Aiden suddenly thought in his mind.

Looking at Wade, he couldn't help but ask.

"Wade, what type of person Franco is?"

His sudden question surprised Wade but he answered in one breath. It was an extremely easy question for him.

"Extremely cunning. He's the type of a person the devil will be scared of. Someone who has done the worst things in Hollywood but no one knows because he's so good at everything. Though, he messed up big time with you, and didn't use his brain. Probably thought you are going to not do anything because you would be pushed in a corner."

"I know right." Aiden smiled. "So, is he a better agent than you?"

"What type of question is that?" Wade looked at him with apprehension.

"Just reply."

"He's not..." Wade frowned, then put a finger on his chin and continued. "He's someone who I consider as an equal but he got the easy way to the top. Moreover, he has no guilt for doing things. I might be a lot of things but I would rather not be on the black side of Hollywood."

Aiden smiled hearing that.

This was one of the things that they would often discuss. Everyone says that in Hollywood, no one was white. So, if they weren't white, then where did they stand?

Complete Black? That wasn't acceptable by both Wade and Aiden. So, they have decided that they stood in the middle of what was called a grey zone.

"True. So, don't you think someone like him needs to go down completely?" Aiden said. "If he somehow came out of it, then he's surely going to come after me again."

"That could happen."

Wade blinked his eyes and thought about it for a while and Aiden smiled.

"Yup, so we need to put him down and we need to do it now."

"How are we going to do that?" Wade asked.

"Everyone has a past. Someone like Franco has a dark past. Contact Katherine. I'm pretty sure she will be able to help us."

"A deal?"

"If it's possible."

Aiden said and it was then that the car stopped. He had reached the place. Surprisingly, there were no reporters around.

It looked like no one knew that Katie lived here or maybe, she didn't live here anymore. He didn't know but that didn't matter at the moment.

"Take care, Aiden. Don't get into trouble."

Wade said as Aiden got out of the car and opened up his umbrella. He nodded his head before walking towards the door. Looking around, he couldn't see a lot of people outside.

The rain had increased and it was better to stay inside.

He climbed the stairs. Reaching the door of Katie's apartment, he rang the bell and in an instant, the door opened like someone was waiting for him to come.

There was Katie standing in front of him.

She looked the same as the last time he had seen her in person. The same hair, the same face but there was no smile on her face. It was like she was a shell of her past self.

Her eyes looked a bit numb like she had been crying a lot these days and staring at him, she had an indescribable expression on her face.

They kept staring at each other like that for a while until Katie opened her mouth.

"Please come in..."

She said in a very low voice. Aiden came in and saw that there was not a lot of furniture in the apartment. It looked like a lot had changed since the last time he had been here.

"You want to try some spaghetti? I cooked it for you."

Katie said as she pointed at the table in one of the corners. They used to eat that always when they would meet at her house to watch movies or act out a scene.

It was just simple to make for them, hence the perfect dish in case they get hungry.

Aiden just stood there for a while, wondering if he should eat or not but in the end, he nodded his head.

'Maybe, this is going to be our last spaghetti together.'

He thought in his mind.

As Aiden was busy with Katie, his fans had been trying their best to make sure [Hex - Part 1] was his biggest hit till then.

If one looked into it, Aiden's fan following wasn't normal. It wasn't like other stars who only had a lot of Skygram or Sparrow followers. His fan following was actually on the ground level too.

It was due to the fact that everyone had seen him take small steps from the ground up to the top. This can't be said about any other actor in the industry.

Even if it was hard to accept, Hollywood was still a bit closed for outsiders. Most top stars were those whose parents had been a part of the industry in some capacity.

Or people who were already rich and had connections through it.

It was getting rarer and rarer to find people one could relate to in the atmosphere of increasing nepotism debates. On top of it, Aiden had always been well behaved with everyone, making him look like a nice guy that everyone wanted to support.

So, after the sexual assault controversy, people wanted to support him way more than before at least for his next movie.

It was like they wanted to apologise to him in a way.

Several men's organisations bought bulk tickets for the first day of the movie followed up by Aiden's fan club who were all excited for the movie from the start.

The novels of the Hex series were also popular so there were a lot of people who were excited to see what the big screen adaptation of the series would look like.

The marketing team of [Hex - Part 1] had been acting like zombies for a while now as after the controversy, their whole marketing campaign has failed drastically.

Even taking out Aiden from the marketing wasn't enough to salvage it as people's interest had died down significantly in the movie.

But after everything was settled and Aiden came out as the victim, it completely exploded.

The zombified marketing team employees felt like a god had revived them from death. Seeing the blockbuster advanced bookings they weren't able to believe their eyes.

"We have already earned 15 million dollars in advance bookings. And that's just from North America."

"It will go till 22 million as the rate is just increasing. I'm expecting it to earn 75-80 on the first day."

"No, it can even go more than that. There's no guarantee it will go down."

"I can't believe this is happening."

"We might have the biggest blockbuster of the year in our hands right now."

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

Aiden just ate the spaghetti in silence. It tasted the same as before, when he had eaten it a long time ago. Katie had always been a good cook from the start.

'I remember I used to joke about her opening up a restaurant if acting didn't work back then.'

He recalled a time from his memories when Aiden hadn't gotten the miraculous system and he was still just an ordinary aspiring actor.

It was a good time but thinking about it also reminded Aiden of the harsh reality in front of him. So much has changed and it is irreversible now.

Thinking of that, he stopped eating and looked at Katie.

"How is it?" She suddenly asked when she saw him looking at her.

"It's good like before." He muttered then, frowned. "Just you changed and I don't know why."

Hearing that, Katie seemed to be a bit taken back but she still replied.

"I didn't have a choice."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"No, people always have a choice. You just thought that it was the easier way to stardom. You always wanted that and you know it really suits you. After all, you need to be someone who doesn't mind backstabbing their friends to achieve it."

Aiden said in a loud voice, flashing a bit of the anger he felt towards Katie.

Hearing that, she went silent and just lowered her head. Her heart pained but there was no talking back to that. Aiden was right and she can't do anything about it.

She needed to accept what had happened and what she had done.

"I know I hurt you." She said, slowly. "There's no apologising for it. I know that well. There's no going back."

"Then, why did you call me here?"

Aiden asked, looking into her eyes and she struggled to match them. There was a desperation in her eyes that he could see.

He could say one thing and that was that she hadn't come here to take revenge on him. It wasn't some weird plan by Franco to get back at him.

"I... am giving up on acting. I think after the court trial, I would anyway be in jail. I won't have the money to compensate you if the court asks me to." She sighed. "Anyway, even without it, I'm going to be leaving Los Angeles, moving to my town. It's a small town in Texas."

It seemed like the court case that Aiden had filed against her was on her mind. Why won't it be? There were full chances that he was going to win it easily and that meant that she would be paying heavily for what she did.

The law was harsh on these types of things.

"I just wanted to tell you this in person. I wanted to meet you one last time. I'm not here to say sorry as I know you won't accept it. I just wanted to meet you in person one last time. Whatever I did was not... something excusable."

She muttered as a tear dropped from her eyes, remorse and regret all over her face.

Aiden didn't feel anything seeing her like this. He kept looking at her with a stone cold face, like what she was saying was not reaching his heart.

Maybe Katie had thought that Aiden would forgive her seeing her tears or maybe she just really wanted to see him in person one last time.

Aiden wasn't sure and he had lost the ability to trust when it came to her.

In the end, he just frowned.

"What are you going to do in Texas?"

"My parents have a convenience store they wanted me to take over."

"Then, it seems like you would be too busy to ever come back."

"I don't plan to."

A silence hung in the air after that.

Aiden just picked up the fork and finished up the Spaghetti. All the time, Katie kept looking at him but no one said anything. There wasn't anything to say.

Whatever they said would end up with Aiden screaming at her and maybe that's what she wanted. For him to lash out and let out all of his anger.

Sadly for her, he wanted to keep it in.

"I will go now."

He said after finishing up the food. Getting up, he looked at her one final time.

"I actually have a lot to say to you but I don't want to say them. I don't want to waste my feelings on you. We were friends and it didn't end well. What you did... I won't go there as it's already over. But I will never forget what you did. Still, I hope you have a good life ahead."

After saying that, he left through the door while Katie kept looking at his back. She just stood there, not able to say anything as tears fell from her eyes.

Never forget what happened but try to move on too — That was one thing that Aiden felt was true for humans. So many times, people were locked in the past and Aiden didn't want to be one of them.

A part of him wanted to forgive Katie but that part of him was a fool. Forgiveness wasn't something he wasn't going to give her. At the same time, he wasn't looking out for revenge.

That was over.

He felt like people like Katie and Franco were already below him and he needed to not worry about them.

Sitting in his car after coming back, he saw that Wade wasn't here. Tom told him that he had left to take care of Franco Li and started asking about what happened with Katie.

Aiden just shook his head and smiled.

"It was nothing. My past self would have lost control in front of her but it went better than expected."

"What did you tell her?" Tom raised an eyebrow.

"Actually nothing." Aiden smiled. "I have a lot to say but I rather she doesn't know. My friendship with her is over and I don't wish to end it with a fight, so I just listened to her and came back."

Actually, Aiden had been mostly silent to tell Katie that he wasn't even going to waste his anger on her as it was worthless in the end.

For him, betrayal was the end and no one could break that rule of his. Not even him himself.

"It looks like you got some closure though."

Tom said as he noticed that Aiden looked to be in a better mood.

"Yeah, I did. I saw what I wanted to see from her. If I had stayed there for a while longer, it wouldn't have gone the same way. I'm glad I came back fast."

Hearing that, Tom made a confused expression but he didn't seem to want to ask anything more from. him. Katie was the past and there's no reason to talk about her — He got that one thing from what Aiden had said.

"So, what's next?"

"Well, aren't the critics screening for [Hex - Part 1] today?"

He looked at Tom and he nodded.

"Yeah, I got a call for you to be there but it seems like they are giving you space as they think you have just gone through a lot, so it's fine if you don't attend it. Anyway, I doubt the movie will fail at this point."

"No, I will be there. I have made a list of people that I want to meet."

"List?"

Tom tilted his head. He had never heard that Aiden wanted to meet someone. He wasn't the type to have idols.

"Yeah, a list of people who said negative things about me when the controversy broke out. You do know that a lot of people, even celebrities, made me look like a villain. I want to see their faces now to know what they will say."

Aiden laughed hearing that.

The one man he wanted to see the most was Alberto Dundley, the producer of the movie who had called him everyday to curse at him.

Now, the tables have turned.

Alberto might be the producer but the movie is already over now. The common people have shown Aiden immense support and with that, he has gotten a new level of power.

He planned to use it against Alberto.

Later that night, several critics were there to see the screening for [Hex - Part 1]. It was a much talked about movie and something that all of them wanted to see, especially after the last week.

So, all of them were excited and when they saw the movie, they realised one thing.

Even with the controversy, the movie was so good that there was no way it wouldn't have worked. Olio Fermen had again proved that he was maybe the most underrated director in Hollywood.

As for Aiden, they all felt only one thing.

'It would be a shame if his career had been destroyed. He's just a very fascinating actor.'

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

The next day, several critics made their reviews public. They have written it all night after watching the movie as today was the opening day for [Hex - Part 1].

For critics, there were several types of reviews. The good ones, the bad ones, the ones that they enjoyed writing about. For the third category, they either enjoyed writing it because the movie was good or it was so bad that they wanted to let out their frustrations.

For [Hex - Part 1, it was obviously the first reason. The movie was so good that I had a lot to say about it.

Some critics even wanted to watch the movie a few times more before giving out a verdict as Olio was known to have a lot of subtle details in his movie. MeTubers have even made complete scene by scene breakdowns of his movies as there were too many details hidden everywhere.

Others had to put out a review no matter what. In the morning, a lot of reviews came up on Sparrow.

Do you know how it feels like reading a fantasy novel for the first time? The feeling of getting sucked into an imaginary but fantastical world. The movie gives you exactly that and more. It's the perfect rendition of Hex on the big screen and you should definitely see it this weekend with your family.

-@Criticye.

The biggest worry everyone had about [Hex - Part 1] was the story. How well have they adapted the novel? Did they do justice or it's just another half baked attempt at minting a lot of money. The worry was enhanced when the news came out that the movie was now coming in two parts, a decision that was hasty. But when I finished the movie, I realised that all these worries were for nothing. The movie was what every fan of the novel wanted.

-Hollywood Weekly.

Barring a few places where [Hex - Part 1] falters, it's a complete entertainment. Aiden Silvereye again does what's asked of him and the climax of the movie is something that's one of the best in recent times. It's to the point that I have a hard time controlling myself to know what would happen next. Titan studios might have the big blockbuster they have been looking for.

-@Top G for LA Times.

These types of positive reviews were promoted by the marketing team and most people would be happy to know that the movie had done well.

But that doesn't mean no one disliked the movie. There was a good number of average to negative reviews too, even if it was in a minority compared to the positive reviews.

It was the same for every movie but for something like [Hex - Part 1, it was given that the movie was going to get at least some form of negative reception as parts of the book were changed for the movie to be of two parts.

[Hex - Part 1] is a brave attempt but it falls on his head as the movie enters the climax. Olio, despite claiming that he's adapting for the fans, has made big changes compared to the books and although the movie can be considered good, it's not a faithful adaptation at all.

-Vanity Magazine.

Olio Feremen might have made good movies in the past but it's extremely clear that his time is up now as he can't seem to adapt a 80s novel series for a modern audience. The changes he makes comes off as character breaking and although the VFX might get them some awards, the screenplay is sacrificed for a climax that most people would like as it prepares them for the inevitable part two which is hopefully more than a disappointing movie.

-The Ironic Times.

These types of reviews started coming more and more as time went by as a lot of independent critics watched the movie in the earning and gave out their reviews.

A lot of them felt like the movie was enjoyable but it sacrificed its potential for a great climax that left everyone on a cliff.

Even with that, people who read the reviews still went to watch the movie.

Darren Bohner was someone who hated his last name but one thing he loved was novels and movies. The thing that he loved the most was seeing his favourite novel be a movie.

And today was the day when his dream would come true.

Hex, his favourite fantasy series of all time, was getting its big movie adaption and he couldn't wait to see it. Darren had been following news about it since the rumours started and although a lot had been said about the movie, he wanted to be cautiously optimistic.

When Aiden's scandal broke out, a lot of people around him cancelled their plans of watching the movie but he wasn't like that. He hadn't done that as he didn't care about it.

His love for Hex didn't care about it.

For the opening day, he had even booked three tickets at timings. One alone in the morning, one with his friends and one with his girlfriend in the evening.

He was even wondering if he should go to the country which has the first public show of [Hex - Part 1, so he could catch it way before anyone else but he had given up on those plans due to how expensive it was.

Still, his excitement was at that level.

In the morning, he was standing outside the theatre, reading through the reviews that had come out, doing his best to avoid any spoilers. He felt happy that a lot of reviews were good but the reviews about not being a good adaptation personally affected him, though he tried to shake his head.

It was then that he had heard a conversation between two friends who were standing close to him.

"I don't think we should waste money on it."

"Why?"

"It's not going to be as good as the novel. It's extremely impossible to imagine the novel as a movie and Hollywood is after money. I doubt they want to make a good movie."

"We are already here. Let's not complain. It might be good."

"I can bet it's not good."

Hearing that conversation, Darren had felt a bit bad.

In his mind, he kept muttering one thing.

'Please be good... Please be good... I will get my girlfriend a ring if it's good... I will even agree to participate in charity kitchens... I don't mind donating to charities too...'

It was almost like he was making a deal with God.

Like that, he sat inside the theatre hall with fear and expectations in his heart. The movie started soon and he glued his eyes to the screen.

When the first scene came up, he felt like a weight lifting from his heart.

As beautiful blue skies came up and from the eyes of a bird that Darren recognised as a major character in the books, the world of Hex was shown.

Beautiful and weird buildings, the clothes, the people and the unique magic of the world with a brooding sense of darkness to it. Darren felt everything and he felt the feeling that he had felt twenty years ago.

The feeling of reading Hex for the first time.

It was then that someone shouted and the long shot of the world changed to a closeup of a person. It was Aiden who was running away from someone.

'Blaze.'

He thought in his mind and looking at his appearance and the world, Darren became relaxed.

For the next two hours, he lost himself in the warm blankets of the world of [Hex] and it was so safe that his childhood dream of seeing a good adaptation of his favourite novel on the big screen became a reality.

Although some critics were two way about [Hex - Part 1, the public reception was only one way.

And it was mighty positive.

Most people who have watched the movie have liked it a lot, there were parts people felt were boring but the climax made up for everything.

The word of mouth spread like wildfire as the marketing team took the interviews of people who have watched the movie and put it on their social media platforms.

Because of that, a lot of people hastily booked a ticket.

The first day collection was an astounding 120 million dollars worldwide with 70 million coming from the North American box office.

Just on the first day of its release, the movie had become the king of the box office.

It was released on a Thursday, so it was expected to take a fall on Friday before rising up on Saturday. And that's what happened.

But the expected fall was much lower than expected.

On Friday, it got 47 million dollars in North America and 80 million dollars worldwide and on Saturday, it was at 74 million dollars in North America and 127 million dollars worldwide.

In the first three days of its release, the movie was a certified blockbuster.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

The box office numbers for last week are out. [Hex - Part 1] rules the box office with around 450 million dollars in its first weekend worldwide. With the momentum of the movie and the steep fall on Monday, it might collect around 800-900 million dollars at the box office, going by how it would have to compete with major movies after its second week.

That was the major news everywhere at the end of the first weekend for Hollywood. A new fantasy movie has arrived and it has smashed box office records left and right.

Not even Titan studios executives who have said yes to the movie had expected it. They would have been happy with a good amount of profit but this was turning out to be a big blockbuster.

That was the best news for them.

The thing that excited them more was that it was just the first part. The movie had ended on a cliffhanger and it had spreaded everywhere. With time, there are going to be theories and rumours about it and they would be able to grow the hype around the second part more.

Normally, in these types of cases, the second part easily earns at least 30 percent more than the first movie and that means that they would be looking at a 1 billion dollar movie around the same time next year.

That was enough to give every executive in Titan studios sleepless nights due to the excitement of the success they had.

It was already the end of the year and this year, they have been mostly at a loss with a lot of their projects not earning up to the mark. Actually, the whole movie industry was having sort of a blackout with mid budget movies not working.

So, [Hex - Part 1] was the movie that made them forget all their losses and even rake in great profit. Both the parts were already done and they just have to wait for the time to come.

With the two parts, they were going to have around 2 billion dollars in the box office alone (According to estimates).

That's why, just after the first weekend, they hosted a big success party in the most expensive hotel in LA with top celebrities and everyone who worked in the movie being there.

The party was open to anyone who had worked with Titan studios in the past and undoubtedly, Aiden was the star of it.

"I feel like a lot of people are looking at me with predatory eyes."

Aiden said as he walked in with Ava. Everyone was looking at both of them. They walked comfortably, so no one thought that both of them were together as even before that, it was an open secret that Ava was one of Aiden's major connections.

"It's because you proved one thing that no other star in the younger generation was able to prove."

"What?"

"That you have people's support. A lot of people went to the theatre just to support you as a person. No one knows if it's gonna stay but it's a major thing still. So, everyone wants a piece of you, literally."

Aiden just smiled hearing that. From time to time, people introduced themselves to him and he smiled and walked past them. It was pretty standard procedure.

People's behaviour was very different compared to what it was when the controversy had broken out. Success really changes how people see you.

While walking, Aiden suddenly saw Alberto talking to a few executives and decided that it was time to say hello to him.

Someone from that table also saw Aiden and Ava and waved at them.

They walked closer to the table and Aiden could see Alberto's face ceasing a bit, seeing him. He smiled a bit at it.

"Aiden, you are here. We were just talking about you. I was telling all of them about your genius idea of dividing the movie into two parts."

A fat executive, who has attended the meeting in which they have decided to make the movie in two parts, said.

"I think it's genius only because it worked. If it had failed, I'm pretty sure I would be getting a lot of curses, especially from you Alberto."

Aiden looked at Alberto who could just laugh.

"I think you are just exaggerating. I'm not really like that."

"I beg to differ. My assistant got a lot of interesting texts and calls from you just two weeks ago."

Alberto was sweating at that point. He opened and closed his mouth like he wanted to say something but he didn't have the words for it.

Everyone on the table knew what had happened two weeks ago and they could already tell that things weren't right between them.

"Haha, I'm sorry if I have said anything wrong. You know we were very distressed two weeks ago."

"I know that but a bit of support would have been nice, you know. But well, it's okay. Everything is fine now."

Aiden said and it was at that moment one of the executives quickly changed the topic, knowing that Alberto and him would end up fighting otherwise.

Anyway, they wanted to talk to Aiden about something.

"By the way, Aiden, you have no projects after this right?"

"That's right."

He nodded his head and a white bearded man sipped on his drink and opened his mouth.

"Timmy must be throwing things in his office right now. He got you off the project and cast a less known actor in the role when you could have made that movie a hit easily."

"I can't do anything about it. The decision was his but I don't have any hard feelings." Aiden replied and in his mind, he did feel hurt but he knew that one movie would never make or break his career.

In the future, if Timmy wants to work with him, he wouldn't mind but he would not make it easy either.

"That's the right attitude to have."

The white bearded man said as he nodded his head. The person who had started the conversation added.

"Then, would you be interested in acting in more movies in the Hex universe?"

The atmosphere became a bit serious then. Even Ava looked a bit surprised as she hadn't expected them to bring this up so soon.

It was just the success party for the first part.

Originally, Aiden was supposed to be a part of the first movie and kickstart it and after that, there would be individual storylines of different characters and maybe even a prequel.

Blaze's character arc was going to be done by the second part and as a character, he would become extremely complicated. Aiden wondered how they would even continue his storyline.

The only one who could do it would be Olio and that guy was probably not interested after making his [Hex] movies.

He was someone who would jump up to something else for sure.

"It's early to say that. Are there any plans?"

Aiden asked as he squinted his eyes a bit at the executive who laughed.

"We have been busy trying to get a good plan in motion. Two prequel movies on other characters and a TV series are already greenlit. But we were hoping to have another Blaze movie in the next 5 years."

The man said and Aiden could see profits in his eyes. 5 years was a long time and it seemed like Titan studios wasn't going to rush. Though, they already have a lot of the VFX work done with [Hex] as a lot of things could be used again and again.

So, making those movies and shows would be less costly now.

Aiden was going to reject it as it was too soon when he thought about something and turned towards Alberto.

"I don't mind returning actually. But I didn't have a great time, you know. The movie shooting was good but after that, I felt a bit abandoned. You know what I mean, right?"

Aiden smiled and Alberto glared at him. If he had a gun, shots would have already fired.

"What do you mean, Aiden?" Alberto asked but Aiden ignored him and focused on the executive in front of him.

"I get what you mean. It's hard to work with people you don't get along with. There needs to be faith involved."

"Yes, so if I come back in the role, I would need that faith from the studio."

"You will get it. After all, you are a big part in the movie's success."

The executive said and patted his shoulders. Seeing how close he was being to Aiden, Alberto couldn't help but intervene.

"What do you mean by that? You know the movie wasn't a success just because of him."

"Alberto, I know it was a team effort but even you know we got a lot of goodwill due to Aiden. He's a major part of it."

"But..."

"Let's talk about it later."

The executive said and shut Alberto off for good.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

Although Aiden had no elaborate plans to star in any other movie in theHex universe as he wanted to try out new characters instead of going back to one of its former.

Especially after Blaze's ending had been good.

He wouldn't want to ruin it just for the pockets of some studio executives. He had only talked like that to make Alberto angry and tell him that he was valued by people above him.

It had worked too as Alberto really looked pissed by Aiden's behaviour and his closeness with the executives. He had brought them over 2 billion dollars by recommending the idea of going for two parts.

He was sure that even if he asked them to give him access to their best scripts, they would do it with a smile on their faces.

"Thanks. I love to see Alberto angry. He's probably scared he's gonna fall out of favour when [Hex] is minting so much money."

Ava said as they sat down on a table.

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure you all would have it hard for a few months. Alberto is the type to flaunt his success a lot."

"He is but I doubt he's going to have any after this."

Aiden raised an eyebrow at that.

"Why do you think so?"

"Well, because he will get overconfident after this. The major reason [Hex - Part 1] worked was because he was not involving himself with the shooting and the production. Olio handled it and Alberto was just chilling. He's going to ruin it with his next production by interfering. He always does when he has absolute power."

"Then, it will be good for you."

"That it will be."

Ava smiled and they talked like that in peace. Though, that peace was always broken by someone who wanted to introduce themselves to him or a few directors who wanted to show off their work.

The news of him not having any project has spread to everyone at the party and apparently, there were a good amount of directors and screenwriters here.

Everyone wanted to have a chance of being the one to impress Aiden.

He liked that If he was honest as no one would hate it truly but it was still a bit annoying, especially because he was with Ava.

"It's fun to see directors telling you their story ideas like this. They look desperate even if they have big egos."

Ava remarked as another director left their table with disappointment.

"Well, egos are nothing in front of success. They think they can get it with me."

"What do you think?"

"I think it depends on the movie and I'm in no mood for another project right now."

Aiden muttered and shook his head. With [Hex - Part 2] still to release next year, he didn't have to worry about doing another movie. Moreover, it was hard for him to work on a big budget movie that had huge expectations.

He rather wanted to do something simpler or try out new things.

As they were talking, he heard a familiar voice, calling out to him.

"Aiden, come here."

He raised his head and looked around. His eyes suddenly landed on an old man who had just seemed to enter the party. A smile appeared on his face when he saw him as it had just been a long time.

"Jeremy."

The old man was Jeremy Hill, his co-star from [Sherlock of the Shadows] and someone Aiden had gotten close to during the shooting. He still remembered the food he was able to eat thanks to Jeremy's personal chef.

"He normally doesn't come to parties. I'm surprised he came today."

Ava remarked when she saw him.

"I should go talk to him. Wanna come?"

"No, I will go talk to a few directors. Enjoy your time with him."

"Okay."

Nodding his head, Aiden walked up to Jeremy who patted his shoulders and smiled at him.

"You really have grown. I saw your movie yesterday. It was sub par to be honest but your performance was extremely good again. I heard it's earning extremely well, so it looks like it clicked with the masses."

"Why do you think it was sub par?"

"Well, it gave up a lot of the core focus for the climax and that was worth it but I felt like the plot could have been way better. Needed few more emotional scenes. Olio has a habit of trying to make things more complex than they should be. I'm happy it earned that much as it gave a great boost to your career but you should do a better movie than this."

Aiden felt like that if Olio was here, then he and Jeremy would have fought in the middle of the success party. Both of them were straightforward and headstrong.

Jeremy hadn't even thought a second before claiming that [Hex - Part 1] was sub par even though he knew that it was earning a lot of money. Though it was subjective and if it was not like the things he had said weren't true.

"I will try to do better from now. Anyway, what are you doing here? You don't come to parties."

"I was free and It's been a while since I met you. I'm too old for these parties and you know, I don't need to form connections at my age."

Jeremy laughed saying that.

They talked like that for a while. About Jeremy's current projects and Hollywood in general. He told Aiden to not listen to Titan studios executives and get a long contract. That could ruin his career and other advice.

He also talked a bit about Katie and told him to stay away from any people that he deemed problematic even a bit. When someone is at the top, everyone wants to bring him down now matter how.

The thing with Jeremy giving advice was that he was extremely straightforward with it, so Aiden listened to them far more intently.

After a while, Jeremy suddenly asked.

"By the way, what did you think about studying movies in college? I told you about it last time we talked."

When he mentioned it, Aiden also recalled.

Jeremy had told him as that would increase his knowledge of movies. He had told him to not learn acting as he knew that but focus more on the nature of movies and filmmaking, an area that Aiden could certainly get better in.

"I did think about it but after that, work kept coming one after another, so I was never able to do it."

"Are you busy currently too? Any new movies in planning?"

Jeremy asked as he raised one of his eyebrows.

"Not yet. I had one but it fell out. So, currently, I'm as free as one could be."

"Then, why not do it right now?"

Jeremy said as he put a hand on his shoulder. He seemed like he genuinely wanted Aiden to give this a try.

"Attend a few filmmaking classes for a few months. No need to enter a college formally. You can just sit in the lectures and come and go whenever you want to learn more about movies and the idea behind them. I can talk to a friend of mine about it if you want?"

Hearing that, Aiden actually started to consider it. After all, he had nothing better to do in the upcoming months.

A filmmaking class might help him out.

Maybe it would even give him a new skill. It had been a long time since something like that had happened to him. He hasn't gotten a new major skill since getting his writing skill.

And it had been a long time since then.

"A friend of yours?" He asked and Jeremy nodded his head.

"One of my friends is a professor in New York Film School. I can talk to him. He would be happy to let you be in his class, especially if you can give a lecture to his students about your journey. That will be enough to convince him."

Jeremy said and thought about his friend for a second. Knowing him, he would be happy to talk to Aiden and teach him more about filmmaking.

New York Film School was actually one of the best film schools in America and it was a place that produced the best directors and cinematographers. Aiden had seen the building once or twice when he had passed by it.

It looked like a great place to study if he was being honest.

"My friend was once a budding director but it didn't work out. So, he became a professor and that was his calling, I guess. He didn't direct a hit movie like he wanted to but he did teach a lot of people who directed hit movies. So, what do you say?"

Saying that, Jeremy let Aiden make a decision.

He didn't want to force him or anything. Aiden just glanced around at the directors that had come to him and realised that he didn't want to do a movie with them. There was nothing else either.

So, it was just better to be relaxed and improve his craft.

"I'm in."

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

It was already the final month of the year when [Hex - Part 1] was at the end of the last end of his run. In North America, the movie had beaten every other biggie to emerge as the king of the box office.

Just three weeks after its release, another big budget movie has been released. A sci-fi action movie based on a popular Japanese manga. The manga was so popular that a 70 million dollar Hollywood movie was finalised to be made on it.

But it had faltered at the box office.

The cause of it was not [Hex - Part 1] directly as it was already at the end of its run back then. With over 580 million dollars in North America and 358 million dollars from overseas.

The issue came from people already having spent their money on [Hex - Part 1] and not wanting to go to cinemas so early again. Both the movies were anyway trying to be blockbusters.

One succeeded and the other failed.

One thing that made it fail was also the sub par writing and the characters. The movie was worse than the manga and it even ended up helping [Hex - Part 1] in its fourth week.

People who were there to watch the sci-fi flick ended up watching [Hex - Part 1] due to the superior reviews.

Due to that, Hollywood lost another movie that could have been a blockbuster. But they did get [Hex - Part 1].

It wasn't just any blockbuster but it also became a big topic in the independent movie discussion community with MeTubers and other film reviewers talking about fan theories and the next part.

A lot has changed in the first movie. Olio and Aiden changed parts of the book to make it more interesting while the second part followed the novel's story more closely.

That was taken as a decision that got mixed reception but it did make the movie better for most people.

At least it opened up people for discussions around the movie and Aiden heard it once when he was walking across the campus of the New York Film School.

He was wearing a disguise so people don't recognise him and admiring the buildings. Apparently, the whole campus was built in 1911 when one of the politicians fell in love with a theatre actress, making him more interested in the area of arts.

Hence, the idea of campus has come up.

Though, it was just a rumour and nothing was proved regarding it.

While watching one of the buildings, he had heard the conversation regarding [Hex - Part 1] ending.

Two people who looked like students were talking about it.

"I think the ending of [Hex] was pretty dumb." One of the students had said. Hearing that, Aiden had perked his ears.

"I liked it a lot. Felt like it was fitting well with the narrative of the movie. Why do you think it was dumb?"

His friend replied.

"You like it because you have not read the books. If one reads it, it gives away the cliff they are trying to go with. It's a failed strategy just because of that."

"Not everyone will read the books."

"Yeah, but it will come on the internet sooner or later. You know how it goes. Someone will surely put out a Metube video of it and then, it will be out."

"They could just tweak it then. I doubt the books are definite here."

Hearing that conversation, Aiden had smiled, feeling nice that people were discussing his movie. That was always nice as an actor.

Pulling down the cap on his head, he walked past the two students and headed towards his destination. He was in college to meet Jeremy's friend today.

Jeremy had already informed him about coming to meet him, so he was told to head straight to his office.

But in such a big college, it was always hard to find places. So, he had to ask a few people before he got the place.

'Ah, this must be it.'

After he found it, he headed straight inside and in the corridor, he found a man who was looking at what looked like the poster of a 80s time travel movie.

It was a movie that had become a classic after it had come out. Aiden had watched it religiously in childhood as it was an extremely fun and innovative movie. There was just a certain fresh vibe about some movies that was hard to recreate.

Even the sequels had been on the same level of the first movie and had continued the legacy of it. A movie that had become a pop culture phenomenon.

Although it was sad, Aiden doubted he had played even one character that has become a pop culture phenomenon. Kai was the closest to it and although he knew that someone like him would have entire character studies in the future, he unfortunately wasn't a big part of pop culture.

As he just stood there thinking about it, the man who was looking at the poster noticed him. Maybe he found it odd that he was wearing sunglasses inside the building.

"Hey, come here." The man called out. Aiden walked up to him and wondered what he wanted.

"Yes?"

"Do you like this movie?"

"Obviously. I doubt there's anyone who won't like it. It's incredibly fun."

"It is, isn't it?"

The man said it like he was talking to himself and nodded his head with a smile on his face. He certainly looked happy.

Aiden was about to leave him and go look for the professor when the man opened his mouth again.

"So, do you think anyone will be able to top this as the best time travel movie?"

That was a strong question. After that movie, there were several others that did well. Time travel as a concept was extremely viable to movie business as it arose a feeling in all humans that was mutual.

What if one could go back in time and change things or see their futures? Everyone would think of something like that once in their lives.

But still, if he was talking about the best movie, he had the most fun watching the one in front of him. Others were good and did what they set out to do but it never became something that had stayed with him.

Though, he did think that there would be a movie who would set standards one day.

"I do think there will be one movie that will do it. Maybe not now but 10 years from now on. Or even 50 years but there will be one movie that will top this."

Aiden replied and the man looked at him with a bit of surprise.

"Do you really think a classic can be topped? It's much more likely that filmmakers would just make another sequel out of this movie than try to top it with a standalone.*

"I think every movie should be topped one day. It may or may not happen but I think that's how cinema should go forward. In the 90s, we were just learning about VFX and now, the technology makes it seem like everything is real. So, it changed. The style of filmmaking evolved with it. Every movie would be topped one day one way or another, just in a different way as cinema moves forward. Though, this movie will always be the pioneer."

Aiden replied as best as he could. He really believed that better and better movies would be made as time moves. Humans were a lot of bad things but creativity was probably their best element.

"That's an interesting answer. You helped me out there." The man said and Aiden tilted his head, wondering what he was talking about.

"Helped you out?"

"Yeah, I wanted to hold a debate in my class today but didn't have a good topic, so I was just thinking about it standing here when you came up. I got the topic thanks to you. 'Will classics ever be topped?', Nice topic right. Your answer was very interesting too. I will tell them to my students."

Hearing that, Aiden blinked his eyes and came to a realisation. He quickly asked.

"Students? What do you mean?"

"Oh, I'm a Professor of this faculty. My name is Sean Hunting. It's nice to meet you. Are you here to meet someone?"

Sean pushed his hand towards him after introducing himself and Aiden shook it. It was only then he focused more on his face. He had brown hair that looked dyed but his beard was already getting those white strands. His wrinkles gave him a soft charm and made him look more approachable.

Looking at him, he felt like it was the image of an ageing man.

That was exactly how Jeremy had described him.

"Ah, yes." He said after the handshake and began removing the cap and sunglasses he was wearing. "Aiden Silvereye, I was actually here to meet you, Professor."

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

Sean Hunting was one of the oldest professors in the New York Film school. Although he didn't look like it, the man was already over 60 years old but had made himself keep in shape, so he barely looked like he was in his early 50s.

According to what Jeremy had told him, they met while Sean was directing a short film for a film festival.

They have become friends then but at the end of the movie, Sean had realised that he wasn't made up to be a director.

Hence, he had given up and taken the opportunity to teach others about the job that he always wished to do.

After meeting Aiden, Sean invited him over to his office and brewed tea for him before they started their conversation.

"So, I was very curious. Why did you want to take classes on filmmaking? I'm pretty sure you would know a lot about it at this point. Some of my recent favourite movies are yours."

Aiden smiled at the compliment. Sean has a very calm but serene tone to his voice. Coupled with his looks, it made him look wise.

"Jeremy recommended it to me." Sean made a curious look at that. "He said that it would help me out in acting, learning more about movies. I don't know how much it would help as my life has always been about movies and stories but I was hoping it would give me some new perspectives."

"It might help you. I won't take any guarantee but can give you a filmmaker's perspective to things. A story."

Sean said and hearing that, Aiden nodded his head.

"I think that would be good enough for me."

"Then, it's okay. I will allow you to sit in a few of my classes. But in exchange, I need you to give my students a lecture."

"A lecture? I'm not good at those types of things, you know."

Aiden said, wondering how he was going to go on with a lecture. At best, he could try to talk about his acting journey or go into details about his process.

"You don't have to give a lecture like I do. All of my students are just budding filmmakers. Just answer their questions and that would be good enough for them."

"I'm okay with it."

Aiden said and thought that even if they were budding filmmakers, the questions would be very simple, so he would easily be able to answer them.

Half an hour later, he realised that he couldn't be more wrong.

"Do you think the ego of an actor could mess up with the plans of a director? I have heard a lot of A-listers involve themselves with the story. Is it the same in your case?"

A frown appeared on the face of Aiden hearing that question.

It was asked by a burly guy who looked like he was very excited to be talking to Aiden. His answer has also made the whole class quiet.

Even Sean was just smiling to himself on the side.

When Aiden had first entered the room with Sean, there was a lot of buzz among the students. After all, it was not everyday that they would see an A-lister in their classroom, up so close.

Being in a film school, there were students who would get some roles in TV series and then would see a few famous actors but that was mostly rare. And even then, they won't see an A-lister.

Especially one who had just given a major hit and had been coming in the top magazine covers.

So, the buzz was justified and it had only increased when Sean had said that Aiden was going to take a few classes with them together and they could ask him any question they wanted for today.

'It is a difficult question.'

Aiden thought in his mind as he looked at the burly guy who was still awaiting a response. Knowing that there was no other way around the question, he collected his words and opened his mouth.

"I do think that in any movie, the amount of egos involved are unprecedented. Everyone is extremely proud of themselves and their previous work and want this to be the best. A director is the top guy in any production but as you know, some A-listers are on the same level of power, so it can create conflicts. Sometimes, it gets a project to be better and sometimes worse."

"Then, do you want to take control over the project too when you work on it?"

The burly guy again asked and Aiden's smile bleaked a bit but he still responded.

"I have mostly worked on movies where I rarely had a voice until last year when [The Black Saint] released, so now, I do want to do more projects where I can put my inputs. Though, in my case, they are mostly suggestions. I'm a writer myself, so I understand how one feels when someone is trying to interfere in their story."

He said and tried to move on to other questions. And surprisingly, all of them were things that even reporters wouldn't ask him. Maybe because they think that they won't get a reply back.

"If a movie fails, will the director have a hard time making another?"

"Do producers really decide the final edit and interfere in scenes?"

"Do actors need to be restrained by the directors? Or the celebrity status makes them not follow the basic schedule of a movie?"

Aiden had thought that the students would ask more about his life and Hollywood journey but instead, they were more focused on the subtle things in filmmaking that others might ignore.

Maybe because they never got the opportunity to ask this from anyone.

He has a hard time replying to a few questions as every case was different in the industry. Some directors were liked. Some were not.

"If a movie fails, it does make the director lose a bit of his reputation but in the end, it depends on how good he is in his craft and how good his next story will look like. There's always going to be chances if you have enough connections and others trust in your talent. Some directors work with only specific production houses for a reason as there's trust involved even if one movie flopped."

"Yes, mostly. It depends a lot on the power the director holds and how much the producer trusts him but I have seen producers deciding the final edit a lot of times, so I guess you need to be prepared for that. It makes sense as a movie has to really work at the box office until it's along the lines of an independent movie, then festivals are the way to go."

"I think a professional actor would know what to do and how to act. They are mostly under a lot of scrutiny, so they do listen to directors and try to be on time. Obviously, everyone is different and sometimes, schedules change due to a multitude of reasons but you need to learn how to deal with it."

Aiden's answers were straight to the point and as the session moved forward, he was being asked more and more harder questions.

From the subtle things on the set to the actual aspects of filmmaking like how he had shot certain scenes and how a director formulates a scene on the set.

But maybe, that was one of the reasons why Sean has asked him to do a session. To tell him how budding filmmakers think.

"I'm sorry but you lost out on the role."

"You can't do anything? The director said he liked me."

"He says it to everyone but he actually removed your role from the movie. And there's no other role to give you. I can maybe accommodate you as an extra. Do you want that?"

"No, I don't want to go back to that. Do you know why my role was deleted?"

"Ah, it's because the director added a second female lead to accommodate an actress that got famous in a film festival. According to him, she will be a big star, so he's trying to get close. He's even acting creepy these days."

The production assistant shook his head and clicked his tongue as he talked about it. Hearing that, Harley had a wry smile on his face.

Two movies that he had worked in were also screened in the film festival but they have not created any buzz. His performance was not even looked at enough for someone to evaluate it.

"Thanks anyway." He just said and tried to turn back. It was then that the production assistant called him out again.

"Why don't you just try to act as an extra? It will at least keep you on the set. I thought you liked the place."

"I do like it but I promised myself I would stop doing it once I moved up in my career and I think I deserved better. Anyway, thanks."

After saying that, he left the building.

He had done a lot of independent and a few commercial movies till now but for the past few months, his auditions hadn't been going well.

Maybe it had something to do with none of his roles making too much of a noise.

It was to the point that his savings were depleting.

Still, he didn't want to go back to his old ways. Not anymore.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

"As you all know, there are different aspects for filmmaking but today, I really want to focus on someone who is the main part of the story - The protagonist."

Sean Hunting said as he looked at his class. Everyone was focusing on him, a thing he liked whenever he was in class. A few people had their laptops out to type out notes for after studies.

While others were simply listening to what he was saying.

One of them was Aiden who was simply sitting in the back, looking like just another student. It was already January and it had been a while since he had started attending these classes.

At first, the other students would still find it a bit odd but they are now used to it.

When the news first broke out about it, it was mayhem. Everyone wanted to take selfies with him. It was hard for him to go around the campus as cameras would be everywhere.

Even in a disguise, people would know it was him and would start to take photos and videos. He would check them on Skygram after that and he won't even know how a few of those photos have been taken.

But it was something that he had to deal with no matter what.

He had just tried to ignore it and now he could say that he had nicely integrated into the class and had learned a lot from Sean's lecture. Even today's topic was pretty unique.

It was about something that Aiden had often played. A protagonist, the central character of any story.

"The protagonist could be of many types but the story mostly focuses on his character. Think of him as the viewer's way of looking into the story. As the story goes, the audience finds more about the world through the protagonist interaction with it but that's something you already know."

Sean smiled saying that and asked.

"Do you know how many types of protagonists there are?"

One of the students raised their hand and replied.

"Three. Hero, villain, anti hero."

"Correct but do you know the 4th kind?"

When Sean asked that question, all of his students looked in confusion. They didn't know the answer to this question.

They have only focused on the three main protagonists and never went beyond that, so this was new to them.

Knowing that they didn't know the answer, Sean looked at Aiden.

"Do you know the answer, Aiden?"

"I think it's uh, supporting protagonist, right?"

"Can you explain what it is for everyone?"

"A character that's not a big part of the story but the story is told from his perspective, making him the protagonist. Think of it like a story about a war being told from the perspective of a common soldier. He didn't get a lot of accolades and achievements, so he would mostly talk about the events from the sidelines. The story could be more about him surviving those battles."

Aiden explained as he thought more about it.

If he was being honest, this type of protagonist was someone he really liked. There was a sense of connection he always felt towards these types of characters.

"Correct."

Sean nodded his head in satisfaction and turned towards his students.

"So, these types of protagonists may not be on the centre stage or have a lot of roles but as you could see, they are extremely interesting due to their nature. They have less powers, they are less special, they have more restrictions."

He kept explaining and Aiden just listened.

Sean went on, talking about different movies and other forms of media that have taken the supporting protagonist as their main protagonist. There was one movie in which the whole plot was narrated by the supporting protagonist, him talking about the events of his life and how the real main character influenced it.

Overall, he has very few roles in it but it was because of his narration and perspective, the movie was so good.

Then, there was a thriller in which a crime was narrated by multiple people. All of them only have small portions in the crime but their perspectives were all different, giving the police a lot of work as they didn't know who to believe.

In the end, there was even one book in which the supporting protagonist just narrates the event of him meeting the actual protagonist and their adventures together.

Hearing all of this, Aiden's mind was working a lot.

He wondered if he could conceive a story like this. One on a supporting protagonist becoming so much more in a world that didn't revolve around him.

He decided to talk about it with Sean after the class.

"Sean, are you free?"

Aiden opened the door of Sean's office a bit and asked. Sean seemed to be alone and was writing something on a paper.

Hearing that, he nodded his head.

"Yeah, come in. What are you still doing in college? Aren't the other students hunting you?"

Aiden laughed hearing that. It was true that it was a hard job to reach Sean's office.

They are but I had something to discuss with you."

"What is it?"

"About your lesson today. A supporting protagonist. Do you think there's a potential for a story like that currently?"

"Depends on the type of story. What do you have in mind?'

Sean raised his eyebrow and gestured to Aiden to sit. He sat down and talked about the story that was brewing in his mind.

"Well, the idea came to my mind recently..."

Aiden said and started talking about the idea that was sitting in his mind for a while now.

He had been meaning to write something again for a few months as his last book had been Archer's Ascension and after he had lost out on 'Project Dream', this seemed like his best bet to do something.

Maybe he would even be able to increase his skill level in writing.

He had a lot of story ideas in his mind but nothing had clicked until he had sat in Sean's class about the supporting protagonist. It mixed with the conversation that he had with him when he had first met him.

A conversation about time travel movies and how they were so interesting because every movie follows its own set of rules and regulations.

"It's basically about a guy who had been just living his life peacefully until he found a device that could help him go back to the past and by that, change the future. The thing is, he's not the protagonist. The protagonist is his friend who gets to know everything about what he had done and in the changed world, he wasn't able to fit in. It was until that he decided to make his own time travel device. The world in my story is set in an alternate universe with robots, underwater cities and deserts. "

Aiden explained as he formed the crux of the story in his mind.

With time travel in the middle, he felt like it would be a great story if he could pull it off. Though, the thing was that time travel was just too hard to use in a setting.

Even his world was not simple. Aiden had fiddled around with a few philosophical thoughts and concepts in his mind and the world was basically built on that.

A lot of it didn't even make sense to him but the abstract feeling was the best part of his world.

Hearing his explanation, Sean looked very intrigued. He had heard a lot of stories from his students as a few of them would often write scripts and discuss it with him but those scripts would often be very rough and immature.

But Aiden looked like he knew what he was talking about.

"That's a very interesting plotline." Sean said. "Though, I think it will be very hard to conceive as an idea. The exposition of the world would need to make sense and it would need a tight script line."

"I know that. Time travel is always confusing, especially when I have never done it before."

"Well, if you are actually focused on the idea, then will it be a book or a script?"

Sean suddenly asked, curious.

From what he knew, Aiden was more of a novelist. He had mentioned that he worked a bit on a script before but that wasn't his own work.

He didn't know if Aiden was even interested in writing a script.

"Well, I have not thought about that. I just thought about the story. Now that you say it, what format do you think I should write it in?"

"It doesn't matter what I think. It's your story, Aiden. You need to think of it. From a filmmaker's perspective, are you writing it as a movie?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Then, it's going to be a script, I guess."

Sean shrugged his shoulders and Aiden just smiled.

He did have thought the story as a movie in his head. But he has never really written a script from the beginning.

Guess this was the time to try.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

'The morality of Time travel.'

When Aiden sat down in his room after the long day, he had a lot of thoughts in his mind but this was the one which topped them.

His talk with Sean was less on his story and more on what he wanted to do. In the end, he had decided to write a script. It was anyway something that came under his writing skill.

[Script writing - Level 5.]

That was the level of his script writing skill. He had actually gotten it when he had tried to modify the [Hex] scripts and back then, he had just not focused a lot on it.

Compared to his overall writing skill and novel writing skill, it wasn't that impressive.

Maybe it was because he hadn't done a complete script before. Moreover, script writing was kind of different from novel writing.

There could be more exposition parts in a novel to better explain the world but a lot was left to the viewers in script. It was more tight and dialogues were what it primarily focused on alongside the descriptions of characters and their actions.

Aiden didn't know how good he would be at writing a script and although he was trying to be optimistic, he was at least happy he had a nice topic to ponder upon in his mind.

'Time travel, the moral nature of it and whether a saviour was really a saviour to everyone.'

Those were the topics that he had picked on after focusing on time travel movies in the past few days.

These things were mostly ignored or pushed as just subtle things in the scenario most of the time. Time travel movies started from something as a fun gimmick catered to teens and young adults as it basically talked more about the fantasy of humans wanting to change things in the past and see the future.

Then, it has taken a more serious form as it has evolved. With a lot of time travel movies focusing more on the bad effects of time travel.

In one of them, Aiden recalled that the main character had died a very horrifying death by killing himself as a baby so he wouldn't have to go through time travel again.

Though by the mid 2000s, the concept was diluted and used so much that every other movie would have it in some form or kind.

If Aiden said that he was writing a time travel story now, no one was going to think that it was going to be anything better than what they have already seen before.

Though, he was very happy to prove them wrong.

'I need to make my protagonist someone who anyone could relate to...'

Aiden thought in his mind as he started typing out the main premise and characters on his laptop.

The main character was a supporting protagonist at first. Someone who was just a minor character but when he saw someone change the whole world by time travel, he decided to act.

He didn't want to name his characters as he wanted everyone to relate to them. Moreover for this story, names sounded boring.

It was then that an idea struck his mind.

'How about just naming characters based on their roles?'

He thought and typed out 'Protagonist.'

He looked at it for a moment before typing out a few more words.

'Female lead', 'Minor villain 1', 'Minor Villain 2', 'Villain', 'Crazy Bastard'. He felt like those were appropriate names for his characters.

Kind of like just their titles.

It suited the vibe of the story a lot and he felt like it was more creative like this.

In the end, only one character was left. The true protagonist - The person whose perspective the story was going to follow.

'Extra.'

The supporting protagonist.

That was the best title for him. For some reason, Aiden felt the same feeling he had felt when he was writing his first novel.

Even back then, his main protagonist was an extra background actor based on Harley.

Though this time, the stakes and the world were completely different. He quickly wrote down the basic story and a few scenes that would happen in the beginning of the story.

Basically, the world would be the same until the 'Protagonist' would go back to the past to the second world war and change the world for his own personal benefits.

This would make the world very different from what we know now. Very different things would come up and due to the change in space time, reality would distort to become something out of a fairy tale.

Humans would discover robots by the 1960s and the USSR would lead the robot revolution with the United States of America becoming extremely weak and becoming a closed state.

Although the Protagonist would become one of the most powerful people in the world, Extra would lose everything. In an effort to change the world to normal, he would make an effort to travel through time.

That was the basic premise of his story.

'It would be hard to write it but very interesting too.'

He thought in his mind and started typing.

As Aiden was working on his new story and taking classes from Sean, his team was busy working hard. They were secretly collaborating with Hollywood Weekly to write an exclusive expose story on Franco Li.

It was part of Aiden's plan to completely get over the juggernaut that was Franco when he was down with all the criticism from media and the industry.

At midnight, Wade and Tom had just gotten a lead on Franco's dark past and finding such information about him, they were pretty shocked.

"I can't believe Aiden was right. We really got something by just looking at one of the past movies Franco had associated himself with."

Wade said as he read the report in front of him. It was a report from a production house that had already gotten bankrupt. The report was written by an employee and they had gotten it somehow when they were searching around.

"He was always shady, so it's not out of nowhere but he really forced an actor by making him sign wrong documents."

Tom said as he shook his head.

"It's weird there was no court case though."

"We need to look more into it but he probably found some kind of dirt on the actor and was blackmailing. He probably has a lot of dirt on a lot of people."

Wade replied, stretching his body. He had been working on this for over a month now and until now, they have found a lot on Franco Li and were only waiting for an opportunity to destroy him for good.

"Someone like him works on it. He's one of those people who understood how Hollywood worked a long time now and embraced it in a heartbeat. I really wonder what it was in high school."

Tom said and Wade just smiled.

"I don't want to know after what we have found out about him. I would be getting shivers if he was still the same in teenage. Kids these days are really scary."

When Tom heard that, he barely stopped himself from coughing out loud. It was because he had known scarier teenagers in his life.

His sister was one of them and she would even make him feel scared for his life while living in the same house.

Once, her boyfriend had cheated on her. The next day, he didn't know what had happened but he had come to their house and begged for her forgiveness. Obviously, he hadn't gotten any.

"Anyway, what is Aiden doing?" Tom asked, changing the topic. "The buzz in the market about him is already going down."

"He's enjoying his break and taking classes in a college to learn more about acting as you know. Though, the timing of it is one of the worst. But we can't do anything. He had been through a lot."

With the buzz around him, Wade would have liked it if he had taken on more projects and had done 3-4 in the next 6 months even if all of them weren't lead roles in big movies.

That would have helped him get more and more experience.

After all, he had barely done 10 movies in his career until now.

One of the other A-listers recently had been doing it, doing 3-4 projects in the span of 6-8 months and taking the year off after that.

It was a great way to be a part of more unique projects after one hit one. Aiden hadn't done the same and although it was a cause of concern, Wade knew that he would pull through.

"Yeah, anyway, he kept getting ways to make himself more and more popular. So, I doubt we need to worry about it."

Tom said, leaning against his seat and smiling.

"That won't always be the case. Luck can only get you so far."

"I don't think it's luck." Tom shook his head. "If he's doing it again and again, then it's not luck. It's a skill."

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

Days went by as Aiden wrote his movie script. These days, he felt like he was finally taking the benefit of being rich. He had no fear of his money running out and could do whatever he wanted.

He would attend lectures in the morning and write his time travel script in the afternoon. In the evening, Ava would come to spend time with him.

Like him, she also liked to avoid the crowd and just spend time together. Sometimes, she would just cook for him while and sometimes, they would play video games.

It was a pretty cosy lifestyle that Aiden was fitting into. Something that he had barely gotten before.

In his story, he was actually stuck in the middle of it for a long time as he was pondering over whether to add more action into his story or not. He had kept it pretty philosophical till now with discussions around that rather than action scenes.

But in a world of robots, it is inevitable that there will be a few.

Even then, he had kept it very short and tried to focus more on the core part of the story. Time travel and the suspense around it as Extra interacts with the world using his own time travel device.

Fortunately, he had been able to get over it and was now pretty close to the completion of the script. Though, he didn't know what to do after writing it.

He could maybe sell it to Titan studios or Omar as he was sure that they would definitely be interested in the script. Though, Omar might not have the budget to make the movie and as for Titan studios, they would only be interested in making it if Aiden was acting as the lead.

That way, they could market the story on his shoulders.

Though, that wasn't something Aiden wanted. Extra was a character he had written for someone other than him. His personality didn't suit him and although it was just acting, he still couldn't see himself as him.

He would rather have another actor playing it. After all, not every role was supposed to be played by him.

After class, he decided to talk about it with Sean.

"So, the lesson will end here. Just remember what I taught and how directors need to be controlling the whole set and make everyone believe in them. Your crew needs to look up at you if any of you did make up as a director."

A bald professor said as he walked out of the class. Aiden smiled wryly hearing that. As someone who had been on set a lot of times, he felt like this was a wrong technique as no one should be scared of the director.

Sometimes, some people would have good ideas and directors could at least listen. That creates a better atmosphere on the set as he doubted anyone would go on to challenge the authority of the director.

Only an immature and novice person would do something like that.

'This class was nothing special.'

Aiden thought in his mind. He had just sat in this class as it was more about the technical side of filmmaking like understanding more about cameras and how to shoot certain scenes and where to shoot them from.

Sadly, he knew a lot of the stuff that the bald professor taught.

"I should just go find Sean to talk about my script."

He muttered and got up from his seat. He made his way towards the door but it was then he heard someone shout.

"Hey! Another scandal is out! It looks like Franco Li's career is over. Hollywood Weekly did an exclusive on him."

A crowd gathered towards the person who shouted that while others started checking their phones. All of them kept up with what was going on in Hollywood as film students and Franco Li was a name they have heard often recently.

Some gazes also went towards Aiden as everyone knew what had happened between them.

"What?"

"An exclusive? Really?"

"Man, I was hoping to be signed by SGA. They are really gonna kick him out for good."

"Pretty sure his career is over."

"Damn! These are some horrible events and Hollywood Weekly posted proofs too. Franco is probably gonna kill someone in fury."

He was able to hear all that and just by that, it was enough for him to get an idea about what was happening. He didn't stop to listen more or open up any articles on his phone.

He knew that Wade and Tom were able to accomplish their plan.

The plan they were working on for over a month now. It had taken time but the important thing was that they were successful.

'Franco won't try anything now.'

He thought in his mind and took out his phone to type out a message to Wade.

[Good job! We have one less enemy now.]

After that, he headed straight for Sean's office, looking to be in a good mood.

As Aiden was walking towards the office of Sean, Franco Li was sitting in his office, his shoulders depleted. Maybe for the first time in years, a trace of fear was on his face.

Fear of the fact that his career might be over. That no one would come forward to save me. A few of the A-list actors in his care had already left when the news with Katie had broken out.

Maybe now even more of them would leave. He was even being investigated by the Agent association and even his higher ups have given him a strict warning.

And the scandal might just be a final nail in the coffin.

Pieces of broken glasses were all over the floor. It was easy to guess that he had just broken up a very expensive wine bottle in anger.

He looked at the glass pieces on the floor and couldn't help but frown.

'No, it can't be over like this. I need to get bastards to write up an apology. Why are they digging up ten year old news anyway?'

He thought in his mind and picked up his phone. He had the number of almost every major person in Hollywood but the calls weren't going and coming at the same rate now.

People were avoiding him.

They didn't want to associate themselves with him.

Still, he had to try.

He picked up his phone and tried calling the editors he knew in Hollywood Weekly. Even if one of them picked up the call, he would be able to make a deal to get out of this situation.

But no one picked his call up.

He got more and more frustrated with each call as despite the ringing, no one seemed to want to pick the call up.

In the end, he had no option but to just send a message to all of them.

[Pick up my call. I need to talk about the nonsense you all have posted. If not, you are going to be sued. So pick up the damn call.]

After sending it, he sighed and tried to come up with another plan. He could refute it all he wanted but he knew that nothing would come out of it.

As he was thinking of doing something, the door of his office opened and his assistant walked in with a serious expression on his face.

"Why are you here? I have told you to not come in without knocking my door. I don't like it."

"It's important."

"What is it?"

"I'm here to resign."

The assistant said and he put down a resignation letter. Franco just looked at the letter on his desk with widened eyes and wasn't able to believe it for a second.

His assistant wanted to resign?

The person who had worked with him for years suddenly wanted to resign.

"What the hell are you saying? You can't resign."

"I can."

The assistant said and frowned. He wanted to say a lot as all the feelings were all coming out but he decided not to. The damage was already done. There was nothing else he needed to do.

The Franco in front of him was just a shell of his past. His cunning eyes were not hiding any emotions like before and he even looked like he was going through some type of sickness as his face was pale.

"Look, I don't want to say a lot but I'm not coming back to work after this day. I'm not breaking any clauses here. I wish you all the best in life."

He said and turned back. As he walked, Franco started hurling curses at him.

"You should come back right at the moment and I might reconsider getting your job back."

"Do you think I will make it easy for you to find a job in this industry?"

"You are just running away when my time has been going wrong!"

He ignored all of it and just walked outside the building. Each step he took, he felt liberated.

Finally after stepping outside, he took a deep breath, finally free.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

After the Franco Li news had broken out, Aiden really wanted to go get good food and celebrate. Franco was like an annoying thorn on his foot that would sting a lot.

But now, he is gone for good and there could not be better news for Aiden. He had even heard his team was already celebrating in the office and had ordered pizzas, donuts and whatnots.

Tom had even sent him a text saying he was calling strippers but he doubted Sasha would let him do that.

Ignoring the urge to celebrate, Aiden had headed straight towards Sean's office as the more important thing here was to show him his script and ask if he knew what he could do with it.

But before he could even ask that, Sean had asked his script to read and it had been an hour since then.

'I hope he likes it.'

Aiden said as he looked in front of him. It had been over an hour since Sean had started reading the script he had given him. At first, the old professor looked like he just wanted to read it a bit but even after an hour, he had not put down the thick script.

In the past hour, Aiden had only been able to observe Sean's expression as he had nothing else to do. He can't leave without his script and Sean didn't look to be putting it down anytime soon.

The most annoying thing was that Sean's face had barely changed in the last hour, so Aiden didn't even know if he was liking it or not. But at least it was engrossing enough to keep him hooked for so long.

Finally when Aiden was on his 4th yawn and was pondering the consequences on his back if he decided to sleep on a chair, Sean blinked his eyes and put down the script.

Aiden immediately looked at him and asked.

"You read through it all? That early."

"No, I finished two thirds of it and I was reading at my top speed. I just remembered I had other work to do and can't spend more time than necessary on a script. I do plan to bring it home though."

Sean said as he looked like he was gonna ask Aiden to print him a copy of the script.

"So, you liked it?" He asked and Sean looked at him for a moment.

"It's certainly interesting. You have used a lot of concepts I have only seen in books before. With philosophical elements already present, I don't know why you even added elements like a robot trying to find his humanity but no matter what, that kind of suits the crazy, ecocentric world. You did a good job on your first script."

Sean smiled as he looked at him, like he was looking at a bright student.

Although he felt like the script could be improved as it had a lot of interesting elements but no depth in certain things, it was probably one of the better works from a rookie screenwriter who was writing his first script.

He knew Aiden would deliver on the story but even his dialogues were good and he made sure to give every character a certain way of speaking."

"So, is it good?" Aiden asked again.

"Yeah, it's certainly good. Why do you think I was engrossed in reading it? It's because it was very interesting for a time travel movie. You used science and philosophy in just the correct way."

Hearing that, Aiden got a bit of courage and asked.

"Is it good enough to be made into a movie?"

"No one is crazy enough to spend on a movie like this. Even if it's successful, it will be successful as one of those cult classics who bombed at the box office. It's too crazy and out of place for a producer to show his faith on this."

Sean said clearly like he was a judge announcing his judgement. It was clear and his tone was sharp.

Aiden hadn't expected it, so he was a bit shaken but he still continued the conversation.

"I'm pretty sure there will be someone."

"Not really. Maybe if you use your face as the lead but the thing is there's gonna be robots in it, there's gonna be supernatural powers and time travel. It's a high budget concept that's very crazy. In one scene, a literal sea monster came out of nowhere. If I was the producer, I wouldn't put my money on it due to the unclear plot and fast-paced story. You do know just creating an environment like that will require a huge amount."

Aiden nodded his head hearing that slowly.

It was not like he hadn't thought of these things before. He had multiple times during the writing of the script but he didn't have to worry about these things back then.

He understood that the world of his story was very vivid and hard to make. It wasn't based on old architecture or a sci-fi world like in the 'Space War' movies. It was a world that seemed very deformed in its nature and gave a feeling of mysticism.

No one would expect such a strong vibe from a world but in this story, the world was a character in itself.

Making that would obviously be extremely hard for the VFX artist and would cost a lot. Not like it was going to be a [Hex] level movie, so he doubted any studio would wanna work on this.

'I really can't sell it to a studio.'

Aiden thought in his mind and frowned inwardly.

If there was really no production house for this, then the script was just going into the dustbin. He could just sell it to a studio for a good amount of money as studios are always looking for rights to scripts that they could try to make in the future.

But Aiden didn't really have patience nor did he want to give up here.

Seeing the emotions on his face, Sean couldn't help but say.

"You know you could try to look for studios yourself. I'm pretty sure you know a lot of them, so they will be happy with a meeting. At least try your luck even if the chances are low."

"I can do that but really, I can already imagine what every studio spokesperson would say to me."

Aiden imagined every type of scenario in his head and none of them were what he wanted.

'The script is good but there's a lot of risks. I'm very sure we could get more investors if you decide to star in it.'

'It's a tricky script but I like it. Maybe in ten years, it will be a great movie.'

'I'm sorry but unless you are an investor and leading it, there's no point in making it. No one will come to watch dancing robots and confusing time travel nonsense.'

These responses rang loud in his head even though they hadn't happened yet. Seeing Aiden like this, Sean smiled and glanced at the script.

'What can one even do here...? I don't have 100 million dollars or I would help... Ah yes!'

He suddenly got an idea in his head.

Looking at Aiden, he wondered if he was even going to like it but well, in the end it was an idea and there was no harm in saying it out loud.

"Aiden, why don't you just forget about a full featured movie in your script?"

"What do you mean?"

"How about making up a short movie based on this script? You know to lure investors. Sometimes, short films become famous and end up becoming full featured length movies. Although there's a lot of scenes that will require VFX in your script, I think you can do one with a lower budget."

Sean's idea wasn't bad.

That's what Aiden felt when he first heard it. A short film based on his story sounded good and most importantly, achievable for the time being.

But there were still problems.

"I can go for a short film but who will direct it?"

He asked and Sean smiled.

"Who else but you?"

"Me?" Aiden put a finger on his forehead.

"Yes you. It's your story. You know the world. You are studying filmmaking. Why not try it? It can't go much wrong anyway."

Sean laughed, throwing Aiden into a path of no return.

His mind started to turn. Sean wasn't wrong. He had studied filmmaking to get better as an actor and someone who works in the movie business. It would be wrong to say that directing wasn't in his mind.

Getting a new skill was always on his mind.

But directing his own script so early? He had not expected that but was it really a bad thing? Sean was telling him to do a short film and that won't take much.

The robots and other things would need some thinking but Aiden was sure he could pull it off.

That's why he accepted.

"Okay, I will try it."

Though, one thing he hadn't expected was just then, system notifications came in his front view.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

After the Franco Li news had broken out, Aiden really wanted to go get good food and celebrate. Franco was like an annoying thorn on his foot that would sting a lot.

But now, he is gone for good and there could not be better news for Aiden. He had even heard his team was already celebrating in the office and had ordered pizzas, donuts and whatnots.

Tom had even sent him a text saying he was calling strippers but he doubted Sasha would let him do that.

Ignoring the urge to celebrate, Aiden had headed straight towards Sean's office as the more important thing here was to show him his script and ask if he knew what he could do with it.

But before he could even ask that, Sean had asked his script to read and it had been an hour since then.

'I hope he likes it.'

Aiden said as he looked in front of him. It had been over an hour since Sean had started reading the script he had given him. At first, the old professor looked like he just wanted to read it a bit but even after an hour, he had not put down the thick script.

In the past hour, Aiden had only been able to observe Sean's expression as he had nothing else to do. He can't leave without his script and Sean didn't look to be putting it down anytime soon.

The most annoying thing was that Sean's face had barely changed in the last hour, so Aiden didn't even know if he was liking it or not. But at least it was engrossing enough to keep him hooked for so long.

Finally when Aiden was on his 4th yawn and was pondering the consequences on his back if he decided to sleep on a chair, Sean blinked his eyes and put down the script.

Aiden immediately looked at him and asked.

"You read through it all? That early."

"No, I finished two thirds of it and I was reading at my top speed. I just remembered I had other work to do and can't spend more time than necessary on a script. I do plan to bring it home though."

Sean said as he looked like he was gonna ask Aiden to print him a copy of the script.

"So, you liked it?" He asked and Sean looked at him for a moment.

"It's certainly interesting. You have used a lot of concepts I have only seen in books before. With philosophical elements already present, I don't know why you even added elements like a robot trying to find his humanity but no matter what, that kind of suits the crazy, ecocentric world. You did a good job on your first script."

Sean smiled as he looked at him, like he was looking at a bright student.

Although he felt like the script could be improved as it had a lot of interesting elements but no depth in certain things, it was probably one of the better works from a rookie screenwriter who was writing his first script.

He knew Aiden would deliver on the story but even his dialogues were good and he made sure to give every character a certain way of speaking."

"So, is it good?" Aiden asked again.

"Yeah, it's certainly good. Why do you think I was engrossed in reading it? It's because it was very interesting for a time travel movie. You used science and philosophy in just the correct way."

Hearing that, Aiden got a bit of courage and asked.

"Is it good enough to be made into a movie?"

"No one is crazy enough to spend on a movie like this. Even if it's successful, it will be successful as one of those cult classics who bombed at the box office. It's too crazy and out of place for a producer to show his faith on this."

Sean said clearly like he was a judge announcing his judgement. It was clear and his tone was sharp.

Aiden hadn't expected it, so he was a bit shaken but he still continued the conversation.

"I'm pretty sure there will be someone."

"Not really. Maybe if you use your face as the lead but the thing is there's gonna be robots in it, there's gonna be supernatural powers and time travel. It's a high budget concept that's very crazy. In one scene, a literal sea monster came out of nowhere. If I was the producer, I wouldn't put my money on it due to the unclear plot and fast-paced story. You do know just creating an environment like that will require a huge amount."

Aiden nodded his head hearing that slowly.

It was not like he hadn't thought of these things before. He had multiple times during the writing of the script but he didn't have to worry about these things back then.

He understood that the world of his story was very vivid and hard to make. It wasn't based on old architecture or a sci-fi world like in the 'Space War' movies. It was a world that seemed very deformed in its nature and gave a feeling of mysticism.

No one would expect such a strong vibe from a world but in this story, the world was a character in itself.

Making that would obviously be extremely hard for the VFX artist and would cost a lot. Not like it was going to be a [Hex] level movie, so he doubted any studio would wanna work on this.

'I really can't sell it to a studio.'

Aiden thought in his mind and frowned inwardly.

If there was really no production house for this, then the script was just going into the dustbin. He could just sell it to a studio for a good amount of money as studios are always looking for rights to scripts that they could try to make in the future.

But Aiden didn't really have patience nor did he want to give up here.

Seeing the emotions on his face, Sean couldn't help but say.

"You know you could try to look for studios yourself. I'm pretty sure you know a lot of them, so they will be happy with a meeting. At least try your luck even if the chances are low."

"I can do that but really, I can already imagine what every studio spokesperson would say to me."

Aiden imagined every type of scenario in his head and none of them were what he wanted.

'The script is good but there's a lot of risks. I'm very sure we could get more investors if you decide to star in it.'

'It's a tricky script but I like it. Maybe in ten years, it will be a great movie.'

'I'm sorry but unless you are an investor and leading it, there's no point in making it. No one will come to watch dancing robots and confusing time travel nonsense.'

These responses rang loud in his head even though they hadn't happened yet. Seeing Aiden like this, Sean smiled and glanced at the script.

'What can one even do here...? I don't have 100 million dollars or I would help... Ah yes!'

He suddenly got an idea in his head.

Looking at Aiden, he wondered if he was even going to like it but well, in the end it was an idea and there was no harm in saying it out loud.

"Aiden, why don't you just forget about a full featured movie in your script?"

"What do you mean?"

"How about making up a short movie based on this script? You know to lure investors. Sometimes, short films become famous and end up becoming full featured length movies. Although there's a lot of scenes that will require VFX in your script, I think you can do one with a lower budget."

Sean's idea wasn't bad.

That's what Aiden felt when he first heard it. A short film based on his story sounded good and most importantly, achievable for the time being.

But there were still problems.

"I can go for a short film but who will direct it?"

He asked and Sean smiled.

"Who else but you?"

"Me?" Aiden put a finger on his forehead.

"Yes you. It's your story. You know the world. You are studying filmmaking. Why not try it? It can't go much wrong anyway."

Sean laughed, throwing Aiden into a path of no return.

His mind started to turn. Sean wasn't wrong. He had studied filmmaking to get better as an actor and someone who works in the movie business. It would be wrong to say that directing wasn't in his mind.

Getting a new skill was always on his mind.

But directing his own script so early? He had not expected that but was it really a bad thing? Sean was telling him to do a short film and that won't take much.

The robots and other things would need some thinking but Aiden was sure he could pull it off.

That's why he accepted.

"Okay, I will try it."

Though, one thing he hadn't expected was just then, system notifications came in his front view.

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Report chapter Comments