Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood
chapter-222

Step! Step! Step!

Aiden was running as fast as he could. In front of him, a dark mist was formed, and it was hard to see where he was. A weird kind of darkness surrounded the whole place.

He turned his head back to look at the figure that was chasing him. It was the same ghost from the audition. But, this time, he had brought friends, and all of them were salivating while looking at him like he was going to be their dinner.

One of them had its gaze fixated on Aiden's legs like he was going to eat it first.

Having no choice, Aiden kept running while wondering where he was and what he was doing. He had suddenly found himself in the middle of nowhere, and these ghosts had attacked him.

As he ran, he suddenly noticed that the surface was changing. Rocks had started to come in his way. Big, large rocks, and he needed to dodge them to escape the ghost.

'Fuck! What is going on? Did all my luck end after such a long time? Am I going to die here?'

He thought and fell down suddenly, tripping over a small rock. Looking back, the ghost saw me like that and snickered.

"Human, we are going to eat you."

One of the ghosts hissed, and the other two nodded like they were his lackeys.

"Fuck off."

Aiden said, and suddenly, the ghost rushed towards him to attack with their claws. He closed his eyes, thinking that it was over, but at that moment, a gunshot was heard.

Two more gunshots followed, and when Aiden opened his eyes, he saw that the ghosts were nowhere to be seen and in their places, there were bullet marks on the ground.

He looked around, wondering who had fired them, and his eyes landed on a guy who was standing just a few spots away from him.

He was a black guy with an eyepatch and a gun in his hand. Looking at Aiden, the black guy muttered.

"Those creatures were something else, mother—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Aiden threw a rock at him, and the world suddenly turned to dust.

The next moment, he woke up.

"That was a very, very weird dream."

He thought, panting and looking around his bedroom, making sure that there was no one other than him there. Touching his forehead, he realised that he was sweating a little.

He turned on the lights with a sigh and got out of his bed.

It was still early, with the clock showing that it was 4 AM in the morning, but he wasn't in any mood to sleep.

It's been three days since Aiden had given the audition for [Sherlock of the Shadows], and although he was mostly fine, he had started getting incredibly weird nightmares involving the ghost that he had seen in his immersion.

He could only think that it was an effect of being in such a realistic immersion involving ghosts.

'Should I opt for a therapist?'

He thought, drinking water. A lot of actors would take psychological help to get out of the effects of being in character for too long. Some actors' personalities would even change due to it, and they would start having difficulty adapting to normal life.

Most of these cases happen with method actors.

There were actors who got a habit of drugs due to portraying characters who actually took drugs, and it was safe to say that it didn't end well for them.

Aiden's case was a bit different because rather than getting issues due to a character, it was mostly because of immersion which was difficult to explain.

He just hoped that it would become better as the shooting went on. Finn Wheeler was someone who would get better control of ghosts and his other powers as the show went on.

He could only hope that it applied to him too.

Otherwise, he would have to opt for psychological help, which was fine too, as a lot of projects were hyped by the producers marketing the fact that the actors were so involved that they got mental health issues.

Shaking his head, Aiden wondered what he could do at 4 in the morning. His work wasn't going to start till 9, and his first show for today was going to start at 10.

Aiden was still promoting his album as it was still the middle of April. By the end of it, they were going to stop the live shows, so Aiden could focus on the release of [Disconnected] and then the shooting for [Sherlock of the Shadows].

'Should I just exercise? Or play a video game? Am I not really hungry yet? There's a lot I could do so early in the morning.'

He thought, and at that moment, an idea struck his mind.

He moved towards his laptop and DAW (Digital audio workstation) that was set up in a room in his apartment. He had done it in case inspiration struck him when he was at home.

Sitting in front of it, he thought of the time when he had seen that ghost.

The darkness of his body, the eyes that seem to be looking everywhere and the hiss of it. All of it wasn't going out of his mind, and he felt that he could use it to make music.

Something unique that he hadn't done before.

'The hiss of that ghost. I wonder if I could replicate it.'

He thought, trying to imitate the hiss, trying to let out his voice in a high pitch, but it was a hard thing to do as he wasn't really trying to be melodious.

It needed to be screechy, scary and a bit creepy. At the same time, it needed to sound good.

It was an extremely difficult task.

Aiden recorded his hissing voice and tried to add several effects to it. Trying out everything he could to make it similar to the hiss that the ghost was letting out.

He felt that if he could replicate it, then it could become a very different kind of music than what he would normally make.

Other ideas also started coming to his mind as he thought of the other sound effects that a horror movie would normally have. The sound of a clock ticking, footsteps, the voice of an owl — If he could include all this in a track, then it might just become a unique piece of music.

***

<Aiden Silvereye's shows are getting sold out repeatedly after the massive success of his debut album. According to media reports, the star singer is looking to end his live shows with a bang. Details are still not out, but there are a lot of rumours floating around.>

<[Disconnected], which stars Seth Douglas, Aiden Silvereye and Dustin Redford, to have its premiere on 31st March. The movie opened up to the public on 3rd April.>

<Youth icon Seth Douglas is mostly seen doing the promotions of the movie along. Only a few times the whole cast is seen giving interviews. Reportedly, the marketing strategy of Black Line Cinema is to focus more on the main character.>

Wade shook his head, reading the news related to Aiden. Most of it was about [Disconnected] as the media articles were including his name as one of the cast.

Black Line Cinema had only asked them to do a few interviews, which Aiden had already completed. Most of the promotion strategy revolved around Seth Douglas and Director Jesse Ross.

The agent didn't mind it as anyway, Aiden was pretty busy in his shows and in his eyes, the movie was good enough that it would get a good box office record due to word of mouth and SGA heavy promotion.

"I'm sorry I was running a little late."

Wade raised his head to look at the square-faced man who seemed a bit stoic. He recognised him as he was one of the shareholders and a Director in Cyco media.

But his meeting wasn't going to be with him.

"I thought Mr McDonald was going to meet me today. We were going to talk about the show in Radio City Music hall."

"Steven was busy in a meeting. It was a kind of emergency, so I came. Anyway, it's not a big meeting or anything."

The director shrugged his shoulders, and Wade nodded, keeping his calm intact.

Both of them sat down, and the director opened his mouth with a wide smile.

"Let's start with the good news first." He said. "Radio City Music hall accepted our offer to let us use it for Aiden's last show this month."

Wade was visibly excited hearing that.

Radio City Music hall was famous for only letting top singers hold their shows in it. It was one of the biggest halls in America and was often given out to large theatre groups.

"That's great news."

"Yeah, we are going to bring in dance groups, the best musicians to support Aiden throughout the concert, and the promotions of it will start as soon as possible. It's going to be a big event, and we need to sell every ticket."

"Yeah, that's going to be a hard part."

If Aiden managed to fill all the seats in the hall, then no one would doubt his credibility as a top singer in the country. Both the director and Wade talked a bit more about it, discussing how they were going to go along with it.

It went on peacefully like that for a while until the director suddenly changed the topic.

"Anyway, there's something I want to talk to you about."

"What?" Wade tilted his head.

"I have an offer. How about you and Aiden move to Cyco media? We are the best record label in the country and have access to everywhere. We would also let you handle Aiden's acting works and would even promote it. I think he's a great talent, and he's going to be wasted without any big company promoting him. You would also start getting a higher paycheck. How about it? You convince Aiden, and I give you whatever amount you want? If you want something other than money, that could also be arranged."

The director said it without stopping. A smirk was plastered on his face.

Money, girls or something else, he was willing to give anything.

"The offer is good, but…"

Wade opened his mouth with a blank face.

No one knew what happened in the meeting after that, but from that day on, the director stopped trying to poach anyone from anywhere.

He even stopped taking Aiden's name.