(Thunderclouds...Lightning striking)...(A voice in the background)
Skull...Dust...Blood...Scars! Not once had the darkness been conquered, not once had the red skies become clear...for the land had been so barren, filled with trees, flowers so withered away, and the soil so hot like the fire from the dawn of creation. A kingdom that had been ruled by a supreme ruler where no one ever went against his wishes. The ancient kingdom...the land of misery...the Kingdom of CHAOS!!! (Lightning striking).
(Voice going over the background) "And so no one remembered the Great Kingdom since it had been sealed and forgotten for thousands of years. I'm sure you would have understood more of what I was telling you when you were older, but no matter what you did, promise me you'd never open the book, my sweet Anna." (Gerald bent down and looked straight into her eyes). "I won't, grandfather. I promise!" Anna replied. (Gerald embraced her) "I'll always love you no matter what, my beautiful girl," he said.
(Six years passed by...Gerald had died, and Anna was already seventeen. A teenager who had been left all alone to fend for herself at a very young age).
"Yes, I'm almost there! Please don't cancel it...I'm really sorry!" Anna was arguing on the phone on her way to her first interview at Lockwood Entertainment, one of the best companies in New York and also one of the very few amazing companies in the world of entertainment.
She was putting her phone in her handbag and quickly readjusting her shirt. She rushed into the company and ran to the front desk. "Anna Windsom here, please! I had an interview today. Where do I head, please?" Anna said, worry etched on her face. "Wow! Just about two minutes left. You're in luck, Miss," the receptionist said. She was redirecting Anna to the second floor in the building. Anna ran up the stairs in a hurry.
It was already a minute past the appointed time, and Anna was not there yet, so the board had decided to leave the room. "This was a waste of time! I told you we could not trust Eric," the Vice President had said.
(Note: Eric is the grandson of Wade Anderson who was Gerald's best friend. Also...he was Anna's childhood friend).
"Please, let's all wait a few minutes. I'm sure she'll be here," Eric had said in an embarrassing way. The board had decided to leave with no one listening to Eric's statements until Anna had suddenly barged in. They all froze for a moment, and then...
"Such insolent behavior! Why should we entertain such mockery? She didn't deserve this chance! According to the rule book, any interview that was late, even if it was just a minute past, did not deserve the chance to be interviewed. I honestly thought she needed to return home and think really hard about why she had missed this golden opportunity," Jane had said in a serious tone.
(Note: Jane is the President of the Movie department that deals with Horror Script writing)
"I'm really sorry. I was having some problems to deal with. I was sincerely sorry, but I would have been honoured if I could have been allowed a few minutes of your time," Anna was saying with a sad look on her face. They were all looking at each other and deciding to give her one more chance. "I suppose we could, but I wouldn't have allowed such behaviour if you had ended up working here," Kingsley was saying.
(Note: Kingsley Lockwood is the current Chairman and grandson of Harry Lockwood who created Lockwood Entertainment)
"Thank you, sir," Anna had smiled and hurried to her seat.
She had looked at Eric and smiled, and he had given back the same reaction towards her. Anna had been asked a few questions about why she had been there and how she had spent most of her childhood. Then she had been asked what she could offer the company.
"I had been interested in having an adventure ever since I had been a kid, but I had always had this feeling that something in me had been missing. Of course, my grandfather had tried his best to raise me even though I had had no parents. They had died when I had been little...maybe eight or six perhaps? It had all been foggy then. Anyways, that's not the point. I had been there to sign a contract with this company if I had been allowed to. I might have been young and I had not really had a lot of experience despite being seventeen, but I had wanted to express myself through my work. I had believed the world deserved to see what I had to offer," she had said.
They had all understood what she had said, but they still needed to give it a thought because of certain circumstances.
"So you want us to make a movie on your script, is that right?" Kingsley had said with an emotionless expression.
Anna had nodded. Suddenly, Kingsley had stood up and hit his fist on the table, then he had replied, "I can't believe I wasted my time listening to this! This script isn't even worth viewing. Why the hell would we make a movie out of this? My company makes real and authentic movies...very beautiful work we do here...right here!" (He hit his hand on the table.) "A seventeen-year-old demands I make a movie of her script!" (He had looked at everyone and they had all laughed at her.)
Eric had stood up in an enraged manner and had been about to speak, but Kingsley had shut him up.
"Now, now, sit, boy! You might be your father's representative, and even though you owned a ten percent share at this table...it had still been my company! You sit your ass down before I make you!" he had said to Eric in a serious tone. Eric had slowly sat down and had looked at Anna with a sad expression on his face. He had been embarrassed and had had nothing to say. Anna had carried her handbag and stood up.
"I apologised. Thank you for your time. I should go now," she said, her voice breaking as if she was about to cry in front of the board, but she held it in. She ran out of the room and left the company. Kingsley turned to Eric and shook his head.
"Good for nothing... you don't even deserve to be here." He left the room, and the rest of them followed. Eric sat down, putting his hands over his face. Meanwhile, Anna was getting home, feeling really sad about her day. She took a shower and made lunch. She started remembering the humiliation she had suffered and was about to cry, but she used her right hand to wipe her tears away. After she ate, she walked to her living room and turned on the TV. She was looking through her phone when her eyes suddenly caught sight of the picture she had taken with her grandfather at the age of ten. While lost in thought, she accidentally fell asleep.
A few hours later, she heard a knock on her front door.
"Anna, Anna... Are you home? Please open up!" Eric kept yelling. She was disturbed by the noise and decided to open the door. "Eric, why are you here?" she asked, a sad look in her eyes. "I was worried about you after the ridiculous show that had been put on this morning. If I had known it would go that way, I would not have asked you to come. I'm really sorry it had to happen like that... I really am," he apologised sincerely, noticing that her eyes were swollen. "Were you crying?" he asked. Anna turned her back and walked in. She sat down on the couch and explained to Eric her feelings. "I know how hard that must have been. I'm really sorry about it," Eric continued to apologise. Suddenly, she burst into tears and started crying so hard. Eric moved closer to her, embracing her and reassuring her that everything would be okay. He cheered her up and calmed her down. He decided to make her some dinner, and time was passing by pretty fast. Three hours later...
"It was getting late. I should go now," Eric was saying while looking at his wristwatch. Anna was expressing her gratitude and thanking him for always supporting her as she walked him to the door.
"You knew I would always have your back, right?" he was asking while smiling at her. "Yeah, I knew. Thanks for everything...and dinner, of course," Anna was responding with a smile. She moved closer to him and gave him a kiss on his cheek. "Goodnight, Eric," she was saying. Eric was also responding and took his leave. She closed her door and went upstairs to her room.
Anna was changing into her nightwear and sitting on her bed. She was about to go to bed when suddenly lightning began to strike. Thunderclouds were forming, and it started raining heavily. At first, she thought it was normal and decided to have a good night's rest, but surprisingly, she started seeing shadows of a hooded skeleton with a skull face holding a scythe. The wind was moving around the room like ocean water focused on a single point. A red light was beginning to glow from a chest she had locked away in her wardrobe for seven years. Anna was feeling scared and confused about what was going on, but she knew instinctively that she needed to follow the light. She was walking towards her wardrobe when suddenly another lightning struck.
"What...the...h...hell is going on?" Anna was thinking, panicking. She opened her wardrobe and started hearing whispers from the chest. She couldn't make out any words, but she knew whatever was going on was definitely far from normal. She was frightened, but due to her curiosity, she carried the glowing chest and placed it on her bed. She bent down before it and was about to touch it when she suddenly remembered her grandfather's words. "No matter what you do, promise me you will never open the book, my sweet Anna," Gerald had warned.
"I shouldn't touch the chest. It'll all go away in the morning. I should go to bed... this was all just me hallucinating since I had a really bad day. Yes, that was it... I was sure," Anna was trying to convince herself. She was trying to resist, but the voices were becoming stronger, and the light was glowing brighter. Lightning struck once more, and Anna could not contain her curiosity. She opened the chest and carried out the Book of Chaos. Anna hesitated at first, but she wanted to know if truly the stories she had been told were actually true. "I shouldn't do this. I shouldn't. (She froze for a minute) I had gotten this far anyway... I guess I should see it through." Gerald had given her the key to the book as her tenth birthday present. It was now a necklace Anna was wearing around her neck, with the symbol of a skull as its core. She knew what she had to do at that moment. Anna removed the key from around her neck and placed it in the lock holding the book together. For a moment... nothing happened, so she felt relieved. "I guess grandfather wasn't honest with me," she laughed.
Suddenly, it stopped raining, and the thunderclouds cleared up at once. Before Anna could grasp the concept of what was going on, the book opened up, and she was sucked into the world of Chaos. Anna began to scream in pain as she was being forced into a reality she never belonged to. She felt her bones crushing as she was being sucked in.
(Suspenseful music was playing in the background)
(Voices were whispering... the book continued to glow)
(The book closed and locked itself with the key right beside it. It stopped glowing, and the voices faded away.)