One more thing,” he said, “Are you sure, these people won’t be harmful to you? I mean do you have any security plan?”

“I…I…” I was speechless but I tried to speak, “I don’t think they will be harmless. They are in fact very troubled people.”

“Unbelievable!” David uttered with astonishment.

“What?” I asked while getting surprised on his reaction.

“I can’t believe it. You’re not even prepared for this. You have no backup plan at all.”

“What do you mean by that, David?”

“All I’m saying is that you need to be a little more attentive and focused. When you’re working on such a serious project, you should be well equipped.”

I smiled for a moment and then answered him,

“My dear friend, David, my life you know, is all about fun and adventure.”

I stopped for a moment and then said,

“Actually no, not fun, but thrill and adventure. I’d rather call it thrill and fun.”

“So, what are you saying exactly?”

“I’m saying that if I would go all packed up like this then, there will be no thrill. There would be no adventure. So, my point is that this is not my style. I am a risk taker. I have done flop movies and I am not ashamed of them, because risk taking is my passion.”

“Oh, well, I’m impressed. I wish that whatever you’re saying are not just words and you’d be able to prove them too. As you once stated in your movie, actions speak louder than words.”

I chuckled, nodded my head and said,

“Yeah, that’s true. But it wasn’t me who spoke these words. It was just my idea.”

“Anyways, I’m glad what you just said for your upcoming project. Best of luck!”

“Thank you.”

****************

One Week Later

One of my fans picked up his cell phone and logged on to YouTube and then, accidentally clicked on the trending videos. He however, didn’t pay much attention and started watching the first video.

At number one, it was my channel’s video. The video was titled,

‘Episode 1: Interview of a Wannabe Magician and a Bear Hunter’

The video had a thumbnail of mine, my interviewee’s picture in his room. The video was 40 minutes long.

Oh my God. My fan exclaimed. Why haven’t I seen this episode yet?

In another city, one of my fans who were an aged woman was sitting in her office. She was tired with the entire day’s hectic work, she switched on her computer and started surfing on YouTube. She saw that she had around 10 notifications. She clicked the notification icon and saw the list. She scrolled down to watch something that she would find interesting.

She finally found a six days old notification which was titled,

‘Episode 1: Interview of a Wannabe Magician and a Bear Hunter’

She clicked the video link and began watching it with excitement on her face.

In the same city, a group of friends was watching a video on a single tablet. They were sitting in a garden and were trying to hear the content of the video without missing anything as there was quite some noise.

“Is this the full volume?” one of the girls asked.

Hold on, let me go a week back.

One week earlier, I was sitting in my room in front of my computer and was trying to regain my confidence. I thought,

Alright, this is it! I am finally publishing my first video ever.

I started the process. After a while, I was just one click away from publishing my first ever video. I was excited and nervous both. I shut my eyes before uploading it and said to myself,

I don’t know about the chances of success. But I can assure one thing that it would surely be better than the time, when I was in the film industry.

I, however, held the mouse and clicked the button after saying my prayers quickly.

****************

Well, here I am today. Confident about my work and after almost a week, I have decided to read the comments of the episode.

But before reading the comments, I thought to go through the episode quickly to see what exactly I have created.

The first five minutes of the episode were an introduction to my show and then, the video further started inside the house of a strange person whom I call a wannabe magician. This is not a taunt or sarcasm on the person. Here the title is meant to be taken literally.

For 60 seconds, the entire house of this person was presented before the audience. From kitchen to the guest room, every room had stuff that had something to do with magic tricks. There were cards, hats and sticks that have been symbols of magic for quite a long time.

While his house was being presented in the video, I was narrating,

“This man, Joe Klewra, wanted to be a stage magician, but because of his family issues, he could not fulfill his dream. This man has dedicated his entire life to magic tricks and illusions, and today, he claims that there is not a single magic trick that he cannot break.”

Next moment, the two of us were sitting face to face on his bed. I asked him,

“So, what is it about magic that really intrigues you?”

“Initially, it was just the tricks. But now it’s different. I just wanted to know maximum magic tricks before. It was my goal, that I must know at least hundred magic tricks.”

“And, how many do you know today?”

“More than three hundred,” he answered.

“Oh, my God!” I uttered.

“Yes, that’s true. But it doesn’t really matter, what matters to me is that I want to know every magic trick. Each and every magic trick in the world that exists, every illusion that exists, I want them all to be in my hands.”

“Oh, and are you successful, so far?”

“No! Not even a bit,” he said with desperation in his voice.

“But how come? I mean, you just stated that you wanted to be a person who knows 100 magic tricks. Now, that you know so many, you are still unsatisfied?”

Moving ahead to an interesting conversation, he claimed,

“This has been my state of mind since five years now.”

“Five years? You mean to say that you have been obsessed with these magic illusions since past five years?”

“Not the illusions, I am obsessed with the secret behind these tricks. Every trick that is in the world, I want it to be in my knowledge.”

The camera was focused on the guy’s physical appearance and his face. We gave the audience a moment to examine this person from head to toe. The point to bother, especially for me, was that this guy appeared to be completely normal. There was no sign or indication which could prove this guy to be insane or mentally unstable. Despite the fact, that he was normal, his state of mind does not seem to be normal at all.

I asked him further in the episode,

“How far have you gone to learn a magic trick?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean to ask, can you share an experience of yours, where you have proved to do anything to learn a magic trick’s secret.”

“Well I…” he said while trying to recall, “Yes I did, I once kidnapped a child. He was a magician’s son. I kidnapped him and asked his father to expose all the secrets behind his magic tricks. He did the same.”

“So, did you let go of his son?”

“Yes, but I shouldn’t have.”

“Why?”

“Because he involved the cops afterwards and this was unfair.”

“You’re telling us that,” I asked getting surprised on his answer, “You think that what he did was unfair.”

“Why not?”

After recording the view of his house briefly, I asked him,

“Have you considered the fact that this creativity will never end? These magicians will keep on designing new illusions and this process will make it impossible for you to know each and every trick in the world.”

“No, I won’t let that happen. I can stop the magicians with terror.”

“What kind of terror?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

Coming to the last 20 minutes of the episode, I was in the garden of a wealthy person’s house. He didn’t want to share his identity and so, I jumped directly to the questions,

“So, would you share with us why you are so obsessed with bears? Why do you hunt them, every now and then?”

“I don’t hunt, I kill them. I want you to think that I kill them. Hunting is not my thing.”

“So, you kill them?”

“Yes, I shoot them upfront. I don’t hide behind the bushes when I’m shooting them, I go and stand right in front of them while I do this.”

“I see, any reason for doing it this way?” I asked.

“I do have a reason. But obviously, I wouldn’t share that.”

I was a little interested by now and so, I asked him,

“So, your hunting has a special story?”

“Like I told you before, I am not a coward hunter, I am a bold killer.”

“Yeah, I know. Do you have

a special story behind

killing them?”

We zoomed in the camera towards his eyes as tears were quite visible. I requested him,

“Come on, share your story with us please.”

“I don’t want to. This is no joke. My entire life has been changed, just because of this fierce animal.”

I remained silent as the tenderness in his voice was making it difficult for me to question. He took out a picture from his wallet and showed me.

It was a picture of a two year old baby girl. I had understood and I’m sure that my audience must have also understood the entire story.

Filming this guy’s interview seemed quite embarrassing, and yet I did. Therefore, I didn’t feel good about it.

During the last five minutes, I asked him,

“So, you kill bears and remind yourself that you are taking your revenge?”

“Yes, this animal is my enemy. This animal ruined the peace of my life. I can’t let them survive as long as they are in front of me.”

“Do you feel satisfied when you kill them?”

“Yes, very much!”

Anyways, I paused the video and read the comments,

“Wow, this episode was epic.”

“The bear killer’s story made me cry.”

“I have near seen such an interesting documentary, please share more content like this.”

Two days later, I uploaded the promo of the second episode and on the fourth day, I watched the twenty second video myself.

In the promo, it showed the inside of a house with mirrors all around. A blonde haired woman with blue eyes was saying,

“I am obsessed with reflections. I like to see different things with different angles.”

“What do you get out of this?” I asked in the promo.

She got angry and threw a glass of water on the ground causing the shattered pieces to fly all over the place.

I scrolled down to the comments section of this promo and decided to read all the comments. I began reading from the last one,

“OMG, this is undoubtedly the most anticipated show.”

“Our industry needs more shows like this.”

“I found this promo to be dark but I enjoy such shows.”

“This promo is full of suspense, can’t wait for the episode.”

“When are you releasing this episode?”

“The previous episode was quite terrifying but this one seems to be unique and unusual.”

I was quite happy after reading the comments and said to myself,

Well done, Mr Director. Well done! You have done a great job so far.

I continued reading,

“This episode won’t be as dark as the previous one but I’m sure that it would be something unusual and unexpected.”

That moment, I heard someone calling me from behind.

to be continued...