I read the trending news,

“The reality behind the documentary, Obsessions leaked.”

To be honest, I was never as terrified as I was at that moment. I always believed that if my show’s reality leaked then, my death would be confirmed.

I read the news further,

“It has been proved that Obsessions was a completely scripted show and had nothing real in it. All the interviewees of the show were planted who had nothing similar to their stories in real life.”

I jumped out of the computer chair and held my face with utmost fear and regret.

Oh, God! I uttered, Oh, God! I can’t, I just cannot believe what is happening. Please, tell me it is not true. Somebody please tell me that I am sleeping and this is only a dream.

I turned back and looked at my laptop. The news was right there in front of me. I asked myself while, looking at my Twitter account,

Who did this? Who leaked this reality? It must be one of the interviewees. I’m not going to spare whoever did this.

I sat back and continued reading the post,

“The fans of the show are very disappointed with the director who turned out to be nothing but only an attention seeker. He had been pulling wool over his fans eyes but now, they have decided to turn the tables…”

I stopped reading further as I couldn’t. I was shocked as this was a top secret that nobody was aware of.

Oh, God! I am dead. I am so dead. They are going to kill me.

I stood up getting panicked and asked myself,

What am I going to do? The truth has been leaked. My show was a fake one but how should I apologise. They won’t forgive me. Not just my career, but my life is on stake.

I picked up a glass and thought of pouring some water in it but I couldn’t, as my hands were shaking.

Those goons appeared before my eyes, I wondered if they had leaked my secret somehow, but I wasn’t sure. I kept the glass back on the table and gave myself a little courage to think wisely.

All I need to do is find out the person, I told myself, I just have to find out who did this and once I do…

My mode of thoughts changed in my mind and I started to wonder,

Regardless, whoever did this and what I do to him, my career is over. My reputation is tarnished now, forever. I cannot gain the support of my audience. They will turn against me and no one will even want to see my show. No producer would sign me again.

That moment, I got another idea of seeing the reaction of my fans. I rushed back towards my computer and logged in to Google through a different account of mine. I then, logged into YouTube and searched for my channel.

As my YouTube channel appeared before me, I was not just shocked but I was literally heartbroken. The number of my subscribers had declined drastically. They were not even half of what they were before.

I was crying inside. There were no tears in my eyes but deep inside my heart, I was crying like a small kid. I cannot recall how depressed I ever was. I am responsible for this. Maybe I should have warned those people that if they leaked this reality then, the consequences would be really worse.

I immediately made a call to Walter, the old guy who pretended to be a ‘bear hunter’ in one of my episodes.

“Hello?” he answered my call.

“Tell me the truth, have you leaked this news?”

“Excuse me? Why are you blaming me for what happened?”

“Just answer me, did you or did you not leak this news?”

“I think you have gone crazy. Have you even watched the video?”

“What video are you talking about?”

He disconnected the call. I was curious, but I was also convinced that it was not him. So, I decided to call all of those hired actors one by one, and then, try to find out who did it. Obviously, nobody would admit his crime, but I was determined enough to find the truth, even if I would have to break inside their homes.

Whom should I call now? I asked myself.

The woman who pretended to be obsessed with mirrors on my show was the one who appeared in my mind. All of a sudden, I realised that she was the one who was unsatisfied. She wanted more money but I had to bargain with her, which did not please her of course. I dialed her number and waited for her to answer. Unfortunately, her phone was switched off and I was disappointed to hear that.

“The problem will not be solved like this,” I thought. “You cannot waste your time on this stuff. Right now, you need a restraining order. Yes, you are in danger, you need a restraining order from all those who can harm you. Those goons, maybe they come looking for me again.”

My heartbeat began to run faster. I was trembling severely that I could hardly hold my phone.

Should I call David? I asked myself. He has done a lot for me and it seems a little embarrassing for me to call him during such time.

Quite unexpectedly, I heard a doorbell. I was even more terrified now. I was sure for a moment that my time was over but then, I gave another thought and considered what if it was someone else, who would not be harmful for me.

I prayed for David to be at the door for me. I was walking towards the door and when I finally reached there, I peeked through the hole. It was one of my cameramen. I opened the door and didn’t speak a word. I was expecting him to begin the conversation,

“How are you sir?” he asked me.

“I just found out.”

“What?”

“The news which is trending on Twitter.”

“Oh, yeah that. Well, I know its trending and not just on Twitter, it’s trending on YouTube and Facebook as well.”

“I’m sure it is, and I’m badly worried about it.”

“Look sir, mistakes happen. But if you need anything from me, let me know.”

I was a little confused, regarding his first statement as I was trying to figure out what he actually meant but I ignored and said,

“Thank you, I’ll let you know.”

I was confident that he was not the culprit I was looking for, and therefore, I didn’t ask him anything. I then, made it clear through my actions that I wasn’t going to ask him to come inside and wanted to be alone. He understood that and began to walk away waving his hand. I shut the door.

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

Within the next twenty four hours, I tried to contact my entire team. Not just the cameramen and editors, but also the actors I had hired in my episodes. There was no reply from anyone of them and I was unable to understand as to why they were ignoring my calls. My guess was that they were trying to hide from me, not because they were the ones who probably leaked the reality of the show, but because they were expecting me to seek help from them with this whole scenario and obviously, they didn’t want to help me out.

To be honest, I have never been this much desperate before. I am a kind of person who tries to avoid calling others more than twice a day, no matter how serious the issue is. But today, I was calling each and every member several times. When I checked the details of my call log, I came to realise that I had called each member at least five times and none of them had answered my call. I had lost my pride but I couldn’t risk my life. My career is probably ruined forever but I can’t let my breath go away that easily.

When I was completely hopeless, one of the hired actors called me back. It was the woman, whom I had suspected initially. She said as I answered her call,

“Yes, what is it sir? I just saw your missed calls. My phone was not in my purse.”

“Yeah, whatever!” I replied trying to get to the point, “I just want to know about who is setting up this conspiracy.”

“Conspiracy? Hold on, which conspiracy are you talking about?”

“I’m asking you, who has leaked the truth about my show? I was a little suspicious about you. You were the only one who was unsatisfied.”

“I was unsatisfied?” she asked getting confused. “But about what?”

“Don’t play games with me, please,” I said firmly, “I want to know the truth about who leaked the reality of my show.”

“What reality? That it was scripted?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re suspecting me?”

“I’m sorry, but yes,” I answered kind of hesitantly.

She didn’t respond at all. I said again,

“I’m waiting for your answer, who has leaked this? Was it you?”

“I think, you’re insane,” she exclaimed before hanging up.

I could do nothing except for calling her back and I did. Unfortunately, she didn’t answer my call.

Hours later, I was surfing the internet and was going through different channels. I was trying to figure out who leaked the news. My plan was not to harm the person who did this, but to negotiate with him. I was thinking of paying that person a handsome amount for confessing on YouTube that he had lied about the show being scripted but finding that person was no easy task. I had to go through the oldest posts possible, in order to find him.

I finally came across the older posts and as I did I was slightly hopeful that I would find the person.

My eyes accidentally read a post that caught my attention and resolved the entire mystery,

“David McIntyre reveals that the show Obsessions was nothing more than a scripted drama.”

I wasn’t just surprised, but I was furious. I could not believe that after having extreme faith in my old friend, I would be fooled this way.

I read the post further, trying to figure out the details. There I found out that the news had been leaked by him, through a video posted on YouTube.

I got so enraged that I stood up and kicked the computer table with all my strength. My laptop was about to fall down as I had kicked so hard.

David! I uttered angrily. You rat, you sold me out. You gave me the idea in the first place and now you’ve double crossed me. You really think that you can get away with this easily, I’ll show you now.

I walked towards another room, where I had kept a notebook. In that notebook, I had written down the addresses of all my friends. I picked it up as soon as I found it and then, opened it quickly.

To my surprise, all the pages of the book were empty. That very moment, I understood that David had replaced my original book with this one. I chuckled and said,

He has planned this entire game quite smartly. He thinks that I am going to back out? No, he’s wrong! He must have a bigger game plan for sure, but not as smart as I have.

There as I turned towards the window, I saw that double-crosser so called friend of mine standing outside on the staircase attached to my house window. He was smiling devilishly and was waving his hand.

Oh, God! There he is...

I rushed to get my hands on him.

to be continued...