….

  As the sing ed up with the Q&A session, slowly the buzz around [Following] started trig into the online world.

  Just so happens, a humble group of Stephen Hawking's fans noticed his ached to a teaser clip cirg on social media, sparking curiosity that quickly spread to his fan pages on Twitter.

  …..

  └ @QuantumJunkie: [Hey guys, did you hear? The - STEPHEN HAWKING is presenting a film!! And it's hitting theaters tomorrow.]

  └ @SleepySocks: [For real!?? Why didn't I know about this earlier?]

  └ @SpaghettiMania: [Doesn't matter. I am watg it.]

  └ @PixetedPineapple: [Same here!]

  Not everyone shared the excitement, though.

  └ @GrumpyGravy: [I looked into it. Apparently, it's an indie film. I lost i. Those films mostly suck.]

  └ @QuantumJunkie: [I mean, I don't bme you. But this is Stephen Hawking. I am giving it a shot just for him.]

  └ @SleepySocks: [Yeah, me too. If he is attached to it, there's gotta be something special about it.]

  ….

  Just as the versation begaing up, things took a sharper turn.

  Influencers who had attehe special sing earlier that day started sharing their experiences and reviews, fueling the fire even further

  ….

  └ @GaxyFanatic: [Guys!! Just watched an amazing film presented by Stephen Hawking. It's called [Following]. Totally loved it.]

  The cim raised a few eyebrows.

  └ @SpaghettiMania: [Fake! The movie is releasing tomorrow. Don't fall for it.]

  └ @TechyTaco: [No, it's real. They held a special sing for critid media. I was there too! Check out this photo I took with the director and Stephen himself.]

  Attached to the post was a clear image of the fan grinning beside a beaming Regal and Stephen Hawking.

  └ @CaffeineOverload: ["OMG. It's true?! Ahis! It was made with a budget of just 500K!]

  └ @QuantumJunkie: ["Alright, I have decided... I am watg this movie. Who's ing?"]

  └ @CaffeineOverload: ["t me in."]

  └ @SleepySocks: ["Yep, me too."]

  …..

  [ day]

  [Juh, 2010]

  …..

  It was finally D-Day for Andrew Gleeson.

  At 27, he had been chasing his dream of being an actor for what felt like forever.

  Hollywood, however, wasn't the shiny dream he had envisioned growing up.

  It was tougher, colder, especially for someone like him, a nobody without es or a reizable name.

  In five years, Andrew had hustled through tless auditions, hoping for his big break.

  Most of them led nowhere, and when they did, it was just another extra role, his face lost in the background, barely registering on s.

  A handful of indie films had e his way, but none made a dent - one bombed so hard it was almost ughable, while another never even made it past post-produ.

  Until st month, he had been at his lowest point - five years in, and his dream still felt impossibly distant.

  Then came the casting call.

  He found it one night while scrolling mindlessly through the usual listings.

  Nothing about it stood out. Nothing screamed opportunity.

  But at this point, why not? What did he have to lose?

  …and that was it.

  Weeks ter, the impossible happened.

  He got the part.

  Not as ara, not as some nameless supp role, he was cast as the lead.

  At first, he was sure it was a mistake, maybe some cruel joke.

  Him? The lead? It didn't seem real.

  That night, he couldn't sleep. Not until exhaustion finally took over - after the tears had e and gone, leaving him drained.

  The his hands on the script.

  As he flipped through the pages, something strange happened, he couldn't put it down. The writing was sharp, and the plot was gripping.

  This wasn't just det. It was great.

  Maybe he had been jaded by years of mediocre indie scripts, but even fact that in, this o different.

  It had weight. Depth. Payoffs that actually nded.

  Regal, the writer and director, had crafted something that shouldn't have been possible for someone his age.

  And that was the catch.

  Regal was only 22, meaning five years youhan him. On top of it, this was his debut project.

  Could this guy really pull it off? Was Andrew being reckless, letting his desperation cloud his judgment?

  He tried not to dwell on the doubt, but it lingered in the back of his mind.

  Then filming began - and every bit of that doubt crumbled.

  Regal had an air about him, a sharp focus and crity that Andrew had never seen before.

  O, he wasn't just petent.

  He was in plete trol. He has a knack for overing obstacles on the fly, adapting with a precision that feels almost instinctual.

  The way he maniputed lighting to create mood with limited resources? It was nothing short of brilliant.

  The crew was barebones, eight, maybe ten people, each juggling multiple roles.

  Some were college students looking for experience, while others were just in it for pocket money or a brief 'field trip' into the film industry.

  No professional ematographer. No assistant directors. No line producers.

  A, somehow, despite the chaos, filming ed in just twenty-five days as pnned.

  Aill remembered scoffing when he first read the schedule.

  A month? For aire feature-length film? It felt like a joke.

  He had been os where produ dragged for years, buried under deys, poor pnning, and logistiightmares.

  He braced himself for the same mess here.

  But each day, the impossible kept happening.

  Ses were shot, ed, and checked off with ruthless effio wasted time and endless reshoots.

  Slowly, Andrew's skepticism gave way to something else.

  Admiration.

  This was wheruly grasped the depth al's itment, a level of discipline and maturity far beyond what one would expect from someone so young.

  At 22, distras were easy, and pressure could break even the most determined.

  Andrew had been there himself, struggling to keep his focus, unsure of his footing.

  But Regal? He was unwavering. A leader who set the bar high and made everyone want to reach it.

  What stunned Andrew even more was the sheer level of preparatial had done before filming even started.

  The attention to detail and the meticulous pnning made Andrew question his own work ethic. He had growo the disanization of is, where schedules were loose and improvisation was often mistaken for efficy.

  The trast was striking.

  Regal's passion spread across the set like wildfire, iing even the most inexperienced crew members.

  Most were college students, proo mistakes, yet they weren't zy.

  Regal's iy anded respect. His presence alone made them work harder, learn faster, and push past their limits.

  And then, there was the cast.

  Andrew found himself surrounded by raw, unpolished talent, the kind that couldn't be taught, only discovered.

  Grace, in particur, was a hidden performer.

  At first gnce, she didn't seem like a leading dy. Her presence off-camera was quiet, almost unassuming.

  But the moment the cameras rolled, she transformed.

  Her performances carried a depth and siy that caught everyone off guard. It wasn't just good ag. It was the kind that pulled you in and made you feel something real.

  Yet, for all her brillian the most emotionally charged ses, Grace had an almost ical tendenble the simplest ones.

  Regal found himself givihe most attention.

  A mispced prop, a missed cue, an inexplicable bnk-out, Grace turned even the easiest setups into ued hurdles.

  It wasn't due to ziness, nor was it a ck of talent. If anything, it felt like she was so afraid of making a mistake that she iably made one.

  Still, Regal never seemed frustrated. He approached each hiccup with remarkable ess, breaking down ses, adjusting dires, and w through the moment until it clicked.

  And when Grace finally nailed a take, the result was undeniable, pure magic that justified every extra sed spent.

  But ood out more than Keanu, the actor pying the sed lead.

  Keanu owerhouse.

  Every se he was in came alive with an almost magic presence.

  His brilliance wasn't loud or overly dramatic. He didn't o force emotion or stretch for attention, he simply had it.

  A gnce, a pause, a single quiet word, he could turn the smallest moment into something that lingered, something that stuck with you.

  Andrew found himself captivated, watg Keanu perform.

  And in those moments, a realization hit him.

  A realization that stung.

  This was what he had been missing all along in Hollywood - 'Presence'.

  Keanu had it in spades, an effortless aura that atention the sed he stepped into frame.

  Andrew? He hadn't yet figured out how to create that same magic.

  Still during the shoot there wasn't time to dwell on those thoughts.

  The filming schedule moved like clockwork, and before he k, they had ed the final se.

  And the quality? It wasn't just passable.

  It looked like a mid-budget produ.

  Andrew could hardly believe hal had mao achieve so much with so little.

  Looking baow, standing on the brink of the film's release, Andrew felt something stir deep inside him.

  For the first time in years, there was hope.

  Not the desperate, wide-eyed hope that had driven him when he first arrived in Hollywood, but something steadier.

  This wasn't just another job.

  And this 50 mm long s before him was all the proof he needed.

  Proof that talent and vision could still shihrough, even without million-dolr budgets or industry bag.

  Proof that maybe he hadn't been chasing a dead dream all this time.

  ….

  He was actually sitting in a movie theater.

  The m shht after yesterday's sing.

  He was supposed to watch it with the crew at the 10 a.m. show, but he couldn't wait that long.

  He o see it now, to experie with an unfiltered audieo feel their reas iime.

  So he had e alone.

  After this, he would meet up with the rest of the team.

  But for now, the movie was reag its final moments.

  ….

  "...I didn't follow them. I followed myself."

  The words hang in the air, eg through the theater, as the s bcks out.

  Then, a new name fshed on the s that caught the eyes-

  [Written and Directed by Regal Seraphsail & Team]….The audience is left in stunned silehe weight of his fession reverberating long after the credits roll.

  As the rest of the cast and crew scroll onto the s, the haunting score pys softly, leaving the audien quiet ption.

  ….and as the credits rolled on for a minute, slowly, the theater emptied.

  But there are always a few who stay behind - people too zy to stand in line for the exit or those who make it a habit to watch the credits to the bitter end.

  And by the time the credits are heir end, only about five people remain.

  Of course, Andrew was one of few.

  Still sitting on the chair, looking at the ied seats… he could tell.

  Despite being an indie film, their promotions had clearly paid off - these are definitely more people filling the seats pared to other indie films he had worked on.

  It was the first show of the m, on a Tuesday no less - an unventional weekday for a release, uhe usual Friday release.

  But those who came? They definitely ehe film.

  He certainly did.

  If this momentum kept up and word-of-mouth spread, there was a real ce this very theater could be packed in the ing days.

  At least, that was what Andrew was hoping for.

  And then, something pletely ued happened on the s.

  Even for Andrew... yeah, even he had no idea what was going on.

  The s, which should have gone dark, flickers back to life, and the camera cuts to a shot of Bill in prison.

  The se slowly holds for a beat too long, too uling, before fog on something even more ominous - Bill's journal.

  The few remaining souls iheater lean forward, eyes locked on the s.

  The final page of Bill's journal fills the frame, and written in Cobb's distinct handwriting, a chilling note appears -

  "You needed me, Bill. And you will need me again."The s cuts to bck.

  However, immediately the s fshes once more.

  The title appears in bold letters:

  [Following Back]A ripple of fusion aement runs through the few people left iheater as a new yer has been added to the story - ohat teases a tinuation, a sed part they hadn't expected.

  Meanwhile, as Andrew was the st to leave the theater, he muttered to himself.

  "I didn't know there was a sed part to this…"

  And to his 'surprise', he was actually in that 'part' of the movie.

  .

  ….

  [To be tinued…]

  ★─────??★??─────★

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