Scotland


 * Please note that this story is not real, and every name or corporation is made up using my imagination.

Act I
"And… action!" my friend yelled as we all moved to our places. He held his phone in landscape to capture all of us. We were about to make a movie abut our favorite game, Animal Jam. Maybe since we were all 14 or something, it was strange for us to be playing Animal Jam. Me and my friend actually had to convince our other friends to take part in this.

"Wow, what a beautiful day in Jamaa Township," my other friend said. She had a very pretty scarf on, although it was probably not a good idea to have a scarf on inside of my house. It was extremely hot in there that day. She had played Animal Jam before, but she was unsure if it had changed or not the last time she had played it. She began to dance.

"Rares for trade!"

At this point, it was my turn. I walked up to her.

"Could I have one of your rares?" I asked her kindly.

She nodded slowly and she showed me a paper that she had in her palm. "What are you going to trade me for this?" she asked.

Then, the lights went out. It was night, so it was extremely dark. We were all extremely scared. The only light was from my friend who was recording the video's phone. The rest of us either didn't have phones, or didn't think to bring ours. I had my phone in my house somewhere, but I didn't think I was able to get it, as I didn't know my house well enough in the dark.

"Well, this is scary," my friend with the phone said, trembling. His name was Jax. He was my best friend. We all stood in silence for a while. Jax turned off his phone completely.

I heard the front door click open, and I heard the door close, and I heard footsteps.

They were coming towards us. Whoever it, or they, were. My heart started to beat faster and faster as the footsteps grow louder and louder. I knew the other 3 of us were panicking as well, but we had to stay extremely quiet.

Jax started to walk very slowly to somewhere he was able to hide. We were in a bedroom. My bedroom. The bed. He was heading for the bed.

Although I was unsure we could all hide under the bed, we began to follow suit. Luckily, my blanket was long enough to reach past the mattress. I was glad for this feature that I hated about my bed for once in my life. It was pretty quiet while we walked towards the bed. We had to move quickly, though. I could hear the footsteps getting louder and louder. Quickly and quietly.

Just when my friend with the scarf joined the rest of us, the door opened, and the lights clicked on. Did this person turn off the power before turning it back on again? How did they do that? While I was stuck pondering this question, I saw the person's feet. Black shoes, black socks. Jeans that went down to their feet. I think my final friend, the one who I haven't mentioned yet, began silently crying. She had to be extremely silent, though.

The intruder seemed to have heard this, or maybe they didn't. I wasn't completely sure. They started to move towards the bed. I heard their footsteps grow extremely loud. My eyes began to conjure up tears. I was extremely afraid.

Then, the intruder pulled up the blanket.

We had never seen him before. He didn't look like someone who would intrude a house. He had bussiness attire on. Neutral colors, except for his red tie. Juxtapositioned with the jeans and shoes, he looked very strange. He was peering down at us, and he was crouching. He had a large grin on his face.

"I am head of a large movie company. I heard you guys making a movie. Animal Jam?"

"Y-yes," I managed to spit out of my mouth. My lip was very clearly trembling of fear. "W-what do you want?"

"Make the movie. I will fund it for you. You seem like very creative people, and you will earn lots of money from your movie if it is successful." He seemed genuine, like he really saw some creativity in us. Was that really worth scaring us to death, trespassing on our property, and making us fear for our lives, though?

"Why did you feel the need to trespass on this house?" my friend with the scarf, whose name was Mars, asked. "And why are you listening so late into the day, anyway?"

"I love creative minds. I will go to extreme lengths to get to them. You are also very loud." We blushed a bit, shocked he would say something like that if he was trying to get us to make a movie.

"I guess we will." Jax said. "We'd love to make money. What about Animal Jam's copyright, though? Don't we need permission from the creator of Animal Jam to make the movie or something?" I'm not sure if Jax is right or not, but he seemed pretty confident. He's usually right, anyways.

"Don't worry, I'll get the legal stuff sorted out with my lawyer at some point. All of you agree on this, then?"

"Yes." we all said at the same time. Like Jax said, we would love to make money.

Act II
Was it a good idea to trust somebody that had invaded our own home? Probably not, but we did anyway, and now here we all were, in the movie studio that the intruder-businessman had told us to go to. We all thought about the events that had transpired yesterday.

"Here, take this business card. It shows where we're located," he told us after we had agreed to do the movie, giving us each a business card. "Text or call me if you need more details." Then, he just left the house. We all crawled out under the bed, but we were all speechless. The best we could communicate was looking at each other.

Jax was the one who broke the ice. "Well, that was a bit strange, wasn't it?" He asked us, chuckling a bit. I would assume that was a rhetorical question, as, yes of course that was strange, what are you talking about?

Mars answered anyway, not caring if the question was rhetorical or not. "Yes, that was very strange. Why did we trust that man? He was literally an intruder," she said, putting emphasis on the part about him being an intruder.

"I mean, he seemed nice enough. Except for the part of, you know, trespassing." the friend that I hadn't mentioned, Lauren, said. She was always trying to make us laugh, and usually succeded with her goal. I remember her saying she would like to be a comedian when she is older.

"Yeah, but, like, don't you think since he had business attire and whatever that we thought him out to be more trustworthy?" Mars inquired. "I remember hearing that somewhere."

"Maybe." I said, feeling that I had to contribute to the conversation somehow. "Let's just go to bed. It's extremely late, and I'm tired."

After my quick remark, we had all dispersed.

And the next day, we had arrived at the strange businessman's studio. Ghostly Studios.

"Welcome," he said dramatically, "I didn't know you would come!" He was wearing a similar outfit as before, but his shirt and pants was covered in vertical black-and-white stripes. He looked very strange, especially with a tie that was a bright orange.

"Hi, so, when do we start recording our Animal Jam thing? Or do we have to do a script for it first?" Jax asked, tilting his head a bit.

"Well, you need a script first, of course!" the businessman said enthusicastically. "You need to make one, of course. Why don't we get to work on that?"

"Well, yes, of course, but we don't even know your name. Could you please inform us of your name?" Jax asked kindly. He almost always knew what to say. I was also wondering the businessman's name, and I saw silent nods coming from Mars and Lauren. Seeing them both nod, I began to nod as well.

"Oh, yes, how disrespectful of me, I'm sorry. My name is Jackson. I will be the director of your movie." replied the business man. He seemed as happy as he had been the whole time.

"But for now, I want you all to brainstorm for your Animal Jam movie. Tell me what it's going to be called, and maybe a rough script or something. Goodbye!" Jackson practically hopped out of the studio and into one of the many hallways in the building.

"Well, uh, I guess we have to get writing then," I said, confused. That's because, well, I was very confused. Why am I doing this again? It's for the money, but it makes me sound greedy. Is Jackson even going to give us the money? Will our movie do bad?

"Yeah, let's start. So, should we do something bigger and better than what we were doing before?" Mars asked, clearly churning up ideas for the movie as she was speaking.

"Of course we should." Jax replied. "Don't we need to come up with the name first, though?"

"We can come up with that later, after we do the rough draft for the script." Lauren said to Jax.

Mars spat an idea. "Maybe the Alphas could be on an adventure, looking for someone who should be a good guy, but he turns out to be the bad guy? I'm not sure, maybe that's good? I just thought about that one. What do you all think?"

"Okay, that's honestly a really good idea, Mars," I said. "I… really like that one."

"Yeah, I agree." Jax said. "Let's do something like that."

"I also agree!" Lauren added.

They all seemed to be waiting for me to answer. What did I think?

“I agree, totally.”

Act III
So, we set up to create the idea that Mars proposed.

"Okay, Arrow, you'll be Sir Gilbert," Jax said to me kindly.

"Alright. That's perfect. Matches my prideful personality and hilarious jokes." I replied pridefully.

Jax rolled his eyes.

"Mars, you will be Peck," Jax continued on, facing Mars.

"Is that because I am a very artistic person?" Mars asked, although she already know the answer to that question, which was yes, obviously she was chosen as Peck because she was extremely artistic.

"Maybe," Jax replied, blushing.

Mars giggled.

"Lauren, you will be Liza, because you're basically the only female left out of the main alphas," Jax said.

"Aw, does that mean I'm just the leftover?" Lauren asked, frowning. It was painfully obvious she was not frowning because she was actually sad, but for a joke. We all giggled a bit.

We had all decided beforehand that Jax would be the bad jammer who was put a facade of being a good person. The jammer's name was Jamie. Jamie the Jammer. Perfect. Jax was mostly the cameraman, but he had to play his part when it got to Jamie.

I was a bit confused, however.

"Are we going to have, like, CGI for the animals? Or are we going to poorly roleplay them or something?" I asked the group.

The group turned towards me, and they were silent for a moment until Jax spoke.

"I don't know. We have to ask Jackson about this."

Thing is, we didn't know where Jackson had gone. So, logically, we had to find him.

We tried calling him first, as that would be easy. However, he had left his phone in the studio, so using his phone to contact him would be useless.

The only way to find out where he had gone was to explore the long hallways. The hallways were almost like a maze, though, and it was actually extremely hard to find the studio when we first got there. We were very clearly going to have a lot of trouble with this.

Jax had entered the labyrinth first. His blue eyes turned to my emerald ones, and his light brown hair seemed to be glowing against my dark black hair. "Come on, Arrow!" he said kindly. "I know you don't really like mazes, but you can take my hand as we go into the hallways! That's what friends are for!"

"Oh, thank you!" I replied. I took his hand, which was very warm. Mars and Lauren followed, also holding hands and running towards us.

"Hey, wanna hold hands, Jax, so we can basically become a human chain?" Lauren asked Jax, quite estatic at the mere possibility of her idea.

"Sure, let's do that." Jax replied, holding hands with Lauren.

One thing to mention is that the hallways are also very wide, so we were able to make a very good human chain as we were looking for Jackson.

Then, suddenly, I saw someone riding a tricycle. In a movie studio. I had to ask why they were doing that, so I walked up to them to take a very good look at them. They were wearing a hat that covered up their hair and some of their eyes. Since I had suddenly stopped holding hands, everyone else detatched and grouped around the person to take a good look at them.

"Hey guys!" Jackson said in his trademark voice.

"Why are you riding a tricycle in your studio?" I blurted out, and then covered my mouth. Jax looked at me concerningly.

"Well, I thought it would be fun! What do you guys need?" he smiled. I don't even know where he got the tricycle. I would ask him later.

"Are the animals going to be CGI or something?" Mars asked for us. "We wanna know."

"Oh, yes, of course they will be CGI!" Jackson replied, spinning in his tricycle. "We have a dedicated team of artists who are going to create your Animal Jam movie!"

"Okay, thanks. We're basically lost now, though. Can we go back together or something?" Lauren said, cleraly frustrated and confused.

"Yes. I know you all are also wondering where I got the tricycles - I will show you where I got them so we can get back faster." Jackson proceeded to show us where the tricycles were. We pedaled through the intricate hallways, following Jackson to the studio.

When we finally arrived back to the studio, and got off the tricycles, Jackson said, "Okay. This is it. Also, I am definitely sure I forgot my phone here. I am going to grab it real quick." He ran quickly to get his phone, and then he fled the studio.

"Well, that was interesting," Jax said, "but we have to think up the script for the movie."

"That's so boring, though!" Lauren exclaimed. "I don't wanna do the script."

"Yeah, understandable," Jax replied, agreeing. "Let's just work on the exposition for now."

We decided that the exposition would basically be Jamie's mother saying he had been caught by the phantoms and to find him, after about an hour of brainstorming and breaking up some arguments.

We told each other to meet here tomorrow, and then we dispersed.

Act IV
I walked back into my house, and pulled out my phone and laptop. I opened up my phone, and input the password for the laptop. My phone was on the messages to the group chat with Jax, Mars, and Lauren. My laptop was opening up Animal Jam.

"Hey, do you guys wanna play AJ?" I asked the group chat at 8:47 PM. I waited eagerly for a response.

"Sure!" Mars replied five minutes later. "I'm on it."

Jax and Lauren were also on Animal Jam, just they didn't respond to the text message. Lauren was typing something in the group chat, so maybe that was why. She was taking a while to write it, however.

Finally, the message sent.

"''You should look up Jackson from Ghostly Studios on Google. Maybe this guy isn't really meeant to be trusted… but that's just me. Seriously, I'm a bit concerned." ''

Obviously, I was very confused, so I looked up "Jackson from Ghostly Studios" on my phone.

Multiple news stories came up.

"Jackson Price, CEO of Ghostly Studios, charged with kidnapping offenses"

"Ghostly Studios CEO charged with trespassing"

"Jackson Price gets away with charges"

"The Ghostly Studios CEO is probably not a good person"

"Boycott Ghostly Studios"

I clicked on the first one.

"''Jackson Price, the CEO of Ghostly Studios, was charged with kidnapping offenses after Iris, 14, had escaped and informed police." ''The article opened with. "She informed police she had been in Ghostly Studios for a year, and was unable to leave."

I quickly texted in the chat, "What? Is Jackson going to try and kidnap us or something? Why would he do that?"

"I don't know!" Lauren replied quickly. "Some people are just absolutely sick."

"Maybe we should be more careful around him," Jax typed into the chat. He was stalking us in the chat, I guess. "And we should definitely try to minimize the time we spend at Ghostly Studios if he ends up kidnapping us. Maybe we should talk about the script and stuff here instead?" That seemed like a good idea, but before I could type that it was a good idea, he started typing again. To be courteous, I stopped typing and waited for him to finish.

"We have Jackson's number, too, so we can contact him via phone whenever we'd like. Does that sound like a good idea?"

"Sounds great! :)" I replied quickly. Everyone else agreed with me. We were all super scared, but at the same time, we felt like we were ready for whatever he was going to do to us.

Besides, why would he try to kidnap a group of people with phones and technology they can immediately call their parents or 911 with?

Feeling empowered, but at the same time, feeling apprehensive, I looked up from my phone and focused my eyes on my laptop.

I was logged out from Animal Jam, so I decided to log back in quickly. When I did, I got a Jam-A-Gram from Jax telling me to come to his den. So, I did.

When I arrived, we were the only ones there. "Hi!" He typed into the chat as his arctic wolf character, Major Majormajor (he thought the name was funny). His animal was all gray and wore a black spike around their neck. "The others are coming later, so don't worry! :D"

"That's okay, I'll wait for them," I replied. I was the same arctic wolf, as we both thought it would be funny if we were "animal twins."

Five minutes later, Mars and Lauren arrived. "Hi!" both of them  said.

"Why are we here?" Mars asked. She was a pig named Snowflake Majormajor. We had all actually decided to have "Majormajor" after our names. Mars did not want to name an arctic wolf Major Majormajor, so we just decided to have Majormajor after all of our names.

A text from my phone came through as the reply. ''"OK, I can't type this in Animal Jam's chat, but I love you guys, and I will try to protect you all from Jackson. Whatever he does to you guys, I will step forward and protect you. I love you all that much." ''I thought that was extremely nice of him to do.

"Why on Animal Jam, though?" Mars asked through her phone.

"I guess it would make it more personal or something, I'm not sure," Jax admitted, still on the phone group chat. "I'm just... stunned at this new information."

''"Yeah, me too." ''I agreed.

The group chat, along with the Animal Jam chat, was completely silent. It was nearly 9:30, and as the digital clocks on my phone and laptop ticked to 9:30, I thought about everything that had transpired.

When it hit 9:30, I closed my laptop and shut off my phone. I wanted to go to sleep to process everything that had happened.

And as I was proccessing the events, I had fell asleep.

Act V
Jax

I woke up, drenched in sweat, and my eyes darting from one wall to the other. It was pitch black. The black seemed to be seeping out of the walls, and going... Towards me? Why was it going towards me? I was concerned, sweating even more and trying to get up. It was like I was stuck in my bed, however, and I was unable to get up.

Was I tied up? I looked to my hands, and yes, my hands were tied. Where did my hands lead to? What is happening? Multiple questions circled around my mind and I started to feel dizzy although it was just an idiom or metaphor or something for when you have lots of thoughts in your head. I heard a creak from the door. I started to panic evevn more. A dark creature moved towards me. It was something not human. It was terrifying. My heart started beating so fast I was able to hear it, and as the monster got closer I saw its red eyes gleaming faintly. I tried to close my eyes as it inched forward, but it did not do anything. My eyes stayed open. My phone on my nightstand went off with a text message. I looked around, and the door was closed. There was no monster, and my hands were completely free to move. My heart rate went slower and I stopped sweating. I felt... free, I guess. I picked up my phone. It was a message from Arrow. "Hey!" the text said. I smiled a bit; I always looked forward to his texts. He always tried his best to be nice, which I think is really admirable of him.

"Hi!" I texted back, adding in another message, "How are you? :D" "I'm alright, I guess." Arrow replied. He was usually pessimistic like that. Something that is not very admirable of him, but I still enjoyed in him. It made for a lot of very interesting conversations. "What about you?"

"I'm pretty scared right now, haha. Not feeling very well; I think I have a headache." I typed up, and then hit send. I put my phone down, and then I went back to sleeping.

Like I said to Arrow, I was not feeling very well.

When I awoke, it was 11:25 AM. For reference, the text message from me was sent 2 hours ago, at 9:30 AM. I finally got out of my bed and climbed downstairs to greet my mom, still in my pajamas. "Hi," I said to her tiredly.

My mom disapproved of my tone, like she usually does. "Jax, you should be more positive, you know? Stop hanging around with that boy, Arrow. I think he's turning you into a pessimist," she remarked.

"What?" I responded to her. I shouldn't have told her that, but I was enraged that she had thought of Arrow like that.

"Don't worry! I'm just kidding," my mom responded quickly, chuckling a bit so I could see that she was only joking. Well, I mean, I didn't really think it was funny, but I will accept it, since it's from my mom, and I love her a lot, and I trusted her a lot as well.

I sat down at the dining table and ate my breakfast that my dad had made earlier before he left for work. I don't usually see my dad, but I do text him sometimes. He doesn't really like phones, but we recently convinced him to buy one. A smartphone, too, not one of those flipphones that no-one even uses.

Anyway, after I had eaten my breakfast, I came back upstairs to my room and opened up my laptop on my desk. I unplugged my phone from my charger and set it next to me.

Texting the group chat, I said, "Yeah, okay, when are we going to meet? For like, Ghostly Studios or something?" I waited quietly for a response.

"Uhh, the thing is happening right now, actually, you kinda... missed it." Lauren typed. "We tried calling you and stuff, but it didn't work. You're a really heavy sleeper." I felt a bit sad that I didn't come, but then I became more fearful- what could happen to my friends while I was gone?

I typed in my laptop password quickly and then opened it to Animal Jam, trying to block those thoughts out of my mind. Now wasn’t really the time to think about things like kidnapping- my headache got better, but it still wasn’t completely gone, and I didn’t want to go downstairs to take medicine or something for headache.

I logged on to my account, and I started roaming around Jamaa Township, going south to the Pillow Room, also known as the Adoption Center.

As my bunny, I yelled into the void, “''Adopt me! I am bunny.''” I doubted anybody would respond to me.

Despite my doubt, someone replied, “''Yes! Come to my den.''”

So, obviously, I came to their den.

Act VI
This person was a non-member, so they had the starter house. Well, that was okay, I don't try to discriminate against people who maybe cannot afford membership or would rather not waste it on Animal Jam. They barely had anything in their house except for two couches that were side to side (I assumed they were beds).

"So, how are feeling today?" The jammer, whose name was Prince, asked.

"I'm feeling alright, I guess," I said in response to him. "Thanks for asking, I didn't have a very good start of the day, you know?"

"Yes, I definitely understand you." The jammer, who was a wolf, moved over to the couch and sat on it. His eyes were male eyes, and he sported a necklace on his neck. He was all gray.

After a few moments of silence and just me looking at him, he asked, "Your friends told me that you were coming, but you didn't come? Did you just give up on coming?"

"What?" I asked him, very confused. How did he know about my friends Jax, Lauren, and Mars? Was he even talking about me in that instance?

"Oh. Must not be the right person, then." He replied. I was even more confused, but I guess I will just let it slide.

"Yeah, maybe not. So, do you want to go somewhere, maybe?" I asked.

"Sure! Follow me, and I will show you my favorite spot! I love to go there." Prince buddied me, and I accepted the request. He left the den, and shortly after, I joined him to where he was. North of the center of Jamaa Township, at the Mira statue.

"This is really your favorite spot?" I asked him. "I really don't like this spot myself." It was true- I didn't. There was just something eerie about the whole place that I didn't like at all.

"Yes, of course this is my favorite spot." He replied quickly. "I understand not liking it, though, it gives off a very creepy vibe."

"Yeah, that's why I don't like it that much," I replied. "My favorite spot is honestly Crystal Sands." I added.

"Why?" Prince asked, and although I could not see his face, I knew he was definitely interested to hear why Crystal Sands was my favorite spot. So, we launched into a discussion about all of the lands and our favorite things about them. Eventually, we got to the point where Prince had asked for my Instagram. It was extremely hard to get it through chat filters, but we ended up doing it, and now he had my Instagram account. I gave him my public one, where I just post whatever I want, but I have never posted my face in it.