Chapter Text
It started off with just his socials, then the people he'd tagged frequently, then she started digging into before he began directing. To most, he appeared out of nowhere with a hit movie.
Still, no matter what her mind is telling her, there's no way that Marlon Cameron is from whatever place she made up in her head as a child. He's just a brilliant man with brilliant stories to tell. Still, he was too familiar.
Which is somehow exactly why she was scouring the internet for any information about him.
And how she ended up in the middle of the fucking woods in West Virginia. Of course Marlon wasn't the only reason she was here, she still had photos — for her job — to take regardless of her search for him.
Speaking of which, was going horribly. The only piece of evidence she had to go off of were a few blurry pics of someone who looked like him near these woods. 20 years ago. 20 fucking years ago, and as unclear as the pictures are, he looks the exact same.
Whatever, whoever, Marlon Cameron really is, and no matter how much he tries to hide, Nimue will find him. She's vowed to get answers. If not to figure out who he is, then to finally know if she's been crazy all her life or not.
All of his motifs, the way he speaks, even his accent takes her back to the earliest parts of her life. A place she's wanted to return to for 21 years. For so long she'd accepted she imagined it, created a fake world in her head go cope with a boring childhood. But the chance of him being from there, it's a chance she has to take. One she has been the past 6 months. And one she'll continue to take.
21 years ago.
With weak, small legs, Nimue pulled herself out of her shack of a house. Falling just a few steps away from the fire reaching out of her front dooe. She Gasped for air and failed, too tired to see or check where her parents were she stayed collapsed on the ground. Every other blink she found herself further from her house, past the fifth one she realized her dad had been dragging her away.
Trying to stand she couldn't muster up any words. Any confusion she had couldn't be helped right now. The last thing she saw clearly was her entire village engulfed in flames.
Distantly, she heard her father. Maybe her mother too. Turning back to them, her eyes widened. "What- what is that?" Nimue pointed at the giant swirling green cloud drilling through the dirt they stood next to.
If her parents answered her, she won't ever know. The next thing she knew, she was pushed through the cloud. Awaking to a bright, loud, crowded room, Nimue didn't recognize a single person there, they were all dressed so different, all holding odd things.
She stayed seated, if she was here there had to be a reason. Her parents wouldn't throw her through whatever that was for no reason.
And thank the gods she was right. A few minutes later they sat beside her, talking about their house fire.
That part made sense, but the rest of what they said didn't. She didn't know what an ambulance was, or why 911 would be important numbers, she didn't even know what everyone here was wearing! Though, no matter what she asked or what she said, her only answer was to go along with it. Whatever this "it" was she didn't like it.
She wanted to go home, rest in her bed, play with her friends, she'd even rather do all her chores than be told nothing that could be understood. But she had to trust her parents. Surely they'd tell her what this was eventually.
The sun was nearly set, Nimue had almost used up all of her film. If she found what she was looking for, perhaps she could use her digital camera tomorrow. If not, this hunch may leave her stranded. Venturing into the middle of nowhere is one thing she can stand, but getting lost and losing her car? Yeah way to go Nimue.
"Are you lost?" A voice she's heard only on screens called to her. Containing her joy, she forced her smile down and turned around.
"Yes, I'm sorry who are you?" Her lips turned up just slight as she asked him. Awestruck. Regardless of her internet stalking, she'd already been a fan of a few of his movies.
"Marlon, I can help you out of here if you'd like."
"You'd have to help me find my car first, I didn't exactly walk all the way here." She walked past him, her excitement showing now that he couldn't see.
Not even three steps later she heard his own footsteps, "Did you come here with other people? No one usually travels here on their own." Marlons voice was closer now than it had been, if she looked, Nimue was sure he'd be hardly a step behind her.
"I guess we're both 'no one' if we came here on our own then right?"
"How do you know if I did?" He spoke almost amused by her. Almost. There's something he's hiding. Maybe he knows who she is? Where they're both from? There's always the chance he knows she's been figuring him out.
"You found me by yourself, why would you venture alone if there were people with you?" She turned her head to face him, smiling far too much for somebody stuck in the woods with a stranger.
"I suppose you're right.. but you should know we're going the wrong way." Marlon stopped walking.
"How could you possibly know where my car is?" Had he been watching her too?
"You're not the only one with eyes everywhere Nimue. And I suggest you stop looking." He placed his hand on her shoulder, gazed deep into her eyes and clouded her vision. Literally, a fog appeared and drifted her to sleep.
A ceiling. The first thing she saw after staring into Marlons eyes, is her fucking ceiling?! There is no way she just dreamt that up on her couch! She was literally in a different state how the hell was any of this possible? Oh god her camera.
Scrambling off her couch she ran to her office, opening drawers to find her camera equipment safely tucked away. This wasn't where she organized it all though. Marlon. He did this. Oh that bastard has no idea how much more dedicated he's made her.
Moving to her desk she opened her laptop, ignoring all her emails from work, and texts from her friends. She can deal with it later. First, she had to add to her files on Marlon.
Obviously that hunch she got off a sketchy site was right, but what else could be? There were a few other pictures in different locations she had all on a checklist to look through, what if Marlon made her leave again though? Besides what was he hiding?
Every question and answer she had was written on a file, saved to a hard drive, then erased from her laptop. Soon she'd have to do an entire factory reset on it. Or better yet do that and get a seperate one for her research on him.
When it was all done getting uploaded to her hard drive, she checked his socials first. He didn't have any new posts, just a new bio across every app.
"Keep your eyes to yourself."
Sure Marlon, sure. Exiting a couple sites, Nimue did a search for any new articles, posts and really any mention of him within the last 12 hours.
Most her nights were spent doing these binges before bed. Sometimes she wrote what she found on her files before sleeping. Tonight she thought there'd be no point in sleeping.
With dozens of fans curious of his new bio, there were already older posts discussing it. What really caught her eye was buried into the third page of results she found.
"Marlon Cameron, movie director or subliminal messager?" An article on an obscure blog with a weird name: Cailuxerb. Now whoever came up with that was definitely high. Or just stupid.
And while what Marlon had done was a message. It was hardly a subliminal one. No. He was speaking just to her. Because despite his poor attempt to get her to stop looking, he knew she would.
Maybe it was a preventative measure, but if he really knew what she's been up to? That bio wasn't the only message he'd left for her. There had to be something more, somewhere.
But. First things first, this blog.
"For years Marlon Cameron has been an infamous director, screenwriter, and author. But who really is this man? With no known relatives, friends outside the industry, and a series of odd films. What is he really up to in Hollywood? Most actors he hires never appear without him. And where do all of his producers come from? All with no industry connection, and yet completely funded? I'm not buying any of it."
next page->
Whoever wrote this needs to title things better, she read every page of the rest of this post, and a few other ones out of this blog. Every title was clearly just for click bait. Though she did have to admit they made good points. What WAS happening to the people working with him? Maybe this "Cailuxerb" can be useful for her.
A few posts later they finally mentioned a place to contact them at. It wasn't an app she'd heard of before, thankfully it also wasn't one she couldn't easily download.
Minutes later she sent Cailuxerb a text.
'What do you have on Marlon Cameron? I've been digging into him too. I think we can help each other.'
She moved onto some newer things posted referencing Marlon. A couple theorized a new project to do with eyes. Nimue didn't hold it above Marlon to make a whole movie for the sake of explaining his bio.
Maybe she wanted him to make one for her. Maybe he will.
A buzz interrupted her train of thought, her friend wanted to know if she'd be visiting in time for Christmas. Nimue left her on delivered. She had to think of who to give her time to, and Marlon was looking like the better option everytime she thought of it.
Then again, all her thoughts had been about him lately. How could they not be? Now more than ever she had to get closer to him.