Gior Entertainment Agency started as a small agency in the already saturated entertainment industry.
Initially, it was not well received by the masses at all.
The major reason was its over-the-top entrance test, which deterred several fresh actors from applying, and those who did apply were mostly rejected.
As a result, even after six months of its opening, the agency only had three actors.
However, just a year later, these very actors took over the headlines all over the country like a storm with their films and became instant superstars one after another.
Because of this, Gior gained a solid reputation in the industry, which they skillfully leveraged and, within five years, became the best entertainment agency in the country.
"Gior..." Katy muttered as her tear-filled eyes looked up towards the logo, which was flashing with yellow neon lights atop a huge skyscraper.
She was currently on the rooftop of a hospital a few hundred meters away, but the eye-catching yellow light and Gior's logo were vivid to her even from this distance.
'If only I hadn't listened to him at that time,' she lamented and looked down towards her phone's screen.
A messenger app was opened up on her phone. The sender had sent her a text.
'Director Rue agreed to give me a good role. He'll be waiting for you in room 304 of the Paradise Hotel. Satisfy him to the fullest, I can't afford to get turned down by him, you understand?' The text read.
The sender was Katy's boyfriend, Victor.
With a pained and regret-filled expression, she scrolled downwards on the messenger app and soon a series of pictures and videos became visible to her.
Katy struggled to breathe as she was reminded of that day when Victor had sent these pictures to her and blackmailed her for the first time.
Being an actor herself, she feared getting her reputation tarnished because of this incident and kept on doing what Victor demanded.
As a result, she kept being used as a trade item by Victor. He made her spend nights with several producers and directors just so he could get a good role in his films.
Three years passed just like this. Katy was no longer the actress she was before. Earlier, she could at least get some supporting roles in the films if her luck was good, but now even that seemed like a dream.
She was only able to sustain herself by acting as a background character in various television advertisements.
Her previous cheerful face had long lost its charm, and the only thing visible on it was utter gloom.
With her dream of becoming a famous actress up in flames, the only reason she kept doing what Victor wanted her to do was to hide those humiliating pictures and videos from her mother's notice.
It was because of her mother's existence that she kept on enduring these vile acts.
Her mother had suffered from a heart attack previously, and Katy didn't dare to imagine what would happen if she were to see those humiliating pictures and videos of her daughter being shared all across the internet.
With no way out for her, she numbed her emotions and kept doing whatever Victor demanded of her.
Today evening, when she was returning from the set where a commercial was being filmed, she got another text from Victor.
She replied with an 'ok' like usual and was returning to her dilapidated rented house when a call came from an unknown number.
"Miss Katy?" an unfamiliar voice came from the other end.
"Y-yes? Who is it?" Katy asked with a slight frown.
"Ma'am, I'm from Stark Hospital. Your mother was hit by a car during her evening walk..." Before the person could finish, Katy interrupted in panic, "What?! How is she?? How's her condition right now?!"
"We are doing our best to normalise her condition, but we cannot say anything for sure at this moment. Please come here quickly," The person urged.
"I-I'm coming!" Katy cried out with fear and anxiety as she erratically gestured with her hands for a cab to stop.
She soon rushed to the hospital and reached the reception of the emergency ward.
"I'm Katy Perkinson! My mother...Jennifer Perkinson was hit by a car. Where is she? How is she doing?" Katy asked in panic.
The receptionist looked at Katy's panic-filled state and faltered a bit. However, she still forced herself to give the news to Katy apologetically, "I'm sorry, ma'am...she suffered from heart failure during the surgery."
"N-No! Th-this can't be!" Katy's grief-filled voice echoed in the hospital's corridor as tears streamed down her face.
It was only after several minutes of consolation by the nurse and the doctor responsible that she fully accepted this reality.
"Ma'am, these are a few forms in which we would be needing your signature..." The receptionist handed her a set of documents a while later.
Not even reading what was written on them, she started signing them all.
"Ma'am..." The receptionist tried to urge her to read those forms.
However, Katy didn't. She soon passed the set of forms to the receptionist and stood up from her seat, walking towards the exit with weak, lifeless steps.
Midway, she changed her direction and entered a lift that had just emptied.
Getting out of the lift, she looked for the emergency exit stairs and soon reached the hospital's rooftop.
....
Standing at the edge of the rooftop, Katy glanced at her phone's screen one last time and dropped it down.
The sound of impact got submerged by the heavy traffic tens of meters below.
Katy glanced up at the Gior's headquarters one last time and closed her eyes in regret. The last portion of the tears brimming in her eyes streamed down her cheeks.
The next moment, she leaned forward, and a sense of weightlessness filled her being.
'Mom...I'm sorry'
This was Katy's last thought as she fell to her death.
THUD
"UGH!" Katy groaned from the pain. However, the next moment, a wave of confusion flooded her mind.
'Wait, why does it pain so little... no, that's not the important thing right now. Why am I even alive? I jumped from the eighth floor, so why is my mind still active?'
With these thoughts in her mind, Katy pulled out enough courage to open her eyes.
However, instead of the chaotic night street, what welcomed her sight was a ceiling.
"What's going on?" A frown appeared on Katy's brow as she sensed a hint of familiarity from the ceiling. She lifted her head and looked around, only to have her confusion heightened.
"This...this doesn't make sense at all," Katy muttered under her breath while pushing herself off the floor.
A familiar bed became visible to her on her left. It had a yellow bedsheet cover over it with several sunflowers imprinted on it.
To her left was a neatly arranged study table, and on it several stacks of scripts were placed over one another.
Katy's forehead creased as she tried to make sense of this absurdity. The next moment, a thought appeared in her mind, 'Is this my life flashing before my eyes before my brain fully dies?'
She was about to fully believe this conjecture of hers when her eyes met her reflection in the dressing mirror, which was placed right in front of her.
An involuntary gasp escaped her lips, and the next moment she rushed towards the mirror to look at herself closely.
"I-I'm young again..." Katy said in disbelief as she noticed the energetic complexion on her face, which was in stark contrast to the pale and lifeless complexion she had become used to seeing every day in the mirror.
A calendar which was hung next to the dressing table fluttered in the wind and attracted Katy's attention the next moment.
Year: 2028
"Don't tell me..."
Katy had gone through enough movies, series and scripts in her life with a similar trope to come to an absurd conclusion by now.
'No! I must confirm this.' With this thought, she reached for the cosmetic products on her dressing table and checked their manufacturing dates.
It was only after a couple of minutes of checking that she stopped and exhaled deeply.
"I've really come back in time," Katy muttered to herself and just stood by the window in stupor.
A series of footsteps pulled her awake the next moment as she turned towards her door.
The footsteps soon came to a halt, and the door clicked open as a middle-aged woman peered inside the room with a frown on her face.