Chapter 80: Surge

[Silver Comets] continued to demolish the Box Office.

Despite believing their movie’s momentum would’ve simmered down by now, especially after the $137M+ returns they got on the second week of its screening, Vrael Productions were utterly flabbergasted to see it continue to wreak havoc even in its third week.

In fact, as things stood, the movie was on-track to earning roughly $169M+ before the end of the week.

That was already well-over $400M+ cumulatively, all in its third week alone!

More than that, for a movie made on a $12M budget, those returns were even more maddening to see considering the movie was set to run for a month and a half in theatres.

To that effect, the production company’s analysts had begun re-evaluating their initial predictions as to what the movie’s final returns would eventually be.

However, they weren’t the only ones dumbfounded by this turn of events. Several Hollywood studios and investors had begun to pay extra attention, not just to the movie, but to Vrael Productions as a whole.

Unfortunately for them, the production company was a private venture, hence they couldn’t stick their grubby little fingers into their stocks even if they tried.

That said, the very cause of this surge, was none other than the release of [The Spire of Fate].

Compared to their laydown last year which had only managed to garner a pre-order of roughly 5000+ copies across all their retail channels, that amount had quintupled this year.

For one, Niall’s rising fame had played a serious hand in it.

With all the news flying about regarding him being the sole writer of the hit movie, the general audience was naturally inclined to pick up his book solely out of curiosity.

Moreso when fans whom had read [The Token of Fate] couldn’t quite keep shut about how great the first book was.

Secondly, festive season was round the corner.

Naturally, parents were looking for things to gift their kids for Christmas. An epic-fantasy novel that was all the rave, seemed to be a nice little addition to all the other things they might want to gift them.

But parents weren’t the only ones to be considering the idea. Given Niall was writing the Fate series with a very broad demographic in mind, several other age demographics had been equally looking to secure one or two copies.

John Sanders, the middle-aged literature professor who worked as a part-time instructor at the University of California, was one of such demographics.

Though he had a grandson, goo-goo gaga and breastmilk was all the little bundle of joy probably knew by now.

That said, he saw no reason not to get a copy of the book for his wife, and a couple of his nieces and nephews.

Walking into the quaint, familiar bookstore on Telegraph Avenue, Larry, the bookstore owner flashed him a warm smile as he greeted;

"John! How’re ya doing?"

"Splendid, Larry. Trust you are as well?" John reciprocated as he walked up to the man, his eyes darting to the bookshelves in search.

"You betcha." the store owner replied to which he then leaned onto the counter like a friendly shopkeeper in a videogame, a knowing smile on his lips.

"So," the man began, his fingers tapping its wooden frame continuously.

"I presume you’re here for the newest copies of [The Spire of Fate]?" he amusedly asked.

"Yeah. Where are they, anyway? I can’t see them in the newer section." John replied, his gaze still searching.

Given the fact that this particular bookshop mostly sold older, fairly used books, it was a bit concerning that he couldn’t spot a shiny new cover amidst several on the shelves.

"Don’t tell me they’ve all been bought out?" he quietly remarked a few seconds later, to which Larry slowly nodded in the affirmative.

In real time, a slight gloominess surfaced on the professor’s features...

...only for Larry to reach out under his counter with a light smile to pull out a dozen stack of said books, and placing them onto the counter with a soft thud.

In real time, John’s expression brightened.

"Honestly, the first two batches sold out in a little over three hours. I figured I should at least keep this around just in case you wanted to buy some for yourself and the family." Larry explained.

"Thanks Larry. I knew I could count on you!" the professor laughed softly as he reached into his pockets to retrieve his purse.

No sooner had he swiped his credit card to pay for the entire stack, a group of ladies burst into the store.

"Oh, come on, Bella!" Katy complained.

"We get it, okay!? We lost the bet! Now can you stop dragging us across every bookstore in LA!" Jennifer exasperatedly huffed.

"Nope!" Bella shook her head in denial with a gloat, her eyes glinting in mischief at the plight of the four girls.

"This place is so cramped!" Veronica shuffled her way in.

"And full of that musty, old book smell..." Sharon grumbled as she wadded in much like the others.

"Hey. That smell, is perfection." Bella turned around to correct the lady... only for her to notice that the girls had a surprised expression on their features.

Turning around this time, she saw the cause.

"Prof?! What’re you doing here?" she remarked, her tone surprised... only for her eyes to catch the stack of books next to him.

"Please tell me that’s available for sale!" she immediately pointed with a finger, hers and the ladies behind her sharing a hopeful look.

"You’re out of luck girls. John here just bought them all." Larry gestured to the man.

"I didn’t know you were such big fans..." John on the other hand remarked, glad that some of his students had actually come to like the books as much as he did.

"I am," Bella replied, then flicked a thumb behind her with a mischievous smile;

"But they aren’t. They lost a bet so they’re paying heavily for it."

"Hey!" the quartet retorted, surprised at how quickly the lady was ready to throw them under the bus in front of their instructor.

Chuckling at that and curious to hear the full story though, John engaged with the ladies and soon got the general gist of what had transpired.

Naturally, he also ended up getting curious about [Silver Comets].

’Guess I’ll find some time to go watch it before the end of its theatrical run.’ the professor mused to himself to which he then spoke;

"Well, it’d be a shame if you weren’t able to get some copies after all your troubles so..." he removed five books out of the dozen and handed it over;

"...here you go."

Grateful beyond measure, all five ladies thanked the man profusely.

The quartet especially were more than grateful to finally be rid of their goose chase all day.

Though they’d easily gotten copies of [The Token of Fate], they hadn’t quite managed to get the new release, hence why they couldn’t help but believe their professor was a godsend to them.

At the same time, the door suddenly opened and this time, a delinquent-looking teen walked in with his bag slung over his shoulders and peculiarly styled baseball cap on his head as he remarked;

"The fuck is going on here?"

"Language, Danny." Larry and John simultaneously chastised.

Purposely ignoring their remarks, he shuffled over to the counter instead and placed his bag on the counter while opening it to retrieve something.

"Here. For your grandson." he handed over the bubble-wrapped figurines of Tristan and Rayleigh to John whose eyes widened in surprise, a touched smile reaching his lips a few seconds after.

However, before he could give his appreciation to the young chap, Bella whose eyes had been gradually widening thus far, slowly grabbed the boy’s shoulder and asked;

"Where did you get that face cap and the figurines?"

No sooner had the quartet behind her heard that, a wary feeling creeped up their spines as they watched Bella’s energy spike to new heights.

"The supermarket just down the street." Danny on the other hand replied, his head slowly leaning back, almost as if to distance himself from the lady’s high-spirited energy.

"Thank you!" Bella thanked him, a genuine, beaming smile on her lips.

Not a single moment wasted, she bade their Prof and everyone else in the room farewell whilst dragging the four girls along.

Clearly, their little adventure for the day wasn’t over.

*

One would’ve assumed that Feyre Publications would’ve been well-prepared given all the hype following the release of [The Spire of Fate].

Afterall, they had planned all this out beforehand, and had especially positioned the book to release around this time to tap into the festive market.

Sadly, they had failed to properly account for the smash-hit that [Silver Comets] would be, or the surge in fame that Niall was going to get.

It was also why, when the returns on the first week alone came back, they weren’t even sure if they could believe what they were seeing.

Advance Chapters are available on Patreon!

/Caer07