#i hc that eddie mailed the locket back to nina after the osirian died

[joysmercer]

“And the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay goes to Nina Martin, The Chosen One.” 

Nina closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. When she opens them, she sees Luke next to her, beaming. Nina gives him a quick kiss and squeezes his hand, then stands up and walks gracefully to the stage, gently lifting the hem of her baby-pink gown as she does so.

It takes her a moment to find the teleprompter screen at the back of the theatre, and it hits her just how many people are watching her speak right now. She takes another deep breath to calm her nerves – you’ve gotten through much worse than this, she tells herself – and starts. 

“The story for The Chosen One first came to me about fifteen years ago, when I was attending a boarding school in England not unlike The Fairhall-Stanley Academy. My first year there, I was tasked with writing the school play, and I was also cast in the lead role, the one that would eventually evolve into Samantha Fairhall.” 

Nina pauses and scans the audience again. Many are her friends – some (Luke) are much more than that – but none of them know the full story of how she managed to write one of the most famous screenplays of the year. Indeed, only about seven people in the world would. 

Nina has just about a minute left to say what she wants to, but she’s not sure how to put it into words. She sighs and looks back to the teleprompter. 

“I would like to thank my wonderful team, Cassie, Evelyn, and John for being there every step of the way; our director Robert, and Natalie, Ashley, Blake, Jasmine, Andrew, and the rest of the super-talented cast and crew for bringing these characters and this story to life exactly how I imagined; and my late grandmother, who encouraged all my childhood dreams and to whom The Chosen One is dedicated to. And of course, my husband Luke and daughter Sarah, for their incredible support and late-night ice-cream runs. I could not have done any of this without you.

And to the original cast of that play I wrote back in high school–”

And that’s where she sees them, next to each other in the back row of the upper level. Amber, dressed to the nines (as she should be, having styled nearly everyone else present at the ceremony, including Nina herself), Patricia in an emerald suit and her face arranged in an all-to-familiar smirk, and Fabian, the same kind, brown eyes she fell in love with so many years ago now shining with pride. He catches her eye and sticks his tongue out. Patricia whacks him and gives her a little wave, and Nina lets out a small chuckle. 

A chill stillness fills the air; a beat passes before she starts to speak again, this time directing her words to that back row. 

"I can confidently say that I would not be here today without you, any of you. this is as much your story as it is mine, and nothing or no one is ever going to change that. I love you all, so much.” 

Nina watches as her three friends slowly lift a hand over their eyes. She does the same in response, and the audience breaks into thunderous applause.

It’s not until the next day that people start to wonder why she used her left hand instead of her right, and it takes nearly a week before someone notices that the eye-shaped locket around her neck briefly glowed a faint red as she did so.