BORN TO DIE, austin butler.

001 who is she?

CHAPTER ONE,
Who Is She?

EARLY 2019.

Pick up runs from school were never Baz's favourite thing. The blocked roads, honking horns, oblivious mothers chatting in the middle of the road, screaming children and terrible drivers made his skin crawl and fingers tremble around the steering wheel. Nevertheless, the moment his two children jumped in the car and cancelled out all of the outside noise with the endless bickering and casual conversation of what drama had flown through the hallways made it all seem slightly worth it. The greatest part of the drive home was the karaoke session.

Each day the kids took their turn in picking songs to sing and dance along too, today it was Lillian's turn which meant a few things: Foo Fighters, Elvis Presley, Kate Bush or Pink Floyd. However today none of these artist were even in the option list, surprising both Baz and William.

"My friend's in New York have been raging about this random girl," Lillian said, scrolling through her phone in attempts to find said random girl. "She's viral on Twitter, well, not really outside of Brooklyn but still - she's got some attention and I just can't get enough of her!" She groaned, making Baz laugh.

"Oh, found her!" Lillian said excitedly, "Sad thing is, she's only on soundcloud and has like... two songs... literally. I would sell my kidney for her to release more, but no one knows who she is!"

Sighing in boredom William spoke up, "Just play the goddamn song Lily, we get it!"

Baz watched his two kids bicker back and forth, though they quickly quieted down as the song began playing.

"Kiss me hard before you go, summertime sadness..."

Baz didn't know what it was, but he was stunned. The mystery woman continued to sing, it was obvious the song was recorded in no studio and more like a bedroom. Cars could be heard honking in the distance of the song, busy Brooklyn streets sounding through, but it didn't matter, only the voice of the Brooklyn girl did.

"Think I'll miss you forever, like the stars miss the sun in the mornin' sky. Later's better than never, even if you're gone, I'm gonna drive, drive."

The rest of the song drowned in Bazs' ears. Baz was a filmmaker, he made everything from television to opera and he knew that wherever this girl resides, she was heading towards big billboards and even bigger banks. Her talent and voice was unrecognisable, even with the outside noise the record that played on loop was plaguing his mind, he couldn't think of what a studio version would sound like.

For some time Baz was thinking of creating an Elvis Presley biopic. It crammed up his cranium and took up his every thought. He could picture the movie being a great success, the movie taking over the media within the first few weeks of it being premiered or even the starting rumours of there being an Elvis Presley movie on the rise. He had began writing with Craig Pearce, Jeremy Doner and Sam Bromell the starting points of the film. He had mood boards and printed pictures of the colour wheel, the theme, Elvis costumes and even the singers guitar. Baz knew his movie would be sensational, he'd cast the perfect Elvis, the perfect Priscilla and have an impeccable sound track. But what would make this movie so great, so musically invested and go from a 10 to an 11? This mystery Brooklyn belladonna who had now made it Baz's mission to get her in his movie.

Minutes after the song had finished playing for the eighth time they reached home. Before Lillian could run and lock herself up in her room until dinner was called, Baz called her over.

"Yes?" Lillian groaned and spun back around, marching her way down the stairs and into the kitchen. She greeted her mother with a kiss on the cheek and turned back to her father, who had a frown playing upon his head.

"Can you - can you show me the video of that girl singing in Brooklyn?" He asked and received a nod from his daughter.

After a few minutes of tapping and scrolling on her phone, Lillian made a noise of achievement and scrambled to show her father the video.

The quality of the video wasn't the best, but good enough to see the raw beauty of this girl. Catherine soon gathered around and admired the unknown girl in the video. She had caramel coloured hair and a foundation free face, only the natural embarrassment red coaxing her cheeks as she sang and swayed.

"So don't make me sad, don't make me cry
Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets toughI don't know why"

Her makeup was clearly 60s inspired with fluttery lashes and thick eyeliner with a sharp tail. Her hair was messed up in the most magnetic way, her old Hollywood curls still perfectly in shape despite her hands roaming throughout.

"Keep making me laugh—
The road is long, we carry on
Try to have fun in the meantime"

Her dress was nightshade black and reached just mid-thigh, it was strapless and fitted her oh-so-perfectly. A golden cross hung from her neck, she occasionally went to fiddle with it as she sang.

"Come and take a walk on the wild side,
Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain,
you like your girls insane."

Throughout her performance her eyes were often shut, but in the last remaining seconds they were open and bright, she found and locked eyes with the cameras before the singer went silent. The camera diverted down and the video was cut off with the loud clapping and roaring cheers of the club.

"Choose your last words, this is the last time
'Cause you and I
We were born to die."

The three family members were quite frankly shocked. Her talent literally jaw-dropping, so was her beauty. "Who's that?" Catherine asked, eyes still trained on the paused video. "Nobody knows, I'll try look through Twitter, see if she has any social media but I'm not too sure."

With that Lillian sped off upstairs, eager to uncover the case of the Brooklyn belladonna that was wanted within the Luhrmann family.

"What is it your thinking, Baz?" Catherine asked gently, noticing a growing grin on her husbands face.

"I need her in my movie."