That night, the office was almost empty. Only the sound of rain outside the window accompanied the clacking of Stefan's keyboard as he worked on his laptop. The clock showed 10:47 PM. All the lights were off, except for one in the corner of the room where Stefan was sitting.
Stefan's hands trembled. The flash drive containing the log files—proof of the code manipulation—was safely tucked in his pocket. He knew that once this evidence reached Aiden, everything would change.
But that was precisely the problem.
Someone didn't want the truth to come out.
Meanwhile, Darren quietly slipped into the server room. He activated one of the admin terminals and remotely accessed Stefan's device. On his monitor, a single line of command appeared:
bash
CopyEdit
CopyEdit
sudo delete --force --trace flashdrive
But Darren knew... that alone wouldn't be enough. As long as Stefan was alive, the threat remained.
Stefan shut down his laptop and stood up, ready to head home. But as he walked down the empty corridor, the lights began to flicker. Footsteps echoed behind him. Slow, deliberate.
He turned around.
No one was there.
His heart pounded faster.
He quickened his pace toward the elevator, but when he pressed the button, nothing happened.
Turning to use the stairs instead... the footsteps came again. Louder. Closer.
"Who's there?!" Stefan shouted.
Silence.
Then, a faint voice, almost a whisper.
"You should have known your place..."
Suddenly, someone stepped out from behind a pillar. Their face was hidden beneath a dark hoodie. But Stefan knew instantly... it was Darren.
"Darren? What are you doing?!"
But Darren didn't answer. He stepped closer, his eyes sharp and burning with anger.
"You should never have stood out. All of this... could have been mine..."
Stefan backed away but lost his balance and fell to the floor.
"I don't care about titles or promotions! I just want to do my job well!" Stefan tried to reason, but Darren had already gone too far.
"And that's the problem. You're too perfect. You earned their trust too fast. You're a threat."
Before Stefan could scream, Darren pulled a metal rod from his pocket. In an instant, everything went black.
The next morning, Aiden received a call from the cleaning staff.
"Sir... there's someone in the emergency stairwell on the 7th floor..."
Panic spread throughout the office. The police arrived. Yellow tape was put up. And there, in the corridor, Stefan's body lay cold and still, the flash drive in his pocket broken and soaked.
There were no signs of anyone else. No CCTV footage had been recorded that night. Everything seemed... carefully planned.
The news of Stefan's death spread quickly within the company. Some people were shocked; others remained silent. But Darren... simply stared at his monitor as usual, wearing an expression of perfect innocence.