I Asked Them to Lean In Closer. That’s When I Struck.

The meeting was dragging. Some pointless quarterly update, filled with charts no one cared about and forced smiles from managers who had already made up their minds. I wasn’t paying attention to the presentation. I was paying attention to them.

My camera was off, as always. Just a black square, my name in crisp white letters. They had no idea what I was doing. Where I was.

“Your mic’s off, Mike,” Lorna said. “You had a question?”

I unmuted, keeping my voice even. “Yeah, actually. Can you lean in a bit? You’re a little blurry on my screen.”

Lorna hesitated, then sighed. “Fine, but if this is about my camera quality again — “

She leaned forward.

Her face filled the screen. That was all I needed.

The feed stuttered. Just for a second. Then the others screamed.

Her body jerked back violently, her chair toppling over. A deep, wet gurgle crackled through the speakers as her hands shot to her throat, fingers clawing at a wound that hadn’t been there a second ago.

The feed cut to black.

“Mike, what the hell was that?” Ben’s voice was shaking. The remaining windows flickered, panic spreading across their faces.