Chapter 2Deadly Prank: April Fool’s Office Killing

The room fell into a stunned silence.

Andrew lowered his voice. "The security cameras broke a week ago, and we never got around to fixing them. What happened in this room is only known to us."

Brenda’s eyes lit up. "You mean... we stage the scene?"

"There was water on the floor. Helen slipped, lost her footing, and fell off the stage. The platform is high enough that she struck her head on the edge of the steps, causing instant death."

As if grasping a lifeline, the others began nodding eagerly.

"Yes, exactly. That's how it happened."

"Just a tragic accident."

"We didn't touch her. She fell on her own."

My head throbbed.

"No!" I cried out.

Everyone turned to stare at me.

My voice shook, but I forced the words out. "Are you all insane? We made a mistake. We pay the penalty. A human being is dead because of us!"

Andrew stared at me for a couple of seconds, then walked over.

The slap was loud and stinging. My cheek burned.

"I am so sick of your self-righteous attitude," he spat. "If your family didn't have money, you'd be the one lying on that stage today."

Holding my bruised cheek, I couldn't speak.

A painful realization washed over me. Helen had always been the office scapegoat.

She did all the grunt work while others took the credit. She was excluded from every social outing, yet always expected to chip in for the bill. At lunch, she always sat alone in the furthest corner.

She had done nothing wrong.

She was just a quiet, unassuming girl with nobody to protect her, making her the perfect target for their cruelty.

My eyes welled with tears. "You can't do this to her. She has a family. People who love her."

"I think she only has an elderly grandmother," Nora murmured softly.

Brenda slapped her thigh. "An old woman is easy to handle. We tell her it was a slip-and-fall, and she'll believe us."

"The company will offer a small settlement," Andrew added. "She'll probably be grateful for the cash."

"Yes, let's do that!"

I couldn't listen to another word. Watching for a moment when they were distracted, I bolted toward the reception desk where the landline was.

"Stop her!" Andrew yelled. "She's trying to make a call!"

Before I could lift the receiver, someone grabbed my hair from behind and threw me to the floor.

Several hands pinned me down, crushing the breath out of me.

Brenda knelt beside me and slapped my face twice.

"Stop being difficult! We are trying to save you as much as ourselves!" she hissed, her saliva spraying onto my face. "Do you want to destroy all of our lives?"

Wiping the blood from the corner of my mouth, I looked up.

The familiar faces of my colleagues now stared down at me with cold, warning eyes. Their message was clear: Don't ruin this for us.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips.

"You've all lost your minds. Helen was a real person, and you killed her. Don't you feel any guilt at all?"

Brenda stood up, brushing off her skirt. "Guilt is one thing, but our future is another. If this gets out, we're finished. How will our families look at us?"

Andrew walked over, holding a severed electrical cord. "Stop wasting time on her. Tie her up."

They dragged me to the corner, pulling my arms behind my back and binding my wrists tightly. The thick cord cut deep into my skin.

"Get to work," Andrew ordered.

The office became a flurry of activity.

Some grabbed rags to scrub the bloodstains, some rearranged the chairs, and others hung the bucket back up on the ceiling.

Helen's body was lifted and placed carefully at the base of the stage.

They positioned her head right against the sharp edge of the step, spilling water next to her so it pooled realistically beneath her torso.

I lay in the corner, watching them piece together the lie.

Within minutes, the room looked perfectly normal. Helen lay on the floor, her posture arranged so naturally that she truly looked like she had just slipped.

Andrew nodded in approval. "Good."

Brenda let out a sigh of relief, sinking into a chair.

Just then, Nora let out a sharp gasp.