Chapter 3Deadly Prank: April Fool’s Office Killing

Beneath Helen's desk sat a large box filled with neatly arranged cupcakes.

There were exactly thirty of them, matching the number of employees in our office.

A card lay beside them, written in neat handwriting: Thank you all for taking care of me. I am so glad to have been your colleague.

A heavy silence fell over the room.

Nora covered her mouth, her eyes filling with tears. "Helen was actually really sweet. When I sprained my ankle last month, she fetched water for me every day and helped me to the restroom."

Another colleague’s eyes went red. "She was from my hometown. She brought me some of her grandmother's homemade beef jerky just last week because I mentioned I missed the taste of home."

Brenda’s expression softened slightly, her voice tight. "She was a good girl. We... we really were too hard on her."

I let out a cold laugh.

"Now that she's dead, you all suddenly have a conscience?" I mocked. "If you really feel sorry, tell the truth! Call the police!"

Brenda’s face flushed with anger. "Stop acting so superior! You might not have joined in on the pranks, but you never did anything to help her either!"

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. She was right. My silence had made me a coward.

Andrew banged on the desk. "Enough! Save your tears. We need to align our stories right now so we don't mess up when the police arrive."

The group nodded in grim agreement.

Nora picked up a pink cupcake, took a small bite through her tears, and whispered, "I'm so sorry, Helen."

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Pathetic."

Nora took another bite, but suddenly began to cough violently.

She clutched her stomach, her knees buckling as she sank to the floor.

Brenda frowned. "What's wrong?"

Nora’s face twisted in agony. She tried to speak, but a thick stream of dark blood spilled from her mouth instead.

Brenda screamed.

Nora collapsed entirely, thrashing on the carpet as blood covered her chin. "Help me... my stomach... it hurts so bad..."

Everyone stood frozen in terror. No one dared to step close to her.

Looking at the dropped cupcake on the floor, the truth hit me.

"The cupcakes! They're poisoned! Don't touch the cupcakes!"

The staff scrambled away from the box, their faces pale with horror.

Nora lay on her side, gasping for air, her eyes wide and glassy.

"Call an ambulance!" I screamed, pulling against my bonds. "Are you going to let another person die?"

One colleague reached for their phone with trembling fingers.

Andrew lunged forward, snatched the device, and threw it against the wall, shattering it.

His face was flushed, veins bulging on his forehead. "Are you idiots blind? Helen brought these! She wanted us dead! She hated every single one of us and wanted to take us all down with her!"

"If she hadn't died first, we would all be corpses right now!"

"If you call the police now, what are you going to say? That we bullied her, so she tried to poison us, but we accidentally killed her first?"

His furious words silenced the room.

Brenda collapsed onto the floor, weeping. "Then what do we do? We might have covered up Helen's fall, but how do we explain Nora?"

Andrew looked around the room, his eyes cold and calculated. "I have a plan."

He paused, letting the silence stretch.

"If they never find the body, they can't prove a crime."

A shiver ran down my spine.

"No! You can't do this!" I thrashed wildly on the floor. "She's still breathing! Please, don't make this worse! Save her!"

"I'm begging you!" Tears poured down my face. "Please, just stop this!"

Brenda seemed to crack under the pressure. She grabbed Andrew's arm, her voice shaking. "Let's just confess. I'll take the blame. We did a terrible thing to Helen, just like we did to Jenna..."

"Shut up, you fool!" Andrew slapped her hard, knocking her to the ground. "Confess? Who's confessing? And don't you dare mention that girl's name!"

Jenna...

The name echoed in my mind.

Some of my colleagues looked deeply uncomfortable, while others looked entirely blank. It was a familiar name, but I couldn't place where I had heard it.

But there was no time to think about that now. Nora was fading fast.

She lay on the carpet, tears streaming into her hair, her lips moving silently.

A wave of self-loathing washed over me.

I hated myself for not standing up for Helen sooner, and for not fighting harder when they planned the prank this morning.

Andrew’s face was dark, devoid of any humanity. "I'll take care of Nora's body. None of you need to get involved. I will take full responsibility."

"But," he warned, pointing a finger at them, "you must all stick to one story. Nora never came to work today."

"I have a way to make sure the police never find her," Andrew added quietly.

The colleagues who had been wavering fell silent once more. Those who had reached for their phones put them back into their pockets.

I closed my eyes in utter despair.

An entire room of people stood by and watched as Nora's chest stopped moving.

The second body.

My mind shattered under the weight of the horror. Let out a ragged scream, I felt the rush of blood to my head, and the world went completely black.

When I finally regained consciousness, I was surrounded by pitch darkness.

The space was tight and cramped, bouncing slightly. I could hear the faint, muffled sound of car horns in the distance.

I was in the trunk of a car.

Reaching out in the dark, my hand brushed against something soft and warm. A human body.

A gasp caught in my throat, and I was about to scream when a hand firmly clamped over my mouth.

"Shh, don't make a sound. It's me."

I froze.

The voice belonged to Nora.