His hands were shaking as he finished reading the email. There was nothing inherently threatening about what was written aside from the subject heading. If a random person was to read the email, they would only find it strange, but they wouldn’t find anything incriminating about it.

But Arno knew better. He knew that his little operation had been found out. Trying to figure out who it was, he opened the second email, titled ‘I CAN SEE YOU’, hoping to find out more.

“Why didn’t you open my email?”

There was nothing else in the email. No names, and nothing besides a simple question. But it confirmed that whoever was sending the email was actively watching him. Either, they had hacked into his computer, or they were in the office with him right now.

Once again, he looked around, eyeing everyone that he could see in the office. No one was looking back at him, otherwise they would have been frightened by the intense look in his eyes.

He sunk back into his chair, his eyes closed as he let out a sigh, trying to alleviate the crushing feeling on his chest. He was thinking about what he should do next. What could he even do?

Resigned to his fate, he figured the best course of action would be to reply to the email and try and find out what the person wanted. Hopefully it’s money.

He struggled to think of what to say, but ultimately couldn’t stop himself from being as direct as possible. “Who is this? How did you get this information? What do you want?

He sat there, anxiously awaiting a response. He couldn’t tear his mind away from the emails and go back to work, so he couldn’t even do something else to fill the time. He thought about getting some water, but he didn’t want to leave his office and potentially miss the email. What if the person got upset and did something Arno didn’t want to see.

After what felt like forever, another email was sent through.

“Good morning Arno. You have done something very wrong. You should have known the consequences of stealing from your employer, and yet you did it anyway. You wanted to make your life easier, so you took the easy way out by resorting to illegal means.

But now, what you have done is no longer a secret. I know what you have done. If you do not listen to me, it will be spread to the rest of the company. You will lose your job, and will spend a long time in prison.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Believe me, I have all the evidence I need to put you away for a long time.”

Once again, the email had no signature, and aside from the email address itself, that he could only find vaguely familiar, there was no other clue as to who it could be. But this time, the email was a lot longer.

There was no vagueness to it. He was being threatened by this stranger and there was nothing he could do except to comply. If what the person was saying was true, if they really knew everything he did, then he had to listen to them. He didn’t want to get locked up.

He fell into despair as he sent off another email in response. “What do you want me to do?”

“I have five things I want you to complete. If you manage to complete them all, you will be free to go and I will never email you about this again.” The mysterious email came through with a response in an instant.

He found it difficult to believe that the person would just let him go after this was all over. This was the kind of power you could hold over someone for the rest of their life. If this was a subordinate of his, they could use this information to change their life forever.

But it was definitely a tempting idea. He only had to do a few things, and he would be free to go. If the person was telling the truth, as long as the ideas weren’t too difficult to achieve, he would definitely do them. As he was thinking this, another email appeared.

“The tasks will increase in intensity as more of them are done. But they will also increase if you do something suspicious that I don’t like. The tasks could be anything, but they will always be something you can achieve without leaving the office.”

Arno was once again threatened, but he ignored it, focusing on the important information instead. He believed he could complete the tasks and walk out of here safely. But if he could find a way to find out who was sending these emails, his life would be a whole lot easier. He could potentially find a way to fight back.

His work had begun to pile up, and he knew he needed to keep on top of that as well. If he failed to do his work, he would find himself in trouble with his employers this time, which was almost as threatening.

Having received these emails, and now having a better idea as to what was going on, he felt like he could get back to work, assuming that the first task was easy to complete. “What is the first task?”

A short while later, he received another email from the unknown person “For your first task, I want you to bring coffee to everyone else in the office. Act subservient to them. And you must get their order correct.”

Arno wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking visibly more relaxed. Phew, that’s not too difficult. I’ve been an intern before. I’ve done this kind of thing. It was a little awkward on his end now that he was in a higher position, but it was still better than what he thought the person would ask him to do.

Preparing himself, he got out of his seat and walked out into the office.