Chapter 2

2: 2

My whole body jerked.

I looked closer, and it was Veronica Fox.

She was in admin at Zenith Tech. People said she was standing right there when Jordan Lambert died, that he'd died in front of her.

Right now her face was full of terror, and she couldn't stop shaking.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and dropped my voice into a furious hiss:

"Veronica, what are you talking about? When did I ever kill Jordan Lambert?"

But she just kept shaking as she opened a video on her phone.

"Then why... why did Supervisor Lambert call you before he died and tell you not to clock in?"

My scalp went tight in an instant.

I looked down, and there on the screen was Lambert, wild-eyed, screaming into his phone:

"Everard Gilbert, don't clock in, do you hear me? You can't clock in!"

"You clock in and I'll die!"

So Veronica had seen Lambert call me, and she'd even filmed it.

I snatched the phone out of her hand.

"That's him losing his mind. His death has nothing to do with me! You can't take that seriously. Have you... told anyone?"

"I didn't say anything to the police!" she answered right away. "You always looked out for me back at the company. Why would I ever try to hurt you?"

But then she flinched like a child who'd done something wrong, her neck ducking as she stared at me.

"But I heard Chad Acevedo tell the police that you killed Jordan Lambert. He even told them to arrest you right away and haul you in for questioning..."

"That's bullshit!"

Chad Acevedo, that bastard!

Back when Lambert framed me, it was Chad who gave the false testimony, claiming he'd seen me steal company R&D, and that's what got me fired.

I fired off a message to Chad on the spot.

Warned him that if he dared to spread lies about me again, I'd sue him for defamation.

Seeing how shaken and uncertain Veronica still looked, I patted her shoulder.

"Veronica, thank you for telling me all this today."

"Trust me, Lambert's death really has nothing to do with me. I haven't seen him in half a year. I wasn't anywhere near the scene when he died. How could I have killed him?"

At that, Veronica finally let go of her doubt.

"Okay. I understand."

After I saw Veronica off, I went back inside, took a cold shower, played a few rounds of games, and then went to bed.

Except the moment I fell asleep, I dreamed of the time Lambert and Chad beat me and humiliated me at the company.

Everyone around us was laughing, and Chad crouched down with a time clock in his hands.

"Here, clock in!"

"This'll be your last time ever clocking in at Zenith Tech!"

I was shaking with rage, and I grabbed the clock and stabbed at it over and over.

The whole time one thing kept running through my head: Die! Die! Every last one of you, go to hell!

But the next second, his head snapped like a twig, a sharp crack, and it thudded to the floor at my feet.

Right after that, every single person's head dropped down in front of me.

And in my ears came Lambert's raw, screaming roar:

"Don't clock in!"

"Don't clock in!"

"Don't clock in!

I woke from the dream in terror, cold sweat soaking through my clothes.

I'd actually dreamed that Chad kicked it too!

I grabbed my phone right away to see if Chad had answered my message.

Turned out he'd sent something taunting:

"Everard Gilbert, you're the killer, no question. You just wait. Tomorrow I'm putting you behind bars!"

I lost it, fired back "You're out of your damn mind," and then blocked him outright.

But after that, no matter what I did, I couldn't get back to sleep.

That one line of Lambert's kept echoing in my ears:

"You clock in and I'll die."

The next day I dragged myself to work half asleep.

I'd barely come out of the subway when I saw Chad at the breakfast-sandwich place by subway Exit B, stuffing his face.

I rolled my eyes, muttered a curse about bad luck, and turned to head upstairs.

I'd just clocked in and was about to go to my desk when my phone suddenly buzzed like crazy:

"Oh my God, Chad Acevedo is dead too! He split his own head open with a blade!"