Sunday Short: Prey For You

Hafiz had always been the “nice guy” at the office, the one who stayed late, fixed everyone’s mistakes, and took the blame when things went wrong.

“Team player,” his boss, Mr. Raymond, liked to call him. But everyone knew what that really meant: the doormat.

For years, Hafiz tolerated it. The yelling, the humiliation, the stolen credit. He swallowed it all with a smile because that’s what you did if you wanted to survive in corporate Malaysia. Until one night, something in him snapped.

It was another late Friday. Everyone had gone home except Hafiz, stuck cleaning up the “minor tweaks” Raymond had dumped on him at 6:30 p.m. The office was cold, fluorescent lights flickering, the hum of the air conditioner loud in the emptiness.

Hafiz’s eyes burned. His mouse hand trembled. Then, his inbox pinged.

From: Raymond Tan

Subject: URGENT

“Fix this by morning. And next time, try not to be so useless.”

Something inside Hafiz finally cracked.

He stood up, slowly, staring at the screen. The cursor blinked at him like it was mocking him. He could almost hear the word useless echoing through his skull.

By the time he left the office, he wasn’t angry anymore. He was calm, too calm.

---

Monday came, and Raymond didn’t show up. His secretary said he’d been missing since Saturday. Police reports were filed. The company group chat buzzed with concern. Hafiz said nothing, just kept his head down and worked.

But every time someone mentioned Raymond, Hafiz’s lips twitched upward. Because he knew exactly where Raymond was.

He could still see his manager’s terrified face, illuminated by the flickering light of the office basement, the one nobody used since the renovation. He remembered the satisfying thud of the crowbar, the choking noises, the begging.

And now, every night, Hafiz returned to the basement.

He didn’t need sleep. He just sat there in the dark, whispering to what was left of Raymond, feeding him scraps of office pantry sandwiches.

“See, boss,” Hafiz whispered, voice trembling with joy, “I finally finished the task.”

---

Weeks later, the police came. They found Hafiz alone in the basement, talking to a decaying corpse propped up in a chair wearing a tie. The words “Performance Review” were scrawled in red across the concrete wall.

As they dragged him away, Hafiz laughed, teeth stained red.

“Who’s laughing now, boss?”