Under his control

The phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. Annie didn’t open her eyes at first. She just turned her face deeper into the pillow, trying to ignore it. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. It kept going, like something was wrong. Her heart started beating fast. That kind of buzzing was never good news. Slowly, she reached out, fingers shaking, and dragged the phone closer. She had 99+ notifications. Her chest tightened. “What…?” she whispered. Her thumb hovered over the screen for a second. Then she tapped. Everything exploded. Messages flooded in. Mentions. Tags. Comments. Thousands of them. Her screen kept refreshing, numbers rising so fast she couldn’t keep up. Her breath got stuck in her throat. Oh my God “No… no, no, no…” She clicked her app. And there it was. Her post. The post. The one she made last night without thinking. The one she typed with tired eyes and a heavy heart after another long, draining day. The one where she roasted him. It had millions of views. Millions. Her hands started shaking harder. “What did I do…?” She sat up quickly, her room looked the same as always small, quiet, a little messy, but everything felt different now. Like the air had changed. Her phone buzzed again. She tapped the comments. People were laughing, some were Cheering her, Calling her bold. “Finally, someone said it!”. “This girl has guts!”. “She dragged him to hell”. Annie swallowed. Her chest felt tight. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It was just a post, just a stupid post. She didn’t even think about it before typing. She remembered it now, Last night, she had been tired. So tired, her boss had shouted at her again in front of everyone. Over something small. Something that wasn’t even her fault. Everyone had watched, some people laughed. No one said anything, And Annie just stood there, nodding, saying “I’m sorry,” even when she wasn’t wrong. Like always. Then she came home. No food in the kitchen. Her stepfather complaining. Her mother coughing in the other room, Bills on the table. Everything pressing down on her at once. She couldn’t breathe. So, she escaped. She picked up her phone. Opened her secret account. And there he was. On her screen. Stephen Samuel. Calm, Cold, talking like he owned the world. Talking about power. Talking about control. Talking like feelings didn’t matter. Like people didn’t matter. Something inside her snapped. She typed and typed and typed. Every frustration. Every anger. Every silent pain she had been holding in. She poured it all into that post. She mocked him. She dragged him. She didn’t hold back. Then she hit “post.” And went to sleep. Now Her life was no longer quiet. Her phone buzzed again. She flinched. Her eyes moved to the top of the screen. A new notification. Her breath stopped. He saw it. Stephen Samuel saw your post. Her heart dropped. “No…” Her fingers felt cold. Slowly, she clicked but there was nothing, no reply, no quote.no comment. Nothing. Just silence. That was worse. “Say something” she whispered to the screen. But nothing came. Just more people talking. Too much attention. “I shouldn’t have done that… I shouldn’t have done that…” A loud knock on the door made her jump. “Annie!” her stepfather’s voice came through, sharp and annoyed. “Are you dead in there? You’ll be late again!” Her heart skipped. She forgot about work. Her eyes moved to the time She was late. “Coming!” she said quickly, her voice shaky. She scrambled out of bed, almost dropping her phone. The buzzing didn’t stop. But she didn’t look at it again. She couldn’t at least Not right now. The office felt colder than usual. Or maybe it was just her. Annie kept her head down as she walked to her desk. She could feel eyes on her. Or maybe she was imagining it. Her hands were sweating. Her phone was still buzzing inside her bag. She didn’t check it. She didn’t want to know. “Annie.” Her body froze. Her boss called. She slowly turned. He was standing there, arms crossed, face tight. “Late again,” he said, loud enough for people nearby to hear. “I’m sorry, sir,” Annie said quickly, lowering her head. “Sorry doesn’t fix incompetence.” A few people glanced over. Annie’s cheeks burned. “I’ll do better”, “You always say that,” he cut in. “Come to my office.” Her stomach dropped. “Yes, sir.” She stood in front of his desk, fingers gripping each other. He didn’t ask her to sit. He never did. He picked up a file and dropped it in front of her. “Explain this.” She looked down. Her eyes scanned the paper. It was a small mistake. A very small one. Her heart pounded. “I… I can fix it,” she said softly. “That’s not the point!” he snapped. She flinched. “You keep making mistakes, Annie. Small, small mistakes. But they add up.” “I understand, sir” “Do you?” he leaned forward. “Because I don’t think you do.” “I’ll be more careful,” she whispered. He stared at her for a moment. Then he leaned back in his chair. “I think we need to reconsider your position here.” Her ears rang. “What…?”, “You heard me.” Her vision blurred. “Sir, please” “This company needs people who can keep up.” “I can”, she answered “You’re already behind.” He spoke Her hands shook. “I need this job,” she said, her voice breaking, He didn’t react. Didn’t care. “I’ll speak to HR,” he said flatly. “You can go.” Her world tilted. “Sir, please… I can do better, I swear” “Annie.” His voice was final. “There’s the door.” Something inside her chest cracked. She nodded slowly. “Okay…” She turned and walked out, didn’t look back. She didn’t remember how she got to her desk. Or how she packed her things. Or how she walked out of the building. Everything felt blurry. Her phone buzzed again, and again, and again, Finally, she stopped, right there on the sidewalk. Her hands trembled as she pulled it out. She opened the app. The numbers were higher now. Way higher. Her post was everywhere, News pages, Blogs, People talking, Arguing, Laughing. And then… Her breath stopped again. A new post. From him. Stephen Samuel. Her fingers froze over the screen. “No” She tapped. It wasn’t a reply. It wasn’t anger. It wasn’t even about her. Just one line. “Interesting.” That was it. Nothing else. But something about it Made her stomach drop. Made her feel like She had just stepped into something she couldn’t escape from. Her phone buzzed again, A new message. Unknown number. Her heart started pounding. Then She opened it. Her breath caught. “We need to talk.”, she replied “Who is this?” The reply came instantly. “You know who. Her stomach dropped. Her hands went cold. Her heart pounded so hard it hurt. “No…” she whispered. Her phone buzzed again. Another message. She didn’t want to open it. But she did. “See you soon, Annie.” Her blood ran cold Because she never told anyone her name.