February 3rd
Nigh Shift

Prompt: Caught on Camera

If someone were to walk by, and for some reason stop and look through the small window in the door, it would probably take them more than a moment’s attention to realize that there was someone in the server room. The overhead lights were off, status and network lights of the servers not bright enough to provide any real illumination, and the monitor screens had long timed out, except one. 

Eric could be a stand in for some of those stock photos of IT professionals. Even now you are probably starting to picture the guy in khakis, maybe slacks, with a tucked in polo. He kept to himself but did his job well and everyone who worked with him appreciated it. If you told them though that after hours he was sitting in the dark reviewing camera feeds they’d be concerned that something was very wrong and people were at risk of being fired. Not the case though.

Eric leaned in close, staring at the screen, his hand on the wheel that sped up and rewound the security feeds. “Come on, come on, come on…..” he was muttering almost manically as he rewound the footage. Clicking over to another camera his eyes went wide, the screen reflected in his eyes as he saw it. In the hall a hound, but no pup, not even some herding breed. A mastiff, only visible in the moonlight of the window as a void where something should have been. The black mass rose to its feet like a sleeping beast and as it yawned it’s teeth reflected the moonlight. 

The light of a flashlight lit the bottom of the screen, security on its nightly patrol. Back and forth, sweeping the floor, eventually the head of the guard came onto screen, no obvious reaction to the unexpected intruder. It was now sitting under the window, licking its paw, the reflection of the flashlight the only way to know where it’s eyes were. But wait…there were four reflections…

Eric sped up the footage as the guard moved down the hall, checking each door, approaching something that could only be described as a monster. He watched as the guard eventually past the beast, it’s hand no more than an inch from it’s nose which raised to sniff the air. And as he moved away the hound finally rose, stretching its front paws out arching its back before it stood up and than stepped forward pulling its back legs behind it as it moved to follow the guard around the corner. 

Switching to the right feed to keep watching took longer than he cared to admit, entry hall, reception desk, second floor west, second floor east, eventually he managed to get to the north first floor hall where the guard had turned. Nothing was there, nothing in the hall. He leaned closer like he was missing something, like putting his nose to the screen would allow him to see something different instead of just hurting his eyes. 

A half second later he realized time had kept advancing as he switched through all the camera feeds and with a gentle twist of the knob he rewound the feed. He watched as the door to the server room he sat in closed in reverse and the guard backed out of it. Where was the hound….

He turned the nob further so the guard walked backwards down hall faster, at no point being stalked like he had been on the other feed. He switched back to the first camera, finding it faster this time and let it play till. Again followed around the corner, but on the other camera nothing. Finally Eric figured out how to put two feeds on the same screen and hit play only letting it go at half speed. On the left he watched the guard walking away from camera, down the hall, past the hound. On the right the flashlight got brighter and brighter till the guard turned and started towards the second camera. He smacked the pause button.

On the left he could see half the hound, the other half having turned the corner, on the right there was nothing behind the guard but the moonlight from the window. Frustrated he hit save, Saturday1157pm1west.mp4 then Sunday1208am1north.mp4. Spinning the knob he fast forwarded to 11:57 pm but the guard was already on screen, the hound in the moonlight of the window. He had to rewind a bit and at 11:55 he watched the guard turn the corner. It was like watching the previous night on repeat just two minutes earlier. The flashlight swaying back and forth, stopping to check each door was locked, moving down the hall past the window, and followed around the corner by the beast which never appeared on the next camera. Ctrl, Shift, S. he hit the buttons and downloaded the footage to his flash drive. Sunday1155pm1west.mp4 then Monday1206am1north.mp4 

By now he was getting better with the controls, he spun the knob and stared at the time in the bottom right corner till it hit 11:30 pm. He turned the knob back slowing down the footage till at 11:55 he was playing at regular speed looking at the first floor west camera.Then he jumped nearly out of his skin as something touched his hand. He quickly pushed back from the desk his head spinning on a swivel looking for anyone, anything that could have touched him. He was alone, no one but him and the security guard were still badged into the building. He was telling himself this but not believing it as deep breaths did nothing to slow his heart rate. As he pulled himself back to the desk he saw the drop on his hand and realized he was sweating. A shiver ran down his back as he continued to catch his breath. He was freaking himself out and just had to look at it logically, but where was the logic…

As his eyes drifted back to the screen he realized something, the time said 11:59 pm and there was still no guard, and no hound. He clicked through the cameras, entry hall, reception desk, second floor west, second floor east, all the way to the fourth floor. Nowhere could he find the guard and there was still no sign of their intruder. One last time he cycled through all the cameras, he was alone. He logged into the badge logs, no one had left the building, it was still him and the guard on site. 

Slowly with a shaking hand he picked up the desk phone and dialed 9 and listened as it rang a few times, then with a barely audible click the call was forwarded to the on duty guard’s phone. In the hall he heard it ring. He switched back to the first floor north hallway camera and saw the server room door. No one was there, but there was a ringing in the hall.

Setting the phone down on the desk he got to his feet, cursing the squeak of the wheel as he pushed his chair back. One careful footstep at a time he made his way to the hall door, an eye on the monitor as long as he could still see it, nothing was there. His hand rested on the handle and slowly he pushed it down, grateful in the knowledge the other side handle wouldn’t move and give him away. As the latch pulled back with a soft click the ringing stopped. Now or never he threw the door open and stepped out into the hall. A glint on the floor in the moonlight caught his eye and as he bent over he felt hot breath and heard a growl…

---

The next day cops were all over the building, a detective and the head of security watching the camera monitor in the server room. “And here is where he walks out of the server room…” the head of security was explaining.
“And that’s where you also found the security guard’s phone?” The detective asked to cut him off. 

“Yes, all we can think is that Eric did something to the footage before he left. He was a smart kid with computers and all that. He must have just not known about the second camera network for the secure rooms.”

2025 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 3 - Writer's Digest