The story that I am going to tell happened during the pandemic. I was a master’s student and had 2 semesters left to finish my degree. Then unexpectedly the pandemic hit us. We were all stuck in our homes and our university authority decided to conduct the classes through Zoom.Not going to lie, I was happy. I am an introverted person. I don’t like to go outside that much. I was so glad that I could attend all my classes and meetings from home. I got very lethargic during that time. If I had class at 10 am I would wake up at 9.50 am. Then I would sit down with my coffee to attend class. There were some days when I just joined the Zoom while lying down. I didn’t even bother to keep my camera on. One semester passed this way. We were getting used to this process.
In our next semester, I enrolled in a new class. There was something so jolly about our professor. He would try his best to keep the whole class engaging. He loved to tell jokes and inspired us to connect more during class time. We even started to join the class with the camera on! He was so charismatic! We were amazed by the way he spoke, cracked jokes, explained a topic, and communicated with us. We didn’t even realize when the class ended. We always wished the classes were longer.Typically I can’t keep my attention on the same thing for a long time, but during his class, I was always focused. The whole class was his fans!He always had so many new ideas to keep us engaged through Zoom. At one point he started a new thing which was using funny and interesting zoom backgrounds. The entire class would laugh every time he appeared with a new zoom background. Even there was competition among everyone who had the best zoom background. I used to wonder what it would be like if I were charismatic and loved like that. It is impossible to pick me as a favorite. I admit I was a bit envious of him as well.
One day, he was teaching and we were as usual amazed by his lecture. Suddenly a peculiar thing occurred. For some reason, his zoom background was not working properly. For a few seconds, the background glitched and I noticed something behind him. Through the camera, it seemed like a horrible-looking face. While we were processing this situation, the professor rose abruptly and left the room. He was nowhere to be seen via the camera. The zoom background disappeared and the real view of the room became visible. Now I realize we never saw his real room or background.
Everyone from the camera saw someone or something sitting in the dimly lit room. The individual didn’t look normal. He glanced at us and we saw he was holding a large sharp knife in his hand. His mouth was never closed and his extended tongue was out which was touching his chin.
There was a red light hanging from the ceiling and it was moving from one side to another. Under that light, we saw countless mannequin figures standing in the room. Everyone started screaming.
Later we never saw our favorite professor. He just vanished into thin air. Nobody was found at his place. But, I can still remember that face behind him. Some nights I have nightmares and I see the thing scrutinizing me while having its dangling tongue out.