Anupam typed "I wonder how an evil incestful bitch like you is capable of raising children. I hope Child Protection takes your kid away" and pressed Submit. He hated all mommy blogs, and particularly despised this JollyMom's blog. He hated them so much, he was now addicted to these blogs. He checked them everyday and posted nasty comments on posts he felt were either pretentious or sympathy-baiting. He smiled slowly seeing his comment appear under the pseudonym Ma_Puna17.
His roommate, Hari walked in. He banged the door and threw his bag across the room - all to catch Anupam's attention, but Anupam was lost in the laptop. "Stop trolling on the Internet you idiot", Hari screamed to get Anupam's attention. The laptop closed and he said the words Hari wanted to hear - "What happened man?"
"I think Anita is cheating on me." Hari announced.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, the signs are all there"
"Is it her ex-husband?"
"Not sure. But she sure is distracted nowadays. Also keeps leaving 1 or 2 hours earlier than before."
"The baby must be on her mind"
"No man. The baby is almost always at the grandma's place. Anita is always distracted. Never pays attention to what I say. Something is always on her mind. Or somebody."
"Did you follow her and find out what she's upto?"
"Dude, that's invading her privacy. Not doing that"
"Well, you won't find out if you don't sneak around. If she has nothing to hide, she won't mind you sneaking around, no?"
"Stop lecturing me man - I don't wanna get in trouble. I heard you're a studboy on the Internet. Find me a safe 'high-tech' solution." said Hari and signed off with air-quotes.
Anupam fell silent in thought. A few minutes later, he remembered a conversation with Komal in office and jumped up in excitement - "Hari, does Anita's laptop have an inbuilt webcam?" Hari nodded wondering why he was asking this. "Do you know her IP address?". Hari replied "I don't, but I can get it."
Before Hari could ask him the relevance of the questions, Anupam got to work.
Eight hours later, Anupam explained to a sleepy Hari what he had done in those few hours. "Have you realized that none of the webcams in laptops come with covers?". Before Hari could respond, Anupam continued "Well, my colleague Komal and I were talking that day. She came up with this idea of remotely switching on people's webcams. We laughed it away that day, but I think we can use it now". Hari's comprehension skills were slower than Anupam's speech rate. Before things made sense, Anupam was telling him how their two IPs need to be paired by adding them to a config file in his company's server. Their computer can then switch on/off her camera. The only way it won't work is if she has covered the camera.
When Hari opposed it for being illegal, Anupam guaranteed him that they would not use it to watch her change and other private stuff - it will be used only to see if she's dating someone else.
Anupam chattered away as the yawns began. Hari was finally convinced, and declared to nobody in particular - "A hidden camera that gets switched on by the target herself. Brilliant!". Anupam took a nap for a few hours.
Once Anupam woke up, he pulled up the basic user interface he'd built.
"Gimme the IP address." he asked and rubbed his hands. Once he typed it and pressed enter, the screen immediately showed a bedroom.
"That's her room!" Hari screamed in excitement. They saw some movement in the top left of the screen. Two girls were leaving the room, backs facing the camera. They spoke in barely audible tones and closed the door behind them.
"Did you hear what they were speaking?" asked Hari.
"Not sure. I think I heard 'I nowhere. He lives' or something like that"
"Hmmm. Must be some friend. Let's see who she comes back with." said Hari as they leaned back relaxedly.
Anupam was very proud of his piece of code, especially the decision to switch off any light indicators that may be attached to the camera. He let his mind wander and wondered what mischievous things he can try with this application. Suddenly, he remembered the config file. He logged into his office shared folder and pulled up the config file. The first entry was their own IP paired with Anita's IP address.
"Hari, did you type these IP addresses in the config file? I don't remember typing it here, I just entered it directly on the front-end."
"What is a config file?" he asked confusedly.
That's when the doorbell rang. Komal walked in. Anupam was pleasantly surprised. His question "What are you doing here, Komal?" got no response, just a long stare. Anupam turned pale.
Anita walked in behind Komal. Her face was expressionless. This time, Hari panicked. It took him a while to realize that neither Anita nor Komal even realized he existed. They both were fixated on Anupam.
"I'm sorry Anupam" said Komal. "I didn't know it was you when I helped her"
The config file now made sense to Anupam.
Anita spoke finally "Mister Ma_Puna17, hope this teaches you never to call a girl an incestful bitch".
Anita's words "This is for all the nasty comments" and Anupam's gruesome death was telecasted live on her laptop monitor back in her empty room.
"Always cover your webcam", Komal told a shocked Hari and left silently with Anita.
