His latest client was a problem. The brief came in at 2:17 AM, sent by a man named Raghav Sen.
Raghav wired the money within the hour. No thank you. No feedback. Just a receipt.
Arjun Mehra tagged you in a post.
He had created monsters before. Inflated egos. Fake gurus. But never a person. Never someone who could log on and wave back from the other side of the digital mirror. profile creator by saifi
Saifi nearly choked on his vape pen. Five thousand dollars was six months of rent. He clicked the attached file. There was no photo, no resume, no social links. Just a single line: "His name is Arjun Mehra. He died in 2019. Make him live again."
Curiosity, more than greed, pulled him in. He replied: "Details needed. Date of birth, location, education, digital footprint."
That night, Saifi deleted the "Profile Creator by Saifi" listing from every freelancing site. He turned off his monitors. He listened to the rain hit his window. His latest client was a problem
He had built a profile. But somewhere in the endless, hungry machine of the internet, he had accidentally built a door.
Saifi cracked his knuckles. He opened a dozen tabs: cemetery records, old photography forums, a defunct blogging platform from 2015. He worked for 48 hours straight.
First, the photography portfolio. Saifi generated 20 images using AI—grainy, emotional shots of monsoon streets, stray dogs, old men playing chess. He created a Flickr account dated 2012. He backdated comments from fake accounts: "Arjun, your use of shadow is breathtaking." No thank you
He built Arjun Mehra from scratch.
For ten minutes, Saifi just stared at the screen. He had faked internships, inflated GPA scores, and invented leadership roles. But a dead man? That was new territory.
Saifi stared at the Arjun Mehra profile. A new post appeared as he watched. A single sentence typed in the simple, honest tone he had invented: "I used to think a profile was just a mask. But maybe a mask, worn long enough, becomes a face."
Raghav replied instantly: "No footprint. That’s the point. Start from zero. He was a photographer. He was kind. He left no will. Just a sister who misses him. That’s all you get."