Chapter 11: Social Suicide

 

Kea was the loud one in the group always laughing, always full of life. She had a personality that filled every room she walked into. Whether she was cracking jokes in class, dancing at parties, or hyping her friends up on social media, people gravitated towards her. She was the life of the party, the one everyone wanted around. Her confidence was contagious, and her energy felt unstoppable. But everything changed one morning. Kea woke up to chaos. Her phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. There were missed calls from her friends, voice notes from people she hadn’t spoken to in ages, and hundreds of WhatsApp messages. Her group chats were going off. Even on Instagram, her DMs were full of people asking questions, sending links, and tagging her in posts. Messages kept pouring in: “Yoh, kea, is this really you?” “Haibo, how could you say something like that?” “You’re cancelled, girl. Shame.” She didn’t understand what was going on. Her heart began to race as she unlocked her phone and opened Twitter. And there it was. A video had gone viral a clip of her sitting in her residential  room, speaking as if she were mocking other students. In the video, she appeared to be making nasty, offensive comments. It sounded like she was gossiping, insulting her friends, and laughing about serious things. She couldn’t believe it. The captions on the video made everything worse: “This is what she really thinks of her friends.” “Fake vibes. Fake girl.” “We see you now, sisi. We’re done.”

Kea was shaking. The voice in the video was hers, but she knew something was wrong. That clip was taken out of context. The audio had come from a private voice note she had sent as a joke weeks ago, and someone had matched it with an old video of her in her room  edited and stitched together to make it look like she said those things on camera. But nobody cared about the truth. No one gave her a chance to explain. People didn’t ask for her side of the story. As far as campus was concerned, she was cancelled. Just like that. Her reputation fell apart in hours. Students started unfollowing her, removing her from WhatsApp groups, and gossiping about her openly in class. Some people stared at her in lectures. Others walked past her without saying a word, as if she was invisible. Even her closest friends became distant, unsure if they could trust her anymore. “She’s always acted like she’s better than everyone,” someone muttered during lunch. “Now we know who she really is,” another person added. Even her lecturers seemed colder. They didn’t say anything, but she could feel their eyes on her. 

The judgment. The disappointment. Kea tried to fix things. She posted a statement online, explaining that the video was fake. She showed screenshots, even cried on her Instagram story, begging people to believe her. But nothing worked. Once social media turns on you, it’s like trying to stop a wildfire with a cup of water. Behind the scenes, Themba was watching everything unfold and smiling. He had planned it all. He took an old video of Kea from her Instagram story, found the voice note she had once sent to a friend in private, and stitched them together. Then, using a fake account, he sent the edited video to a popular campus gossip page. He knew people would spread it without checking if it was real. And just like that, he destroyed her. Kea went from being the most loved to the most hated. One moment she was everyone’s favorite now she was the girl no one wanted to be associated with. She stopped going to the cafeteria. She kept her curtains shut and stayed in bed for hours. She barely touched her phone. Her heart felt heavy, her mind constantly racing. She couldn’t believe how quickly everything had changed. The same girl who once lit up every room now felt too scared to even step outside. And for Themba, this was just another success. Another name crossed off his list. Another spirit broken. And the worst part? He was only getting started.