Chapter 13: First Message

 

It was a quiet morning. The sky was clear, and everything seemed peaceful. Zinhle woke up first. She stretched, picked up her phone from the side table, and started checking her notifications. That’s when she saw a strange message. It was from an unknown number. There was no name, no profile picture, nothing familiar. The message only had five words: "I saw what you did.” Her heart began to race. She sat up quickly, feeling a wave of fear wash over her. She opened the message again, thinking maybe she had read it wrong. But the words were still the same. "I saw what you did.” She didn’t know what to think. Was someone playing a joke? Or did someone really know their secret? Her hands started shaking. She felt cold, even though the sun was shining outside. Without wasting time, Zinhle called Lulu. Lulu answered the phone, her voice still sleepy. “Hello?” Zinhle spoke quickly, her voice shaking. “Did you get a weird message this morning?” Lulu yawned. “What message are you talking about?” Zinhle looked at the screen and read the message out loud. “I saw what you did.” There was complete silence on the other end of the call. Then Lulu spoke in a whisper, “Who sent that to you?” “I don’t know,” Zinhle replied, her voice shaking. “The number is hidden.

There’s no name. Just that message.” Lulu didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then she said, “Wait… let me check something.” Zinhle held her breath. A few seconds later, she heard Lulu gasp. “I got it too,” Lulu said, her voice now wide awake. Zinhle felt her stomach twist. Something was very wrong. They quickly messaged the others  Amogelang, Kea, and Bonolo. One by one, each girl replied. “Yes. I got the same message.” “Same words.” “Mine came at exactly 6:14 AM.” “All of us got it.” They were all in different places. They used different phones. But they each received the exact same message, at the exact same time. "I saw what you did.” Now it was clear  this was no prank. Someone knew. Someone was watching them. The air felt cold, even though it was summer. Fear settled deep in their hearts. Their secret was no longer safe. And now, they were being hunted. The girls had made a promise to each other a serious one. They promised never to speak about that night again. Not to anyone. Not even to each other. They swore to keep the secret for the rest of their lives. But everything changed after that message.

Zinhle was the first to start acting different. She pulled away slowly. In the group chat, she barely said a word. When she did speak, her messages were short and cold. Lulu noticed right away. She called Zinhle one night and asked if she was okay. Zinhle said she was just tired. But her voice was shaky. Something wasn’t right. Bonolo was nervous too. One evening, during a group video call, she said something that made everyone pause. “What if someone cracked?” she asked. “What if someone told someone else? What if one of us sent the message just to scare the others?” There was a long silence. Amogelang’s eyes narrowed. “So you think it was one of us?” she snapped. “You think one of us is behind this?” “I’m saying we don’t know,” Bonolo replied. “Anything is possible. People panic. People talk.” That’s when things got tense. Kea let out a sigh and shook her head. “We all made a promise. Why would anyone break it now? We’re in this together.” But the seed of doubt had been planted. 

And once it was there, it started to grow fast. Each girl started looking at the others differently. They wondered who could be trusted. They wondered who might have said too much. Or who might be planning to confess. Nobody said it out loud, but the fear was there  thick in the air between them. Zinhle started locking all her doors at night and checking her windows twice. Lulu changed her phone number, hoping to stop the messages, but deep down she knew it wouldn’t work. Kea stopped sleeping properly. She had nightmares. Bonolo became distant. She stopped answering calls and left the group chat on “read.” Amogelang suggested they all meet in person to talk about it, face to face. But no one agreed. Everyone made excuses. The friendship was crumbling. The trust they once had was disappearing. Whenever their phones buzzed, their hearts jumped. Even a simple notification could send them into panic. If someone stared at them for too long in public, they wondered if the person knew something. The fear followed them everywhere. They had once been best friends. Always together. Laughing, dancing, sharing everything. Now, they were tense around each other. Silent. Suspicious. They still had the pact. But the bond behind it was breaking apart. And the cracks weren’t just in their friendship anymore they were in their minds, their hearts, and their lives.