05/11/2025
I’m a 22 year old varsity student from Limpopo, and I’m still shaking as I write this. I stay with a roommate from KZN, and from the first day we met, we just clicked. We liked the same things, ate together, studied together, we became like sisters. So when she started telling me about her brother back home, I trusted her. She said I’d make a perfect wife for him, that he’s well off, respectful, and ready to settle down.
At first, I laughed it off, but she kept insisting. Her brother even started visiting campus a few times. He was quiet but charming, always came late in the evenings, never during the day. We began talking privately, and eventually, I started to like him too. He told me he was serious about me, that he wanted to introduce me to the family.
So during the holidays, I went home with her, I didn’t even tell my parents. Everything there felt strangely peaceful, almost too quiet, but I ignored it. Her “brother” was there, waiting. He treated me like a queen, bought me clothes, took me out, and we even got int!mate. I was convinced this was God answering my prayers, that my new chapter had begun.
On our way back to the campus, she looked so happy, and her “brother” promised he’d visit soon. But after we returned, everything changed. A few days later, she said she found a boyfriend and was moving in with him. She packed and left, just like that. I tried reaching her, but her phone was off. Her brother also went cold, no calls, no texts. It was like they both vanished.
Weeks later, my body started changing. Something is moving in my stomach, but when I took a pregnancy test, it came out negative. I’m always tired, my appetite is gone, and at night I feel like something is pressing on my chest. I thought maybe it was stress, but deep down… I know something isn’t right.
Out of confusion and fear, I searched her brother’s name on Facebook and that’s when my blood ran cold. People who knew him told me he died years ago. They said only his sister is alive, living alone back home, and she hasn’t been well. I didn’t believe it until I saw his memorial post. Same face. Same name. Same man I thought I was in love with.
I don’t know how to feel about myself. Did I really share a bed with the de@d? Was I tricked into something spiritual? Because what I felt wasn’t human. I keep replaying the moments in my mind, how cold his hands sometimes felt, how he’d never look me straight into the eyes, how he always left before sunrise.
Now I’m scared to sleep. I don’t know what’s inside me, or what she might have done. I trusted her like a sister, but I think I was offered to something I don’t understand. My body feels strange and my spirit even worse… I need help. I just want to be free again.
