An Online Mystery (VW1)

Chapter 1: Hi;-By cra_zy_kid_

May 2, 2021, nighttime, me sitting lazily on my phone.

As usual, Instagram was my only hope during such a boring day.

I was just watching reels, and most of them were either really funny, or really cringey, the latter which I proceeded to scroll past as soon as I saw them. I didn't really expect anything else from this app, actually, because all I had on it were two groups - one being my eighth batch group and the second being my friends group, which consisted of only three members. So, what's new about Instagram? Absolutely nothing. I just stay here on this app since a few of my long-distance friends are here and because I want to be one of those Instagram popular kids with more than 100 followers. Currently, I had only 30-something. For a mere eighth grader, it was still quite high.

As I scrolled through the reels, more and more boredom started to enter my mind. Why can't I do anything else besides scrolling randomly? Ugh. Stupid app.

But that's when I noticed a notification from Instagram chats. Wait, chats?

"Hi"
By cra_zy_kid_

Huh? Who's this now? Another creep, or just another 'soulmate' of mine?

Without checking the message, I straight up went to his account and checked it out instead of replying to him. Hey, don't blame me, that's just what the internet makes us do.

Alright, it was a guy itself. His description included some random cliche quotes like 'Happiness never goes out of style', 'Fuck the bad vibes and chill', and so on, and most of his posts were nature photography except some, where he had taken some 'attitude' pictures of himself. He looked quite young. Well, definitely less than 18 years old.

On Instagram, if the person you're stalking doesn't have a lot of/no posted pics at all on their account, we have a much more easier way of finding their faces- tagged posts. These are posts where their friends/family members on another account tag them in their photos. This works well for ghosted accounts most of the time.

I checked his tagged posts and indeed, he had many. Most of them had names like he did, insane_girl, 07_prince_ etc. Maybe they were his relatives, like siblings or cousins.

Some posts included only adults and for a second I got worried, doubting if he was an adult as well and that his posts might just be by his brothers or when he was young. Fortunately, I found more pics leading to a conclusion that he looks about 15 and that the adults nearby were probably his relatives or older cousins. Well, a 15 year old isn't an adult or nearly one, so mostly he's unlikely to be a perverted guy. You can't be sure though... Out of experience, I knew that even premature kids or old, married people could be creeps - regardless of their gender, background and status. Some can be cured using the simplest catfishing medicines or pranks, but some require special verbal abuses and threats to stop harassing people on social media. Well, I was that 'catfisher' who used special techniques for creeps - an internet vigilante, my third purpose for logging into Instagram at 13. To a lot of you, I may sound like a young blooming teen who's just starting to get overwhelmed at everything that I see on social media, but trust me, this hobby of mine isn't mere play. I actually love doing this thing. I'm not scared of online idiots who are cowards in real life. Neither do I plan to block them or ignore them because they deserve a piece of my mind. Besides, unlike what Mia thinks, they can't really hack me or even know a bit of information about me except my name - I know enough and more about the internet to know this.

I've met a creep who was only 15, and he's even in my school - presumably, that is. That's a whole different story which I'll explain later, but I'll most likely use the same technique I used on him to get rid of this guy as well if he starts driving me crazy with all the cringey love and soulmate stuff. I do believe in soulmates, I mean, I even believe in ghosts, vampires, and werewolves - but not unicorns though. I hate that shit since the day I dreamed of a unicorn chasing me and making me jump over a cliff.