100-Word Fiction: ‘They Loved Him Once’

He was the sort of guy that, for some reason, even though he had at one time been immensely popular, and even though his sheer enthusiasm to do things differently and better had won him all kinds of support and a deep well of trust, could suddenly, spectacularly, lose his appeal. Certain actions (and perhaps some of the relationships he had formed) were deemed, not only by his enemies but by those previously well disposed to him, as having been unforgivable, and the more he protested his innocence, and even proffered gifts, the more everyone’s hatred of him would deepen.