Page 10 of The Totally Typical Tale of Mappy McMapface
“Are you looking for a particular kind of book? I haven’t read most of these, but I’m sure I can help you find something.” Mappy puts a hand on his forehead. His headaches seem to get worse whenever we talk about Carter, and I feel bad causing him pain, but he needs to know. “Actually, I’m going to have a seat on the couch while you look through those, if that’s okay.”
I nod. He should probably rest before things get worse. I don’t want to force a shift like before. Although… I spin around to face him.
“Is there any book here that you really don’t want me to read? Even if you don’t know why.” Carter seems to have a pretty strong handle on preventing Mappy from figuring this stuff out. I wonder if I can use that to myadvantage.
His eyes scan the books, zeroing in on one. “Maybe not that blue one.” He points at it. “I think that one’s really bad.” He turns to go to the couch, and I tug on the blue book. Sure enough, it unlocks the door. I pull it open, the shelf scraping against the floor as I do. Mappy slowly looks over his shoulder at me and then the doorway between his house and… well, his other house. “Miguel! Close that up! What if the neighbors are home?” He tries to push the bookshelf back into place.
“Mappy, have you ever seen your neighbors?”
He freezes, lost in thought for a moment. I bring his hand to my mouth, giving it a kiss, trying to keep him with me for as long as I can. It seems to bring him back enough to answer. “I, um, actually, I’m not sure.”
Keeping hold of his hand, I pull him through the walkway, heading toward the lab.
“I’m pretty sure this is illegal, Miguel,” he whispers, head darting around for theneighbors that aren’t there. When we reach the lab, I drop his hand and try to find the notebook Carter was writing in before he drugged me. “Miguel, what is this?” I finally locate the book and turn to find Mappy frozen in the doorway, eyes glued onto a machine in the corner, a look of absolute horror on his face. “Miguel, what is going on?”
Chapter eleven
Sheet-y Stationery
Mappy
Iknow that machine. I don’t know how I know it, but I know I do. That machine is pain. So much pain. The pain from that machine is one of the first things I can remember. Blinding light. Pain. Why would Miguel bring me here?
I take a step back. I need to get away from the machine. My head is pounding, and the only thing I know right now is that I need to leave.
“Mappy.” Miguel is holding a notebook and walking toward me. It looks like one of mynotebooks, but why would my notebook be here? Why does it have notes for the machine? Why does Miguel have notes for the machine?
There’s no good answer. Nothing is making any sense. There is no good reason anyone would bring me here. I turn and run back to my house, swinging the bookcase shut just as Miguel reaches it. He pounds on the other side, yelling my name, but I just crumple to the ground, clutching my hair.
Nothing Miguel has said since the train tracks has made any sense. Why would he make up these stories? If he wants to leave, he can just go. He doesn’t need to make things so complicated.
But he knows about the machine. And where it is. And how to get to it. How does he know that?
I can’t believe that he would use it on me. He’s done nothing to give me any clue that he would do that. But I was in the machine before. Was whoever used iton me the first time kind, too? Did I fall for it then? Who put me in there?
Carter.
The name disappears as quickly as I think it, the sudden onslaught of pain making me nauseous. I should stop trying to figure this stuff out. Miguel isn’t who I thought he was. It’s probably best that I realized that now before I got even more attached.
I’ll just go back to how things were before. Everything was simpler. It was easier, and that’s always better. My headache starts to improve. Probably a sign that I’m headed in the right direction.
Suddenly very sleepy, I stand and make my way to bed. It’s too early, but after the day I’ve had, I can’t stay awake any longer. Without giving it too much thought, I grab the sweatshirt Miguel lent me when we first met, cuddling with it as I fall asleep. It doesn’t have to mean anything. It’s just soft and smells nice.
Tomorrow will be better. It has to be.
Chapter twelve
Axel and Rodd
Miguel
Idecide to give Mappy some space after seeing his reaction to the lab. Maybe bringing him there wasn’t the right call. He obviously recognized it, but I wasn’t expecting him to panic. I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting, but fear wasn’t it. I let Mabel know everything is alright and head back to my rental.
I spend most of the night reviewing the notebooks I took from the lab. Carter documentseverything. Which is helpful in some ways, but also means there’s a lot of useless information to sift through. His “traumatic experience” experiment seems to have beena failure, given that Mappy was still there when I left. Hopefully, Carter doesn’t interpret this as Mappy needing a more traumatic experience. Showing him the lab today might’ve been enough for that. I wish I could’ve grabbed all the notebooks, so I could’ve figured out what happened there.
The next day, Mappy’s not at his usual spot and Mabel informs me he didn’t show this morning. Eli had told me that my car was ready, which means I can just leave. There’s no reason I need to stay in this town anymore, and I can’t imagine Mappy wants to see me after bringing him to the lab. But I need to make sure he’s okay. And if I’m honest with myself, I don’t want to leave.
When I knock on Mappy’s door, I don’t realize how tense I am until the muscles in my shoulders relax at the sight of Mappy’s face. He still looks destroyed, completely devastated, but he's Mappy. Not Carter. Swinging open his door, he lets me in.
