Meap Me in St. Louis

Chapter 22: Love is the Answer... Right?

SHANNA

When I come to, my head is still throbbing from all the chemicals I was sprayed with however long ago. As I open my eyes, I notice that I'm no longer on Mitch's ship. The world around me is still cartoony, but I appear to be in the hallway of some kind of lair. All the walls around me are red, and extend out for as far as I can see. I've been left sitting in front of a blue door, and oddly enough, I'm not chained to a wall, tied up, or restrained in any way.

"Hello?" I call out, rising to my feet. My voice echoes several times over. The whole setting gives me the creeps for what has to be the dozenth time in the last 24 hours.

"Isabella? Where are you?" The adorable little girl is nowhere to be found. Neither is Mitch, or really anyone. My mind goes to Meap, and how he thankfully got out of Mitch's ship just before Isabella and I were captured. Where could he have gone? Is he gonna come back for us? Is he looking for my friends? How far is Mitch into his plan anyways?

I reach my hand out to push the door open, and it slides open by itself before I can touch it. Cautiously, I walk inside. This room looks like a laboratory, kinda like the one Rachel, Austin, and Benny have, but with more space, different gadgetry, and a different color scheme that's subtly changed from red to a red-violet. I feel so small compared to most of the objects in here.

I turn my head to the right, and what I see causes me to gasp. Isabella is strapped to a grey, metal board, unable to break free. Two of Mitch's robots hover above her, one next to a lever that supposedly controls a mechanism similar to that of tanning beds, but with a round shape. At the bottom of it is a tube with an orange cup below it. Isabella's whole face is wide in horror, and I'm just about ready to go up there to try and save her.

"So, what do you think?"

Screaming, I swivel around and stumble backwards into a wall. Standing behind me, if you hadn't figured it out by now, with an evil sneer, is Mitch. "What is this?!" I cry out.

"You like it? The planet government had this extraction chamber dismantled after my second timeout, which is why I went through all the work of building that ray. But, turns out, in my absence, my new loyal subjects had reassembled it for me, so I can finally move forward with my plan! Plot convenience, am I right?"

-

Sorry for butting in here, but really, Viper? Really? You just had to include that line.

(Shut up, wait your turn to tell the story.)

Ugh, whatever. You're really killing me here, you know.

-

...Okay, not sure what that was.

I can barely control my nerves. Mitch really is about to extract Isabella's cuteness from her and distribute it into himself. This is no longer a matter of stopping him before he does it. He's enacting his plan now. There's no one here to stop him, and if there is anybody coming to our aid, it doesn't seem like they'll be showing up anytime soon.

Not knowing what else I could say or do, I ask, "Why are you doing this?"

Mitch halts and goes completely silent. The amount of time it takes for him to respond feels like an eternity. Through every second, I hold my breath, worrying that maybe I struck a nerve and his reaction won't be so fair.

Finally, he loosens the tension in his body and sighs, "Well, I suppose it is within your right to know." He sits down in a chair next to Isabella, and his two robots fly next to me to listen to him.

"Everyone on this planet is supposed to be born cute. Not to the level of completely irresistible, of course. Just cute. Unfortunately, I wasn't." He pulls out a framed picture from his sleeve, depicting him at a much younger age. Aside from the expected lack of mustache, young Mitch is much pudgier and has a wide frown plastered on his face, as if he doesn't want anybody to see him. Whereas Meap resembled the kind of small stuffed animal a child would hold in their sleep, this young Mitch reminds me more of a larger stuffed animal you'd win at a carnival or street fair.