Chapter 99
Maple
So yeah, I’ve been off grid since Friday, camping with Lola in the Nevada desert. It was epic, but I’m back online now. So what’s been happening in TikTok land?
I stir, reach consciousness. I don’t know how I’m managing to sleep in this hellhole. Maybe my brain is forcing some time-out on me because the reality is too terrifying. But when I open my eyes, Brandon is staring at me. I scream.
‘Shush,’ he hisses. ‘Or I’ll gag you again.’
I remember the panic of not being able to breathe and ram my lips together.
I contract my chest muscles, plead with my body to relax.
When Brandon told me that he was Coco – last night I think, because there’s a dim sense of morning seeping through the layers of newspaper on the windows now – I couldn’t think straight.
My brain felt like a drill, shooting sharp pieces of debris around my skull.
So I shut it down, went mute. He hated that, not being able to get a reaction out of me. And eventually he gave up trying.
But now he’s back. To try again.
‘You still look shocked, babe,’ he says, tipping his head to one side, in a way – some sick, horrific way – that reminds me of Coco. ‘Which is a surprise because I thought you Gen Alpha kids were savvy about fakes.’
Fake. Coco is all fake. Just a sick pedophile, the lowest form of human, pretending to be my best friend.
I think about all the snaps we’ve sent each other.
How good it felt to be totally myself with Coco, not Maybe Maple the influencer, or Maple Clark, the student navigating popularity.
Just me goofing around, talking about boys, getting sad one minute and crazy the next.
Me trying on new outfits, confessing my darkest secrets, like my dad not being my real dad. This freak knows it all.
Does he still paw over all the pictures I’ve sent him?
Then another thought hits me. It was Coco who told me my image was on the dark web, naked pictures of me using AI, the same fate Ella suffered. But was it him, Brandon, who created them in the first place?
‘Not that it was all fake, you know,’ he says, his expression becoming earnest. ‘Yes, I had to use face-swapping technology, and voice cloning, and a little synthetic media to make sure you’d like me. But the person behind Coco is the real me. I’m who you became best friends with, Maple.’
My eyes blur with tears while my cheeks burn with fury. ‘I would never be friends with you.’
‘Sorry, babe, but that’s what we are. Best friends, in fact.’
I think about my last conversation with the girl I knew as Coco, how concerned she’d sounded about me traveling to Vegas to meet a stranger. How could she also be that stranger? ‘But Coco told me not to come,’ I say. ‘Why would you lure me here, then try to stop me? It doesn’t make sense.’
‘You know, Maple, I love to observe people, and record the moment, one way or another. Did you know I was at your photoshoot in Vegas?’
‘What?’ I stare at him through the gloom.
Is he the man who dropped the diffuser? That guy had long hair and a thick beard, but of course those can be shaved off.
I don’t recognize him, but then maybe I wouldn’t; I only looked at the guy for a few seconds.
Couldn’t stomach his disgusting stare for longer than that.
‘You don’t recognize me, huh? You know, it’s amazing what you miss if you don’t look properly.
Just as it’s amazing what you see if you do.
And trust me, you learn a lot about reverse psychology from observing people, especially if they’re on the edge of something, whether that thing is the worst thing possible, or the best.’
‘You mean you told me not to come to make sure I did?’ I say, trying to make sense of his words.
‘Aren’t I smart, Maple?’
‘And Sophie Lyle? I suppose that’s a fake story too?’
His face suddenly changes. Darkens. And then I feel his hand whip across my cheek.