Page 9 of The Totally Typical Tale of Mappy McMapface (Ghostlight Falls #1)
Chapter eight
Town Map
Miguel
M appy stares at the pile of street signs in his yard in utter confusion. They’re not even hidden. It’s like whoever took them just dumped them here. In his locked backyard.
When he goes completely still, I get concerned. “Mappy?” I shake his shoulder, but he doesn’t respond. His eyes have rolled back in his head like he’s having some kind of seizure. I don’t know if I should leave him to get someone to help or stay with him to make sure he doesn’t get hurt.
Suddenly, he lurches forward, curling his body into a ball.
His wings pull in, and his entire body shrinks.
Is he shifting? Is he some kind of shifter?
It doesn’t seem like he has any control over it.
Is he a were-map? That shifts in the middle of the day for some reason? Now I know I’m just grasping at straws.
When his body stops shifting, I crouch down next to him and rub a hand along his wing-free back. Who would’ve thought I’d find it weird that a guy I like doesn’t have wings?
Slowly he turns his head to face me, and it’s not Mappy.
I don’t know how I know, but I know it’s not him.
It’s nothing about the way he looks—I was expecting him to look different—it’s the way he looks at me.
His smile is all wrong. There’s none of the happiness I’ve found in Mappy’s eyes. This map is angry, so very angry.
“You… you’re the guy who was watching me the other night.” No one else would have a facial structure like that… like a map. Instead of wings mapping the city, this guy’s face stretches out with markings. It’s grotesque .
“Smart guy.” He picks up the keys that Mappy dropped. “If you don’t want anything to happen to Mappy, you’ll head inside without making a fuss.”
I do as he asks to protect Mappy, and because I’m pretty sure I can take him in a fight if I need to.
He points to the couch, so I take a seat and watch him move about the house.
He walks over to a bookcase against the wall that separates Mappy's place from the neighbor's, and I’m surprised when it swings open like a door.
So, no neighbor, then. How much does Mappy know?
He gestures for me to follow him, so I get off the couch and walk through the bookshelf door. I’m so fucking disappointed this is how I’m experiencing this, because a hidden door could be so cool in almost any other situation.
I follow him into what I think was a kitchen but has been turned into some kind of makeshift laboratory. Cool. Angry Map has a lab. Definitely no chance this goes poorly for me. He gestures to the lab table, and I take a seat on it. I note the windows and doors, trying to plan my escape.
“How much does he know?” Angry Map asks while searching for something.
“How much does who know?”
“Mappy,” he says with a sneer.
“Are you not Mappy?” He’s blocking the easiest escape route, but I still think I can get by him. He seems rather small. On the other hand, if I hurt him, does that somehow hurt Mappy?
“Obviously, I am not.” He waves his hands in front of his body, showing me the difference.
“But you were Mappy?” He rolls his eyes. “Or you’re Mappy sometimes?”
“I’m Carter. Mappy is… well, Mappy is Mappy.”
“That doesn’t really answer my—”
“Do not think that just because Mappy has grown fond of you, I feel those same affections. You are nothing to me. A means to an end is all. ”
“Alright.” Carter seems a lot more aware of Mappy than Mappy does of Carter. Unless Mappy is just playing dumb?
Carter scribbles something down in a notebook. There are piles of them around this room, and there were even more in the room we walked through. What is this guy doing that requires so many notes?
“If there is a traumatic enough event, it is theoretically possible for the host to control both forms, becoming a true shifter,” he mumbles to himself as he writes.
“A traumatic event?”
He waves a hand in my direction. “Nothing for you to worry about. You’ll be asleep the entire time.” He spins so quickly I barely register what he’s doing until the needle is in my neck.
“No!” I yell, trying to scramble off the table. I make it four steps before I fall face-first onto the floor.