Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 121

14:12 Tue, Jul 7 MA

Chapter 121

Chapter 121

ISTA

Lyra and Jane’s souls drifted through the mist, and the Ghost Wall appeared before them.

Countless souls stood shoulder to shoulder, all facing outward, just like last time, just like in Lyra’s dream

The ghosts parted to the sides, making way for them.

Lyra drifted inside, her eyes sweeping from left to right as she searched each face.

No, not him, she thought, dismissing the man.

Not her either, Lyra noted as she passed an old lady.

And not the kid, she thought, growing a bit impatient.

She floated forward a few more steps and looked over another row of faces.

Not the short-haired woman, Lyra thought, scanning the crowd.

Not the bald guy either, she thought, her frustration mounting.

“None of these,” Lyra said, glancing back at Jane. “The one in my dream had long hair.”

Jane followed close behind, her spiritual senses stretching out as they swept over the ghosts nearby. Each one looked vacant and hollow, showing not a hint of emotion.

“Lyra,” Jane called out.

“Yeah?” Lyra replied.

“Do you know where exactly she is in the Ghost Wall?” Jane asked.

Lyra stopped, thought for a second, then shook her head. “No idea. In my dream, I just saw her somewhere deep inside the Ghost Wall.”

Jane didn’t rush to move. She turned her soul to face Lyra. “There are twenty-two Wraith zones in our country.”

Lyra blinked.

“Each one is surrounded by Wraith mist. If there’s a Ghost Wall in every mist, that’s twenty-two walls,” Jane explained.

“Your dream didn’t tell you which one it was. So how did you know she was in Sunvale?” Jane asked.

Lyra’s soul hovered in place, swaying a little. She realized she’d never actually thought about that before.

There weren’t any road signs, city names, or clues about where she was in her dream, just the Ghost Wall and a soul calling her name.

But as soon as she woke up, the first thing that popped into her head was Sunvale

She didn’t hesitate, didn’t second-guess herself, didn’t even think about the other twenty-one Wraith zones.

“Just a gut feeling,” Lyra admitted, though even she didn’t sound too confident.

Jane looked at her for a couple of seconds, then nodded. “Alright, let’s check them one by one.”

Without another word or a hint of doubt, Jane just started searching with her.

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Chapter 121

Lyra let out a sigh of relief. “She’s a woman, long hair, a slender face, probably around thirty.”

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“Around thirty, long hair, slender face,” Jane repeated, then drifted to the left. “I’ll check this side, you check the other.”

The two souls split up, scanning row after row along the inner side of the Ghost Wall.

The Ghost Wall was massive, stretching ten meters deep, with souls stacked on top of each other, each layer more crowded than the last as you moved further in.

Lyra drifted from the outer edge toward the depths. Whenever she spotted a female soul with long hair, shed stop and examine her face up close.

Nope, not her, Lyra thought, moving on.

Still not the right one, she thought, scanning the next face.

Ugh, not her either. Lyra thought, her frustration starting to boil over.

She floated past dozens, maybe even hundreds, of faces, but not a single one looked like the woman from her dream.

Jane, anything on your side?” Lyra called out.

“Nothing. Jane called back from the other side of the Ghost Wall. I’ve checked like three hundred already, but still no

match.”

Lyra looked up, and the Ghost Wall stretched out endlessly in every direction, as far as the eye could see.

Is she really here? Lyra wondered, doubt creeping in.

At the Command Center’s Comms Room, Lana sat at a long table, her tablet displaying four files, all data sheets.

A comms officer opened the door and walked in. “Chief Advisor, the test data from Southern Reach just came in.”

Lana opened the file. The first column listed distance, the second showed the type of organic matter, and the third was rot time.

Her eyes moved down the sheet.

She’d gotten Draconia’s data yesterday. Thirty-two kilometers out was completely safe. Apples browned after twelve hours at five kilometers, after six hours at three, fully rotted within thirty minutes at one kilometer, and decayed in seconds at ten

meters.

The closer you got to the Wraith zone, the faster things rotted, just as expected.

Lana pulled up Southern Reach’s data and lined up the distance axis.

At ten kilometers from Southern Reach’s Wraith zone, apples rotted instantly.

But in Draconia’s tests, apples only decayed that fast at ten meters out. The difference was massive

Lana plotted the decay rates for both sets of data, and Southern Reach’s curve was way steeper.

If Ms. Reed’s theory was right and the Ghost Wall was shielding Draconia, then Southern Reach either didn’t have a Ghost Wall at all, or theirs was a lot weaker.

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Lana picked up her comms device and dialed Southern Reach’s encrypted channel

“Commander Yelena, I’ve got the data, Lana said.

“Chief Advisor Sterling.” Yelena’s voice came through, sounding a bit rushed. “We’ve made a discovery It’s urgent

Lana rested her hand on the edge of the table. “Go ahead.”

“We ran tests at every edge where the safe zone meets a Wraith zone. The rot rates were almost the same everywhere, no difference at all.” Yelena said.

“But.” Yelena paused for a beat.

“The distance at which apples rot instantly is increasing,” she said.

Lana pulled her hand back from the edge of the table and gripped her pen.

“In the first test, apples rotted instantly at ten kilometers from the Wraith zone,” Yelena said.

“Now, it’s ten point zero six kilometers,” she added.

There was a brief silence on the line.

“Zero point zero six kilometers,” Yelena said in a low voice. “That’s sixty meters farther out.”

Lana’s mind raced. Were the Wraiths getting stronger? Or in other words, were they slowly devouring everything?

“Chief Advisor Sterling, the total depth of our only safe zone is less than two hundred kilometers,” Yelena said.

Yelena’s breath was audible through the mic. “Chief Advisor Sterling, this is the last patch of land we have that’s safe. What on earth is happening out there? Please, I need to know the truth. Can you tell me?”

Lana closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. “Commander Yelena, the Wraiths are sucking the life out of everything.”

There was a three-second silence on the other end.

“But this is the safe zone.” Yelena’s voice cracked with panic. “It’s not inside the Wraith zone. This is our safe zone, our safe zone!”

“So the Wraiths haven’t broken out yet,” Lana said, raising her voice in an effort to steady Yelena.

“But that doesn’t stop them from siphoning off life energy from afar. Most of the time, we wouldn’t even realize it, would we?” Lana added.

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