Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The next day, dawn broke in the east, and the base sprang back to life.

Ssss, hot!” Lyra poked one of the pizza rolls with her fork. The crust was golden, cheese and sauce visible inside, the rich aroma rising up at her.

“Careful. Don’t burn yourself.” Lana sat across from her, a stack of documents at her elbow.

Lyra ignored the warning, picked up a whole pizza roll, and held it out across the table. “Sis, here. You eat it.”

Lana froze for a second. She hadn’t expected the very first bite to come to her. Something rose in her chest she couldn’t name, sour and soft at once.

“I’ve already eaten. These are all for you,” Lana said softly.

“Okay then. I won’t hold back.”

Lyra bit a small hole in the bottom first and sucked out the broth. Her eyes immediately narrowed into slits.

“Ssss.”

“Burned your tongue, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, but it’s so good.”

She shoved the whole pizza roll into her mouth, cheeks puffed out, chewed twice, and her eyes curved into little crescents.

‘How did you sleep last night?”

‘So well. My old bed was hard, and it creaked every time I rolled over.”

Lyra picked up a second pizza roll and dipped it in marinara.

‘Although…”

She paused, her voice dropping a little.

‘Red and Sister Jo used to keep me company. Last night was so quiet it felt kind of weird.”

Lana didn’t answer.

r

Lyra bit the second pizza roll in half and mumbled around it, “They didn’t come with me. They’re probably still over at the hospital

‘Once I’m done with everything. I’ll go pick them up. But we’re laying down some rules first. No more blocking the door to keep me from going out”

You’re going to pick them up?”

“Yeah. Most of them can only wander around in one spot. They need me to lead them, otherwise they can’t go anywhere

else

All right. Whenever you want to go. I’ll arrange a ride for you”

1/4

9:33 am

May Thanks, 3

They smiled at each other. Lyra happily went back to eating, and Lana picked up her documents.

Quiet settled between them, and held until Lyra finished a second tray. Then she looked up. “Sis, did you sleep last might

“I did

“What time?”

Three”

What time did you get up?”

“Six.

Lyra looked at her and murmured. “Three hours. That’s not enough.”

Lana closed the folder and set it aside. “Just eat.”

Lyra tilted her head but let it drop, ducking back down to attack the third tray.

Lana watched her eat. After a moment of silence, she spoke.

“Lyra, I need you to help me with a kind of interview today. Is that okay?”

“What kind of interview?”

“About Dr. Hanson. And some of what happened at the hospital.”

The pizza roll Lyra had half-bitten stopped at her lips. She lifted her eyes, glanced at Lana, then pushed the rest of it into her mouth, chewed slowly, and swallowed.

‘Did she come here too?”

‘No. She’s gone. We can’t reach her.”

Oh? Then what do you want to ask me?” Lyra laid her fork across the tray. “I don’t know where she went either.”

‘Not that. I need to know what she usually said to you, what she did, anything that seemed off or strange.”

‘She’s always been strange. Lyra picked up the vinegar dish and tipped it back and forth carelessly.

ľ

‘She wouldn’t let me eat normal food, she gave me injections, she kept me locked in my room. That isn’t strange

‘Besides that?”

Lyra thought hard, then something clicked and her face went serious. “Sis, I think Dr Hanson was trying to chase everbotte away”

“What makes you say that?”

There used to be a lot of people at the hospital that nobody else could see But somehow one by one they disappeared Now only Red. Sister Jo, and Uncle Maddox are left.

Tasked Dr Hanson and she said they got better and were discharged. As if I’d believe that!

24

9.33 am

andina Woodsked me the most. If she’d been discharged she would’ve told me. And Yoyo, who clung to me all day to ple there’s no way she’d just leave without a word. Oh, and there was an old man, super strict, who watched me study every day He never even checked my homework. He wouldn’t have been discharged…”

Listening to Lyra count off the people who’d vanished, Lana’s puzzlement only deepened. Why would those ghosts disappear Reincarnated? Or scattered into nothing?

As for Lyra’s claim that Dr. Hanson had driven the ghosts away, Lana wasn’t quite ready to believe it. Unless Dr. Hanson could also see ghosts. Talk to them. Even bind them somehow.

But if that were true, why would Dr. Hanson have increased Lyra’s medication the mornent Lyra admitted she could see them?

Lana sank into thought.

Lyra didn’t seem to mind. She took a big gulp of hot cocoa to soothe her throat and went right back to happily devouring pizza rolls.

In Lana’s head, the threads kept connecting and reconnecting.

Theory one. Lyra was hallucinating, the ghosts weren’t real, Dr. Hanson upped the dose, the hallucinations faded, and the ghosts’ were ‘discharged.

Ruled out. The run had proven ghosts could actually be seen.

Theory two. Lyra could see them, Dr. Hanson could see them too, and Dr. Hanson had the power to eliminate them.

Pending. If that was the case, then Dr. Hanson must have known Lyra wasn’t mentally ill. So why keep medicating her?

Isolation? Control? Or… protection?

Maybe once Lyra brought the three ghosts over from the hospital, Lana could have her ask them. They might know the truth.

‘Lyra.’

“Hm?”

“Who took you to the psychiatric hospital?”

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