Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 20

Chapter 20

bach Wraith took two or three more swings, then slowly came to a stop at the pond’s edge. The sickles withdrew the spray settled, and the pulped lotus pads carpeted the water.

The lead Wraith stood at the water’s edge Jts ears swiveled twice, catching something. It raised a hand and pointed-icit then right. The ten Wraiths immediately fanned out in pairs, splitting into five groups, each heading toward a different pavilion.

Lyra lay on the wall, hands behind her head, tracking their routes. “Splitting up, huh.

She didn’t think much of it. The last round, the Wraiths had also searched in groups-nothing new. Find a main building. sweep floor by floor, swing their weapons around, and kill whoever happened to be in the way.

Two Wraiths were the first into the nearest pavilion. Lyra’s eyes followed them as they stepped onto the first floor.

Sure enough, they started smashing everything in sight.

“Boring.” Lyra muttered, pulling her gaze back to check on the other groups.

That was when she noticed one of the Wraiths walk up to a second-floor window-and stop.

The window was shut. But the Wraith didn’t leave, and it didn’t swing its sickle to break things at random. Instead, it reached out a hand and felt along the frame.

Then, in one sharp motion, it shoved the window open!

Lyra’s pupils contracted.

Just outside that window, a player was clinging to the bricks for dear life, body pressed flat against the outer wall, less than two feet from the frame.

It was a player from Asaca. He’d been hiding as carefully as he could, listening to the Wraiths smash through the rooms, not daring to breathe-just praying in his head for them to leave.

Then the window flew open, and an eyeless Wraith head leaned out, ears still rotating.

A scream rose to his throat. He choked it down-but the jolt of pure fear made him flinch back half a step.

‘Click- A tiny scrape of roof tile.

The Wraith snapped toward him. The sickle came down through the window.

“Aaaah!”

The scream tore through the garden.

୮

The Asacan player was cleaved cleanly down the middle, blood spraying everywhere, before his body crashed down to he ground floor.

Lyra sat bolt upright. She stared at the open window, blinking twice.

“It opened the window.”

There was no fear in her voice. Just surprise.

14

1:34 am

Chapte

2nd round the weaths didn’t open windows. She had verified it herself-outside the window was the safe zone Club out and they wouldn’t follow.

This round, the rule had changed.

And how was a Wraith with no eyes finding windows in the first place?

“Crash’ Bang

“Aaah

NO!”

Scream after scream burst from every direction.

Lyra turned toward the western pavilion. Two Wraiths stood at a third-floor window, one of them leaning out, its sickle still trailing scraps of bloody cloth.

Same on the eastern side.

Window after window was being shoved open. The Wraiths aimed their ears outside, and the moment they caught the faintest sound, the sickles came down.

The players clinging to the outer walls panicked.

Someone tried to climb higher, fingers digging into the tiles. A tile shifted. A soft “tak.”

Dead.

Someone jumped, hit the ground with a heavy thud.

Also dead.

Some held perfectly still, holding their breath, glued to the wall-only for the window behind them to swing open. The player was knocked off the wall and sent tumbling.

A Wraith leaned halfway out, ears rotating.

“Rustle.”

The sickle came down. Even with no one outside the window, the Wraiths still swung.

Inside the Draconia stream, the chat lost it.

Lyra Myldol: [They can open windows? They can open windows!]

NeverAteVeggies: [We’re done. Last round’s playbook is worthless.]

LuckyKoi [Everyone copying the strategy is basically wiped… hanging off the outside is a death sentence now |

AnotherDayAlive [Is the game countering last round’s tactics? Or are the Wraiths just different every round’]

BornToCuss: [Goddess Lyra proved it last round. Wraiths don’t open windows. That’s why everyone hung off the outside this ume And now the rules changed.]

GoDraconia. [The rules didn’t change, the Wraiths did. Last round used sight so outside the window was a blind spot This

24

9:34 am

hd uses nearing nothing outside blocks sound]

ExraforeverGoddess. [Wrong Some Wraiths slash both sides after opening a window even when no one’s hiding ourside The rules ARE different

In the command center. Lana pressed her fingers against the desk. “The Wraiths’ behavior pattern isn’t fixed”

Ms Reed’s voice dropped. “Each round, the Wraiths may search by completely different logic. Last round’s safe strategy becomes this round’s death wish.”

Garrett pulled up the data. “Of the eighteen confirmed deaths so far, eleven were players hanging on the outer walls

Eleven people. The price of blindly copying the playbook.

Lana turned to Lyra’s feed. Lyra was still seated on the courtyard wall, unmoved.

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