Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 28

Chapter 28

KENA

Lyra stood up. “Come on. Time to top them up.”

Lina swallowed her last bite of cake and wiped her mouth. “Top what up?”

Lyra said, “The fires. They’re almost out. I need to keep them going-still have to grab that last chest.”

When Lina translated, Lydia stood and brushed the crumbs off her hands.

They were just about to head out when Lina gasped. “Lyra, your… your…”

Lyra asked, “What?”

“Your ears!”

3

Baffled, Lyra reached up to touch them. Something was off. The huge Wraith ears had folded flat against the sides of her skull, pinned tight, like someone was pressing them down.

BOOM.

Before Lyra could figure out what was happening, a massive crash ripped through the garden.

She stepped to the kitchen door and looked out. A Wraith had raised its hook-scythe and brought it down on the nearest pine. The trunk snapped, and the crown crashed to the ground.

A second Wraith swung at a corridor pillar. The post broke, and half the corridor roof caved in.

A third. A fourth. A fifth.

All ten Wraiths moved at once, swinging in every direction, hacking at anything in reach.

No targets.

No direction.

Just indiscriminate destruction.

Lina went white. “They… they can’t hear anymore?”

“Mm. Lyra stepped back into the kitchen and watched the chaos outside. The four-sided firecracker barrage had scrambled their hearing-based tracking, and instead of trying to fix it, they’d just shut hearing off entirely.

“Cutting off the nose to spite the face,” Lyra muttered.

With their hearing gone, the sound traps were dead weight. The fires didn’t matter anymore. No point in topping them up.

Lydia peeked out from behind her and said something.

Lina translated, “She says it’s too dangerous on the ground with them swinging like that. We should get back on the roofs.”

Lyra didn’t answer right away. Her eyes swept the area.

The Wraiths had a huge attack range, but it was all ground-level. The roofs were safer-as long as no one chopped the pillars.

“Okay.”

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Chapter 28

She led the two of them around the Wraiths and back to the original area, then pointed at the hipped gable roof where Lydia had been before.

Lyra-ordered, “You two, up there. Stay flat. Don’t move.”

Lina glanced back before climbing up. “And you?”

“I’m not going up. I’ll wait down here.”

“Wait for what?”

“The chest.”

Lyra pointed at the spot where the first chest had appeared. “Last round there were two chests. One at the one-hour mark. one in the final thirty minutes. If the pattern holds, the last one’s due any minute.”

Lina opened her mouth to say something. Lyra pushed her back. “Quit yapping. Up.”

Lina bit her lip and climbed up.

Lydia was already lying flat. She looked back and gave Lyra a thumbs-up.

Lyra ignored her, jumped down off the wall, and stood right where the chest would spawn. The transformation hadn’t worn off yet-red robe, hook-scythe on her shoulder, she looked exactly like the other Wraiths.

In the distance, the indiscriminate hacking went on. Stone chips and wood splinters filled the air, sections of the corridor had collapsed, and even the stone railing by the pond had been shaved flat.

Lyra counted the time.

Forty minutes.

Thirty-five.

Thirty-minute countdown.

Ding.

The chest had spawned!”

Lyra’s eyes lit up. Without thinking, she lunged to scoop up the box and bolt. Huh? Why couldn’t she lift it?

[Item chest detected. Open?]

No time to think. Lyra shouted, “Open!”

[Opening countdown: 10, 9…]

At that exact moment, all ten Wraiths started moving, charging straight at the chest.

Lyra heaved on the chest. Wouldn’t budge.

She tried prying the lock with the Wraith weapon. Wouldn’t crack.

She tried hacking it with the hook-scythe-couldn’t even let go, scared the timer would reset.

Damn it. This stupid game. Cheating like that.

[6… 5…]

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Chapter 28

A Wraith was already inside her line of sight.

[4… 3…]

The first one on the scene saw one of its own kind handling the chest, didn’t come closer, and just stood guard nearby

Lyra was speechless. Huh? You’re kind of a sweetheart.

[2…]

All ten Wraiths were inside her field of view now.

Then Lyra saw them all freeze for a beat. One of them let out a shriek and leveled its weapon at her. At the same instant her disguise dropped away.

Oops. Looked like she’d been made.

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