Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 30

Chapter 30

No sound.

EYEA

Behind the shrubs, Lyra held her breath. Wraithslayer had already shrunk to palm-sized, tucked up her sleeve.

Three seconds.

Five seconds.

The lead Wraith let out a low, rasping growl. Not rage this time. More like an order. It pointed its hook-scythe east and stepped forward first.

The other eight Wraiths fell in immediately, footsteps in unison, scythes dragging, all heading the same direction.

Only the one she’d cut stayed put. It stood there, eyeless face turning in every direction, mouth open, breath ragged/Black liquid still seeped from the wound on the back of its neck, dripping onto the stone.

It let out a hoarse snarl, raised its scythe, and slashed at the air beside it.

“BOOM!”

The stone slab shattered, fragments scattering everywhere.

Having vented, it pulled back its scythe, turned, and rejoined the line.

From a gap in the shrubs, Lyra watched it walk away and narrowed her eyes. “So the order to hunt the player ranks higher than payback. Got it.”

She waited until the footsteps faded, then stood up from behind the bushes.

That was when she noticed the black droplets on the ground-a trail running from the pillar to the crack in the stone, thinning as it went.

Lyra crouched down and brushed her fingers across the last droplet on the slab. Not blood.

She stood up and hurried after the Wraiths, keeping a safe distance.

In no time, she caught the tail end of the group in her sights. The one she’d slashed walked at the very back. She fixed her eyes on the back of its neck.

The wound was closing.

The black liquid had stopped seeping. The edges of the flesh were folding back together, slowly but visibly.

“It heals?”

Lyra slowed her steps and watched for another ten seconds or so. The wound was already a third closed.

Her brow furrowed.

“Can’t kill them?”

Or just hadn’t found the weak spot yet?

Lyra glanced down at Wraithslayer in her hand, then back at the ten Wraiths up ahead. The corner of her mouth slowly curled up. “Then I’ll just have to try a few more spots.”

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15:03 Tue, Jun 30

Chapter 30

She picked up the pace, slipped behind the rockery on the right side of the line, and closed in on the middle of the group

She counted. The seventh one.

Wraithslayer grew in her hand, the silver blade unfurling.

She darted out from behind the rocks, planted a foot on the rubble, launched off it, and swung the blade at the seventh Wraith’s flank.

“Shhk!”

Contact.

Black liquid sprayed out.

The Wraith staggered sideways. Before its snarl could even leave its throat, Lyra had already pulled the blade back, landed, and was gone.

“Krhaaaa-!”

It roared, scythe sweeping in a wide arc, shearing half a boulder clean off.

/

But Lyra wasn’t behind that boulder anymore. She’d scrambled over the rubble, vaulted to the other side of the rockery, and crouched behind the roots of a fallen tree.

All ten pairs of ears shot up.

They swept once.

Twice.

No new sound.

The leader roared again and pointed its scythe east. The line started moving again.

Lyra lay flat behind the dead tree and tilted her head out for a peek. The wound on the one she’d just slashed in the side was already starting to close. “Waist isn’t it either.”

She filed the info away and kept tailing them.

For the third strike, Lyra picked the shoulder. She dropped down from above the covered walkway and drove Wraithslayer into the third Wraith’s right shoulder, deeper than either of the first two cuts. The blade nearly bit into bone.

The Wraith’s right arm dropped instantly. The hook-scythe slipped from its grip and crashed to the ground.

Lyra pulled back, leapt onto the walkway roof, and flattened herself down.

The Wraiths went berserk.

This time they didn’t move on. They stayed put and attacked everything in sight, scythes whirling in every direction. The ground was plowed up, the shrubs were shredded, and the pond beside them threw up a geyser of water under the blades.

Thirty seconds later, the leader issued another command.

They moved on.

Lyra lay on the roof, watching the one whose shoulder she’d nearly cleaved off. Its right arm was already working again. The hand that had gone completely limp was slowly lifting, fingers curling one by one. It picked the hook-scythe back up off the ground.

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Chapter 30

“Shoulder’s not it either.”

Fourth try, the back.

Fifth try, the calf.

Sixth try, the arm.

Each strike a different Wraith, a different spot. Each time, the wound healed. The speed varied-neck fastest, limbs next. torso slowest-but every wound closed up.

“Interesting.”

Lyra crouched behind a broken wall, counting on her fingers. “Neck, shoulder, waist, back, leg, arm. Six spots. All heal.”

She gripped the haft of Wraithslayer, eyes darting as she thought. “Spots I haven’t tried yet…”

Hmm. Head?

Chest?

That big ear?

The Wraiths were about to lose it.

They charged toward the target location the command in their heads kept feeding them, and began an indiscriminate sweep. The scythes felled three trees and leveled two rock piles. They were really getting into it when the command in their heads shifted.

Target had moved.

New position: south.

The ten Wraiths wheeled around and tore south.

At the southern point, just as they raised their scythes to strike, the command shifted again.

Northwest.

They spun around.

At the northwest point, one round of hacking later, the position changed again.

East.

The lead Wraith let out a shriek-not a command this time, but a roar of pure rage. Its hook-scythe slammed into the ground. gouging out a crater nearly two feet deep.

East. Arrived.

Slash.

Hack.

Slice.

Chapter 30

Target position shifted again.

The ten Wraiths froze where they stood, ears spinning wildly, tempers fraying by the second.

J

“Up on the hipped gable roof, Lina lay flat, frozen in place. She’d been there a long time, too scared to move.

In the distance, the Wraiths darted east to west, south to north, then back from north to east-like someone was remote- controlling them, point and shoot, except the shots never landed.”

Lydia scooted over beside her and whispered in Ursarian, “Have the Wraiths gone mad?”

Lina glanced down. The Wraiths had reached the spot right below them, then moved on. They got to the edge of the pond and wheeled around again.

“Could it be… Lyra?” Lina muttered under her breath.

Lydia answered, “If it’s her, I’m not surprised.”

Behind the courtyard wall, Lyra crouched, Wraithslayer shrunk down to a dagger in her hand. She watched the ten Wraiths losing their minds in the distance, the corner of her mouth tugging into a grin.

Every time the Wraiths locked onto a player’s hiding spot and charged, she pulled out the compass and flicked the needle in another direction. The needle moved, the player’s position in the Wraiths’ heads shifted, and they pivoted.

Halfway there, one of them took a slash.

They arrived, and the position shifted again.

Infinite loop.

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