Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Lyra crouched behind the bushes, eyes fixed on the item that had rolled into the grass. A black sphere. Not far. Maybe fifteen feet.

The ice tree pulled its branch out of the man’s back, flicked off the blood, and dragged its roots across the ground. It didn’t bother with the two survivors. It made straight for the steaming wooden box.

The box was the hottest thing in the clearing, hotter than any human body.

The ice tree’s branches lashed up and came down in a frenzy, hammering the lid, splinters spraying everywhere.

The two players had already lost their nerve. They were scrambling east on their hands and knees.

Nobody was watching the item.

Lyra moved. She dropped low and slipped silently out of the bushes, stepping quick to the edge of the grass.

She scooped the sphere up in one hand. Cold to the touch. She shoved it into the hidden pocket at her hip.

Got it.

She glanced up.

The ice tree was still hammering the box without stopping. The barbs on its branches scraped against the wood, the screech echoing through the trees.

This thing ran entirely on heat.

Lyra turned, ready to slip out in another direction.

[Three-minute countdown ended.]

The System’s voice cut through the air.

[Hold time expired. Unclaimed treasure chest recalled.]

Just as Lyra’s right foot lifted, the box behind her, the one the ice tree was still beating to pieces, along with the pillar of light overhead-

Whoosh. Gone.

The heat in the air dropped away in an instant.

Lyra didn’t think. Her toes dug in and she shot forward like an arrow off the string.

With the biggest heat source gone, the remaining ones turned into the brightest targets.

The ice tree’s thick trunk pivoted on the spot. It locked onto what was in front: three live ones, sprinting.

Leaves crunched under her feet. The rustling behind her grew louder and louder.

The other two had just finished a brawl. They were burned out, stumbling as they ran.

Lyra’s breathing stayed even, her pace clean. She cut through a gap on the left, slipped past them both, and pulled into the lead.

Someone behind her screamed, “Help!”

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Chapter 13

Another voice behind her shouted, “Get out of the way

The cursing behind her turned into screams.

The ice tree had caught up.

A branch bristling with wooden spikes came slashing down, driving straight into the thigh of the man in the rear

The man screamed, “AAARGH!”

He hit the dirt, both hands clawing into the mud.

The branch yanked back, tearing skin and meat open in a long gash.

A second branch followed, punching in through his back and out through his chest.

He twitched twice. Then nothing.

The ice tree didn’t slow. It skewered the still-warm body onto its branch and kept its roots whipping forward.

Lyra’s brain was racing.

Fire starter? Given to Lina. No way to light anything.

No pond in this area.

On two legs, she couldn’t outrun roots that moved like wheels.

The ice tree locked onto heat. As long as her body had any warmth, this thing was going to chase her down.

She wasn’t going to outrun it.

Lyra’s fingers slipped to the other hidden pocket at her hip.

A card was tucked inside.

[Transform Card]

Turn into an ice tree. Body heat gone. Heat signature invisible. But she couldn’t do it right in front of the thing.

The monster might not have eyes, but if a moving heat source suddenly blinked out and got replaced by an ice tree, even something this brainless might figure her out.

Too risky. She needed cover. A blind spot, somewhere that would break the ice tree’s heat sense for a few seconds. Even that was enough.

Up ahead, a thick brown tree, big enough that it would take three sets of arms to wrap around it, towered between the others.

Perfect spot.

Someone behind her screamed, “Help!”

Another scream tore out behind her.

The second player had been caught.

An ice tree branch had hooked around his ankle and strung him upside down in the air.

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Chapter 13

The man clawed and tore at it, trying to pry the branch off his foot. The spikes dug into his veins. He thrashed without stopping. Two more branches drove in at the same time, punching through his stomach and his shoulder

Blood rained down.

Now.

Lyra pivoted, changed her line, and bolted straight for the thick brown tree.

Five steps.

Three.

She slipped around behind the trunk and pressed back against the rough bark.

Behind her, the screaming was fading out.

Lyra pinched the card out between her fingers.

Lyra said, “Use.”

The card dissolved into a streak of black-and-white light and wrapped around her.

A strange pulling sensation took hold. Lyra looked down. Her legs were already hardening, her skin shifting into a layer of gray bark.

Horizontal markings crept across it.

Her feet drove into the soil and turned into thick, gnarled roots. Her torso stretched and straightened. Her arms unfurled into twisted limbs, leaves bursting from her fingertips with sharp wooden barbs running along their edges.

Transformation complete. A standard, frost-radiating gray-bark ice tree now stood behind the thick brown trunk.

CREAAK-

Off in the distance, the other ice tree had just finished off the second player, skewered him on its branches, and was about to chase down the last prey-only to find it gone.

Hm? It rotated its trunk, scanning front and back, left and right. The prey really had vanished.

Once Lyra became an ice tree, her vision shifted. She had no eyes, yet she could perceive everything around her-a heat- based, holographic awareness.

She felt the real ice tree drawing closer. Rustle, rustle-footsteps over the dead leaves. It dropped the two corpses and began crawling toward the big brown tree.

Lyra took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the trunk on purpose, coming face to face with the ice tree.

The real ice tree stared at this sudden newcomer, baffled. Had someone snatched the last prey out from under it? Its branches waved in the air a couple of times, leaves brushing together-a probe, or maybe some kind of greeting.

Lyra couldn’t read it, didn’t bother trying. No big deal. In her perception, the two corpses still held warmth, so she ignored the other ice tree and made straight for them.

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