Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Back on the second floor, her oft house slippers padding silently across the floor, Lyra pushed open the dining room window

Lina was still hanging there in the exact same pose. One hand white-knuckled on the crack in the window, the other clinging to the wall.

The moment she saw Lyra’s head pop up, the tears spilled over.

“You… you came back?” Lina whispered, her voice trembling like a leaf, but she carefully eased her grip on the window to make room.

Lyra’s eyes curved into a smile. “You really planning to dangle there the whole time? There’s over an hour left. Not coming in for a break?”

“N-no… I’m fine, I can hold on.” Lina stammered. “Do… do you need a rest?”

“No, no rush. I’ve got something else to do.” Lyra didn’t bother explaining. She shut the window again and started straight for the door.

Lina nearly jumped out of her skin and hissed after her,

“Get back here. They’re on the third floor right now. Once they finish up there, they’ll come right back down.”

“That’s exactly where I’m going.” Lyra didn’t even turn her head as she walked out.

Inside the livestream, Draconia’s viewers nearly stroked out on the spot.

WhenWillTheyDie: [She’s lost it. She’s totally lost it.]

AnotherDayAlive: [We finally found a perfect glitch spot outside the window. Can’t she just camp there till the end?]

NeverAteVeggies: [What was in that chest? There was a cloud of cyan mist inside. Could the mist be doing something to

her?]

Dont HitMe: [You mean… contamination?]

BigBrain: (Or it could be a buff.]

BornToCuss: [Girl, I am BEGGING you, go back and eat your cake, please?]

LuckyKoi: [The food’s been smashed to bits by the Wraiths. How is she supposed to eat that’]

GoDraconia: [I’m not picky. If any of it’s still edible, throw it in MY mouth.]

Inside the command center, Lana’s eyes were locked on the main screen Onscreen, Lyra was hugging the stair railing crouched low as she crept upward.

The instant she rounded onto the third-floor landing, a red-uniformed Wraith began to turn its head

‘Don’t move.” Lana cried out involuntarily, terrified the Wraith would spot her

But Lyra, as if she’d known all along, ducked sideways into a wall alcove a split second before the Wraith turned the alcove held a waist-high plaster bust, and crouched behind it, she was completely hidden from view

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He Wraith draggedats heavy hooked scythe behind it. the iron edge scraping across the marble floor

Skreceeech-

The piercing sound made plenty of viewers slap their hands over their ears.

The Wraith noticed nothing. It swayed onward, headmg for the third-floor terrace.

Lyra slipped out from behind the bust. And instead of flecing, she pressed forward, following it.

“Ms. Reed, look at what she’s doing.” Lana pointed at the split screen, disbelief threading through her voice.

The older woman called Ms. Reed pulled off her reading glasses and squinted at the feed.

“She’s holding a steady distance.

“Every time the Wraith stops, she stops. When it speeds up, so does she.

“She’s testing their perception range. And not just on one of them.”

Onscreen, Lyra picked up a splinter of wood that had been shaken loose earlier and lobbed it gently to the left.

Tap.

The wood struck the corner with a crisp sound. But the Wraith didn’t so much as twitch.

“So they really don’t have ears. They can’t hear a thing,” Lyra murmured thoughtfully.

And those eyes-no pupils, just white. What would something like that even see? Staying just out of its sightline, she circled around to one Wraith’s flank, keeping a careful buffer.

She picked up another chunk of wood and flicked it toward the Wraith.

The Wraith ten feet away whipped sideways, its hooked scythe carving a red arc through the air.

The wood shattered into splinters mid-flight, and a cabinet behind it was sliced open with a horrifying gash.

Lyra took two steps back, slipped around a doorframe, and headed off the other way.

“Attack range, about ten feet across. Field of vision, roughly two-seventy degrees,” she muttered as she walked-her voice barely above a breath, yet it carried crystal-clear into the command center.

The think tank stared at one another, stunned.

‘She’s not playing hide-and-seek… she’s reverse-engineering the whole dungeon”

With nerves like that, she’s really just some psych patient?”

Quick-log every data point she just gave us!”

By now the chat had shifted from cursing her out to nothing but a wall of question marks

LuckyKoi [Am I seeing things? Did she just MESS with a Wranh?

Another DayAlive: [Ten feet She said the attack range is ten feet)

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Dracuma Donell me that chest gave her a special ability’l

LongLivelyra [Sob sob LONG LIVE THE QUEEN.]

AurehalsGuilty: [Switch to the Aurelia feed. The Wraiths went down to the parking garage. Tons of players are dead Even John’s car got hit-he’s still alive, though.)

“AAH

*AAAH

“AAAAH.

The instant viewers flipped over to the Aurelia feed, scream after scream came pouring out. Almost no car had been spared.

Onscreen, a special-forces soldier named John was wedged inside the engine compartment of a jeep. He’d ripped out the air filter and curled himself into the tiny space, leaving only a small hole to breathe through.

The unlucky part: the jeep had already been cleaved in two. The lucky part: the front half was still intact.

The screams hammering his ears sent his heart racing. One hour eighteen minutes left-I can do this. He kept pumping himself up.

One hour ten.

One hour six.

One hour three.

Some of the Wraiths had already started filing out of the garage. Aurelia’s chat erupted with cheers.

EmigrationComplete: [John’s a BEAST!]

RisingEmpire: [Hell yeah!]

Judith: [Way to go, brother.]

GodBless: [We won, we won. Aurelia takes another one.]

AurelialsGuilty: [Friendly reminder-popping champagne at halftime is the ultimate jinx.]

The words had barely posted when the last Wraith bringing up the rear. Its weapon cooldown finishing right at that second -lifted its long hooked scythe and drove it straight down into the hood of the car beside it.

SCHLUCK

Warm blood trickled out through the headlights.

A single short scream, and then nothing.

[Announcement Aurelia player John has been captured. Confirmed dead |

The livestream fell into a brief, dead silence

AureliaIs Guilty [What did I just say?

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HopToCuss fertugrationComplete, speak up. Your golden boy died inside a tin can!) DontHit Me [@EmigrationComplete, speak up. Your golden boy died inside a tin can] momo [@EmigrationComplete, speak up. Your golden boy died inside a tin can)

NeverAteMeat: [Wasn’t hiding in the engine block supposed to be a guaranteed win?]

NeverAteVeggies: [Real talk. That was just plain bad luck.)

AnotherDayAlive: [Forget them, let’s watch our own player.]

Inside the command center, Lana wasn’t looking at Aurelia’s split screen. Her eyes stayed locked on Lyra’s livestream.

“Report. We’ve got something,” a technician suddenly called out.

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