Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 8

Chapter 8

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019

Iina jolted at the words, scrambled up, and turned to head straight back out the window Lyra caught her arm “Noi safe here anymore Third floor.

They’d barely cleared the landing between floors when a splintering racket erupted from the dining room below Wilder than anything before. Lina didn’t dare miss a step. She trailed Lyra ai! the way up to the third-floor terrace

Now what do we do?” Lina asked.

“See over there?” Lyra pointed to the side of the terrace. “You climb out from here, step along that raised ledge until you reach the end, then go around to the other side of the house and hang off the wall again. But move fast. Five minutes, tops, before those things are up here.”

Lina followed her finger. The terrace faced south, which meant she’d have to balance on a ledge less than four inches wide all the way to the west side of the house, then hang off the wall. A whole lot harder than climbing out a window.

“I… I can’t do that…”

“Suit yourself. Then it’s just waiting to die.”

Cornered between two deaths, she had no real choice. “Okay. Are you coming with me?”

“Nope.” Lyra waggled the doll. “I’m going to go play with the Wraiths.”

“But you’re hurt!” Lina’s voice cracked into a sob.

“I’m hungry. I’ll play with them and grab a couple bites of cake while I’m at it.”

She turned and walked off. Lina watched her go. Blood still seeping through the gown, but her steps were light. Lina gritted her teeth and started inching toward the safe spot. The least she could do was not be a burden and keep herself alive

Lyra was in no rush to go back down. She ducked into a bedroom, found a relatively intact piece of clothing and pulled it on, then took out the doll for another look. Ugly.

[Item description: When the holder takes a fatal blow, the doll absorbs the damage in their stead, and the holder is instantly teleported to a random safe location. Uses: 10.]

She tucked the doll back inside her clothes and, threading the Wraiths’ blind spots, strolled at her own pace back to the trashed little dining room.

(‘

She scanned the place. Not a single intact cake left. Eventually she spotted an apple in the corner. The same one, by the look of it, she’d tossed to Lina earlier. She wiped it on her clothes and started crunching away.

She’d just finished the apple when three rusted scythes came hurtling through the dining room, wood splinters spraying in all directions The red-coated Wraiths poured in roaring. Safe distance-gone.

Lyra stood by the window and crooked a finger at the monsters. “You wanted the doll, didn’t you? Come and get it

The Wraiths let out a chorus of rasping shrieks and lunged, even faster than before Half the stream couldn’t beat to keep watching

DontHitMe: [What is Lyra domg? Why isn’t she running?]

LongLiveHiding: [I don’t get it. Why provoke them? Twenty-some minutes left Just hide, no’l

14

1:30 am

Chopte

#onloCuss: He-chest she snagged earlier had a rag doll in it She’s probably testing what it does.]

EmigrationComplete [All Fm saying is, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.]

BornToCuss: [Stupid prizes my ass! Your precious country’s already dead. Go cry on its grave instead of crawling over here 1

Lana was glued to the screen too. Her fingernails had cut bloody crescents into her own palm. Predicting positions, going invisible. And now she’s baiting them.”

Ten scythes crashed against each other in the wrecked dining room.

Clang. Clash.

One scythe sliced through the chaos and drove straight into the back of Lyra’s right shoulder. Squelch. Blood sprayed across the giant screen.

EmigrationComplete: [LOL. What did I tell you?]

BornToCuss: [L my ass. I’m losing it. Where’s a hacker when you need one. Ssomeone ban this clown’s account already.]

DontTalkToMe: [Gotcha.]

LuckyKoi: [Dear Lord, watch over her. Saint Michael, watch over her. Virgin Mary, please watch over her.]

Player detected facing a lethal threat.]

Decoy Doll activated.]

Golden light flared again, and Lyra vanished into thin air.

Robbed of their target, the Wraiths’ scythes hit nothing but empty space. They howled in fury and ripped the room apart.

n a forgotten storage room on the far side of the manor, Lyra dropped onto a pile of ragged sacks.

She touched her shoulder. The wound was gone.

Her eyes went to the rag doll. A fresh tear ran across its little shoulder. She sighed. “Even uglier now.”

she pushed herself up off the sacks. Before she’d even steadied, she caught the faintest hint of breathing on the other side of he storage room door.

yra narrowed her eyes and peered through the crack.

Beyond the door was the manor’s outer mist zone-a place that should have held nothing at all. And yet a tall figure dressed n seventeenth-century European nobleman’s attire was slowly turning its head.

t had no face.

Or rather, where a face should have been, there was only one enormous mouth, lined with rows of jagged teeth opening and closing

Lyra’s heart skipped a beat. This was not one of the ten red-coated Wraiths

The Manor Lord. It seemed she’d woken him up with all that noise

Lyra patted the doll on the head and muttered to herself, “Whoops Got a little carried away

2.4

):30 am

oundfown is pautes)

Viewers around the world sucked in a breath at the sight of the new Wraith Lyra held hers too.

The creature reached inside coat and drew out a crimson compass. Then it pricked its own fingertip and let a single drop of blood fall onto the dial.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Huh?

Lyra was completely lost. Why had the Manor Lord just lain back down to sleep? What was the blood drop for? Why hadn’t anything happened?

Hard to say. Better wait and see.

A scream rang out.

Another scream followed.

Then came a third, longer scream.

Another five minutes dragged by. Apart from the Wraiths’ rampaging and the death cries of other players, nothing else happened

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