Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1092

Chapter 1092: Chapter 1092

Sophie was already sitting upright, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees.

"She’s like the others now," Sophie said without looking at him.

"She said Rose helped her see."

Sophie turned to him, her voice trembling. "They all say the same thing."

Jude sat beside her, buried his face in his hands. "We have to protect the others."

"Who’s left?" she whispered.

"Natalie. Emma. Stella. Lucy. Susan already turned. She was just quieter about it."

Sophie didn’t argue. The names felt like a countdown, a slow dissolve into a future neither of them wanted. She leaned against him, pulling his hand into her lap. "We’ll talk to Natalie first. In the morning."

Jude nodded. But neither of them slept that night.

When dawn broke, they found Natalie kneeling by the river, braiding wildflowers into her hair. She looked up at them and smiled, fresh and sweet, the way she always did. Sophie approached first, cautious, her voice soft. "Natalie, can we talk?"

"Of course," she said cheerfully, patting the moss beside her. "What’s wrong?"

Sophie sat beside her, glancing around. "Just us?"

Natalie nodded. "The others are gathering berries."

Jude crouched on Natalie’s other side. "We’re worried, Nat. Things feel... off."

Natalie’s smile faltered. Just for a second. Then it returned. "I know. I feel it too. The way they move. It’s like they’re listening to something we can’t hear."

Relief passed between them like a secret breeze. She knew.

"You haven’t, " Jude began, but she cut him off with a look.

"No," she said firmly. "I won’t. I don’t want to. I don’t even go near Rose anymore. Not since Layla started repeating her words."

Sophie gripped her hand. "We need to stay close."

Natalie nodded quickly. "I told Emma too. She noticed it last night. Rose touched her arm and Emma flinched. She knows something’s wrong."

Jude stood. "Then we still have a chance."

But the island never gave second chances easily.

By midday, Lucy was missing.

Stella said she went to gather roots near the southern ridge. Alone. That wasn’t like her. Jude, Sophie, and Natalie immediately went searching, calling her name through the shifting forest. The trails twisted strangely under their feet, the trees seeming to lean closer than usual.

They found her by a circle of stones, kneeling, her dress stained with earth, her hands pressed against a large flat rock as if listening to it. She didn’t turn when they called her name.

"Lucy," Jude said, kneeling beside her. "What are you doing?"

She blinked up at him slowly, like waking from a deep sleep. "It hums."

Jude looked down. The stone was old, etched faintly with lines and grooves, no language he recognized. "Did someone bring you here?"

Lucy nodded once. "Rose. She said this was where the island speaks."

Sophie crouched beside her. "Did you see the thing in the woods?"

Lucy looked away, her hands pulling back into her lap. "Yes."

"And?"

"I don’t want to talk about it," she whispered. "But... it wasn’t bad. It felt like home."

Jude reached for her shoulder. "It’s not. That feeling, it’s a lie."

Lucy’s eyes met his. "Then why do I want to feel it again?"

He had no answer.

They brought her back to camp. She didn’t resist. But she didn’t speak again either. By nightfall, she was humming to herself, sitting beside Grace, their eyes reflecting the firelight like twin moons.

Natalie and Emma stayed close to Jude and Sophie that night, the four of them huddled near the edge of camp. Emma whispered stories to fill the silence, funny ones from their early days on the island, how Zoey once tried to climb a tree and got stuck, how Lucy had a meltdown over an ant in her boot. They laughed, quietly, tightly, like people trying to remind themselves what it meant to be alive.

Jude wrapped his arms around Sophie as she lay against his chest. Natalie dozed near the fire. Emma watched the stars, her face peaceful for once.

But just before the fire died, Rose walked through camp, her footsteps silent, her gaze fixed on them.

She said nothing.

Just watched.

And smiled.

Emma didn’t sleep after that. She sat up all night, fingering the blade of a sharpened stick, her eyes never drifting far from the shadows.

The next day, Natalie disappeared.

Sophie was the first to notice. Her blanket was untouched. Her boots still beside the bed. But she was gone.

They found her tracks leading into the dense woods behind the river, winding toward the cliffs again.

And they found her.

Standing hand in hand with Rose.

Both of them smiling.

Emma screamed. She lunged forward, but Jude held her back. Natalie looked at them blankly, as if she didn’t recognize them. Her eyes were darker now. Her smile was slow, dragging across her face like ink spilling across paper.

Rose didn’t speak.

She only raised her free hand and beckoned.

And without thinking, Emma stepped forward. One step. Two.

Jude grabbed her arm. "Don’t."

Emma blinked hard. "I wasn’t, " But she had been. Her foot hovered midair.

Sophie pulled her back.

Rose laughed then. A soft, lilting sound.

And she turned.

Vanished into the trees with Natalie.

They didn’t follow.

That night, the camp was silent. No fire. No talking. Just breathing. Just fear.

Jude kissed Sophie slowly, the fireless dark wrapping around them like a cocoon. Their hands held each other tighter than before. They made love like people trying to remember what it felt like to be untouched by madness. Every gasp, every whisper was a rebellion.

Emma watched over them with a sharpened stick in her hand.

And in the dark, somewhere just beyond the trees, Layla was humming.

The morning was colder than usual. A thin mist coiled through the trees and drifted between the huts like ghostly fingers, soaking into fabric and hair and skin. Jude woke with Sophie curled against him, her breath warm at his throat, her arm draped protectively across his chest.