Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1104

Chapter 1104: Chapter 1104

It came from all directions, twisting, melodic, cruel. The trees pulsed with it. The ground trembled beneath it. It laced through their minds, their nerves, their hearts. Jude fell to his knees, gasping. Sophie cried out beside him, clutching her head. Emma dropped her spear, grabbing the trunk of a tree for support.

And the nine women smiled.

Their eyes lit with a terrible beauty.

Rose dropped to her knees before Jude, touching his cheek. "You’ll see. You’ll see how beautiful it can be when you stop fighting."

Her lips brushed his, and it wasn’t a kiss of love, but of claim. Jude’s body seized with heat. Every nerve burned. His breath caught in his throat, and he could feel himself slipping, like her mouth was opening a door inside him that he hadn’t realized existed.

Sophie screamed. "Let him go!"

She tackled Rose, dragging her back, but the others moved like lightning. Layla and Zoey were on her in an instant, pulling her away, restraining her gently but firmly. Lucy and Stella held Emma as she fought against their arms, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Rose stood slowly, eyes glowing brighter than ever, and looked down at Jude.

"Next time," she whispered.

Then she turned, and the others followed her into the trees, leaving the clearing in silence once more.

Sophie crawled to Jude’s side, pulling him into her lap, holding his face.

"Jude," she whispered, over and over again. "Come back."

He gasped, eyes fluttering open. "I’m here."

Emma stumbled over, shaking. "She kissed you. What did it feel like?"

"Like drowning in light," he rasped. "And for a second... I didn’t want to come back."

He looked up at them, eyes filled with terror. "They’re not just changing. They’re becoming something else. Something the island wants."

Sophie cradled his face. "We won’t let it take you."

"We need to go," Emma said. "We need to find whatever that thing is, stop it before there’s no one left to fight."

As they helped him to his feet, Jude knew one thing for certain.

Rose wasn’t just converting them.

She was preparing them.

The morning came without light. The sun, usually rising through a veil of soft mist, hid behind an eerie, unmoving wall of clouds that seemed to hover too close to the island. The trees didn’t rustle. The wind didn’t move. But Jude felt the change before he even opened his eyes. Sophie’s breath against his shoulder was warm and steady, but her hand clenched his chest tightly, as though bracing against something she’d seen in her dreams. Emma had already risen, and he could feel the tension in the air, thick and bitter like smoke.

He sat up slowly. Sophie followed, rubbing her eyes and glancing around.

"Where is she?" Sophie asked.

Jude knew who she meant. Rose hadn’t returned to the main camp since the confrontation. Neither had Layla or Zoey. The three of them had begun spending more time away, claiming they needed solitude to ’feel the song better.’ Jude had felt that song himself, just once, when Rose kissed him, and the memory of it still lingered, delicious and terrifying.

"She’s by the east grove," Emma said, stepping into their shelter with two freshly picked fruits in hand. "I saw her with Zoey and Layla at dawn. They’re not hiding anymore. They’re waiting."

"Waiting for what?" Sophie asked.

"For us to break," Jude said.

They sat in silence, eating the fruit, which was sweeter than usual but somehow tasted like it had been plucked too early. Even the island’s flavors were changing, just slightly wrong.

Later, Jude and Sophie wandered toward the river, needing the clarity of running water. They passed Grace and Lucy wrapped in one another beneath a twisted fig tree, whispering with flushed cheeks and gleaming eyes. Neither of them looked up. Natalie stood nearby, half-naked and glowing with sweat, humming something ancient while washing her hands in the stream.

"We’re losing them one by one," Sophie murmured. "And they want us to stop caring."

"We won’t," Jude said. His fingers slid between hers as they walked closer to the riverbank. The way she leaned into him, it felt more necessary now than ever. Every touch anchored them.

Sophie stepped into the shallows, letting the cool water wrap around her calves. "Do you remember our first day here? You helped me catch fish with your hands."

"You screamed when it flopped in your palm."

"You laughed."

He smiled. "I still remember how the water looked in your eyes."

She turned to him, then leaned forward and kissed him, not out of need, but out of memory. Her hands gripped his hips, and his fingers slid along her waist, skin damp and warm. The river moved around them, soft and quiet, as though offering privacy to something sacred.

But then they heard laughter from upstream. Not one voice, three. Jude looked up, and through the mist of morning haze, he saw them.

Rose, Layla, and Zoey, standing knee-deep in water, facing something at the far bend. It was hidden by the rocks, but Jude saw the way their bodies tilted toward it. How their hands moved slowly, reverently. Then Rose reached out and placed her palm against the air, and something reached back.

Sophie saw it too. Her hand clutched Jude’s. "That wasn’t a trick of the light, was it?"

"No," he whispered.

They stood frozen, watching as the form slid away like it was made of smoke. Rose turned her head slowly, her eyes locking with Jude’s across the water.

She smiled.

Not sweetly, not with mischief. It was the smile she wore when she kissed him, only now it wasn’t desire in her eyes. It was hunger.

Back at camp, the air was heavier. Scarlet had joined the others lounging near the hollow tree, and Jude noticed how her fingers kept brushing along Grace’s neck while Grace whispered into Natalie’s mouth. The trio kissed slowly, unhurried and synchronized like a ritual.