Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1116

Chapter 1116: Chapter 1116

Stella opened her eyes slowly.

"They’re speaking again," she said dreamily. "I can hear them. I think they want me."

Emma stepped forward. "Stella. Come back. Please."

But it was too late. Stella stepped backward into the thicket, and vanished.

Jude rushed forward, pushing aside vines and low branches. On the other side, nothing. Just forest. No trace.

It was nearly nightfall before they returned to camp, heads bowed, shoulders tight. No one asked about Stella. No one mentioned her. Rose welcomed them back with smiles and open arms, her voice velvet and soft.

"She’s part of something now," she said, brushing Jude’s cheek with her fingers. "We all are."

That night, the fire crackled too loudly. The food was too warm. The stars too still. Jude couldn’t sleep.

He sat by the tree line while Sophie dozed nearby, her hand clutched around his arm. Emma sat with Natalie by the stones, whispering softly.

And then Lucy walked over, barefoot and glowing in the firelight. Her smile was soft, innocent, but her eyes... those weren’t Lucy’s anymore.

"You’re not with us," she said. "Not fully."

"Not yet," Jude answered.

She crouched beside him. "It doesn’t have to be hard. We’re not fighting you."

"You’re changing everyone."

"No," she said gently. "We’re freeing them."

She leaned in, her lips brushing his cheek. "You’ll understand soon."

When she walked away, Jude didn’t follow. But his chest felt heavier.

The next day, Natalie vanished.

No one admitted seeing her leave, but everyone knew. Her absence was a quiet void in the camp.

Emma cried that night. Sophie held her.

And the next morning, Susan began humming the same tune Stella had.

By midday, Susan was laughing with Rose in the clearing, her head tilted at that same eerie angle, her hands trailing against Zoey’s bare shoulder. Jude stared across the fire pit at Sophie, and the silence between them felt unbearable.

That night, Jude slipped away alone.

He walked to the watcher site in the woods, past the roots and the forgotten glyphs, past the rocks marked with faded runes. The ground here was warmer, pulsing with some buried energy. He knelt, pressing his palm against a stone. It sparked faintly beneath his hand.

"Are you still here?" he whispered. "Are you watching?"

Behind him, leaves rustled.

He turned sharply.

Sophie stood there, barefoot, arms crossed. Her eyes were tired.

"I couldn’t sleep," she said.

He nodded.

She walked to him and sat beside him, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"They’re all going," she whispered.

"I know."

"I don’t want to lose you."

"You won’t."

She tilted her head, lips brushing his neck. "Promise?"

He cupped her face, looking into her eyes. "Promise."

And they kissed, slow, desperate, clinging to the last fragments of who they were. The trees around them pulsed with unseen light. Her fingers slid under his shirt, and he let her pull him down against the moss, their bodies pressing close in the hush of the woods.

It wasn’t just comfort. It was a plea to stay human. To stay real.

After, they lay tangled, breath mingling, hearts pounding.

But when they returned to camp, the fire was burning low.

And Rose stood at the center, arms raised.

Around her, Layla, Zoey, Grace, Lucy, Scarlet, and now Susan, all stood in a circle, hands clasped.

Their mouths moved in perfect unison.

Chanting.

Emma stood at the edge of the firelight, staring in horror.

"We were too late," she whispered.

Jude moved forward, but Sophie grabbed his wrist.

The chant rose in pitch.

And then, Stella walked out of the forest.

Stella’s feet barely touched the ground as she moved into the light of the fire, her steps graceful, almost fluid, like the forest had remade her in its own image. Her hair was damp, curling wildly around her shoulders, and her eyes glinted with a strange luminescence that hadn’t been there before. The smile on her face mirrored Rose’s, wide, unshakable, and entirely wrong. Jude felt Sophie’s hand tighten around his wrist, her breath catching as Stella stepped wordlessly into the chanting circle and joined hands with Scarlet and Lucy.

No one said a word.

Emma’s lips parted, her voice caught in her throat. Jude could feel her horror radiating through the silence. He glanced at Sophie beside him, who was staring not just with fear now, but with heartbreak.

The circle began to move, slowly at first, their bare feet gliding over the forest floor, leaving no trace in the ash and pine needles. The chant rose and fell in a rhythm older than language, pulsing with a seductive power that made Jude’s skin crawl. Every now and then, one of the women would glance up, not at him, but past him, into the shadows. As though expecting something to arrive. Or someone.

"Where’s Natalie?" Emma whispered.

No one answered.

Then, with the same eerie synchronization that had become their signature, the circle of women stopped chanting. All heads turned toward the darkness between the trees.

A shape stepped into the firelight.

It was Natalie.

Jude’s breath caught as he saw her. Her hair was braided with strips of dark vine. Her body was streaked with something like paint, or was it blood?, in long sweeping patterns down her arms and thighs. Her eyes were wild, and yet calm. Alive, and yet... hollow. Her expression was peaceful. Too peaceful.

She didn’t speak.

She stepped into the circle, between Grace and Zoey, and took their hands.

And then they all turned to look directly at Jude.

Sophie stepped in front of him instinctively. Emma took a half-step back, bumping into him. Jude’s heart pounded so loudly it drowned out the crackle of the fire.

Rose stepped forward.

Her voice was low, honeyed. "You’ve seen the change. You’ve felt it. This isn’t a curse. It’s a gift."

Jude didn’t speak. Neither did Sophie.

"You think this island is just danger and magic and fear," Rose continued. "But it’s more. It has chosen us. It’s opening. And we’re ready to be whatever it needs to be."