Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1265

Chapter 1265: Chapter 1265

"We’ve seen beyond the veil," Rose whispered. "The truth is so much larger than we ever imagined. This island... this force... it doesn’t want to harm us. It wants to connect us."

Zoey shouted, "You’ve enslaved them!"

Rose smiled. "They’re free for the first time in their lives."

Emma clutched Sophie’s arm. "We need to do something. Now."

Lucy stepped beside Jude. "I can still feel it. The hum. It’s inside the tree. We have to burn it."

Jude turned toward her, then nodded. "Emma. Sophie. Prepare torches."

Emma already had dried cloth and oil in her bag. She wrapped the ends of two branches and handed one to Jude and the other to Zoey. Lucy didn’t hesitate - she stepped toward the pool, toward the others, her voice trembling but firm.

"You said you wanted us all together," she said to Rose. "Let me come closer."

Rose’s eyes narrowed. "You hesitated once."

"I’m not hesitating now."

Jude held his breath.

Lucy walked slowly across the clearing, past the tangled roots, toward Rose. The others didn’t move. Their faces were expressionless, eyes watching her, blank and eerie in their unity.

Lucy reached the edge of the pool and knelt beside Rose.

"I want to see," she whispered. "Show me again."

Rose smiled. "You never left me."

She reached for Lucy’s hand.

And Lucy lunged.

Not for Rose - but for the tree. She plunged the torch into the base of the trunk, oil dripping from the cloth catching instantly against the slick bark. Flames roared up its surface.

Rose screamed - not in fear, but in something like agony. The others convulsed. Stella dropped to her knees. Susan cried out. Natalie clutched her head.

"Now!" Jude shouted, running forward with his torch. Zoey followed. Emma flanked the other side. Sophie rushed to cover Lucy, dragging her back from the pool as black smoke erupted from the flames.

The tree howled.

The sound wasn’t possible - but it was real. It echoed in their bones. In the sky. In the blood behind their eyes.

Branches twisted, recoiling from the fire like serpents, writhing violently. The roots cracked through the ground and the pool began to bubble violently. The black water boiled, sending up plumes of thick, sour smoke that made them all cough and stagger.

Rose screamed again, her arms thrown wide, and the others began to collapse one by one. Layla fell, Natalie curled into a ball. Grace sobbed loudly, and Susan twitched as if waking from a terrible dream.

Jude dropped his torch at the base of the roots. "Keep burning it!"

Emma poured the rest of the oil onto the bark. Sophie kicked a burning branch deeper into the hollow, where the roots met the center. Zoey caught Scarlet just before she fell into the pool, dragging her back.

The tree shrieked once more - an awful sound like bones breaking and skin tearing - and then cracked down the middle. A split formed from the base upward, and a blinding light erupted from within, white and violet and deep, terrible blue.

Then it exploded.

Not violently - but in silence.

The flames vanished. The black pool sucked into itself like a draining wound. The roots cracked, shriveled, and dissolved into ash. The clearing was empty.

All of it was gone.

The tree. The pool. The humming.

All gone.

Jude stood in the smoking silence, chest heaving. Sophie had dropped to her knees. Emma clutched Lucy, sobbing into her shoulder. Zoey sat in the dirt, face stained with ash, holding Scarlet, who was finally breathing again.

Rose was gone.

No body.

No trace.

Just silence.

Sophie looked up, her voice hoarse. "Did we... win?"

No one answered.

Because none of them were sure if it was over.

Or just the beginning of something deeper.

They didn’t move for a long time.

The silence that followed the collapse of the black tree didn’t feel like peace - it felt like the eye of a storm. An unnatural stillness that made every leaf, every breath, every heartbeat seem too loud. Jude stood frozen in the clearing, staring at the scorched patch of ground where the pool had been. His torch had burned out at his feet, the charred remains mingling with soot and ash that coated everything like snowfall from another world.

Lucy clung to Emma, their bodies still trembling with the aftermath of whatever they had just faced. Scarlet was breathing again, though shallow and uncertain, her eyes flicking around as if she was waking from a long, dark dream. Susan and Grace sat close together, neither speaking, but their faces bore confusion and fear instead of the eerie serenity they had worn before. Natalie knelt nearby, head bowed, as if praying - or maybe just broken.

Jude finally moved, slowly turning to Zoey, who sat cradling her arm, blood soaking through her sleeve. "You okay?"

"Nothing broken," she muttered, "but the heat caught me. I’ll live."

Sophie came up behind her and knelt down, gently checking the wound. "It’s just a burn. We’ll wrap it when we get back."

"Assuming we can get back," Zoey muttered, glancing around the clearing.

Emma looked up, her voice small. "It’s gone, right? The monster? The tree?"

"No," Lucy said quietly, pulling away from Emma’s arms. "It’s not gone. Just buried again."

Jude stepped forward. "Explain."

She took a shaky breath. "When I touched the tree... before I burned it... I felt it. Not just Rose. It. Something ancient. It’s part of the island. Maybe is the island. We didn’t destroy it - we just severed one of its roots."

Zoey groaned. "So it’s still out there?"

Lucy nodded. "It sleeps now. But it’s watching."

Stella stirred, her eyes fluttering open. She blinked several times, then looked around the clearing in dazed confusion. "Where... what happened?"

"You’re safe," Sophie said quickly, moving to her side. "You’re back."

"Back?" Stella looked at her, then down at her hands. "I feel... weird. Heavy."

Jude knelt beside her. "You were taken. Just like the others. But you’re here now. And you’re okay."