Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1269

Chapter 1269: Chapter 1269

She stood at the edge of the clearing, her body bathed in moonlight, still and silent. Jude saw her first. He rose from his bedroll and moved to the doorway, not saying a word.

Lucy followed.

So did Sophie. Then Emma.

She didn’t speak.

She just held out her hand.

Fingers open.

Waiting.

"No," Jude said.

Her hand remained outstretched.

Then she lowered it. And turned.

But she didn’t vanish this time.

She walked.

Slowly.

Toward the river.

Jude followed without thinking.

"Jude!" Lucy called, running after him. Sophie cursed and sprinted after both of them. The others moved too, all of them drawn.

They reached the river in time to see her walk straight into the water.

She didn’t look back.

Didn’t speak.

Just walked, step by step, until the water swallowed her whole.

The surface rippled.

And then went still.

"What the hell was that?" Zoey whispered.

"I think it was an invitation," Lucy replied.

"No," Emma said, her voice trembling. "It was a warning."

Jude stared at the water for a long time.

Rose was gone again.

But something had been left behind.

A shimmer.

Like heat rising from the riverbed.

And a low hum that started in the soles of their feet.

Growing.

Waiting.

No one spoke on the walk back to the camp. The shimmer on the river had faded by the time they turned away, but the hum lingered - vibrating faintly in the bones of their feet, crawling up their spines like an electric thread no one could shake off. It wasn’t just in the ground now. It was in them. In the way Lucy’s hand clenched tighter in Jude’s. In the way Zoey glanced over her shoulder every few steps. In how Grace kept whispering something under her breath that only Stella could hear.

When they reached the treehouse, the fire had almost died out. Emma threw a few dry branches on it and sparked it back to life while the others climbed inside, the silence continuing like a shadow that had followed them home. Jude stood near the edge of the platform, staring out into the trees, the image of Rose walking calmly into the river still burning in his memory. Her face hadn’t been twisted or blank. She had looked like herself. Entirely, undeniably Rose. Just with different eyes. As if the island hadn’t stolen her - but awakened something already inside.

"She wanted you to follow," Lucy said behind him, her voice soft.

"I know," Jude replied without turning.

"I think she wants all of us to."

He turned then. "Do you?"

Lucy looked at him for a long time. "I don’t know," she whispered.

Inside, the others were huddled close to the fire, trying to chase off the cold that didn’t belong to the season. Susan and Natalie sat pressed shoulder to shoulder. Emma watched them from the corner, eyes half-lidded but alert. Sophie paced in slow, tight lines while Zoey leaned near the open window, her hand resting absently on the hilt of her knife.

Stella lay curled beside Grace, her breathing shallow, her lips moving with whispers that still hadn’t stopped since the river. No one knew what she was saying, and no one had the courage to ask.

They didn’t sleep much that night.

When the sun rose, it didn’t chase away the fog. The mist hung low and thick around the tree trunks, and everything smelled damp and still. Jude stepped outside first, testing the earth beneath his feet. It didn’t hum anymore. But the stillness was worse.

By midday, they’d agreed on another search - this time through the caves north of the river, where they’d once discovered old markings and a cluster of stone altars. It was a place they had avoided since the beginning, not because it was dangerous, but because it felt... old. Like something ancient had been waiting there, asleep.

This time Jude went with Sophie and Natalie. Zoey led a second group with Susan and Grace. Lucy, Emma, and Stella stayed to guard the camp. No one wanted to split up, but they also knew staying in one place was worse. They had to understand what was happening. Why Rose kept returning. Why she hadn’t tried to hurt them. And what the shimmer meant.

The cave was darker than Jude remembered. Narrower, too. The walls pulsed with moisture, and the light from his torch flickered against them in odd shapes. Moss lined the floor, and the deeper they went, the colder it became, like descending into a throat that no longer breathed.

Natalie touched the side of the wall gently. "Feel that?"

Sophie nodded. "It’s warm."

"Opposite of what it should be."

At the back of the cave, they found the old altar. The stone slab was cracked now, mossy vines crawling up its base like fingers. Carved symbols - half-worn, half-carved again - spelled something they couldn’t read. But they could feel it. A thrum. Like a heartbeat.

Jude stepped closer and placed his hand on the surface.

The stone breathed.

He pulled back instantly.

Sophie stepped beside him. "Did you feel that?"

"Yeah."

"It’s alive," Natalie whispered.

Jude stared at the stone, then glanced around the chamber. "Let’s head back. We need to tell the others."

They returned quickly, not speaking, all of them unnerved by what they’d felt. Back at camp, Lucy ran to meet them halfway, her face pale and tight.

"Where’s Zoey?" Jude asked immediately.

"She’s not back yet," Lucy said. "It’s been too long."

Jude turned to Sophie, then sprinted toward the east trail without another word.

They found Zoey’s group near the hollow ridge - safe, but shaken.

"She was there again," Susan said, her voice flat.

"Rose?" Jude asked.

Zoey nodded. "We didn’t see her approach. She just appeared. And this time... she spoke."

That caught everyone.

"What did she say?" Natalie asked.

"She said, ’You don’t have to fear the dark if you carry it with you.’ Then she walked into the trees."

Silence.

"That’s a riddle," Lucy said finally.

"No," Jude said. "It’s a message."