Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 865 - 867

Chapter 865: Chapter 867

"I know," he said. "But this... this isn’t affection. It’s something darker. It’s territorial. As if it’s competing."

Lucy’s eyes narrowed. "With what? You?"

Jude nodded.

Scarlett spoke up. "But if it’s choosing us one by one, what happens if it gets through all of us?"

They all fell quiet again.

"I don’t know," Jude admitted. "But I think we’re being tested."

Grace, now fully recovered and sitting near the water’s edge, tilted her head slightly. "Tested how?"

Jude looked at her, then at all of them. "It’s watching how we react. How much control it has. How much we’ll let it in. Every time one of you blacks out, it learns something new."

"What do we do?" Serena asked.

"We hold on to each other," he said. "Tighter than ever."

And for a few hours, it felt like maybe they could. The rest of the day passed without event. There were no strange dreams. No whispers in the trees. No smoke. The women laughed again, cautiously at first, then louder. Zoey and Scarlett teased each other while carrying back armfuls of fruit. Amelia told a story from the first year on the island, and it made even Emma chuckle. Jude listened, participated, but his mind remained split, half-present, half alert for signs of danger.

It came at dusk.

They were finishing the evening meal, fish roasted on skewers, wild yam roasted in a firepit, and a thick stew made from tree mushrooms and seaweed paste. The sun had just begun to slip beneath the canopy horizon when Lucy’s eyes widened suddenly. She dropped her bowl. It cracked on the stones and split in two.

Jude was on his feet instantly. "Lucy?"

She blinked rapidly, like trying to shake off sleep. "I... I felt something. Just now."

"Where?" he asked.

She pointed to the center of her chest. "Here. Like a pressure. And then... it was like something was behind my eyes. Watching from the inside."

Jude moved toward her. "Did you see anything?"

"No... just that shimmer again. Blue, faint. Like a reflection in water."

Jude turned to the group. "Did anyone else see anything?"

No one responded.

Lucy stared at him, frightened now. "I don’t think it went away this time."

And then, as if to confirm it, her head jerked back.

The others screamed.

Jude caught her before she hit the ground. She writhed in his arms, whispering words in a language none of them knew. Her fingers curled against his chest. Her breathing grew ragged. She looked at him again with that same hungry, unfamiliar expression.

But this time, she said nothing.

The shimmer left her slowly, like steam rising off her skin, dissipating into the air. And once it was gone, Lucy collapsed in Jude’s arms, panting. Exhausted. Bewildered.

He helped her sit upright again. "What do you remember?"

She touched her face, then looked around, panicked. "I don’t... I don’t remember anything. What happened?"

"You were possessed," Susan whispered.

Lucy froze.

Jude stood again, slowly. He looked out into the forest where the shadows had grown deeper. His pulse thundered in his ears.

"We can’t keep waiting for it to take someone else," he said.

Emma stood beside him. "Then what do we do?"

"We go to it."

A few of the women flinched.

"Jude..." Sophie began, but he held up a hand.

"We’ve always avoided the inner island. The mountain. The border. But that’s where the monsters stay. That’s where the danger lives. And now... whatever this is, it’s getting bolder. It’s not content to live past the border anymore. It’s coming for us."

"You think it came from the mountain?" Natalie asked.

"I don’t know. But if it didn’t, it’s certainly heading in that direction. It wants something. And I’m done letting it choose the time and place."

Silence again. Then Serena rose. "I’ll go with you."

"So will I," Grace said quickly.

Amelia nodded. "Me too."

One by one, they all agreed. All except one.

Emma remained seated, staring at the fire. "I don’t think it wants all of us," she said.

Jude looked at her. "What do you mean?"

She lifted her eyes slowly. "I think it wants *you*."

The silence returned heavier than before. The wind stirred the fire, causing a loud crack of wood that made several women jump.

"If it’s choosing us," Emma continued, "then why does it only speak to you when it’s inside us? Why not control us fully? Why give us back?"

Jude didn’t answer.

Emma stood and moved to him, her expression intense but calm. "It’s not marking *us.* It’s warning *you.*"

The fire flared again.

And in the flame, just for a moment, Jude saw a face.

Not human.

Not animal.

A pale shape with no eyes, but a mouth too wide, filled with blue light. It was watching him. Through the fire. Through them.

And then it was gone.

The air was suddenly ice-cold. The shadows around them thickened unnaturally, stretching farther than they should. Jude turned in a slow circle. Every part of him was alert now.

It had heard them.

It knew they were coming.

And in that final moment before the night fully claimed the sky, Jude whispered to the flames.

"We’re coming for you."

And somewhere, far beyond the trees, something laughed.

The night was slow to loosen its grip on the island. Morning arrived reluctantly, shrouded in a low mist that curled through the trees like fingers searching for something unseen. The leaves trembled even without wind, and the forest held a quiet that wasn’t peace, it was tension, held taut as thread. Jude had barely slept, and when his eyes finally closed for an hour at dawn, they had opened again with a snap, his breath shallow in his chest. He wasn’t alone in his unrest.

Sophie was already awake, perched at the edge of the treehouse platform, her knees drawn to her chest. She didn’t say anything as Jude approached, but she leaned against him when he sat beside her. They watched the mist together for a while, her warmth seeping into his skin, grounding him. He didn’t need to ask if she felt it too. He could see it in the tightness around her eyes, the way her jaw stayed locked.