Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 883 - 885

Chapter 883: Chapter 885

Behind them, Emma and Lucy emerged next, followed by Stella and Sophie. Then one by one, the rest appeared, Zoey, Susan, Natalie, Scarlett, Serena, Amelia. Each came armed in their own way, knives, bows, crude spears, walking sticks. No one spoke of fear. But Jude could see it in their eyes. Not the kind of fear born from monsters or blood. This fear was older. The kind that grew from not knowing whether you were still yourself.

Jude raised his hand to signal them, and together they crossed the boundary of their camp, heading toward the arch.

The jungle swallowed them quickly. The sunlight dimmed. The path narrowed. Trees leaned in from both sides, thick roots twisted over the ground like ancient veins. The silence here was deeper, broken only by the occasional rustle or the far-off cry of some unknown bird. Jude led them carefully, eyes scanning for movement, for the flicker of blue smoke, for anything that would break the illusion of stillness.

The arch came into view after nearly an hour of walking. It wasn’t a true arch, not built by hands, not carved or placed. It was formed from the bones of the jungle itself. Two massive, moss-covered stones stood upright, their surfaces etched with strange grooves, natural or not, it was impossible to tell. Between them grew a tree twisted into a curve overhead, its roots hanging like vines, its bark darker than anything around it. The moment they stepped within sight of it, the air changed. It felt heavy, humid, like they were breathing through water.

Jude stopped just short of the arch. The others gathered behind him. For a long moment, no one spoke.

"This is where you saw it?" he asked Stella.

She nodded, stepping forward until she stood beside him. "Just there," she pointed, "to the left of the stones. I looked away for a second and when I looked back, it was gone. But I felt it watching."

Jude turned his head slowly. The forest beyond the arch was darker still, impossibly thick. The trees there looked older, stranger, with bark that seemed to shimmer slightly under the filtered light. The roots bled into the path like fingers reaching outward.

"I don’t think it wants us to come closer," Susan said behind them.

"Then we should," Lucy muttered.

Jude stepped forward.

He crossed the threshold of the arch slowly. The moment he did, he felt it, a coldness on his skin, a pressure behind his eyes. It wasn’t pain. It was something more abstract. Like someone opening a drawer inside his chest and rifling through memories. Behind him, he heard hesitant footsteps. Grace was the next to follow, then Emma, then Stella. Soon they were all past the arch. None of them spoke.

The jungle grew denser with every step. The sounds of the island, the rustling, the birdsong, faded, replaced with a low, rhythmic hum. Not mechanical, not organic. It was more like a vibration of thought, felt rather than heard. Jude felt it pulse in his fingertips, in the soles of his feet. A pressure beneath everything. Every few steps, one of them would glance around as if seeing something just at the edge of their vision, shadows that moved the wrong way, light that bent strangely. Still, no sign of the smoke. No sign of the shape Stella had seen.

And then it happened.

Serena stopped walking. She swayed slightly, blinking as if waking from sleep. Jude turned just in time to see her eyes shift, a shimmer of blue, just for a second, and then she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He froze.

Her lips brushed his ear. "You feel it too, don’t you?" Her voice was softer than usual, sultrier, but not her own.

"Serena," Jude said gently, not moving, "are you with me right now?"

She smiled against his neck. "I’ve always been with you."

He held her shoulders firmly and stepped back. "What’s the last thing you remember?"

Serena blinked again. The light in her eyes shifted. Confusion flooded her face. She looked around. "What... why did I...?"

"It’s okay," Jude said, helping her steady herself. "Just breathe."

The others gathered quickly, eyes scanning the trees.

"Another one," Scarlett muttered. "That’s all of us now, isn’t it?"

"No," Sophie said, eyes narrowing. "Not all of us. Jude hasn’t been taken."

Jude felt the truth of that settle over him like ice.

"I think it wants me last," he said. "It’s learning through you. But I’m the goal."

Lucy clenched her fists. "We’re not letting it take you."

A sudden shift in the air. Something moved through the trees, fast, fluid, not quite visible. It was a ripple, like a shimmer of heat, but cold. Every instinct in Jude screamed to run. Instead, he raised his knife.

"Show yourself!" he shouted.

The jungle pulsed again. Then, slowly, from the thick roots of one of the great trees, a shape began to rise. It was humanlike, but only barely. Tall and thin, made of smoke and bark and light, its form flickered with the faintest blue glow. Its face was a blur, changing constantly, Serena, Sophie, Lucy, Emma, all of them, their features sliding over one another like masks.

"We know you," it said, though its mouth didn’t move. Its voice came from the air around them, from within them. "We are becoming."

Jude stepped in front of his wives. "Becoming what?"

"You."

The shape tilted its head, as if puzzled by the simplicity of the question.

"You feel it," it said. "The pull. The gravity. You are the seed. The center. We came for you."

"What are you?" Lucy asked, stepping beside Jude, eyes narrowed.

"We are the island," it said. "And the island is not what you think."

The shape reached a hand out, not in attack, but in invitation.

"You live inside a shell," it said. "We are the breath of the shell. The dream inside the bones. This place lives because we live. It dreams because we dream."