Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women

Chapter 1212: Chapter 1212

Jude stepped in front of the others instinctively, his body shielding Sophie and Rose even as his eyes searched the dark for the source of the whisper. The voice lingered like smoke - Susan’s tone, Stella’s cadence, Layla’s soft curl of mischief - all layered with something ancient and watching, something wrong . It came from no clear direction. It came from everywhere .

The trees didn’t rustle. They simply bent. The wind didn’t blow. The air was pulled - like breath before a scream.

”Back,” Emma growled, drawing her blade. ”Everyone. Tight circle.”

The women obeyed immediately, their instincts kicking in, forming a ring around the fire in the clearing. Jude stood near its center, one hand on Rose’s shoulder, the other gripping a sharpened branch he’d snatched from the undergrowth. Not a weapon. Not really. But it would have to do.

The whisper came again.

You were always mine.

Grace stirred on the ground, letting out a dry, choked breath. Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused. ”Mom?” she whispered faintly.

Lucy dropped beside her. ”Grace - hey, no. Stay with me. Look at me, not... not there.”

But Grace’s eyes locked past her, staring into the trees.

”Why is she smiling?” Zoey said suddenly.

Everyone turned.

Grace’s lips had curled into that too-familiar smile.

The one Jude had seen on Rose when she came out of the river.

The one Layla wore the morning after.

The one Susan wore just before she broke.

”No,” Rose whispered. ”No, not her too - ”

But Grace sat up smoothly, the motion too perfect, too fluid.

”Don’t,” Sophie said quickly, stepping toward her. ”Stay where you are, Grace.”

”Why?” Grace said sweetly. ”I’m right where I need to be.”

Jude could hear the other voices again - just beneath hers, like a choir behind her tongue. Stella. Layla. And something else.

”Don’t let her speak too long,” Rose warned. ”The voice is a hook.”

Emma didn’t hesitate. She surged forward and drove the butt of her blade’s hilt against the side of Grace’s head. She crumpled instantly, unconscious again. Lucy caught her before she hit the ground.

Everyone stared at Emma, stunned.

She didn’t flinch. ”She’ll thank me later.”

Jude swallowed hard. ”If there is a later.”

The shadows at the tree line shifted again.

Rose stepped closer to the fire. ”It’s not just multiplying... it’s testing us . Pushing. Measuring how fast it can spread through who we love most.”

Sophie looked around. ”So how do we stop it? We can’t knock all of us out. And we need each other.”

Zoey pointed to Stella, who was still unconscious nearby. ”We know it can move without touch now. That means it’s using memory. Emotion.”

”Every time it spreads, it becomes more familiar ,” Rose said, rubbing her arms. ”It’s learning us inside and out.”

Lucy looked down at Grace’s body. ”If it’s already inside five or six of us, then what happens if it takes one more ?”

No one answered.

The fire cracked suddenly - taller now, flickering blue for a split second before returning to its normal orange.

That’s when Susan sat up.

Her eyes were open.

Clear.

No glow.

She looked around the circle, dazed, confused. ”Why... why am I outside?”

Jude rushed to her side. ”Susan?”

She blinked at him, then burst into tears. ”I saw everything. I was inside it . I couldn’t move. I - Jude, I felt it talking through me. I’m so sorry, I’m - ”

He wrapped her in his arms, holding her so tightly he could feel her heartbeat against his ribs. ”You’re back. You’re okay.”

”No, I’m not,” she sobbed. ”It’s still in there. Pieces of it. Like... like residue. It never fully leaves.”

Emma’s eyes narrowed. ”Then we clean it out.”

Rose walked to the edge of the circle. ”We don’t have time to cleanse. Not anymore.”

”What do you mean?” Sophie asked.

Rose took a deep breath. ”We have to bind it.”

Lucy stared at her. ”Like, with a ritual?”

”With memory,” Rose said. ”With watcherscript. But not the kind we used before. This has to be deeper. Older. We have to mark one of us. As an anchor. Someone it can’t move through. Someone who holds it... traps it.”

Zoey shook her head. ”That sounds like volunteering someone to become a prison.”

”It’s either that,” Rose said softly, ”or we all become its voice.”

Silence. Even the forest seemed to hold its breath.

Susan spoke first. ”I’ll do it.”

Jude’s body snapped tense. ” No. ”

”I’m already tainted,” she said, tears in her eyes. ”It knows me. If I can hold it, I should .”

”No,” he repeated. ”We just got you back.”

”I was its favorite toy,” she said bitterly. ”I can be its cage.”

Rose nodded slowly. ”She’s right. It would follow her. It already trusts her.”

Lucy bit her lip. ”How do we bind it?”

Rose pulled a thin, smooth slate from her satchel. ”We carve watcherscript into skin. Not just the glyphs - memory runes . The kind that root a soul to place.”

Susan didn’t flinch. ”Do it.”

”Not yet,” Jude snapped. ”We don’t even know if that will work. There has to be another way.”

”There isn’t,” Rose said, her voice laced with steel. ”It spreads through what’s left unfinished. Fear. Desire. Love. If she offers herself willingly, that breaks its rhythm. That disrupts the flow.”

Sophie turned to Jude. ”Then we stay with her. She’s not alone in this. Not again.”

Jude looked at Susan, her face tired but resolute.

He reached forward and held her hand. ”I stay with you. If we trap this thing... I’m right beside you when we do.”

Susan smiled, for real this time. A smile that belonged to her.

Then, a sharp intake of breath from Natalie.

She pointed to the trees.

A figure stood there.

Not moving.

Shaped like a woman.

But no face.

Just light.

Burning.

The fire between them hissed. The figure raised a hand.

Susan gasped.

Jude grabbed her.

Rose dropped to her knees, carving glyphs in the dirt.

The spiral had returned.

But now, it had a face.