Chapter 880 - 882
They didn’t remember. That much was clear. Every time the blue smoke touched one of them, it slipped in and out like a dream, erasing itself from memory, leaving only confusion and that strange, disoriented look in their eyes. But Jude remembered. And now, every time one of his wives smiled at him, kissed his cheek, or laughed like nothing had changed, he found himself studying their faces, looking for cracks in the mask. Not because he didn’t love them. He did. But because something else had started loving him too.
That morning, he kept his distance. He took a small basket and left camp to gather wild fruit from the southern edge of the forest. The trail there passed by a ruined stone arch, half-swallowed by vines, a relic from something older than the island’s current inhabitants. Jude didn’t know if the arch had been part of the original island or brought here with the shell, but its presence unsettled him. There was a coldness around it, a strange stillness in the air when you stepped beneath its crumbling span.
He picked cautiously, filling the basket with red berries, fat and bitter. A monkey-like creature watched him from a nearby branch, its pale eyes unblinking. It didn’t flee when he looked at it. It only stared, one hand wrapped around the branch, its long tail curling slowly behind it. Jude turned away and walked back to camp without speaking a word.
By midday, the air had turned heavy and warm. A storm was building somewhere out at sea, but the wind hadn’t reached them yet. The treehouses creaked gently in the breeze. The smell of roasted roots and fish filled the air. They gathered under the central canopy to eat, Jude, Sophie, Susan, Lucy, Scarlett, Natalie, Emma, Zoey, Stella, Grace, Serena, and Amelia. Lyla was still gone. No one spoke of her today. That absence lingered like a gap in the circle, a silence shaped like a person.
Conversation flowed easily for the first half of the meal. Scarlett teased Serena about falling into the river the day before. Serena responded by throwing a small fishbone at her. Zoey recounted a dream she’d had about flying over the island in a boat made of fire. They laughed. They ate. Jude said little, watching them all. He was waiting for it, the shift, the moment when one of them would change. When something unseen would slip through the cracks and wear one of their faces like a second skin.
It happened not long after they finished eating. Natalie had stood to gather the stones they’d used as plates, humming softly to herself. Then, without warning, she stopped. Just stopped. Her body froze, her arms still mid-motion. Everyone noticed. The silence came fast, heavy, like a blanket thrown over the fire.
"Natalie?" Susan said.
Natalie didn’t respond.
Jude stood.