Chapter 897 - 899
They ate in silence, each bite small and measured. The food should have tasted like home, but now it felt distant, abstract. Afterward, Lucy and Emma helped clear the dishes while Jude and Susan prepared the floodlights for the night watch. The poles and lanterns would cast long beams over the camp, to illuminate movement, to break the night’s camouflage.
When all was ready, they planted the lights around the perimeter.
"Is that all?" Grace asked.
Jude hesitated. "There’s one more thing."
They turned toward him. His wife’s faces gathered there, reflecting his own fear.
He swallowed. "I want someone to stay awake with me tonight. Vigil. Watch and talk. If anything happens... we’ll know."
Grace raised her hand. "I will."
Emma offered her name. Lucy followed. One by one they volunteered. They filled three shifts, four hours each until dawn.
They slept in shifts that divided the night. Jude paired with Grace first, then Lucy, then Emma, then Serena. The rest curled in their beds, one shift ahead, waiting for their turn.
The first hours were silent but safe. Moonlight swirled across the clearing as Grace and Jude sat in folded chairs, the floods casting narrow beams over sleeping forms. The wind sighed. Tree shadows danced.
Then a sound, low and prolonged, coming from the forest’s edge. A footfall. A gasp. Leaves stirring. They held their breath.