Chapter 1106
The clearing was still thick with the scent of sweet pollen and smoke from the ritual fire, its flames now reduced to curling trails of embers that hissed as dew-laced leaves fell into it. Jude stood still, breath ragged, heart pounding. Around him, Sophie and Emma watched in tense silence, eyes fixed on the spot where the earth had opened, where something had begun to rise. The corrupted wives stood in a semicircle, Rose at the center, flanked by Layla and Zoey, their hands linked and bare feet pressed into the mossy ground. Susan, Grace, Lucy, and Natalie had formed the outer ring, heads tilted back, hair loose and catching the moonlight. Their smiles were beatific, possessed, beautiful in a way that made Jude’s skin crawl.
The thing that rose from the ground was not shaped like any creature he knew. It was bone and shadow, sinew and mist, its form ever-shifting, never whole, as though it flickered between moments and realities. A long tendril reached out, not to grab, but to beckon. Rose’s smile widened, her body almost swaying to a rhythm none of them could hear, and then, she knelt. The others followed. One by one, they knelt before the creature, and its light pulsed faintly, once, like acknowledgment.
Jude whispered to Emma and Sophie. "We have to get out of here."
Emma nodded, her face pale, but it was Sophie who tugged at his arm. "Wait. Where’s Stella?"
Jude’s heart dropped. He scanned the dark trees fringing the ritual site. She had run. They had seen her flee. But now, the woods were silent again.
Just as they turned to slip away, a whisper caught in the breeze. It wasn’t a word, more like a feeling, like dread woven into a breath. Jude felt it coil around his spine as he backed away. They moved slowly, carefully, slipping behind thick underbrush until the glowing form of the creature and the kneeling women faded from view.
Back at the treehouse, they collapsed into silence. Sophie held her arms tight around herself, and Emma sat by the window, eyes wide, watching the woods. Jude paced, running his fingers through his hair.
"This isn’t just possession," Sophie said at last. "It’s... worship."
"And it’s spreading," Emma murmured. "Every time one of them goes into the woods with Rose, they come back changed."