Chapter 1266
Stella’s lips trembled. "Rose?"
No one answered.
Layla woke next. She sat up suddenly, coughing, her hands clawing at her throat. Natalie grabbed her and held her close, murmuring something in her ear. Grace finally spoke too, her voice hoarse. "I remember being in the water. The dark. I thought I was drowning."
"You were," Jude said. "In something deeper than water."
The clearing was filling with noise again. Confusion. Tears. Questions. The once-synchronized seven were now scattered, broken back into individuals, each struggling to remember what was real. The unity, the humming, the whispers - it was fading. And in its place was grief.
They lost Rose.
No one said it. But everyone felt it.
It wasn’t just that she had vanished. It was the way she had gone - like smoke. No body. No final word. Only the echo of her voice in their bones, in the humming that still itched at the edges of their minds.
They began the slow trek back through the jungle. Jude led, machete in hand, carving through brush that had regrown impossibly fast. The island, no longer watching in silence, now whispered again. Leaves rustled. Birds called. But the sense of unease lingered in every step, in every gust of wind that seemed to brush their necks too deliberately.
When the treehouse came into view, several of the women began to cry. Susan collapsed against Stella. Grace sat down in the dirt and wept openly. Even Zoey, who’d barely flinched during the burning, had gone quiet, her face pale and drawn.
They entered cautiously. Everything was exactly as they left it, down to the cold tea mugs and the rumpled blankets. But it felt different. Like a weight had lifted, only to be replaced by something colder. Emptiness. Absence.