Chapter 1369
He saw them as they had been. Lucy kissing him on the beach. Sophie during the first storm. Grace weeping after her first nightmare. Stella dancing alone. Zoey watching him from the trees. Rose naked beneath the moon, whispering the first spiral into the dirt.
Then the image shifted.
He saw them all changed - wearing golden tattoos, eyes glowing faintly, moving together in a circle around a much larger spiral carved into the earth. In the center stood him.
Not just watching.
Leading.
Jude gasped and fell back from the water. The vision faded instantly.
The others didn’t look surprised. Lucy knelt beside him and kissed his shoulder.
"We all saw something," she whispered. "I think... it’s showing us what’s coming."
"It’s showing us what we are, " Rose corrected gently.
Sophie stood at the edge and began removing her wrap. One by one, the others followed. Clothes dropped silently to the moss, bodies bared without shame. Jude stood too, stripping until he was naked beneath the filtered light. The pool beckoned - not like an invitation, but a summons.
Rose was the first to enter. She stepped into the dark water, and instead of rippling, it welcomed her. Her body vanished beneath the surface without a splash. Then Lucy, then Stella, then Grace. One by one they sank, disappearing into the silence.