A faint tendril of blue smoke exited her mouth, curled in the air between them, and vanished into the trees.
Emma gasped and stumbled back.
"Jude?" she asked, voice small. "Where... what were we talking about just now?"
He stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders. "You don’t rember?"
"I followed you here. I was going to say sothing but... I don’t know what happened. Did I fall?"
He let go of her, heart pounding. "Let’s go back."
That night, after dinner, he called another eting by the fire. Everyone gathered, though their faces were tense and guarded. Jude could feel their unease like smoke rising between them.
"I need you all to listen carefully," he said. "I’m going to describe sothing. And if it sounds familiar, anything at all, I want you to speak up."
They watched him. He began to describe the behavior. The way their eyes lost focus. The seductive tones. The way their voices shifted. The lapses in mory. The blue smoke. He told them about Emma. About Stella. About Sophie. He told them that it wasn’t a dream anymore, this was real.
When he finished, silence fell like a stone.
Sophie spoke first. "I... I thought I was just tired. But now that you say it... yes. I’ve felt it too."
"I thought I was having blackouts," Susan said. "I was afraid to say it. I didn’t want to scare the others."
Natalie nodded. "I’ve been waking up in different places. No idea how I got there."
Grace clutched her knees. "There’s sothing inside the island. Watching us. Using us."
One by one, they admitted it. The confusion. The missing ti. The changes in their own voices. The strange feelings of desire that didn’t feel like their own. And finally, the fear. Not just of what was happening, but of what they might do if it kept going.
Then Jude asked the question he hadn’t dared voice until now.
"Has anyone... seen the smoke?"
There was a long pause.
Then Zoey raised her hand.
"I saw it," she said. "Last night. It ca out of Scarlett when she was sleeping. Just for a second. Then it went back in."
Everyone turned to look at Scarlett.
She looked pale. "I didn’t feel anything."
"It didn’t seem like it hurt you," Zoey said quickly. "It just... happened."
Jude stood. He paced once, twice, hands curled into fists. Then he stopped.
"We can’t keep pretending this is temporary. It’s not just dreams. The island’s doing sothing. And now we need to decide what we do about it."
"We could leave," said Stella, though even she looked unsure.
"Leave where?" Lucy said. "There’s nowhere to go."
"That mountain," Jude said, voice low. "We’ve avoided it because we knew it was dangerous. But what if it’s more than that? What if it’s where all this started?"
Sophie stared into the fire. "Then it’s where it needs to end."
Nobody spoke after that. The fire crackled. The wind howled.
And sowhere, just beyond the edge of the forest, a dull drumbeat started again.
The following morning ca with a thick fog that wrapped itself around the treetops like pale, unmoving hands. The sunlight tried to filter through, but it only painted everything in dim silver and blue, a ghost of the usual morning warmth. Jude woke early, still wearing his clothes from the night before, seated beside the dying fire. The embers hissed faintly, as if even they were reluctant to move. Around him, the others were slowly waking one by one, their movents quiet, stiff, cautious, as if none of them had slept easy. He couldn’t bla them. After last night’s eting, the island felt different. More alive. Less like a place and more like a body they were stuck inside, waiting for it to twitch.
He stood and stretched, the tension in his shoulders refusing to release. He turned his eyes to the treeline where the forest stretched away toward the forbidden mountain. There was no movent, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that sothing beyond it was breathing, watching, listening.
Behind him, Scarlett yawned and sat up, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. "You didn’t sleep again?" she asked.
"Didn’t feel like it," he said.
"You’ve been awake a lot lately."
"I’ve had a lot on my mind."
Scarlett rose and ca to sit beside him, arms wrapped around her knees. Her presence was comforting, but Jude could sense the unease inside her. She wasn’t hiding it anymore, not after last night.
"Do you think it’s all of us?" she asked.
He nodded slowly. "I think it’s taking turns."
"And you think it’s leading sowhere?"
"I don’t know. But whatever it is, it’s learning. It’s getting better at hiding."
She looked down at her hands. "I think it likes us."
He looked at her.
"I think... whatever this thing is... it wants to be close to us. It’s not trying to kill us. It’s trying to touch us. To be us. And I don’t know if that’s worse."
Her voice trembled near the end. Jude placed a hand on her back.
"I won’t let it take any of you," he said. "Not without a fight."
Others were waking now. The sound of Natalie stoking the fire, the rustle of Emma folding blankets, the splash of Zoey carrying water from the river. A kind of routine still held them together. But Jude saw the stiffness in their gestures. Saw how no one looked each other directly in the eyes for too long. The events of the night before had planted sothing deeper than fear, it had planted doubt.
Breakfast passed in silence. A few soft words here and there about food, supplies, the day’s chores. No one ntioned the smoke. But Jude saw them glancing up between mouthfuls, scanning the trees, looking at the air like it might move wrong again.
Later, he went with Serena and Alia to check the southern traplines, the ones closer to the shallow cliffs near the coast.
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