Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women

The weight of it was unbearable.

Jude staggered, barely catching himself on one of the pillars. His breath came sharp, ragged. The sensation threatened to drown him, to unravel his very existence ,

Then, suddenly, it stopped.

A presence snapped back into place. A force pushed against whatever had been reaching into him, cutting it off like a blade severing a thread.

Jude gasped, vision clearing, and found the man standing beside him, his hand raised slightly.

Jude's chest heaved. "What ,"

"It's trying to see you," the man said. "But you don't want it to."

Jude wiped at his face, only now realizing his skin was damp with cold sweat. "That thing ,"

"It's not a thing." The man's voice was quiet. "It is what waits. "

Jude's fingers clenched. "Then what the hell are we supposed to do?"

For the first time, something like hesitation flickered across the man's face.

"You tell me."

Jude stiffened. "What?"

The man turned to look at him fully. "You brought yourself here. You touched the strings that should not have been touched. And now, it is awake."

Jude's heart pounded. "I didn't mean to."

"That doesn't change what's coming."

Jude felt something cold settle in his gut.

Because the truth was ,

He had felt it.

For so long, he had been running, searching, reaching into places no one else dared to go. He had thought he was looking for answers.

But maybe, just maybe ,

Something had been looking for him, too.

The air was thick with something unnatural, pressing down on Jude's skin like an invisible weight. The chamber's shifting symbols pulsed in erratic patterns, flickering in and out of coherence, as if whatever held them together was breaking apart. The thing in the shadows ,the thing that should not be ,remained where it was, its presence distorting the very fabric of the space around it. Jude forced himself to focus, to breathe, to not let the pressure in his skull consume him. He had been in dangerous situations before, had faced things most people couldn't even imagine, but this was different. This wasn't just a threat. This was something that defied existence itself, something that should never have been touched, should never have been aware of him.

The man beside him, the one who claimed to stand at the threshold, had not moved. He stood with the same quiet intensity, his gaze never leaving the entity that had begun to seep into the reality they stood in. Jude could see it now, more clearly than before. Not because it had become more visible, but because his mind had begun to understand it. And that realization terrified him. It meant he was slipping further into its grasp. It meant he was changing in ways he didn't fully comprehend yet.

He swallowed hard, forcing himself to break the silence. "Tell me something," he said, his voice hoarse. "If you're the one who's supposed to keep this thing in its place, why does it feel like you're just standing here, waiting for it to swallow us whole?"

The man didn't turn to him, but Jude caught the flicker of something in his expression. Not hesitation. Not fear. Something else. Something far more dangerous.

"I told you before," the man said. "This isn't just about me."

Jude narrowed his eyes. "Then who is it about?"

The man exhaled slowly, finally shifting his gaze toward him. "You."

The weight of that word sank into Jude's chest like a stone. He had been expecting it, in a way. He had felt it creeping closer with every step he had taken, every forbidden place he had wandered into, every answer he had refused to stop searching for. But hearing it spoken aloud, confirmed in a way that left no room for doubt, sent a deep unease curling through his gut.

"That doesn't make any damn sense," he muttered. "I don't even know what this thing is. I didn't do anything to bring it here."

The man studied him for a long moment, then said, "You still think this is about what you did ?"

Jude clenched his fists. "What the hell else would it be about?"

The man's gaze didn't waver. "It's about what you are ."

The ground trembled violently, and the shifting entity pulsed again. This time, the force of it nearly drove Jude to his knees. The air cracked, like something was trying to split through the very space they stood in. Jude could feel it now, the way the thing's attention had turned fully onto him. It wasn't just looking at him ,it was recognizing him. Something deep inside his chest tightened, a sensation he didn't understand, didn't want to understand.

"You're telling me I have something to do with this?" Jude's voice was raw. "That this thing is waking up because of me ?"

The man gave a slow nod. "Yes."

Jude shook his head, taking a step back, trying to put distance between himself and the weight of that truth. "No. That's not possible. I've spent years chasing things like this, but I was never ," He stopped himself, jaw tightening. He was never part of it. He was always on the outside, looking in, searching for answers in places no one else dared to go. But now, standing here, in front of something that was waking because of him , that certainty began to unravel.

The man watched him carefully, waiting for him to process what he already knew deep down. Then, in a voice that was far too calm, he said, "It's not just waking up. It's calling you."

Jude felt his pulse stutter. "What?"

"You feel it, don't you?" the man continued. "The pull. The way it recognizes you. The way your presence has already started breaking the barriers that were never meant to be touched."

Jude's breath hitched. Because he did feel it. The weight in his chest wasn't just fear. It was something else , something that whispered in the back of his mind, urging him to step forward, to let go of the part of himself that was still resisting. The knowledge terrified him in a way nothing else ever had.