Chapter 1215

The night hung heavy with silence after Rose vanished into the forest. Jude could still feel the pressure in the air, like the spiral hadn't truly left but simply folded itself into the trees, watching through the eyes of those it had already taken. He stood close to Sophie, Susan between them, with Zoey and Lucy flanking the edges of the dim fire they'd built up again - small, flickering, but necessary. It kept their hands busy, their focus steady. It gave them something real.

No one spoke at first. The weight of what had just happened pressed against their lungs like a damp fog. Natalie, Stella, Grace, Emma - gone. Not dead. Just not themselves anymore. And Rose… Rose had become something else entirely.

Zoey was the first to break the silence. "We should've stopped her sooner."

"She was one of us," Lucy said, voice barely audible. "She is ."