Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women

Jude stared at the screen, his hands clenched into fists. His mind was racing, trying to find some logical explanation, but there was none. Either the footage was fake, or his memories were wrong. And after what he had seen in the other room, he wasn't sure which was worse.

He turned to face them. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

The man's expression was unreadable. "That depends. Do you want to keep looking, or do you want to stop here?"

Jude's heart was pounding, but he already knew the answer. He couldn't stop now. Not after this. He swallowed hard, forcing himself to stay calm. "Keep going."

The woman nodded. "Then we move forward."

Jude took one last look at the screen before following them again. His mind was a storm of confusion, fear, and something else—something he hadn't felt in a long time.

Curiosity.

He had spent years feeling like something was missing, like the world around him wasn't quite right. Now, for the first time, he had a chance to find out why. And even though he was terrified, he couldn't turn back. Not now.

Not ever.

Jude walked forward, his heartbeat steady but his mind restless. He didn't know where they were leading him, but he knew he had already stepped past the point of no return. The hallways felt longer now, as if the building itself stretched infinitely in all directions. The flickering lights overhead cast strange shadows against the walls, warping their shapes into something unrecognizable. The air was thick, carrying a faint metallic scent that made his skin prickle.

The man leading the way stopped in front of another door, different from the last one. This one was smooth, metallic, almost seamless against the wall, except for a single panel beside it. The woman reached out and pressed her hand against the panel. A soft beep echoed, and the door slid open without a sound.

Jude stepped inside, his breath catching in his throat.

The room was massive. It looked more like a laboratory than anything else, filled with strange machines, cables running across the floor like veins, and glass containers lined up along the walls. Some of the containers held liquid, bubbling softly under dim blue light, while others contained… something else. Shapes that moved, shifted, but never quite revealed themselves.

At the center of the room was a chair, sleek and metallic, surrounded by monitors. It reminded Jude of something out of a sci-fi movie, but the reality of it was far more unsettling.

The woman gestured toward the chair. "Sit."

Jude hesitated. "And what happens if I do?"

The man leaned against the wall. "Then you get answers."

Jude took a slow breath. He knew they were right. Every step had brought him closer to something he had been searching for, even if he hadn't known it before now. Turning back wasn't an option.

He stepped forward and sat down. The chair was cool against his skin, and the moment he settled, restraints clicked around his wrists and ankles. His pulse spiked, and he instinctively struggled, but the woman placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Relax. It's just a precaution."

"A precaution for what?" Jude's voice was sharper than he intended.

The man tapped on a screen, bringing up a series of images. They were maps, charts, things that looked like brain scans.

"For what happens next," the woman said softly.

Jude watched as the screens shifted, displaying memories—his memories. He saw glimpses of his childhood, moments he barely recalled, flashing past like old film reels. He saw himself riding his bike down the street as a kid, the time he got lost in a mall, the first time he ever stood on stage at a school play. Then the images changed, jumping to moments that felt off.

He saw himself standing in his apartment, but the details were wrong. The clock on the wall showed a time he didn't remember. The reflection in the window didn't move in sync with him. And then, in one of the images, he saw himself sitting in this very chair.

Jude's blood ran cold. "What is this?"

The woman exhaled slowly. "Fragments. Pieces of the truth trying to break through."

He shook his head. "No. This… this isn't possible. I don't remember any of this happening."

The man tapped the screen again, and a new image appeared. This one was different. It wasn't a memory. It was a list. His name was at the top. Beneath it were numbers, data points, coordinates.

Jude's stomach twisted. "What am I looking at?"

The woman hesitated before answering. "Your cycle."

Jude felt like the ground beneath him had vanished. "Cycle?"

The man nodded. "You've been here before, Jude. Not just in this room. In this life. Over and over."

Jude's body tensed. "That's insane."

The woman met his eyes. "Is it?"

The monitors flickered again, and suddenly, he was watching himself make the same choices, have the same conversations, walk the same streets—all slightly different, but all eerily familiar. Some of the versions of him hesitated at the door he had just walked through. Some never made it to this point. Others went further.

Jude's breath came faster. "This is some kind of trick."

The woman shook her head. "It's not."

The man crossed his arms. "You've felt it before, haven't you? The feeling that something was off. That things didn't quite line up. That the world around you felt… incomplete."

Jude clenched his fists. He had felt that. He had always felt that. A lingering unease, a sense of something being just out of reach. But he had never spoken about it. Never put it into words.

The woman stepped closer. "You are not the only one. There are others, people who have seen the cracks but ignored them. You didn't. That's why you're here."

Jude swallowed hard. "And what happens if I keep going?"

The man smirked. "Then you break the cycle."