Page 60 of Nightmare Island

Oh gods.

Something moves inside me. Not like a physical thing, but like… like when I’m falling asleep and suddenly feel like I’ve missed a step and am dropping, except the sensation is spreading through my whole body. It’s cold, so cold, seeping through my veins like liquid. My wolf thrashes inside me, snarling, terrified of this foreign presence.

Ice-cold fingers drag through my insides, touching places nothing should ever touch. I can feel it winding throughme, probing, exploring, violating every part of my being. The violation of it makes me want to vomit, to claw my own skin off just to get it out.

“Get it out!” I scream, thrashing against the ropes until I feel them cut into my wrists. “Get it out, get it out, GET IT OUT!”

Sten just claps like a kid finally getting cake. “Oh, you feel it! Good, good! You know an interesting fact? On this island, there are always spirits around us; you just don’t see them. But I do…”

Lightning flashes again, and in that brief illumination, I see the wolves watching me with something like pity in their eyes. They know. They know what’s happening to me, and they’re glad it’s not them.

The sensation gets worse, spreading up into my mind. Memories start to blur, thoughts becoming harder to hold on to. It’s like trying to think through static. Something is sharing my headspace, pushing against my consciousness.

Ghost’s face flashes through my mind—the way he looked at me last night, like I was something precious, something worth protecting. But he’s not here. I’m alone with this thing crawling through my mind, and I can’t…

I can’t…

Panic overwhelms me, and I thrash harder, crying out as the storm intensifies. The wind is howling now, strong enough to bend smaller trees. The sky has taken on an eerie greenish tint that makes everything look sick, diseased.

Wolves dart around us, but Sten stands unmoved, watching me with those terrible white eyes as I fight the battle in my own mind. It’s like trying to hold on to myself while something else attempts to wear me like a costume, pushing me aside to take control.

A massive gust of wind makes everyone look up. Above us, descending from the sickly green clouds, a thin funnel begins to form.

A fucking tornado.

“Oh, you are so impressive,” Sten breathes, extending his hand toward me. Heat radiates from him even through the space between us, and I feel the thing inside me growing stronger. My thoughts get fuzzier, more distant, as though I’m slowly being pushed underwater.

And then I hear it—a voice in my head that isn’t mine.

Hello, my bitch Omega.

The scream that tears from my throat doesn’t sound human. My wolf howls in terror because we both know that voice. Know it like we know our own heartbeat.

It’s Jarl.

My dead fucking husband.

I’m shaking, screaming, “Get him out of me, get him out!”

The thin tornado isn’t just in the distance anymore. It’s bearing down on us, ripping trees from the ground. The sound is deafening, roaring.

“What did you do?” I shriek at Sten, thrashing against the ropes as Jarl’s presence grows stronger and colder, spreading through me like poison. “WHY DID YOU PUTHIMINSIDE ME?”

Sten just laughs, even as branches and debris fly past us. “I gave you the closest spirit I could grab.”

Miss me, bitch?

I’m crying, and the tears are washed away. This can’t be happening!

The tornado closes in on us, and Sten’s expression finally furrows as he stares around him, the wind sending him stumbling on his feet. Branches are flying through the air like missiles, and the remaining wolves are running for their lives.

Suddenly, Sten is thrown sideways, shouting as his body is tossed into the woods. Objects are flung in every direction, and even the tree I’m tied to is starting to sway.

Wind beats against me, and I can’t see straight from the rain coming sideways. I barely notice any of it because Jarl is in my head, in my body, touching me from the inside in ways that make me want to tear my own skin off. Memories of fists and boots and blood flood my mind. But they’re not just my memories anymore. They’re his, too.

The tornado hits the island somewhere in the distance, and the world explodes into chaos. Wood splintering, wind howling, Sten shouting something I can’t hear. But nothing is louder than Jarl’s laughter in my head.

This can’t be happening. But it is. My dead husband is possessing me, and a tornado is about to kill us all.

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