Can’t Win Me Back

Jasper felt a pain unlike any he had ever known.

It wasn't a physical agony like having flesh torn away, but a slow, excruciating torture akin to being slowly sliced by a blunt blade.

It was a hundred times worse than dying instantly.

His mind raced through a chaotic sequence of images, like a black- and-white movie playing backward.

He saw people retreating and leaving —Javier, Anne, Newton, Landon, Lauren, Jonah, Axel...

He reached out desperately, trying to grasp any of them, but they were slipping away, one by one.

Finally, the image settled on Alyssa's radiant face.

"Lyse...

Don't go..." Tears streaming down his face, he lunged forward, wrapping his arms around her.

But she dissolved into golden dust, vanishing into the frigid air.

"No! iy A beep sounded in his ear as if everything had been reset.

him, and he fell

was just

motionless, staring at the fallen

was dead, but deep down, he was

heard footsteps approaching

see Remy emerging

on his face, Remy picked Alyssa

on the island." Without even a glance

leaving you

have no

motionless,

dressed, he looked like a man who

had been drained of all his

the statue of the goddess closed back

scoffed, laughing at

has been a

deafening roar of a helicopter overhead drowned out his

hovered above, casting its shadow over the glass

and with that, the seemingly indestructible

rained down, cutting Jameson's neck, cheeks,