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.

and he fell

there was

motionless, staring at the

was dead, but deep down, he was

then heard footsteps approaching from

Remy emerging from the

on his face,

a glance at Jameson, Remy's voice dripped

you to

you have

stood motionless, his face

man who had

had been drained of all his

in the statue of the goddess

laughing at himself

your life has been a big

deafening roar of a helicopter overhead drowned out his

casting its shadow

was a thunderous crash, and with that, the seemingly indestructible glass shed

cutting