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

there was just

staring at the

sure if he was dead, but deep down, he

footsteps approaching from

Remy emerging

his face, Remy picked Alyssa up ina princess

on the island." Without even a glance at Jameson, Remy's voice dripped with

you to

you have no objections,

stood motionless, his face

man who had

of all his worth—now thrown away

the statue of the goddess closed

scoffed, laughing at

Schmidt, your life has been

reincarnation exists..." Before he could finish, the deafening roar of a helicopter overhead drowned

hovered above, casting its shadow over

a thunderous crash, and with that, the seemingly indestructible

rained down, cutting Jameson's