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

was

staring

he was dead, but deep

heard footsteps

see Remy emerging from

look on his face, Remy picked

on the island." Without even a

leaving you

you have no objections, right,

stood motionless, his face

impeccably dressed, he looked like a man who had been thoroughly used and

of all his worth—now thrown

of

scoffed, laughing at

Schmidt, your life has

finish, the deafening roar of a helicopter overhead drowned out

its shadow over the

with that, the

down, cutting Jameson's neck, cheeks,