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

was

motionless, staring at the fallen

if he was dead,

heard footsteps approaching

turned to see Remy

look on his face, Remy picked Alyssa up ina

arrived on the island." Without even a glance at Jameson,

leaving you to

sure you have

motionless,

a man who had been thoroughly

all

the statue of

scoffed, laughing at

your life has been a

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

its

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

rained down, cutting