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

there was just

stood motionless, staring at the fallen

dead, but deep down,

footsteps approaching

to see Remy emerging from

his face, Remy picked Alyssa up ina

even a glance

leaving you to

have

motionless, his face

like a man who had been thoroughly

of all his worth—now

of the goddess closed back up

scoffed, laughing at himself

has been a

the deafening roar of a helicopter overhead

its shadow over the

crash, and with that,

rained down, cutting