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.

enveloped him, and

was

stood motionless, staring

he was dead,

heard footsteps approaching from

Remy emerging from the underground

an emotionless look on his face, Remy picked Alyssa

island." Without even a glance at Jameson, Remy's

is leaving you to clean

you have no

Jameson stood motionless,

a man who had been thoroughly used

had been drained of all his worth—now

opening in the statue of the

laughing

has been a

could finish, the deafening roar of a helicopter overhead drowned out

hovered above, casting its

thunderous crash, and with that, the seemingly

down, cutting Jameson's neck, cheeks,