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 fell

there was just

motionless, staring at the fallen

sure if he was dead, but

footsteps approaching from

Remy emerging from the underground

on his face,

even a glance

is leaving you to clean

have no

Jameson stood motionless,

man who had been thoroughly used

been drained of all his worth—now thrown away

of the

scoffed, laughing at

your life has been a

could finish, the deafening roar of

its shadow

crash, and with that, the seemingly indestructible glass shed

cutting