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

there was

stood motionless, staring

if he was dead, but

then heard footsteps approaching from

turned to see Remy

an emotionless look on his face,

a glance at Jameson, Remy's voice

leaving you to

have no

Jameson stood motionless, his face

looked like a man who had been

drained of all his worth—now thrown away like

opening in the statue of the

laughing

your life has been a

could finish, the deafening roar of a helicopter overhead drowned

above, casting its shadow over the glass

with that, the seemingly indestructible

shards rained down, cutting Jameson's neck, cheeks,