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 at the fallen

wasn't sure if he was dead, but deep down, he was

footsteps approaching

turned to see Remy

an emotionless look on his face, Remy picked Alyssa

have arrived on the island." Without even a glance at Jameson, Remy's voice dripped with barely

leaving you to

have no

motionless, his

impeccably dressed, he looked like a man who had been thoroughly used and

drained of all his worth—now thrown

of the goddess

scoffed, laughing

Schmidt, your life has been a

finish, the deafening roar of a helicopter overhead drowned

above, casting its

a thunderous crash, and with that, the

cutting