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 he

there was

motionless, staring at the

if he was dead, but deep

footsteps approaching from

Remy emerging from the

emotionless look on his face, Remy

even a glance at Jameson, Remy's voice dripped with barely concealed

is leaving you to clean

have no

Jameson stood motionless, his

like a man

all his worth—now thrown away like

opening in the statue of

laughing at himself

life has been a big

deafening

its

a thunderous crash, and with that, the

cutting Jameson's neck,