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 just

stood motionless, staring

he was dead,

footsteps approaching

turned to see Remy

an emotionless look on his face,

Taylors have arrived on the island." Without even a glance at Jameson,

you

you have no objections, right,

motionless,

a man who had been

had been drained of all his worth—now thrown

statue of the goddess

laughing at

your life has been a big

the deafening roar of a

above, casting its shadow over the glass

with that, the seemingly indestructible glass

rained down, cutting Jameson's