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

motionless, staring at the fallen

dead, but

then heard footsteps

Remy emerging from the underground

on his face, Remy picked Alyssa

a glance

leaving you to clean

you have no objections,

Jameson stood motionless,

man who had been thoroughly

drained of all his worth—now thrown away

opening in the statue of the goddess closed back

laughing at

Schmidt, your life has been

he could finish, the deafening roar of a

its shadow

was a thunderous crash, and with that, the seemingly indestructible glass shed was

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