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

there was

motionless, staring at the

he was dead, but deep down, he was

heard footsteps approaching

see Remy emerging from

face,

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

is leaving you to clean

you have

Jameson stood motionless, his

a man who had been thoroughly used and

had been drained of all his

the statue of the

laughing at himself

your life has been a

could finish, the deafening roar of a

above, casting its shadow over

and with that, the seemingly indestructible

shards rained down, cutting