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.

him, and

was

motionless, staring at

sure if he was dead, but deep

then heard footsteps approaching

Remy emerging from

emotionless look on his face, Remy picked Alyssa up ina princess

on the island." Without even a

is leaving you

have no objections, right,

Jameson stood motionless, his face

like a man who had been thoroughly used

had been drained of all his worth—now thrown away like

opening in the statue of the

laughing at himself

life has

reincarnation exists..." Before he could finish, the deafening roar of a helicopter overhead drowned

its shadow over the

with that,

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