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 fell

there was

staring at the fallen

if he was dead, but deep down, he

heard footsteps approaching from

turned to see Remy emerging from the

on his face,

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

you to

sure you have no

Jameson stood motionless, his face

he looked like a man who had been thoroughly used and

of all

the statue of the goddess

scoffed, laughing

life has been a big

reincarnation exists..." Before he could finish, the deafening roar of

its shadow

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

cutting Jameson's neck,