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 he fell

was just

motionless, staring

dead, but deep down, he was

heard footsteps

to see Remy

emotionless look on his face, Remy picked Alyssa

the island." Without even a glance

leaving you to

you have no

Jameson stood motionless, his face

he looked like a man who had been

had been drained of all his worth—now thrown away

opening in the statue of the

scoffed, laughing

Schmidt, your life has

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

hovered above, casting its shadow over the

crash, and with that, the seemingly indestructible glass shed

shards rained down, cutting Jameson's