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 he fell

there was

stood motionless, staring at the

sure if he was dead, but deep down, he was

heard footsteps approaching from

turned to see Remy emerging from the

his face, Remy picked Alyssa up

even a glance at Jameson, Remy's

leaving you to clean

have no objections, right,

stood motionless,

dressed, he looked like a man who had been

all his worth—now

the statue of the

scoffed, laughing at

Schmidt, your life has been a big

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

casting its shadow over the

crash, and with that, the seemingly indestructible glass shed

rained down, cutting Jameson's