Can’t Win Me Back

Elias frowned deeply; his worry etched onto his face.

"We've been shouting Ms. Alyssa's name the whole way.

With so many of us calling out, she should've heard us by now if she were nearby!" In a deep voice, Jasper said, The wind is too strong, and then there's the heavy snowfall.

Our voices are being drowned out.

Lyse might not hear us at all." Lyse.

Her nickname slipped from his lips before he even realized it.

"I'm just afraid she's injured—or worse, fainted.

If she blacks out in this cold..." Elias trailed off, his voice heavy with dread.

"Ona day like this, she won't survive long.

She'll freeze to death." The group exchanged uneasy glances, the reality of his words tightening their chests.

It wasn't that Elias was being a doomsayer.

Rather, this was the cruel reality that might actually happen.

Crater Mountain claimed lives every year.

Danger lurked unpredictably in the woods on the mountain—anything could unfold.

"Let's split up," Jasper commanded, his eyes fixed on the shadowy forest.

His voice carried an edge of desperation.

“We're not leaving until we find her." Elias hesitated.

"But what if—" "If anything happens to her," Jasper cut him off, his voice trembling with fierce determination, "I'll make this place my grave.

I mean it." Before anyone could respond, Jasper turned and strode into the darkness, his figure quickly swallowed by the night.

watched him disappear, exhaling a

say aristocratic families raise people with fiery hearts." Jasper trudged through the snow, his mind

finally convinced him to make her a promise, all

mean just

wanted them to retrace their

where would he go? Jasper's heart

very place where he and Alyssa had once sought refuge during the

into the empty cave, memories of that day surged back —the harrowing brush with death, the suffocating fear, and the unspoken

will." That promise wasn't just words; it was carved into his

had not forgotten

He had remembered it.

world swirled in dizzying

as his strength gave

glistened with the weight of exhaustion

"Alyssa...

to find you..." Clenching his fists, he clawed at the frozen ground, forcing himself

muscles screamed in protest, but

"I have to...

the midst of hopelessness, the temperature continued

as ruthless and

a tight ball, pressing herself against

blanketed her almost entirely, rendering

a chilling

barely clinging to awareness, her mind wavered in

her entire body would be frozen stiff, and she would be at

violently as she

a daze, fragments of heartwarming childhood memories flickered in her mind—a fleeting

fade from her senses, replaced by

appeared, her arms

"Lyse, my sweet girl.

Don't be afraid.

here." The beautiful and gentle

that you've been