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.

disappear, exhaling a

with fiery hearts." Jasper trudged through the

all

didn't mean just a

to retrace their

where would he go? Jasper's heart raced as he

very place where he and Alyssa had once

memories of that day surged back —the harrowing brush with death, the

doesn't protect you, I will." That promise

not forgotten

He had remembered it.

world swirled in

strength gave out, sending him crashing to

weary, glistened with the weight of

"Alyssa...

have to find you..." Clenching his fists, he clawed at

protest, but

"I have to...

you!" In the midst of hopelessness,

as ruthless and

huddled into a tight ball, pressing herself against the

white snow blanketed her almost entirely, rendering her nearly invisible

shut, her lips a chilling shade of purple as hypothermia took its

clinging to awareness, her mind wavered in a haze

be frozen stiff, and she

violently as she curled tighter into

heartwarming childhood memories flickered in

fade from her senses, replaced by

had appeared,

"Lyse, my sweet girl.

Don't be afraid.

and gentle woman stroked her

know that you've