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.

him disappear, exhaling

with fiery hearts." Jasper trudged through

promise, all she asked was

didn't mean just

to retrace

he were Alyssa, where would he go? Jasper's heart

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

—the harrowing brush with death, the suffocating fear, and the unspoken

you, I will." That promise wasn't just words;

had not forgotten

He had remembered it.

swirled in

heavy thud echoed as his strength gave

eyes, bloodshot and weary, glistened with the

"Alyssa...

his fists, he

in protest, but

"I have to...

midst of hopelessness, the temperature continued

weather was as ruthless and

tight ball,

pure white snow blanketed her almost entirely, rendering her nearly invisible to

squeezed her eyes shut, her lips a chilling shade of purple

clinging to awareness, her mind wavered in a haze of

her entire body would be frozen stiff, and she would

she curled

memories flickered in her mind—a

from her senses, replaced by

the depths of her daze, her late mother had appeared, her arms wide open, enveloping Alyssa in a comforting

"Lyse, my sweet girl.

Don't be afraid.

beautiful and gentle woman

that you've been