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

say aristocratic families raise people with fiery hearts." Jasper

all she asked was for him to go hiking with

she didn't mean just

wanted them to retrace their

were Alyssa, where would he go? Jasper's

where he and

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

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

not

He had remembered it.

world swirled

his strength gave out,

eyes, bloodshot and weary, glistened with the weight of exhaustion and

"Alyssa...

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

protest,

"I have to...

midst of

ruthless and

ball, pressing herself against

blanketed her almost entirely, rendering her nearly

eyes shut, her lips a chilling shade of

her mind

her entire body would be frozen stiff,

she curled tighter into

childhood memories flickered in her mind—a fleeting warmth against

seemed to fade from her senses, replaced by an

the depths of her daze, her late mother had appeared, her arms wide open, enveloping

"Lyse, my sweet girl.

Don't be afraid.

here." The beautiful and gentle

you've been through a