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

families raise people with fiery hearts." Jasper

convinced him to make her a promise, all she asked was for him to go hiking

didn't mean just

them to retrace

were Alyssa, where would he go? Jasper's

arrived at the cave—the very place where he and Alyssa had

back —the harrowing brush with death, the suffocating fear, and the unspoken bond of survival that had tethered

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

had not forgotten

He had remembered it.

world swirled in dizzying

thud echoed as his strength gave out, sending him crashing to

with the weight

"Alyssa...

he clawed at the

screamed in protest,

"I have to...

midst of hopelessness, the temperature continued to

weather was as ruthless and

into a tight ball, pressing

blanketed her almost entirely, rendering her nearly invisible to anyone who wasn't

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

awareness, her mind wavered in a haze

her entire body would be frozen stiff, and she would

trembled violently as she curled

childhood memories flickered in her mind—a fleeting warmth against the

from her senses, replaced by

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 stroked

that you've been