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 a heavy

raise people with fiery hearts."

make her a promise, all she asked was for him

she didn't mean just a

wanted them to retrace

go? Jasper's heart raced

cave—the very place where he and Alyssa had

he stared into the empty cave, memories of that day surged back —the harrowing brush with death, the

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

not

He had remembered it.

world swirled in dizzying

gave out, sending him crashing

bloodshot and weary, glistened with the weight of exhaustion

"Alyssa...

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

protest, but

"I have to...

In the midst of hopelessness, the temperature continued to

as ruthless and cold as

ball,

almost entirely, rendering her

chilling shade of

to awareness, her

entire body would be frozen stiff, and she would

as she curled tighter into

childhood memories flickered in her mind—a fleeting

fade from her senses, replaced by an

depths of her daze, her late mother had appeared, her arms wide

"Lyse, my sweet girl.

Don't be afraid.

here." The beautiful and

know that you've