Can’t Win Me Back

"Jas..." Alyssa looked at Jasper with an unfocused gaze.

Her breaths were shallow, and she was slipping in and out of consciousness.

Mentally, she was confused.

"Yes, it's me—Jasper!" Jasper's heart clenched as he saw the color drain from her face.

Her body trembled uncontrollably, fragile as a leaf caught in the wind.

She resembled the kitten he had saved as a child—frozen and alone in the alley that bitter winter night.

A deep sorrow flooded his chest.

"Jas... per..." Alyssa murmured his name, her voice strained, her tongue numb from the cold.

A faint, mocking smile tugged at the corners of her lips, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

"It seems...

like I am about...

to freeze to death...

How could he be here...

He will not come back...

He doesn't want me anymore..." Alyssa's vision blurred as her eyelids grew heavy.

lean, her body sagging to one

Jasper's heart was pierced, the pain unbearable as he saw the denial in her

through the agony, opening his arms

state of hypothermia, falling unconscious could be fatal,

terror as he watched

she might never wake up if

suffocating, as though it were closing in, swallowing any

still wet with tears, gazed at the

with a fire she hadn't

a beat,

fire had long been replaced by shadows ever since he'd woken

full of light, had become darker than the night, colder than

person she wanted to see at

bitter laugh escaped

eyes fluttered closed, and with what little strength remained,

"You are Jasper...

but...

brow

cold had clouded her mind that she was just

every word sliced through him, deep

protests, he reached for the soaked fabric

"Don't touch me...

Alyssa's eyes were

else to resist him than voicing out her

Jasper stripped off his coat and wrapped it around her trembling form, trying to share what little warmth he had