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.

began to lean, her body sagging to

pierced, the pain unbearable as he saw

through the agony, opening his arms

am Jasper! Open your eyes! Look at me!" For someone in a state of hypothermia, falling unconscious could

with terror as he watched

never wake up if

darkness around them felt suffocating, as though it were closing in, swallowing any

wet with tears, gazed at the man

fire she hadn't seen in so

heart skipped a beat,

had long been replaced by shadows ever since he'd woken

of light, had become darker than

last person she wanted to see at

bitter laugh

fluttered closed, and with what little strength

"You are Jasper...

but...

anymore..." Jasper's brow furrowed, a wrenching pain

her mind that

through him, deep and

soaked fabric clinging to her, the icy slush weighing her

"Don't touch me...

Alyssa's

nothing else to resist him than voicing

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