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

was pierced, the pain unbearable as he saw the denial

push through the agony, opening

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

terror as he

might never wake up

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

wet with tears, gazed at

eyes burned with a fire she hadn't seen in

skipped a beat,

replaced by shadows ever since he'd woken

had become darker than the night, colder than

person she wanted

bitter laugh

and with what little strength remained, she

"You are Jasper...

but...

need you anymore..." Jasper's brow furrowed, a wrenching

cold had clouded her mind that she was just speaking

through him,

soaked fabric clinging to her, the icy

"Don't touch me...

Alyssa's eyes

could do nothing else to resist him than

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