Strings of Fate: The First Loop

CHAPTER 47

----Matt----

I’ve been driving for hours.

I didn’t go to school. I couldn’t. What would be the point, sitting in some classroom pretending the world hadn’t cracked open? I knew she wouldn’t be there. Not today. Instead, I’ve been tracing the map of Betty’s silence. I stopped by the church where she used to light a candle... or sitting tucked on the back benches, candles always half-melted, pews always creaking. I parked out front, just long enough to get out and glance through the stained glass. Empty. Then the town plaza, where she liked to watch strangers without having to speak. The mall food court where she once said everything tasted bland but still ordered fries. The seawall where the wind used to mess up her hair and she didn’t care. Everywhere I go, she isn’t there. And somehow, her absence is louder than if she were.

My phone buzzes on the passenger seat. I grab it without thinking.

Inez.

“We still can’t find her,” she says. Her voice sounds worn, like it’s been crying between words. “Even her dad’s called around. No one’s seen her since yesterday.”

I press the heel of my hand against my chest. It doesn’t help. The pressure doesn’t go away. “She’s not answering anyone?” I ask, though I already know the answer.

“No.” A pause. “And James... he hasn’t said anything since the incident.”

My grip tightens on the wheel. “Yeah. Of course he hasn’t.”

I hang up before I say something I can’t take back. I’m already shaking. I slam my hand on the steering wheel, yelling loud into the empty car.

“Damn it, Olive! How can you be so stupid!”

But it isn’t just anger anymore... it’s fear.

I don’t even know what I’ll do when I see her or James. I don’t care. Let the consequences come. Right now, all I care about is Betty. Because when she left…
She didn’t cry. She didn’t scream. She didn’t say a single word.

She just… left. And in her silence, there was something hollow. Something terrifying. Like she had burned through every emotion until there was nothing left inside her to feel. It's like the Betty I knew... the Betty who challenged people, who smiled in secret, who once said life was worth surviving for...was already gone. And that image won’t leave me.
It haunts me more than anything else.

“Betty…” I whisper. My throat burns.
“Where could you be…”

Morning bled into afternoon like a bruise... slow and aching. We had split up, scouring every inch of town. Dead ends. Empty benches. Empty parking lots. Every place she’s ever been felt colder without her in it.

Back at her house, the stillness was unbearable. Her dad sat on the porch, eyes fixed on the street like he could will her car into view. There was something devastating about the way he sat... upright, as if hope alone was holding his spine in place. His hands were clenched, white-knuckled on his knees, but his face was trying not to fall apart. Inez stood by the steps, her phone glued to her ear, listening to silence after every ring. Tim was behind her, arms crossed, jaw tight. No one said it out loud, but we all felt it... something was wrong. Really wrong.

“We should go to the police,” I finally said. My voice came out hoarse. “It’s been twenty-four hours.”

Betty’s dad looked up at me like I had just said what he was too afraid to voice.
“T-that’s a good idea,” he said, standing slowly, shoulders heavy.

“I’ll stay here,” Inez said softly, pocketing her phone. “Just in case… in case she comes back.”

Her voice cracked. Tim gently touched her arm, nodding without a word. I grabbed the car keys without even thinking. Mr. Mikhail followed me, quiet. The door shut behind us with a final-sounding click, like the closing of a chapter none of us wanted to write. As I pulled out of the driveway, I glanced in the mirror. Inez stood on the porch steps, looking down the road with the same haunted hope in her eyes as Betty’s dad had. Like maybe, just maybe, Betty would come home and this would all be a nightmare we could wake up from.