Strings of Fate: The First Loop

CHAPTER 48 - WHO WANTS DINNER?

-----Inez-----

It’s been three days.

Three days of white walls, antiseptic air, and the slow drip of IV fluid ticking louder than a clock ever could. Three days of waiting for our superhero to wake up. Betty lies in the hospital bed like a fallen warrior. Her head is bandaged, her skin pale beneath the fluorescent light, like all the color of her battles has been drained from her. She doesn’t move, not even a twitch, and I swear every beep of the monitor feels like it’s keeping time for our hope… and our fear. I stand by the window of the hospital room, arms crossed over my chest like a cape I don’t deserve to wear. I'm just the sidekick. Not strong enough to catch her. Not fast enough to stop the fall. Tim's beside me, his hand resting on my back, grounding me. Drake and Corey are in the corner, quiet for once, their usual banter swallowed by the weight of the room. Corey’s head rests on Drake’s shoulder. Drake’s arm is wrapped tightly around him, as if letting go might unravel what’s left of us. Her dad sits by her side, holding her hand like it's the last thread tying her to this world. His eyes are bloodshot, but he doesn’t cry. Not anymore. Maybe he’s used up all his tears. Or maybe, like me, he’s too scared to feel too much, in case feeling might crack him open.

James is here too.

Sometimes he’s sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, face in his hands. Other times he just stands at the door like a lost dog, unsure if he’s allowed in. But he stays. He always stays. Even when Matt’s in the room. They’ve been taking turns, sitting with her. Two boys who love her in their own way. A fire and a storm. A hurricane and a wreckage. I don’t know what she’ll do when, if, she wakes up. I don’t think any of us do.

But I know one thing. We all failed her.

And no matter how many times I replay that night in my head, Betty on the cliff, her scream, her slipping... I keep wondering: should I have run faster? Should I have grabbed her? Could I have flown if I’d tried hard enough?

Maybe that’s the thing about being human. We dream of capes and powers and saving people, but when the moment comes, we’re all just standing in the wind, too slow, too scared, too late. I look at her now and she looks peaceful. But it’s the kind of peace that terrifies me. The quiet before a decision is made. The kind of stillness you find in space, beautiful and unreachable. Tim brings me coffee and I barely taste it. He wraps his arm around me again and I lean into him like I’m trying to remember gravity. Like I need someone to remind me I’m still here.

"She’s strong," he whispers.

"Yeah," I reply. "But even heroes get tired."

And Betty, she’s the strongest one of us. The girl who gave everything she had to people who didn’t always know how to hold it. The girl who believed in light even when surrounded by darkness. The girl who kept fighting until her soul gave out.

Please wake up, Betty. Because even sidekicks need their hero.

Later that evening, after her dad had gone home to rest and Matt stepped out for food, I found James sitting alone in the hospital’s quiet lounge, just down the hall from Betty’s room. His hoodie was too big for him today. Or maybe he just looked smaller. The vending machine hummed behind us, a low mechanical purr, like the belly of a spaceship where broken people came to grieve. I walked up and sat beside him. Not too close. He didn’t look at me, just kept staring at the floor like it had all the answers he couldn’t find in himself.

“I don’t deserve to be here,” he said finally. Voice thin. Wrecked.

I leaned back, eyes on the flickering ceiling light. “You’re right. You don’t.”