Shadows of Fate

Chapter 16

Steady beeping of monitors echoed around me. I fought my eyes open and focused on an unfamiliar ceiling. Nurse Carroll stood nearby, adjusting a bag of water that hung next to my bed.

"She's awake." Nurse Carroll smiled.

"Icarus?" I mumbled. I reached out for the blurry figure at the end of my bed. My fingers tingled like tiny pin pricks.

"Thank God." Dad emerged from the blur and took my hand. Rubbing the back of my hand, Dad sent the stabbing numbness up my arm.

I looked into his bloodshot eyes. He took off his glasses with his free hand and wiped tears off on his sleeve.

"I thought I lost you," Dad sighed.

Maybe it was the mix of drugs being IV-dripped into my system, but I felt like a scared child being woken from a nightmare. I wanted the reassurance of my dad's warm arms. I wanted to hear him say, "It's all going to be okay," but as I looked over his tired face, I realized what I wanted didn't matter. It wasn't going to be okay.

Tears dripped down my cheeks. "Dad." I paused when my voice shook. "I'm sorry. I had to try." I failed. Tobias was gone. In the end, nothing I did mattered. Fate took what it wanted.

My dad nodded. "I should have listened. I always knew you two had a special bond, but I couldn't bring myself to hope anymore. I didn't think I could handle losing him as it was."

For the first time in years, my father pulled me into a hug and I cried on his shoulder.

"Thank you," Dad whispered and kissed my forehead.

I pulled back and wiped my eyes. "What?" Why would he be thankful? My stupid attempt might be the reason that Tobias—If I hadn't tried. Maybe if I'd opened the door sooner they could have...

"You stopped me from making a terrible mistake," Dad said.

"Dad, I—"

"Hey, nerd," a frail voice chuckled.

Tobias, wrapped in blankets, rolled up a wheelchair. My heart stopped, the air vanished from my lungs, and time froze...or at least it felt like it did. This was a cruel dream, one last punch in the gut from the universe.

"Not even going to say hi?" Tobias asked.

"T-Tobias?" was all I could mumble.

"They tried to keep me in bed." Tobias shrugged. "But hey, I've been lying around long enough."

I scrambled—more like fell—out of bed. My feet landed on the chilled linoleum, and I stumbled on legs that felt like noodles. Dad and Nurse Carroll lunged for me, but I flung my arms around my brother.

"Whoa, I didn't think you missed me that much," he teased.

"I thought I killed you," I half yelled through a sob. My legs gave out and I crumpled to the ground, resting my head on Tobias's knees.

"They said it was a 'medical miracle'," Tobias said, with sarcastic air quotes. "Something about the shock of being taken off life support so suddenly and being electrocuted from that freak lightning storm."

"Lightning?" I asked. I didn't remember a storm.

"I wasn't really listening." Tobias shrugged. "I was more interested in demanding food. Seriously, they won't let me eat anything solid. They're saying my system can't handle it. Ugh, I'm freaking seventeen." He looked to Nurse Carroll. She rolled her eyes. "Trust me, my stomach can handle anything."

I gawked at Tobias as he rambled. I couldn't focus on his words. He already looked a hundred times better. When I first got to the hospital, he looked like Skeletor, but now he was just on the verge of being considered creepy skinny.