Adam looked towards the window, high above him. From his low angle, tight behind the cables by the sofa, all he could see was an endless grey sky, the tree by the front door wonderfully still. It had always been large, so large that they couldn’t remove it, so large that he could see it from the bus stop, on the far side of the house, with yet another house between it and their own. Now, looking up at it from all the way down there, it looked mind-boggling.
Adam realised that the tree SHOULD leave him stunned, SHOULD fill him with dread, and that the first thing he SHOULD want to try and do is undo the situation. But he didn’t feel that way. Sat there, his housemates shouting and searching and panicking, blind to him, he felt an odd kind of schadenfreude, his stitched mouth extending into a smile. Looking up at that tree, and thinking about the world beyond, all Adam could think about was the promise of adventure.
Adam slipped out from behind the sofa, mounting the chair arm furthest from his housemates. Part of him wanted them to see him, to try and stop him, but at that point they were too busy shouting at Dan. He walked up the chair in the corner, mounted the windowsill, and with one last smile dove out, into the street beyond.
--
“I’m not taking blame.” Dan said, picking up the keyboard. “Look, see, the thing even logged the events, and look, all this started when you guys tried to stop me.”
“Which never would have happened if you just consulted us first.” Michelle retorted, snatching the keyboard. She moved onto Dan’s menu, only to find that the only details left were that he was ‘safe’ and ‘happy’. Satisfied, she moved back to her own menu. “I’m going to block fucking everything. I’m going to block it, and then we are going to get rid of it.”
There was another argument, the group descending on the device, only for Dan to snatch control back, hoisting it above them.
“It's MY device.”Dan said, shoving Chell back. “I found it, I bought it, and I am going to use it to find my best friend.”