Adam flinched as if the words themselves had physically slapped him. He held the phone away from his ear for a moment, wincing.
"Okay... yeah, I deserve that,"
he muttered, waiting for the second wave of fury.
"You think?! What the hell happened?! You disappear, give me some sci-fi nonsense about wings and games messing with reality, and then go radio silent right after?! I thought maybe you were dead, Adam!"
Her voice cracked slightly at the end, the anger barely masking the underlying panic and exhaustion. Adam pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
"I know. I know. I’m sorry. Things... spiraled out of control."
"Out of control? OUT OF CONTROL?! You dropped a nuclear bomb of information on me and then vanished into thin air! What the hell am I supposed to think? I even tried tracking your location but your phone’s GPS is off and you never went back to your place. Where are you right now?"
Adam glanced back at the house, watching shadows move behind the curtain as the others carried on with breakfast. His voice dropped, low and steady.
"I’m safe. I’m with people who are going through the same thing I am. It’s... not just me, Penny. Everything I told you before is real. The game, the changes, all of it. We’re trying to figure it out together."
There was a pause on the line, followed by the faint sound of pacing. Penny’s voice came back, sharp but laced with disbelief.
"I still find this really hard to believe you know? That some game is screwing with reality and changing people?"
"I’m not asking you to believe it because it sounds crazy. I’m asking you to believe it because you know me. And you know I wouldn’t say something unless it was true."
Another long silence. Then, more quietly,
"You don’t sound the same."
Adam leaned against the railing, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I don’t feel the same. Not completely. Something’s changing inside me, even if it’s not visible yet. I can feel it. Like I’m not the me I once was. But honestly, I am not so sure that that is a bad thing."
A breath caught on the other end of the line.
"So, what, you’re just hiding out in some cabin in the woods?"
She tried to shift the topic slightly in order to avoid the atmosphere becoming too heavy and they end up fighting again.
A weak chuckle escaped Adam’s lips as he replied.
"Does the middle of Suburbia count as a cabin in the woods?"
Silence followed for a few seconds before Penny shouted again
"Seriously?! You’re hiding in the Suburbs?! Like some random guy’s house in the middle of the neighborhood where pretty much anyone could see you?"
"Yeah. Hiding in plain sight. Also it’s not some random guy’s house. It’s my friend’s house. "
You have friends now?"
Penny said, her tone equal parts mocking and shocked.
"You barely talked to anyone outside apart from me, and now suddenly you’re crashing at someone’s place during your supernatural identity crisis?"
Adam sighed, dragging a hand through his hair.
"Yeah, well... a lot has changed."
Penny muttered something under her breath that Adam couldn’t make out, but it sounded suspiciously like "cult vibes."
"They’re not a cult,"
"But were you thinking it?"
Another moment of silence as she did not deny it. As slight annoyance washed over him, Adam couldn’t help but think
’So this is what Leo was feeling huh?’
Now that he was on the other side of the joke, it wasn’t so funny anymore.
When Penny spoke again, her voice was quieter and less tense, as if she was getting groggy and about to fall asleep.
"So who are these people? Anyone I know?"
"Surprisingly, yes. I think you do know at least one person."
There was a sudden shift in Penny’s voice, the exhaustion giving way to wary curiosity.
"Wait, seriously? Who?"
Adam hesitated for a moment, weighing how best to explain without spiraling into another surreal-sounding revelation.
"You know that Singer who is pretty famous nowadays. Girls go crazy over him? I think their stage name is Ari Eversong?"
"You know Ari Eversong?! Like he is there with you right now?!"
There was unparalleled excitement in Penny’s voice
Adam winced, pulling the phone slightly away from his ear again as Penny’s volume jumped.
"But before you start planning a fan letter or something, you should know... he’s kind of different now. Like, really different."
She demanded, barely keeping her voice in check.
"Did he shave his head? Is he secretly forty?"
Adam shook his head with a wry smile on his face as he calmly replied
"Well first off, He is actually a she. Ari’s real name is Aria. Aria is the one who grew wings by the way."
There was a long pause on the other end of the line, so long that Adam pulled the phone away and checked if the call had dropped.
A sharp inhale crackled through the speaker.
"You mean to tell me," she said slowly, as if each word required conscious restraint, "that Ari Eversong is not only real, not only with you, not only sprouting actual wings like some fantasy novel, but also a woman?"
Adam replied, bracing himself.
Penny let out a high pitched sound somewhere between a scream, a laugh and a groan.
"Okay! I don’t even know where to begin unpacking that."
Adam leaned back against the wooden fence and looked up at the cloudy sky.
"You don’t have to. I know how it sounds."
"No, you really don’t,"
"I was ready to believe maybe you were losing it, or that this was some kind of elaborate prank. But now you’re telling me that an elusive pop idol who doesn’t perform in front of the public eye just sprouted wings and is crashing in the suburbs with you and a bunch of mystery people?"
"Okay Uncle. Text me your current address, I am coming over. You better be telling the truth! Or Else!"
The line suddenly went dead, Leaving Adam stunned and at a loss for words.
How was he gonna explain this to the others?