Setting: A clearing in the woods. Twilight.
Adam is crouched centre-stage, dirty, still,
turned away from the group. The atmosphere is taut, breathless. Everyone enters
mid-whisper. Brian is already off-kilter, pacing, muttering.
JAN
Is that—?
MARK
Don’t.
JAN
It is. It’s him.
LOU
He’s meant to be... gone.
RICHARD
We saw him fall. We saw it.
DANNY
I’m not—I’m not doing this again.
LEAH
It’s Adam.
(They all stop. Silence. Adam says nothing, crouched, whispering to himself. Brian
begins rocking slightly.)
BRIAN
He’s come back wrong.
JOHN TATE
Nobody move. Just... watch.
ADAM (barely audible)
Tree’s full of sky if you look long enough.
CATHY (calmly observant)
He’s talking to ghosts.
BRIAN
No, no, no, he’s talking to me—I heard that—I’ve seen this before.
PHIL
Brian.
BRIAN (louder)
He’s got moss on his face. There’s things in the dirt. He ate roots—he's—
(He stumbles, grabs a handful of earth, tastes it, spits.)
LOU
Brian!
DANNY
He’s losing it again.
MARK
We all are. Look at him. Look at us.
LEAH
Adam? Do you know who we are?
ADAM (without turning)
Used to know. Everything’s under water now.
BRIAN (muttering fast)
He’s not really here. We’re not really here. This is punishment.
CATHY (to Brian)
Maybe it is.
JAN
He’s not supposed to be alive. He was—he was—
RICHARD
Don’t say it.
BRIAN (desperate)
We buried him with our mouths—don’t you remember that? All of you?
JOHN TATE
Brian, stop.
PHIL
He’s not dead. He’s right here. That’s the story now.
BRIAN
Then what did we do?
ADAM (quietly)
I slept in bark. I watched the air move. Things came.
DANNY
He’s cracked. He’s gone full—
LEAH (cutting in)
He’s traumatised.
CATHY (darkly)
He’s damaged. There’s a difference.
MARK
We left him. We did that.
LOU
He doesn’t look angry.
CATHY
That’s worse.
ADAM (to no one)
No shoes. No names. Just the whisper tree.
BRIAN (to Adam)
Did you see them? The eyes? In the ground?
(He suddenly grabs Adam’s shoulder. Adam flinches. A moment of panic. Everyone
reacts.)
PHIL
Brian!
ADAM (rising slowly)
There was a hole in the sky and I nearly fell.
(Pause. Brian backs away, trembling.)
BRIAN (small voice)
I didn’t mean for it to happen. I just wanted quiet.
LEAH
We all did.
JOHN TATE
We fix it now. We say he wandered. He’s ill. Shocked.
MARK
And the story before? That lie?
PHIL
Dead stories stay dead. This one’s breathing.
CATHY (to Phil)
Maybe he shouldn’t come back at all.
LEAH
Cathy!
CATHY (steady)
We’d be protecting him. From this. From what comes next.
ADAM (softly, to himself)
The birds don’t speak anymore. Not to me.
RICHARD
God...
DANNY
What if someone asks him?
LOU
What if he remembers?
PHIL
He won’t. Not properly. It’s broken in there.
BRIAN
Like me.
(Beat. Everyone falls quiet.)
LEAH
Then we walk. Together. Like we found him just now. Before dark.
ADAM (looks at Brian)
You hear them too?
(Brian freezes, tears welling. Nods slowly.)
BRIAN (to the group)
Don’t let him out of your sight again.
(The group begins to move. Adam stands, slightly hunched. No one touches him. They
move like shadows, trailing him. As they exit:)
ADAM (murmuring)
I dreamt I was missing... but no one looked.