Curtain Call - An AJR Fic (Everything Clicks - Book 3)

My Play (Adam)

I had no idea how to respond. I simply sat silently, dumbfounded and unable to process anything. What was the correct way to respond to something like this? Was there one? If there was, I had never learned it.

"Wait...so if this is all true..." I managed to articulate. "If we died in his dimension, and he died in ours..."

"Then...we've never met before," Ryan completed sadly. He looked at Jack with no emotion. "We know each other as brothers, and I wouldn't change that. But...the versions of each other that we knew in our own..." He hesitated, still trying to grasp the situation, "...in our own dimensions...they're all gone..."

I heard Jack's shrill gasps and saw his hand fly up to his face. He was trying so hard to control himself, but it wasn't working. Tears were welling up around the corners of his eyes. We sat in pained silence and I watched as he rose from his seat and stormed off toward his bedroom.

"Jack..." I muttered, standing up and chasing after him, Ryan in tow.

I could hear quiet sobs resonating from down the hall before Jack's bedroom door slammed, causing the walls to shake. I stopped in my tracks and stared into the empty hall. I felt like shit.

"Jack?" I called out, a bit louder than last time.

There was no response. Only uncomfortable stillness.

"Jack, come on," Ryan added. "We're still your brothers..."

A few more seconds passed by without words or any kind of sound. Then, I could just barely make out what sounded like speech.

"No, you're fucking not..."

"What?" I questioned. "What are you talking about?"

"My brothers are fucking dead! You aren't my Adam and Ryan, you're...you're..." Jack's sob was audible through the walls.

I had no idea what to tell him. How was I supposed to comfort him, knowing that these entire two years, he had been a completely different, maybe even supernatural version of the person I had grown up with? I stayed quiet as Ryan approached the door.

"Jack..." He began. "...do you remember those trips upstate we used to take with Dad? When we'd all wake up early for the drive there, and then we'd be exhausted and fall asleep on the drive home?"

Jack sniffled. "...Yeah? What does that have to do with anything?"

Ryan smirked slightly. "And our first show? How we played to six people in a room built for over two thousand?"

"Yes, Ryan, I remember."

Ryan took a breath. "And when the two of us used to do acting?"

Jack let out a small chuckle. "It's...kind of embarrassing to remember, but...yeah."

Ryan half-smiled. "What I'm getting at is that even though the versions of us you used to know are gone...we still have the same memories, the same experiences," He explained. "We're still the same people...and we still love you, Jack."

The other side of the door grew quiet. No sobs, no sniffles, nothing. After a moment, there was a click, and the door slowly creaked open to reveal a dejected-looking Jack. He simply blinked at the floor for a second before he spoke quietly.

"...I love you guys, too."

He stepped into the hallway as Shay nudged his hand lovingly. I hoped he knew how much we all cared. We weren't going to give up on him, and I hoped he wouldn't give up on us.

"But...what now?" Jack's brow furrowed. "We got all the documents, we know what they did. What's left to do? What...should we do?"

I thought to myself for a minute. I wasn't even sure that we'd get this far, let alone that we'd have a next step. But now that we were here, what were we supposed to do with the information we had? I looked to Ryan, who had an intense look on his face.