I'm Trapped Inside a Prince as the Most Powerful Entity

Chapter 2: Awakening in the Void

Darkness.

Adam remembered everything just before this. The long, quiet years lying still in a hospital bed. His body felt like it was sleeping, but his mind was wide awake, a prisoner inside. He couldn't move his arms, not even his pinky finger. Could this darkness be... the end? The nothingness people called death?

Or it was some weird, lonely place after you die? He couldn't tell. There was nothing to feel, nothing to see, nothing to hear except silent of emptiness.

Then, something changed. A tiny flicker, like a ripple in a calm pond. It wasn't outside him; it was him.

His body moved.

Adam shot up. He pushed himself off whatever he was on. He was standing, shaky but standing. His hands flew up in front of his face, trembling hard.

He stared at them. He turned them over. Fingers, palms, knuckles. His hands. He could see the lines on his skin, the shape of his fingernails. They listened to him!

A huge wave of shock washed over him. He ran his shaking hands down his arms, across his chest, over his stomach, down his legs.

Skin. Muscle. Bone. He could feel his own body, solid and real underneath his touch. He pinched his arm, hard. Pain! It was sharp and real.

He wasn't dreaming. This wasn't just in his head. After years of being stuck, unable to even blink on his own, he was whole. He was... alive? The question felt huge, filled with disbelief and a small, growing spark of hope.

But as the first shock faded, and his brain started working properly again, something felt very, very wrong.

He was completely, totally naked.

He looked down. His feet weren't on dry ground. A thin layer of water covered the surface, only about four inches deep, just enough to reach his ankles.

It was cold, really cold, and the cold feeling on his bare skin made the impossible situation feel terrifyingly real.

He splashed his foot a little, sending ripples spreading out into the darkness.

He looked around, trying to see into the gloom. It was no use. Just an endless, flat stretch of black. The water under his feet shimmered faintly, showing... nothing.

"Where... where am I?" The words came out rough. He hadn't used his voice in so long.

The sound of it made him jump. His own voice. He touched his throat, feeling the little shakes as he spoke.

He threw his arms out wide, tipping his head back towards the unseen top of this endless space. A laugh, shaky with tears and disbelief, burst out of him. He didn't care if anything heard him. He just needed to let it out.

"I'M FINALLY FREE!" he yelled, pouring all the years of being stuck and all this sudden, huge joy into the shout.

His voice echoed, bouncing off invisible walls far away before slowly fading, pulled back into the heavy silence. No answer came. No sign that his shout had reached anything or anyone. The huge empty space stayed the same, not caring.

The amazing, happy feeling started to fade away, replaced by a creepy feeling of unease. The joy of being free was real, but free where? He took a careful step forward, the cold water circling around his ankles.

He could see the dark, smooth ground under the water right near him, but beyond that? Nothing. Just nothing.

"Where am I?" he mumbled again, his voice a little less rough now that he was using it.

He looked hard into the dark all around him, searching for any shape, any light, any clue. There was none. A scary thought snaked into his mind. He had died.

"Is this hell?" he whispered, the word feeling bad. A place of never-ending darkness and cold water? It seemed possible.

"Or... is it heaven?" That didn't seem right. Heaven wasn't supposed to be empty and scary. Unless this was like a waiting room? A place you go before somewhere else?

He needed answers. He needed someone to be here.

"HELLO?!" he yelled, louder this time, trying to break the silence. "IS ANYONE THERE?!"

Only his own voice answered, fading away and leaving the silence heavy again.

Frustration started to bubble up, hot and angry, pushing away the fear for a moment. This was crazy! Free from his stuck body just to be trapped in an empty, dark space? He cupped his hands around his mouth, taking a big breath.

"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!" he screamed, using all his strength, hoping the sound would break the silence, force whatever this place was to answer him.

Still, nothing. The silence felt heavier now, like it was choosing not to answer.

A wave of feeling hopeless washed over him, putting out the fire of his anger. What was the point? Yelling into nowhere? He was alone. Completely, totally alone.

He squeezed his hands into fists, and looked up, searching for a sky, stars, anything. But the dark stretched above him just like it did everywhere else – a smooth, pitch-black emptiness. There was no up or down, no direction, just... nothing.

The strength left his legs. He slowly sank to his knees in the cold water. The splash sounded loud in the quiet. He felt so tired, not just in his body, but in mind. He rested his forehead on his clenched fists. Now what? Was he supposed to just wait here forever? In the dark? In the cold?

One simple, tired thought came to him. He sighed it out, not really expecting anything. "At least... give me some light."

The very second the words left his mouth, the darkness above him ripped open.

A burst of bright, shiny Yellow light appeared, warm.

Adam quickly covered his eyes with his arm. When he slowly lowered it, blinking because of the sudden brightness, he saw it.

A small ball, about the size of his football, glowed with a steady light. It floated gently right above his head, like his own mini sun. It wasn't blinding, but warm and bright, lighting up the space around him with a gentle glow.

His eyes went wide with shock. The heavy darkness hadn't gone away, but it had been pushed back, much farther away than before. Now, he could see about fifty feet in every direction.

The floor was clear now – perfectly smooth, black, like shiny glass, with that thin, clear water covering it.

Slowly, carefully, he stood up again. His heart was pounding fast. His mind raced, trying to put things together. He had felt hopeless, alone in the dark. He had whispered a wish for light, and right away, light had appeared.

Did... did this light appear because I asked for it? The thought was huge. He looked up at the glowing ball, floating silently above him. It pulsed gently, making his naked shadow long and clear on the watery floor.

A storm of confusion and a spark of intense curiosity started inside him. If his words, even a quiet wish when he felt like giving up, could make light appear from nowhere... what else? What else could he make happen in this strange, empty place?

A sudden, almost sneaky thought hit him, cutting through his fear. If this place listened to what he needed, at least what he said...

"If this place listens to my words... then..."

He looked from the watery floor back up to the glowing ball.

"Okay," he said, talking to the light. "If you can give me light, then at least give me some clothes! It's cold."

The moment he finished speaking, the air around him seemed to change, like it was wavy from heat. Then, fabric just appeared, settling onto his skin.

He looked down.

It was a hospital gown. Thin, light blue, tied loosely in the back. The same kind he had worn for endless days, weeks, years, stuck helpless in that bed.

Adam stared at it, a deep frown on his face. He ran his fingers over the soft, familiar cloth. A feeling of disgust went through him. "What the heck?" he muttered, disappointment sharp and unhappy. "Not this... I don't want this! Give me proper clothes. Something good."

Instantly, the hospital gown disappeared as quickly as it had shown up. In its place, new clothes settled onto his body.

He looked down again, his breath catching in his throat.

A clean white shirt with buttons. A dark blue jacket with a patch he knew well sewn on the pocket. Nice grey pants that weren't wrinkled. Shiny black shoes, somehow perfectly dry even though he was standing in water.

It was his old high school uniform. The one he wore during years before the accident that took away his ability to move. He hadn't thought about these clothes in ages, but here they were, looking exactly right.

These are clothes from my memory...

Realizing this sent a strange shiver, mixed with a good amount of fear, through him. This place didn't just listen to his words; it seemed to look inside his thoughts, his memories. It gave him light when he needed it, clothes when he asked – even specific clothes from his past.

He needed answers more than ever. The fear was still there, a cold tight feeling in his stomach, but the mystery was too interesting. He threw his arms out wide again, not happy this time, but daring.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" he shouted, his voice loud in the lit-up space, stronger now. "SHOW YOURSELF!"

Silence. The golden ball kept pulsing gently. The water rippled softly around his ankles. Nothing else changed.

Adam clenched his teeth, frustration coming back. Fine. If it wouldn't show itself...

"At least tell me where I am! WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!"

The air right in front of him shifting again. The light bent in a strange way.

Then, a rectangle of see-through blue light appeared out of nowhere, floating right at his eye level. It glowed softly, and strange, complicated symbols swirled across it. They quickly changed, turning into clear, easy-to-read words:

[I was created by the will of the Master.]

Adam automatically took a step back, his eyes glued to the glowing blue window. His mind struggled to understand it.

"Master?" Who was the Master? Was it the thing in charge of this place? Was it God? Or... something else?

Before he could even really think the questions, the words disappeared. The symbols vanished. Instead, a simple face appeared on the blue screen. It looked very basic, almost like a smiley face – two simple circles for eyes and a straight line for a mouth. It seemed to look right at him, not showing any feeling he could tell.

Then, it spoke. The voice wasn't like a person's. It was calm, made by a computer, but perfectly clear. It seemed to come right from the blue window itself.

"You created me, Master. Because you needed me."

Adam's breath caught in his throat. His eyes jumped from the simple face on the screen to the glowing ball above, then around at the empty, watery space. Me? I created this... thing? This place? Master?

His powers... had created this?

He didn't have any powers. He was just... Adam. A guy who had been paralyzed, who might have died, and who was now standing perfectly fine in the middle of nowhere, talking to a blue screen with a face.

He had absolutely no idea what any of this meant. The confusion was huge, like a thick fog in his mind. But under the confusion, under the fear that was still there, one simple, certain thing started to form.