...Eric's eyes finally got heavy. The whole long day, which felt like a big up and down ride of feelings, along with being tired from the trial and spending time with his family, had made him very sleepy.
He felt really comfortable in his soft, big bed, sinking into the nice sheets and pillows. His mind was finally quiet and peaceful after feeling guilty earlier. He fell asleep, letting go of everything that happened that day, going into the dark comfort of sleep.
But he didn't get to rest peacefully for long. Just as he was going into a deep sleep, feeling warm and cozy, a sudden, sharp pain, like being stabbed, shot through his chest. It felt like fire tearing through him inside. He gasped, suddenly finding it really, really hard to breathe. It wasn't just the burning pain; it felt like something was crushing him deep inside his chest. Something was terribly wrong.
The pain was so sudden and strong that it woke him up right away. His eyes popped open instantly. They were wide and scared because of the awful pain in his chest. He tried to take a breath, but it was a short, weak sound in his throat.
The moment Eric's eyes flew open, his gaze landed on a shape standing right next to his bed. It was a person wearing all black clothes, from his feet to his hooded jacket. The person's face was hidden by a dark hood pulled down low and something dark covering his nose and mouth.
He looked like a shadowy, scary figure, standing completely still, making Eric feel a cold fear even with the pain he was in. And this dark person had done something horrible. He had pushed a knife – a dark, mean-looking knife – deep into Eric's chest. The whole knife was inside him, the handle touching his skin. It looked like the tip went all the way through to his back.
As soon as Eric understood what he was seeing – the person, the knife, the pain – a sudden, painful shock, like electricity, went through his whole body. It started in his chest and shot down to his arms and legs and up into his head, making him feel sick and dizzy from the terrible feeling.
He opened his mouth without thinking, wanting to scream, to let out a loud cry of pain and fear to get help. But just as he opened his mouth to scream, from the other side of the bed, another killer, also wearing black clothes, showed up super fast, like a shadow jumping out. This second person had a knife in his hand too. With a quick, scary move, the killer spun the knife in his hand and pushed it straight, right into Eric's neck, into his throat.
The sharp, cold knife went through Eric's soft throat, cutting skin, muscle, and important tubes for air and blood, and came out the other side of his neck. The pain in his neck happened right away and was completely blinding, so bad that the chest pain felt less important for a second.
Eric reacted without thinking, his free hand shooting up to his neck right away. He grabbed the spot where the knife was stuck, trying to pull it out or just stop the horrible feeling of cutting and bleeding. He gasped again, trying to breathe, but no air came in. Nothing. The knife in his throat completely blocked the air tube. His breathing stopped completely and painfully.
He couldn't pull in even a tiny bit of air. He felt a terrible, choking feeling building up in his chest because he couldn't breathe at all. His eyes, which were already wide from the chest pain, were now wide with pure panic because he couldn't get air. He couldn't understand what was happening.
His mind was spinning. It felt like this whole scary event – the first person, the knife in his chest, the second person, the knife in his throat, not being able to breathe at all – all happened in just a few awful seconds. It was just a confusing mix of dark shapes and sudden, really bad, horrible pain. He was just falling asleep nicely in his bed, and then this nightmare started.
As he held his bleeding neck with one hand and weakly grabbed the handle of the knife in his chest with the other, fighting uselessly to breathe, Eric's eyes saw a third person.
This third killer, also wearing completely black clothes that seemed to hide them in the low light of the room, was standing calmly in front of his bed, maybe near the end of the bed or slightly to the side. This person wasn't moving. He was just standing there, relaxed, watching Eric suffer and die. He didn't seem to be in a hurry; he just watched. It was a scary, patient way of watching, waiting for Eric to die.
Eric tried to open his mouth again. He wanted to yell, to scream, to gasp, to make any sound at all – even just a painful noise. But no sound came out. Nothing. The knife stuck in his throat completely blocked his voice.
His mouth opened wide in a silent scream showing his horrible pain and rising fear. His body was starting to shake a little because of the pain and not getting enough air to his body. His chest felt like it was burning, begging for air that just wasn't coming.
But even though his body was giving up fast, and it felt like he was going to die any second, Eric's mind was still racing. Pushed by pure fear and the strong will to live, he was desperately looking for help. He knew there was something inside him, something powerful that could maybe do impossible things. System Window, he yelled inside his head, his thoughts weak but filled with a desperate need.
He sent the thought into his inner world with all the strength he had left. Save me! Please, you have to save me! The plea echoed in the strange, glowing space where he knew the System lived inside him.
This whole scary event – the brutal attack, Eric's terrible pain, him trying to scream silently, his panicked cry for help – was being watched by Adam. Adam was inside Eric's body, in his inner world. Adam saw everything using the strange connection he had to Eric's senses.
He felt the shock of the knife in the chest, the awful pain from the cut throat, Eric fighting hard for air, and the pure fear filling Eric's mind as he faced death. Adam's spirit form suddenly got very stiff and ready. His eyes, which looked like dark holes filled with energy, suddenly became very bright with strong anger. He hated that the body he was trapped in was being hurt, hated feeling weak to people from the outside.
Adam, who was standing straight up in his inner world instead of sitting on his sofa (because he was annoyed earlier), spoke now. His voice was full of controlled anger and directed at the System, which was always there in this inner space.
"Did you not see these killers coming at all?! No warning?!" He demanded an answer from the Millenia System. He was clearly very angry that the System, which he thought would always be watching, didn't sense the bad guys until they were already stabbing the body he was stuck in. Adam wasn't just pretending to be angry. He had felt a faint feeling earlier, like something was in Eric's room that shouldn't be there, something was hiding itself very well.
He felt it some time ago, but it was just a small feeling he didn't pay much attention to, thinking the System or the palace guards would stop any danger before it got this far. Now he was angry at Eric for being so easy to attack, and even more angry at the System for failing its job.
Just then, Adam and the System window heard Eric's desperate cry for help echo faintly in the inner world. Save me! The thought was weak, like a dying light, but it was clear and full of the strong need of someone who was about to die. When it heard this desperate call, the Millenia System, or System window, appeared instantly in front of Adam in his dimension.
The System's voice, even though it didn't have feelings, sounded like there was something important happening. "Master," it said, its glowing light blinking quickly. "The seal holding you is very weak now! It's because Eric's body is being badly hurt and is about to die! You must take this chance! You must save Eric now!"
The System's power that kept Adam trapped was connected to Eric's life. Because Eric was so badly hurt and almost dead, the seal's power was much weaker for a short time. This meant Adam might be able to break through and take physical control of the body for a little while, just when it was most needed.
Suddenly, the view of Eric's bedroom outside became the main focus again, looking even more real than the inner world. We saw Eric's body again on the bed. One of Eric's hands was still holding his neck, trying without success to stop the terrible bleeding and somehow get air in. With his other hand, his fingers were shaking slightly, weakly holding the handle of the knife sticking horribly out of his chest. He was losing consciousness.
The two killers who had attacked him had both stepped back a few steps from the bed. Their black shapes still looked scary in the dim light. They were standing back, looking calm and sure that Eric was going to die now. They just watched Eric suffer, waiting for him to die. They didn't need to do anything else; the deep cuts they made with their knives had done what they were supposed to do. Eric was about to die.
Not being able to breathe was finally becoming too much for Eric's body. The desperate, terrible feeling of not getting any air, which had been going on for what felt like forever, was making him feel dizzy. The edges of his vision were starting to get dark and fuzzy. Because he hadn't been able to breathe, hadn't gotten any air for many long, painful seconds, his mind was starting to shut down.
He was losing his connection to what was real. He was about to completely black out. And as the room seemed to spin and get dark, Eric's body, which had gotten stiff and was trying to sit up because of the shock and pain, finally gave in to not having air or blood flowing right. His body went limp, and he started to fall backward onto the bed, his weight sinking into the soft mattress from the sitting position he had been in.
But just when Eric's eyes, which had closed because he was losing consciousness, should have stayed closed in death or deep sleep, they suddenly snapped open again. It happened so fast it didn't look natural. But there was something very different about them this time.
The way they looked wasn't Eric's usual scared, confused, or kind look. This time, they were Adam's eyes. They glowed a little with an old, cold light. They looked sharp and filled with a scary knowledge and power that had been locked away.
Adam had, for just a short, very important moment – a chance that happened because the System warned him and because the barrier holding him got weaker from the body being hurt so badly – been able to break through the limits and take full control of Eric's body. This body was his again, at least for the time he needed it.
The three killers in the room were still watching, standing a little way back. They saw Eric's body become limp and start to fall back, looking like he was finally dying from the awful injuries they had given him. They didn't see any sudden change in his body, just the body falling down like someone who was dying from knife wounds in the chest and throat.
But then, something impossible, something that shouldn't happen to a body that was dying, did happen. Eric's body, which was in the middle of falling backward onto the bed, suddenly stopped moving. It froze in the air for a second. Then, with surprising speed and power, going against gravity and death itself, it sat back up right away on the bed.
Adam, who was now completely in control of Eric's body, didn't waste any time. He immediately moved the hand that had been holding Eric's neck, which was covered in blood, down to the terrible cut on his throat.
As his hand touched the injured area, a bright, glowing green light came out of his palm and fingers. The light was strong and bright. It pulsed with powerful healing energy.
And in a second, incredibly fast, this green light completely healed the terrible cut on Eric's neck. It sealed up the big slash where the knife had been, fixing the cut tubes for air and blood perfectly. There wasn't even a scar left.
Then, with another fast and sure movement, happening right after the first one, Adam, still moving with scary speed and control in Eric's body, reached down to Eric's chest.
Without stopping or showing any sign of pain on Eric's face (which Adam was controlling now and showed no feelings), he grabbed the handle of the knife sticking out and pulled the knife out quickly and roughly.
It slid out easily, covered in blood. The moment the knife was out, showing a big, deep hole in Eric's chest, the same strong green light that had healed the neck wound immediately showed up on his chest. It glowed brightly and pulsed with healing power. It covered the big wound where the knife had been. This light wasn't just healing the outside skin; it was quickly fixing the damage inside – the cut muscles, any broken bones, and his important lungs that had been poked. The healing of this deep, deadly chest wound, fixing the insides too, happened incredibly fast, almost instantly. It was done using some amazing healing power Adam was using through Eric's body.
This whole super-fast sequence of things – Eric's body sitting up unnaturally fast, the hand going to the neck, the burst of green light fixing the throat, the knife being pulled from the chest, the chest wound instantly glowing and closing – all happened in just tiny parts of a second.
It was a blurry mix of speed and bright green light that looked impossible after being stabbed like that.
Before the three killers, who had been watching calmly just moments ago, could do anything – before they could react to seeing their target suddenly alive and healing, before they could even understand what they were seeing, before they could look surprised or try to stop it – Adam had already finished.
He had completely healed all the awful injuries on Eric's body that were meant to kill him right away. Eric's body looked perfectly fine again, like it had never been hurt. The cuts were gone, the bleeding stopped, the impossible healing was complete.