Arc 4 : I.N's Lucid Dream - The Plane Accident

I.N had always loved traveling for his solo schedules. Today’s flight was supposed to be another quiet, uneventful journey home after a successful trip abroad. However, as the plane soared through the sky, something felt strange. There was an unsettling shift in the air, a subtle hum vibrating through the cabin. A sudden jolt shook the aircraft. The passengers stirred uneasily, and the seatbelt sign flickered on. I.N’s grip tightened on the armrests as the plane lurched again, far more violently this time. His heart raced, a sense of dread creeping up his spine. The lights flickered overhead, casting eerie shadows. The intercom crackled, and a tense voice echoed through the cabin. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing severe turbulence. Please stay seated." The vibrations of the plane grew worse, shaking it in every direction. A sound like metal twisting filled the air, and suddenly, everything went black. --- When I.N’s eyes opened again, he wasn’t in the plane. He wasn’t even in the real world anymore. His body felt heavy, almost foreign. He was suspended in what seemed to be an endless void, the air thick with an eerie stillness. His limbs refused to obey him, though his mind was alert. He could feel his heart racing and his breathing shallow, but he couldn’t move. It was as if he was trapped in his own body, his mind conscious but his physical self completely paralyzed. He tried to blink, but his eyelids felt glued shut. The darkness around him was impenetrable, and the sensation of being trapped outside his own body grew more intense with every passing second. I.N wanted to scream, to call for help, but no sound left his mouth. His voice was completely locked inside him, leaving him to fight in silence. He struggled to force his body into action, but it was as if his consciousness had been severed from the physical world. His body was lying somewhere, but he couldn’t see it—he was only aware of the void. The silence was maddening, and his mind raced. Wake up. Just wake up. But his body wouldn’t listen. In desperation, he tried to move, to push himself out of this strange state, but each attempt was futile. He could see the faintest flickers in the space around him—flashes of something. But what? He couldn’t tell. It was like his mind was trying to piece together a puzzle with too many missing pieces. The world around him didn’t stay still. It was like a faulty television screen, flickering in and out of focus. Is this... a dream? I.N thought, but he wasn’t sure. It didn’t feel like a dream. It felt too real. Too suffocating. He couldn’t escape it. Every time he tried to move away, the flickering world followed him, pulling him back, suffocating him. I.N didn’t know how much time had passed. His body felt cold, and his surroundings remained in constant flux. Every flicker left him more disoriented, his mind spinning as he tried to make sense of it. But there was no escape. He couldn’t even find his body, the one he so desperately needed to wake up from this nightmare. He tried calling out to anyone, even though he knew no one could hear him. His cries for help were swallowed by the vast emptiness around him. Please, wake up. This can’t be real. But nothing happened. --- With every flicker, I.N felt as though he was slipping further away from reality. His mind raced, his thoughts frantic, but his body—his real body—was beyond his reach. It was as if time had stopped, and he was left, alone and helpless, drifting in a sea of nothingness. His attempts to break free from this paralyzing state grew weaker with each passing moment. His consciousness was fraying at the edges. He tried to wake himself up, to shake himself from this nightmare, but it was like trying to escape a cage made of his own thoughts. He could still sense his body, lying unconscious somewhere in this twisted version of reality. He could feel his pulse, his breath, but no matter how hard he focused, he couldn’t make it move. He was trapped in the space between wakefulness and sleep, between life and death. It felt like he was caught in an endless loop, unable to break free. The flickering images around him were maddening, but every time he thought he was getting closer to an answer, to finding a way out, they vanished, leaving him stranded once again. I.N didn’t know how long he had been stuck like this. Hours? Days? Time seemed irrelevant in this place. All he knew was that he couldn’t escape. He was trapped, helpless in his own lucid nightmare. And so he drifted, suspended in the void, unsure of whether he was asleep or awake, alive or dead. His mind screamed for release, but his body remained motionless, trapped in the dream he couldn’t wake up from. The darkness swallowed him whole, and I.N's fate remained uncertain. Would he ever find his way back to reality? Would he wake up from this nightmare, or was he doomed to remain here, trapped in the endless void? And as the darkness closed in, I.N’s consciousness faded once again, leaving only the question of whether he would ever escape this lucid dream As I.N floated in the void, suspended in the oppressive silence, his mind raced with desperate thoughts. His body refused to obey, trapped in a paralyzed state, while his consciousness remained painfully aware of every flicker around him. The space around him continued to glitch in and out of existence, making him question whether this was a dream or something worse. Every attempt to wake up, to move, to escape this nightmare, failed miserably. The isolation was unbearable. But just as the flickering images seemed to intensify, and I.N’s hope began to fade, he heard it—a faint whisper, so soft that at first, he wasn't sure if it was his own mind playing tricks on him. “I.N...” It was almost imperceptible, the voice of someone far away, but he could hear it as clearly as if they were right beside him. His heart skipped a beat, and a spark of hope ignited deep within him. His name… Someone is calling me? “I.N... please, wake up...” The voice whispered again, louder this time, as if it were reaching through the void, trying to break through the walls that held him trapped. He closed his eyes, feeling a surge of emotion. This whisper, though small, brought him a glimmer of hope he hadn't felt since he first entered this nightmare. Someone is out there… His heart beat faster, the flickering around him slowing just for a moment as the whisper seemed to resonate in his chest. He felt connected to something—someone—beyond the void. The distance between him and this voice was vast, but in this moment, the tiny thread of connection between them made him believe that maybe, just maybe, there was a way out. With all the strength he could muster, I.N clung to that faint whisper. Even in the darkest, most uncertain corners of the lucid nightmare, the voice brought him something to hold onto—hope. “I.N... don’t give up...” The voice said, a comforting presence in the swirling chaos. I.N took a deep, shaky breath, his pulse quickening. He wasn't alone in this void, not entirely. There was someone out there, someone who knew his name. And for the first time since he entered this nightmare, he felt the tiniest spark of determination. “I’ll find a way... I will wake up.” With that fragile hope in his heart, I.N held on. The void remained, but the whisper kept calling, echoing through his soul. He didn't know how long it would take, or what lay ahead, but one thing was certain: he wouldn’t give up. Not now. As the darkness continued to swirl around him, I.N focused on the voice, a beacon in the overwhelming silence. And with that, the journey was far from over—there was still a chance for him to escape the lucid dream.