04

Chapter Four

A W A K E N

When Adam opened his eyes he was sitting in a large white bed.

Dust twirled in moonlit beams.

The air was light, clean, Adam cried.

He got out.

The tears were so full that the trails left branch sized streaks down his cheeks.

He uttered not a sound.

It was then that he looked up.

WHO-

Who is that?

I S A B E L L A : A AUTHOR'S NOTE

A fucking ROMANCE novel.

Fury was his first reaction, sending his small body into a dizzying head rush.

Ada-Osiris swayed.

Right, Osiris.

The boy grabbed his head.

Fucking Isabella and her god damn romance novels.

The boy blushed.

He was ashamed of how much he actually knew about this fucking story of a prince falling in love with his high school friend.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together.

The boy was going to die.

This was it. His shame.

Memories of his friend showing him hours of images and animations and random theories circulating the fandom bulldozed their way through his mind.

A fucking book.

Osiris grabbed his head.

The absurdity made him chuff out a laugh.

It ended up being dry, more of a puff than a chuff.

Osiris looked into the mirror across the room again.

He wasn't wrong. What he saw staring back at him was Prince Osiris Lux, Male Lead.

The irony is kind of funny.

"In the story, the prince had a pretty fucked up childhood. Not much is said, BUT for sure he was locked up somewhere as a kid. It's speculated the q u e e n was behind it-"

Osiris cringed.

"-ook at how cute he is!!" Images of a child with pink hair filled his vision for three hours straight. He learned a lot about that kid. It was even starting to get intere-

Osiris slapped his cheeks, stinging them red.

Right, focus.

Through all the denial the boy finally understood what was going on.

And it wasn't just a story anymore.

"-into school yeah? Well after the war that was when he met-"

Adam held his head.

Right, a school. It's about a school girl falling for a prince, a reverse harem type of deal. They meet in school, share their traumas, and fall in love. Then a.. war? Yes, a war. They save the Kingdom. Lux Kingdom. Treaties? Marriage, maybe kids? That last part might be made up. Shit.

Osiris didn't know the story well enough to know what was real or fake.

He rubbed his eyes.

"-ad. The royal family is fucked up, there was a lot of drama with them during the Dungeon Arc, you know, when the inva-"

A toxic family.

Right, right. Osiris Lux, Fourth Prince, youngest. There were a lot of theories about his past, but it was, 'absolutely tragic', as Isabella would put it.

Osiris looked at how young he looked.

I look no older than ten.

The reality of the situation hit deep.

He was in danger.

He had no information about this guy's past. Nothing. Most of his knowledge would fit the future, not the present. Osiris took a deep breath.

The pain was too real to ignore in this world.

A drop of dew fell from a leaf.

He could not ignore where he was. There was nowhere to go. He was trapped here.

A bug chirped, it sounded like a cicada.

The only truth I have is here.

Osiris touched his chest, the beats were off sync.

A pause.

Osiris finally let his eyes drop to the strange little cube in the far right side of the room.

He had been ignoring it, hoping it would go away, but the little black box scurred around with its weirdly stylized eye aiming straight for him no matter where the little fucker went.

Someone was watching him.

Osiris looked back at the mirror.

Am I losing it?

The door opened.

The King punished not only the guards, but the entire unit behind them.

The cleanse had begun.