The instance Sam touched the glowing white sapling, everything blacked out.
Sam was plunged into a seemingly eternal abyss of darkness– void.
He was very familiar with this void. This was death. Or the place one goes after one dies.
Sam always feels a force sucking him deeper into the darkness whenever he comes here. But before that could happen, his body in the real world would start regenerating, and he would be pulled back to life.
Not this time, though.
Nothing happened this time and Sam was sucked into the bottomless pit of the abyss.
No feeling, no sensation, nobody. It felt like he was just 'there' with his consciousness getting sucked deeper and deeper.
Seconds passed and turned to hours. Hours turned to days and days turned to weeks.
After god knows how long, Sam finally felt something. He felt his body.
The sensation of being alive returned to him, causing him to abruptly shoot open his eyes.