Unknown Location
The bedroom felt like it had been holding its breath for years.
Thick velvet curtains kept the moonlight from entering, plunging the room into deep shadows. The air was heavy and stale, smelling faintly of dry paper and burnt incense. Aside from the faint, rhythmic ticking of a clock on the nightstand, everything was silent.
In the center of the bed, inside a quilt, slept an old woman who appeared to be in her early 60s with gray hair. Her chest rose and fell in a slow, fragile rhythm. It was a perfectly peaceful scene.
Until it was not.
The old woman abruptly sat up, her back arched violently off the mattress, her frail fingers clawing at the bedsheets as if she had been electrocuted. Her eyelids snapped open, revealing blank, milky-white irises, devoid of any pupils that stared not at what was in front of her but blindly into the void.
"The one who walks in the sea of dreams…" she spoke to the empty room as if in a trance, without any emotions. "The one who manipulates the manipulators. The Author of fate… The one who changes reality with 'His' speech and 'His' pen… Ad—" Before she could finish her sentence, the atmosphere of her room got heavy, and the shadows darkened further. Her instincts, honed through decades of survival, violently closed her jaw; she bit her bottom lip, drawing blood.
The shock of almost incurring some hidden existence's gaze and the effort it took to stop herself from speaking the name caused her frail body too much stress, and she collapsed back on the bed, unconscious.
The room returned to silence.
***
Adam walked in the direction of his home in the cold night, rubbing his hands together, protecting himself from the cold air of New York. His breath plumed into misty clouds in the freezing air.
"I really, really should have worn something warmer and more comfy, instead of this thin shirt," he complained as he walked.
As he continued to walk, his face turned into a thoughtful frown. 'Now that I have confirmed that the acting method works, and I can progress further on this path to the divine in this universe, now what?'
'First things first, I should think about my financial situation. I only have some meager savings that can keep me fed for the next few months if I manage them well. I need some way to make more money, or else I don't know about the supernatural, but hunger will definitely not let me live.'
'But where can I get more money? Wait, the year 2008 will begin soon, and with it comes the Great Recession. I can invest in some properties, but it will be a long-term investment, and I don't even have the capital to invest currently.'
Adam suddenly stopped walking, his eyes shining with intensity; he had just come up with a brilliant way to make money. "Am I really a spectator? Why did my mind never think of this before?"
'I can use my Spectator powers to make money through gambling. I can already deduce what someone is thinking by their mannerisms, their body language, and I can definitely use this power in a card game and win.'
'Wait, why does every important decision I make have to be on the streets?' This really puzzled him. Scratching his head. 'I really need to stop doing that.'
With that, Adam increased his walking pace to get to his home as soon as possible. After another fifteen minutes of walking, he finally got to his apartment building. He went in, climbed the stairs, and opened his apartment door using his key.
After getting inside, the first thing to greet him was the familiar corridor. Adam locked the door behind him, went to his bedroom, and changed into some warmer clothes.
Done with that, he plopped on his bed and began thinking about the events that would take place soon and how to use them to his own advantage. 'The new year is nearly here, and with it comes the start of the canon. If I have to advance, then the best way is to spectate the whole debacle between Tony Stark and Obidiah Stane.'
'Tony is kidnapped in February and is held till May, which gives me around two months to prepare for the whole world getting a status upgrade from mundane to supernatural. I should continue with my acting method to digest the potion and get used to my powers properly.'
Now that he thought about what he would do regarding the start of canon. Adam's mind once again came to the topic of money.
'Sigh! I only have about $8,000 left from my inheritance and the insurance payout. I need to figure out how to make money in casinos. After a certain amount of time and money, I will need to change the casino, and I cannot use my official identity for gambling. I would need a fake identity.'
After thinking about all of this, he felt sleep tugging at the corners of his eyes. And so Adam closed his eyes to rest some more, because apparently having slept the whole day was not enough.
Adam opened his eyes to find himself in the backseat of a car. He looked ahead and saw two people sitting in the front seats: a man driving, and a woman sitting beside him.
Seeing this, Adam guessed that he was in a dream reliving a memory, and the people sitting in the front seats were his parents, and this was the night when they were coming from a concert, and this was also the night when the accident that took the lives of his parents happened.
Just as he was thinking this, the man's voice got him out of his thoughts. "Adam, how's school going? Is there something exciting going on?" The man—his father—asked in a teasing tone, while looking at him through the rearview mirror.
His father, Mikhail, was a handsome man with rough features; he had blonde hair, blue eyes, stubble on his face, broad shoulders, and looked like a swimmer rather than an engineer. He looked like grown-up Adam, just more on the muscle side.
"Nothing exciting is happening right now, Dad," Adam answered without meaning to, having lost all control of his body.
"Sweetie, is there any girl that you are interested in?" asked his mother in a sweet voice that made one want to let down their guard around her.
His mother, Claire, was beautiful in her own right. She had bright blonde hair and warm brown eyes that brimmed with maternal affection. Even at sixteen, Adam still melted under that loving gaze. While she might not compare to Hollywood celebrities, to him, she was truly beautiful.
Adam was currently observing his parents—the way his father watched him through the rearview mirror with a hint of amusement, and how his mother looked at him with that same shared, mischievous spark in her eyes.
"No, Mom, there is no one that I like right now!" Adam answered shyly.
He was trapped here without any control over his own body in this memory. 'Sigh! And here comes the moment that I am dreading.'
Mikhail again looked through the rearview mirror and said to his wife in a teasing voice. "Honey, leave him be when—"
"Dad! Watch out!" yelled Adam as the car in front of them got out of control, and one of its tires blew up.
Mikhail desperately fought to slow their car down, but it was too late. Before he could do more, the car in front of them lost control and flipped, and being just behind it, their car crashed straight into the flipped car, and tumbled all the way till it came to a stop.
Adam's head was spinning. He was hanging upside down, strapped to his seat by the seatbelt. His entire body throbbed with agonizing pain, and he could feel warm blood dripping down his face. Fighting through the intense vertigo, he managed to open his eyes. "Dad... Mom... are you guys okay?" he croaked. They did not reply. Before losing consciousness, he glimpsed through the window that someone was watching it all happen from a distance.
"Help! Help my parents, please." He reached his hand out and begged the stranger, but the man did not do anything and just watched silently. Adam could not get a good look at the stranger; only his blonde hair stood out in the darkness. A second later, the world went black.