The Time Capsule

Chapter Twelve.

          Nadia Wolfe was shoved into a room that emanated darkness. In the center of the floor, there was a gaping black hole. That was all that she could really see. And the guards were pushing her towards it.
         "Wait. No. I don't need to go into the Time Pit! I can hang out in the loop and not bother anyone while you decide my punishment. Please! No!" She started struggling against them, doing whatever she could to escape. Kicking, grabbing, biting, fighting... It was no use. The cuffs were holding her wrists, and the guards were so strong that trying was futile.
           She decided right then and there: Nadia Wolfe was going to play the long game. They pushed and forced her to the hole. Right when she was beginning to regret her decision and start back with fighting, Nadia's cuffs were taken off, and she was thrown into the Time Pit.
          Down, down, down, she fell into oblivion. It seemed endless, never-ending, infinite, whatever people wanted to call it. She thought that maybe this was her punishment: Falling into a hole for eternity, never dying, and never living. Just falling.
Nadia finally saw a small light at the bottom, fear coursing through her veins. 'NO! I don't want to die! I'm not ready!' Her heart pounded as she hit the ground at full speed. But, strangely, she didn't feel any pain from the impact.
           Light clawed at her eyelids, forcing them open. She inhaled deeply, breathing in the crisp, fresh air. She sat slowly up, looking at her surroundings, but stopping as a headrush paused her observations. Nadia blinked a couple of times, squinting. 'Am I... Dead? Or just in a random gorgeous place?'
         Then her memories rushed back: She was pushed into the Time Pit to await her punishment with the High Council. However, their definition of a Time Pit was much different than what she expected.
           A beautiful brick manor sat before her. The three story mansion had deep green vines crawling all over the walls. The grass was a rich and blinding green. The inside of the house was impossible to see since the windows were shrouded by gigantic, plush curtains that blocked her view. The manor's doors were huge. Enormous. Humongous. They had two brass knockers on the dark wood.
Nadia was sitting on the grass of the mansion's lawn. Both she and the manor were surrounded by insanely tall brick walls that were the height of those crazy large redwood trees.          About 300 feet tall.
          There were no exits that she could see, and being in this exquisite area was making her thoughts jumbled. 'Why am I here? Is this the Time Pit? Am I in prison? Am I dead? Why am I in this weird place and not in an actual pit?'
          She tentatively got up, walking over to the doors. 'Wait, I need to survey my outside surroundings first, then slowly make my way inside without making much noise. What if someone else lives here? That wouldn't be good...'
          After walking the full length of the yard, which was absolutely massive, she still couldn't find any doors or gates to escape this idyllic prison. Finally, after who knows how long of a search, she walked up to the large doors. 'What is so odd about this place? Something feels... off. But what?' She clenched her jaw, trying to come up with an answer. Then it hit her: There was no sound. No movement.
           There should be a breeze or bugs in the grass. Maybe a sun, or a moon of a sort. Instead, there was nothing that signified life or the passage of time.
         At last, she decided to go inside the Manor. It was the biggest place she had ever seen. It was almost like it was bigger on the inside than on the outside, if that was even possible. The giant main area had a huge and shiny rose gold ballroom floor and walls. The ceiling was impossibly high, with mirrors instead of paint on it, to reflect the gold when you looked above you.
         Instead of having an empty dance space like a normal ballroom would have, there were beds everywhere on the floor.
'Beds? Why would there be beds in the Time Pit? There were beds of all shapes and sizes, colors, fabrics... One bed was a huge four poster with black wood and brilliantly white bedding. It had silver sewn into the pillow cases, shining vibrantly. Another was a simple cot with dark green fabric for the bedding and metal legs. Yet another was the shape of a race car. She was worried it might turn on and start driving around, with the way it looked so realistic.
            Confusion wrapped around Nadia's mind. After all, reality as she knew it was bending and breaking all around her. She carefully walked over to a small set of acacia wood doors on the right side of the ballroom, barely noticeable. She stepped into the room and was flabbergasted: An enormous pool that looked to be endless from the top to the bottom was rippling and roiling in small waves on the surface. A ladder with an insanely tall diving board stood at attention on the far side of the pool, and she shook her head. 'Not today...'
         Most walls of the pool room were made entirely of glass, save for one, which had birchwood doors leading to another mysterious room. By this point, Nadia was worried about where it would go. She worked up the courage for several minutes. Or seconds. Or hours. The whole concept of time was thrown off completely.
Nadia finally walked through the doors and was taken aback yet again. This one had iron cells with chains on the walls. The doors were all open, and the floor was bleak looking stone. No windows at all, just a simple black door to her left.
          She wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, so she practically dashed towards it, running through it and into a... hotel?
          Except this hotel was unusual. It had a front desk, yes, but other than that, nothing else was normal about it. Instead of the hotel rooms being on different floors and having one or two staircases leading to each floor, there were tons and tons of staircases leading to tall hotel rooms suspended only by the staircase, it seemed to her. There were no railings at all, so one might fall off and die from the height of some. A lobby below the rooms had a couple of couches, a cafe, and an arcade. None had walls. It was basically a giant open room with no privacy. 'What on earth?'
            "Hello!" A voice sounded in front of her, and she blinked away her daze. A tall woman with bright green hair and a professional looking outfit addressed her. "Have you come to stay here, Miss?"
         Nadia swallowed nervously. "No. I was just thrown into the Time Pit, and I'm trapped here until further notice." 'Please understand. I'm not crazy.'
          "Oh, that's exactly why I'm here. Every person here has been thrown into the Time Pit and is waiting on a punishment. We hope you enjoy your stay!"
          Nadia was caught off guard by this. "You mean to say that this place is a hotel for prisoners waiting on the council?"
           The woman nodded, smiling. "Follow me to your room. Free of charge." Now that she had spoken about people, she saw them everywhere. The rooms went on and on, seemingly never ending. She saw many people walking out of their rooms in swimsuits, going out the door she had just come in from, and going to the pool. Others went to a large elevator on the side wall, leading to, she assumed, many other rooms.
          After being given a key, Nadia ascended the stairs to a very high hotel room, carefully taking each step, worried she might die. She couldn't even remember: If someone died in the Time Pit, would they respawn? Or would they not? She opened the door to her room and gasped.