There was no way to stop or slow down, but the trip didn't last very long. Within seconds, I was blinded by a bright light again and reached the end of the slope. Before I could grab onto anything, I slid over the edge and crashed into a pool of water. Disoriented and blinded, I struggled around in a panic to discern which direction was up. The surprise of the impact had pushed the air out of my lungs, and they were aching for breath. Seconds passed. My chest felt like I was being laced into a tight corset lined with needles.

Stay calm, I heard Quill's words in my head.

Giving up on my desperate struggle, I curled up into a ball. I could feel my hair lazily floating around me, softly brushing my face.

No need to breathe, it is just a nightmare. I cannot die in a nightmare, can I? No need to panic.

Slowly, I felt my body starting to move, to float upward. As soon as I had regained my sense of direction, I shot upward like a bullet. My head was spinning and it took me a few moments and a couple of panicked breaths to calm down. After I got my hair out of my face and the water out of my eyes, I finally took a look around.

I had not imagined the sensation of being blind while underwater – the liquid I was treading was black and turbid like ink. I found myself in a circular pool about fifty meters in diameter. Around me, white walls extended upwards for at least a dozen meters, above which they merged with darkness. There was no trace of the hatch or door which I had apparently fallen through.

Looking up the walls for too long induced a strange sense of vertigo in me. It was like I had been cast to the bottom of a gigantic well and forgotten here.

"Hello?" I called out. "Is somebody there?"

My voice echoed off the white walls. Other than that, and the soft splashing water against the high walls, there was complete silence.

"Is anybody listening? What is this place? What do you want from me?"

There was no indication that I was still being monitored, but the bracelet on my wrist and the wires in the suit made me suspect that somebody probably was, at all times.

"If this is some weird kind of punishment, you oughta tell me what I did wrong first, don't you?"

I started to feel annoyed with my helpless situation, and my growing frustration quickly turned into anger.

Good, I thought, Anger is good. Desperation is deadly. But your anger can be your fuel.

Captain Talon had said that to me once, and it was true. My anger filled me with a burning heat and I clenched my teeth. I would not let myself freak out about a stupid nightmare.

There must be a way out of this, I thought.

I swam in a circle around the pool, touching the wall here and there, but it was smooth as glass. I tried to dive to the bottom, but there seemed to be no bottom anywhere close to the depths I could reach while holding my breath.

As I came back up, the dark water around me seemed more threatening now. How deep down did this well go, and what might be lurking in these depths? Was I about to be fed to some abysmal creature? I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the thought. I needed to stay rational. There was nothing to be gained from fearing an invisible threat that might or might not even exist. But how was I supposed to find an exit?

I turned on my back to float and rest a little while. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I tried to focus. Perhaps this was a riddle that I needed to solve? The others had called it a trial, or a test. But what was I supposed to do?

When I closed my eyes and for a moment I felt almost serene. If it hadn't been for the bright lights illuminating the walls, and the sheer size of the place that turned any sound into an eerie echo, the experience reminded me of a sensory deprivation tank. With my ears under water, I heard only the waves cast by my movements, as they clashed against the walls with soft, gurgling sounds.

But there was something else. Another sound.

I forced myself to be as still as possible to reduce the waves, and there it was again – a humming, as if some piece of machinery was running somewhere in the depths. Staying afloat on my back, I carefully began to paddle with my hands, slowly drifting toward the direction where I thought the noise was coming from.

Perhaps it was some kind of outlet? A pump?

I could tell that I was getting closer, and started to wonder what I would do when I found it. I would have to dive down to whatever it was, but there was no way I could reach the bottom of the well. I reached the spot where the sound was now very clearly audible, so I turned myself around and immediately hit my shin against something underwater.

Cursing through gritted teeth I carefully felt my way closer to the object with hands and feet. It was a smooth, round platform with a diameter of about a meter and a half, submerged about a meter under the water surface, invisible to the eye due to the opacity of the liquid. It was nowhere near any of the walls, so I had overlooked it during my first few laps through the water.

I wondered whether it was a cover for a pipe that I could open. But as I dove down to it and under it, and felt along the edges and across the surface in the murky, black water, I realized that it was just a platform. It was just floating there, perfectly still and doing nothing but exuding a soft hum.

When I finally stepped my feet down on it, its purpose became clear immediately. Within a split second of my feet touching the surface, the platform rushed out of the water so fast that I screamed in surprise, fell to my knees, and almost tumbled off again.

After a sharp and fast ascend, the platform stopped as abruptly as it had started to move. Wary of any sudden change in momentum coming from it again, I risked a peek over the edge. Water dripping from the platform cast ripples and waves on the surface of the pool, which was now about five meters below me. A fall from this height could be painful if I didn't hit the surface right.

Well, I must have done something right, I suppose? I thought, looking up at the walls of the well again.

There was still no trace of any exit whatsoever. Perhaps it was even further up?

"So what now?" I mumbled and looked at the bracelet on my wrist as if it could reply. I couldn't help but regard it as my only link to the world outside this well.

As if to answer my question, the platform began to quiver slightly. Immediately, I cowered down flat, trying to hold on to the edges. But somewhat unsurprisingly, it began to tilt and I started to slip. Holding on with all my might, the platform dropped over until it was perfectly vertical, and I couldn't hold on to the smooth edges any longer. I dropped back towards the black water and all I could do was to make sure I wouldn't fall flat on my back or belly when hitting the surface. Diving in feet first was less painful than my previous drop, at least, and I managed to swim back to the surface right away.

When I looked up, the platform had vanished. I cursed under my breath.

And then, from somewhere deep below, a strange, gurgling noise spread through the well, dampened by the body of water, but soon growing louder and echoing back from the empty walls. It was hard to notice at first, because the walls were so smooth and spotless, but swimming closer to them, I could clearly see it. The water level began to rise.

"Is this some sort of game? Is this round two?" I asked.

My voice resounded back from the walls, the distant echo sounding hollow and without any of the anger that still fueled me.

"Well then, let's fucking play."

The goal must be to raise the water level until I reach the exit, I suspected.

On a hunch, I laid back and let my body float on the surface of the water again, and sure enough, after the clashing and gurgling of the waves subsided, I could make out the humming noise again. This time, I was quicker to find the platform, and I managed not to bump into it, but I hesitated to step on it. A vivid image appeared in my mind's eye, of the platform rushing to the top and me getting squashed at the ceiling like a ripe tomato. Still, there was probably no other way out than do what whoever had put me here wanted. So I stepped on it nonetheless.

A few uneasy seconds passed, and I realized I was holding my breath in anticipation. Sure enough, the platform started to move again, rising further. Then it stopped, quivered again, and I was slightly less surprised when I was kicked off of it right afterwards.