The Folded Hour
a novel idea
THE FOLDED HOUR - Synopsis
Nathan Potter is a 32-year-old assistant library director living a dead-end, broke existence he doesn’t question—until he discovers a book at work called “The Folded Hour,” allegedly written by his father, Romulus Potter. Nathan was raised believing his father died heroically as a military commander in World War III. No one ever told him Romulus wrote a book.
Reading it on his lunch break, Nathan learns his father wasn’t a soldier—he was an agent for a secret organization called The Window, dedicated to managing and conditioning multiple timeline realities. Inspired and desperate to escape his mundane life, Nathan decides to volunteer as a Window agent himself, hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps and find purpose.
But everyone in Nathan’s life—his wife Avery Grove, his best friend Eric Hollow, his coworker David Mesa—begins desperately discouraging him from pursuing this path. Their panic reveals cracks in their carefully constructed personas. Nathan realizes the horrifying truth: everyone around him is already a Window agent. His entire life has been an elaborate containment operation. The Window agents are actually alien criminals serving sentences by guarding human prisoners on Earth.
Nathan’s aging mother, Susan, a former Window secretary, begins letting details slip. The truth emerges: Romulus discovered through timeline experiments that across every reality, certain people uncover the same terrible secret—Earth is The Vivarium, an alien prison for souls, overseen by an omniscient cosmic entity called Xal’Koreth. The Window exists to suppress this knowledge and maintain the prison.
Romulus, already struggling with manic depression, wanted to commit suicide upon learning this truth. Through Window’s timeline-viewing technology, he saw that if he succeeded, it would trigger a chain of events where Nathan would eventually expose the truth and liberate humanity (Timeline B). To prevent this, The Window—under orders from Xal’Koreth—killed Romulus one hour before his planned suicide. This “folded hour” altered the timeline just enough to create Timeline A, where Nathan has been contained and controlled instead of awakened.
Through childhood flashbacks in Act 1, we learn that Nathan witnessed something extraordinary as a child: The Free Man, a version of Nathan from another timeline (Timeline C) who wears a strange mask and an armband bearing a broken chain link symbol. The Free Man gave young Nathan a photograph—evidence of his father’s murder.
Nathan has kept this photograph for years as a bookmark in a religious text he doesn’t understand—a book given to him by a disciple of his father’s failed religion, The Order of the Opened Way. Romulus had attempted to start this religion based on the truth that Earth is an alien prison. The Order’s symbol: a broken chain link.
When Nathan finally examines the photograph closely after reading “The Folded Hour,” he notices something crucial: in a reflection (a mirror, window, or polished surface), there’s a figure who appears to be a government agent present at the scene. This proves his father didn’t commit suicide—someone else was there. The reflection becomes the key evidence that unravels the official story of Romulus’s death.
The Free Man is a Nathan who, in Timeline C, successfully infiltrated The Window, learned the complete truth, and gained access to their timeline-traveling technology. Using The Void Mask—a device invented by yet another Nathan in Timeline D (whose mother told him everything and who devoted his life to creating this technology)—The Free Man can block himself from Xal’Koreth’s omniscient vision. He moves invisibly across timelines, giving each imprisoned Nathan the tools they need to liberate humanity in their respective realities.
As Nathan’s investigation deepens, he begins connecting with members of the Order of the Opened Way. But in a horrifying late-night encounter, Xal’Koreth himself manifests on Earth in human form as “Warden Prime.” The chapter leader of the Order in Nathan’s area is suddenly swarmed by thousands of spiders emerging from everywhere—walls, vents, shadows. Nathan witnesses Xal’Koreth’s terrible power: he has psychic communication with spiders, and anyone who opposes him is bombarded by every spider in the area. The Order leader dies as Warden Prime stands calmly by, and Nathan realizes the cosmic overseer has personally come to kill him before he can complete his mission.
Nathan’s constructed life collapses in Act 2 as he pieces together the truth. But his true purpose in Timeline A isn’t to become a Window agent—it’s to write a book exposing everything.
In the climactic Act 3 confrontation, as Xal’Koreth is about to kill Nathan, The Free Man intervenes wearing The Void Mask. Using his invisibility to both Xal’Koreth’s all-seeing vision and his spider surveillance network, The Free Man kills the supposedly undying warden, saving Nathan’s life.
Margaret Stone reveals herself—she was assigned to help kill Romulus and rewrite “The Folded Hour” to remove the dangerous truths. When Nathan meets her face-to-face, he realizes with horror and fascination that she is the person in the photograph’s reflection. She was there when his father died. But through timeline viewing, she saw a reality where she leaves The Window and finds happiness with Nathan. She has orchestrated everything to guide this timeline toward their union, atoning for her role in his father’s death.
Nathan completes his book, “The Vivarium,” exposing the complete truth: Earth is an alien prison, The Window are the wardens, souls are trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation, and Xal’Koreth has been defeated. The book becomes the scripture for a revived Order of the Opened Way, and humanity begins its liberation.
Different versions of Nathan across multiple timelines—the liberator (A), the inheritor (B), The Free Man (C), and the engineer (D)—have worked together across realities to free humanity from The Vivarium, turning one man’s conspiracy into a multiversal revolution.