B.O.N.D.E.D.

4. Darissa: Colors Part 1

Colors. Different shades of colors. Dark, light, mellow, vivid, warm, cold. The different shades of blue, yellow, and red.

While the others were amazed by the power of Trust Bonding, all Darissa saw were colors.

They were surreal, almost dreamlike. Yet, they felt visible and tangible. She could sense every color in the room. Her already hypersensitive senses were even strengthened by the release of her own Bond, making everything she felt seem more grandiose, but also more real.

Her own Bond was the color of maroon, her favorite color.

Ernest was glancing in her direction with worried eyes. Darissa zapped out of her daydream state quick enough to respond to him with a reassuring smile. Ernest's gaze naturally moved elsewhere, leaving Darissa to recollect the lingering image of his eyes all on her own.

They were electric blue, the same color as his Bond.

Nestor Anderson was about to enter the other room. Everyone waited patiently beside him— except Ernest, whom stood alone on the other side of the room.

Just then, Darissa felt a rhythmic buzzing from her phone, followed by a melody that sounded too familiar to be true— her ringtone.

She instantly pulled out her phone.

"The signal's back?" Owen remarked quickly, leaning over to Darissa.

"Yes," she said, taking a look at her phone and immediately shouted, "My dad is calling me!"

Blaise and Nestor leaned towards her as well.

"Finally, someone noticed we're missing!" Owen shouted. 

Darissa placed her finger on her mouth to symbolize silence. She picked up the phone.

The first thing she heard was a piercing shout. Her dad was blabbering on the other side of the phone in a fierce and concerned rage. She had to repeatedly tell him that she was okay in Mandarin to calm him down (which, she was sort of used to doing).

"No— really, I'm okay... Yeah... Stop screaming or your might have a heart failure ..." She mumbled to the phone.

"I... didn't knew you could speak fluent Mandarin..." Owen said, lifting one of his eyebrows.

She shushed him again, then kept on talking.

It took her five more minutes to persuade her dad that she wasn't dead, and was, in fact, having a good time (which didn't seem too convincing since she WAS stuck in a room that just recently rained bullets). She reminded his dad to take a few deep breaths, as well as taking a few herself, just to prevent this phone call from becoming one of their father-daughter scream war.

Ten minutes passed, she finally ended the call.

"So, what did he say?" Owen asked. Darissa could tell that he was totally holding back laughter, but didn't bother to care.

"He told me that they are coming to save us soon, he and your parents and the guy from the front desk,"  She then paused and spoke again, "He also said it's best if we stay where we are and not do anything dangerous." She then gave a meaningful glance to Nestor.

Picking up on her glance, Nestor shrugged and said, "I can't guarantee a perfectly safe plan to escape the room. If you want to stop, I'm good with it."

Silence.

Owen was always the one to break the silence.  "Um... is being buried by bullet rain considered dangerous?"

Darissa looked towards Owen. As soon as she made contact with his eyes, she felt her cheeks heat up. She couldn't hold back her laughter any longer.

"Screw it," she cried, bursting into laughter, "Screw this whole thing!"

Owen's laughter followed. Ernest tried acting responsibly, but eventually broke away laughing. Even Blaise buried her face in her arms and chuckled.

Nestor Anderson just watched all of them with that strange smile on his face.

"Oh my god, this is amazing," Owen said, pushing the fallen hair away from his eyes, "We've been stuck here for so long, and when we finally made a breakthrough, they come and tell us to not do anything dangerous? I mean I know we're stupid teenagers, but this... this is just way too stupid."

"Stupid teenagers..." Darissa bent down to laugh, only to straighten herself a few moments later, "Fine, stupid teenagers it is. All stupid teenagers in favor of making it out by themselves, say aye!"

"Aye!" From everyone.

And so the voting was done.

Nestor raised his chin, seemingly satisfied with the conclusion they had reached. "How much time do we have left?" He asked, instantly changing the mood with his cold, harsh tone.

His face, unlike the rest of his body, was still presenting a smile that could've been perceived as warm and welcoming. Darissa, however, knew that was absolutely not the case.

"My dad said they would need about fifteen more minutes to get to us, since no one really knows how to deal with those escape rooms anymore..." she paused, then changed the topic,  "Do you need your glasses?"

Nestor tilted his head to indicate his confusion.

"Do you need your glasses?" She pointed to the glasses that Nestor took off a moment ago.

"Sadly yes."

"Then why did you take it off?"

"I'm used to fighting without it... it's a habit. Plus, a friend of mine once told me that sometimes you see better without actually seeing," he hesitated, then said, "which never made sense to me."

Another hesitation. Through the brief time they spent together, Darissa could tell that Nestor barely hesitates to answer questions even when he was unsure of something. As a result, that one moment— and this moment when he did hesitate, stood out very clearly to her.

She could tell more about him from those two moments of hesitation than all the other time she had spent stuck in a room with him.

"What are we going to do now?" Asked Owen eagerly.

Here comes another boy who talks like he's running out of time.

"Fifteen minutes," Nestor swung his glasses around his finger once again, "It's enough time. We just need to hurry."

He turned to everyone, "The structure of the other room is the exact same as this room, except it doesn't have the object piles. This door," he pulled on the trap door, it opened, but just a little, "Is extremely heavy. I believe it's made so that a person can't see the other room unless they are physically present in the other room. As to the purpose of this design, I still don't know."

He then pointed to Blaise, "You need to go with me to the other room. Everyone else stay here. Avoid stepping off the marked passage, or else you might still get shot."

As usual, she agreed and nodded, humming "My Shot" to herself.

She didn't know why everyone just started to obey Nestor Anderson. As soon as he presented himself as the strategist of the group, the others just followed every single command he had thrown at them. Darissa suspected it was due to the fact that he seemed like the smartest guy in the room, and that his navy blue Bond gave off an authoritative aura.

It was as if he had once fought in a war.

"I'll be giving directions from the other room. Wait and listen carefully," he said as he entered the other room, followed by a slightly terrified Blaise.

So they waited for it.