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

3. Nestor: Time Part 1

Tick Tock

Nestor heard Owen's watch tick in the silence.

There were sensors all around the room. Sensors that deterred players from moving drastic movements.

Normally, the best method of solving an escape room was to physically search for the answers, whether they were hidden in obscure areas or simply concealed in locked boxes. However, in an escape room that severely limited its players' movements, the only thing the player could do was to observe the clues from afar. And observation, coincidentally, was one of Nestor's specialty.

Tick tock.

He took a deep breath and started his observation.

The room was shaped to be a perfect square, enclosed by two red walls going vertically, and two yellow walls horizontally. Two walls had gaps that disguised themselves as normal cracks. Four organized stacks of red, yellow, and blue colored objects were placed in seemingly uncorrelated locations. All of the objects had slightly different shapes. The floor was made of large, square titles, about eight by eight horizontally and vertically.

The vertical sides of the tiles were outlined red, and the horizontal sides were outlined yellow.

Tick tock tick tock.

He straightened his body. A dark blue Bond spiraled out underneath his feet.

"I Bond with you to release your Bond," he chanted to the girls.

Blaise and Darissa were shocked by his sudden gesture. Yet, they subconsciously consented his action.

Two Bonds appeared under the girls' feet. One yellow, one red.

The result was satisfactory. He had gotten what he needed— a Feeler.

"What did you just do!?" Asked Ernest as his eyes grew wide.

"An old trick," he explained methodically, "used to teach new Bonders how to release their own Bonds."

Tick tock tick tock.

Darissa's face was flushed with redness as she repeatedly screamed out "Holy shit" in a melodic tone (as if the words "holy shit" could ever be written into a song).

In contrast to Darissa's excitement, Blaise's joy was more level-headed. Instead of fussing over the simplest step of Trust Bonding, she was more intrigued by the idea that what she just experienced was indeed— "Human Bonding."

"Yes," Nestor said, happy to see that at least one of his teammates had a decent level of intelligence. A useless teammate— of course, considering that he wouldn't need a Thinker who couldn't yet Bond with anything.

Tick tock.

"By the Dual-Wielding Devil, what the hell is going on!?" Ernest tried his best to portray his emotional outburst without any physical movement, "I thought... look, I'm not trying to be the killjoy here, but this stuff you just did is actually illegal this time... you simply can't teach them to Bond, especially if they did not decide to become Bonders yet..."

"Oh, come on. I'm sure you've committed a decent amount of crimes yourself today," said Owen, slowly taking a small step to the front in an attempt to put his arm around Ernest, "Special time calls for special needs."

Tick tock.

That nonchalant attitude, in some strange way, ticked Nestor off. He was reminded of the time when Owen Robinson disrupted his thought process as they first realized that they got stuck in the escape room.

"Is there signal yet?" Owen had repeatedly asked.

Nestor wondered why Owen was asking the question again if he had already asked it once. To achieve comedic effect? To provoke annoyance? Or did he just do it because he felt like it? Nestor couldn't stand the last answer. Everything required proof, and "feeling like it" wasn't an adequate proof.