Six.

Chapter 1

Six.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

There were five other humans blindfolded in a circular room. Unbeknownst to them and whoever put us here, they didn't seem to be aware that this blindfold was useless to me.

Out of the five, one stood out to me.

The stature of a child.

This may be more dangerous than I originally anticipated.

Beside her stood an older-looking man. Possibly military by his stance. No lean at all. I might have to watch out for him.

To the right of Mr. Military Man was a young Asian man. I could tell by the texture and color of his pin-straight hair. But I couldn't quite get a read on him. This could be a heavy disadvantage.

Next was a woman who looked similar in age to me. She was slim. Had to be an islander. That shade of brown was unmistakable. Sun, water and that tropical air. Despite that, she looked extremely professional, almost too much so.

Finally, next to me was an elderly man. But nothing about this man seemed old except his appearance. His stance, posture and even his build. It was all wrong.

Extremely dangerous.

I cannot assume these people don't have an advantage like me. If anything, it'd be odd if they didn't.

For all six of us to stand here in silence with our blindfolds on, we all must be aware... of something.

Analyzing. Calculating.

I must not make any foolish assumptions.

We all feel the danger.

Not just from this situation, but from each other.

Whoever speaks first could be at a possible disadvantage or gain trust points.

I'll ride it out.

My guess would be the "docile" types would be the ones to try to lead, or at least get things off the ground.

My guess ended up being right.

The little girl spoke first.

"I'm sure we're all very aware of each other by now. Would it be okay to take my blindfold off?"

No one answered her, but one by one, we all uncovered our eyes.

"Thanks," said the little girl as she smiled with her face, but not her eyes.

I looked at each person in the room as though I had never laid eyes on them before, pretending to study them like everyone else.

I'll take this time to throw some ideas out there.

"While this is highly unlikely to be said, I might as well try. Is anyone here responsible for bringing us here and would like to reveal themselves?"

They all glanced at me, then at each other.

Except the Asian man.

His eyes had been fixed on one spot and I was sure the others had noticed too.

Then, shockingly enough, he spoke.

"No one here is the mastermind behind this."

The professional woman crossed her arms, looked at him and said,

"And how would you know this information?"

He stayed silent for a moment.

Then he said,

"I'm guessing the woman with heels and a suit asked me how I know this."

I said what everyone was thinking.

"Guessing? Are you—"

He cut me off.

"Yes. I am deaf. Also legally blind. But I can 'see' and 'hear' through vibrations and body language."

I instantly said to myself,

I knew these people weren't normal.

The elderly man finally spoke.

"Okay, lad. Now explain to us how you know that none of us here is responsible."

The Asian man smiled.

"A new speaker, I see. I shall explain. Although it may seem like a disadvantage to you all because of my disabilities, it would be pointless to hide them. To answer all of your questions, I can sense no bloodlust in this room. And of course, bloodlust is not enough to answer this mystery, but when we all got here, I sensed everyone's initial confusion, which is hard to fake."

Lastly, the military man joined the conversation.

He sounded exactly like I thought he would...

Rough.

"I agree. I sensed no bloodlust in anyone's micro movements. Also, no one seems to have the build to carry six people here unconscious, at least not by themselves."

Ms. Professional and the elderly man nodded.

They seemed to be in agreement.

After a brief silence, the little girl said,

"Although we can't fully trust each other, it seems like we can at least put our guard down a little bit."

She said it with the jolliest tone I'd ever heard.

She was clearly quite a character.

Someone I'll have to watch.

Well...

That goes for all of them.