Chapter Text
The second Riz starts to turn the doorknob and push the door forward, it swings open outward with enough force that he stumbles forward (Every instinct in his body screams that he needs to get away, that this is wrong, but how do you run from the entire world?). Compared to the weird hospital lighting of Mordred Manor (He had never liked hospitals, too many memories of visiting Sklonda or one of her colleagues in the hospital, the air heavy with the scent of clean. He still remembers when Biz was in the hospital, the motherfucker deserved it, deserved worse than that, remembers all the pain that comes before, after, and during) the rest of the world seems much too bright. Covering his eyes with his arm, he grasps at the air until his hands grab the beaten railing.
Descending slowly, he moves blindly, stumbling slightly. Missing a step, he falls down to the last step, hands throwing themselves outwards into the grassy dirt that surrounds the manor. Slowly, Riz opens his eyes to the unnatural light of the outside world, bright like that of a hospital (Now that he thinks about it, the smell kind of resembles that of a hospital, clean with bleach and chemicals that are probably hazardous to breathe in, but when has anyone actually cared about that?), overbearing with the force of it.
The first thing his brain truly notices (Other than the way mud is soaking into his white shirt, that'll be a pain to get out) is the fact that there are no other people. Riz had been aware of this (Of course he was, Riz Gukgak, the great detective, isn't that right, Gukga-) whilst he was inside Mordred Manor, but it feels even stranger now that he's outside, where typically he'd be able to hear the distant buzz of tires grinding against the pavement, the dull sound of sirens coming to investigate whatever crime has just been committed in Strongtower Luxury Apartments.
Slowly, Riz stands up (Part of him screams that he needs to move quickly, or he will never be able to get out of whatever this place is, never able to return) from where he had fallen onto the ground. Looking around only confirms what he had heard, the roads are completely empty, and his skull aches the longer he tries to take in his surroundings. Dully, Riz notices that there are no cars in any of the parkways, except for Jawbone's van. Still, he can't be sure if there would've been cars there anyways (He hasn't exactly gotten the chance to hyper-examine every single detail of the buildings around Mordred Manor, ok?). When he tries to make out the details of the surrounding buildings, they just get fuzzier (The more he focuses on them the more it feels like his skull is being hit with a power hammer, like its breaking open from within).
Riz moves, slowly at first, then significantly faster, eventually entering a sprint, towards where he knows Strongtower Luxury Apartments should be (Part of him screams, yet again, that he needs to go to his office, put the pieces together, assemble the clues, solve the case, end the mystery, make the mirror whole again), even though there are probably better places to go towards first (What places those are, he doesn't know. Who do you go to for being kidnapped into a weird version of the town you've lived in all your life), he needs to know what's happening (What's happening in the place he lives, what's happening in his home, what's happening to his family. It shouldn't take priority, he knows this, but he desperately wants to do something just for himself, just this once). Charging into the distance, Riz decides to be selfish.