the other side of paradise | bsd x gn!reader

twenty-nine.

An eternity passes before you can move again. That's what it feels like. But in reality, it's been ten minutes at most. Your thoughts race inside your head, reviewing all the information you remember about him to try to find some sort of connection. There's not much. You first ran into him two years ago, on your Sky Casino mission. He's a charismatic young man with a memory manipulating ability of some sort. For a still unknown reason, he murdered the reporter Edmund Hyde and used his ability on the young artist Irina Rostova. His occupation is unknown, his background is unknown. And yet, here you stand now - in front of his portrait.

You did not expect this. This mission is one not shown in canon, so you knew you were going in unprepared, but this completely and utterly derailed your focus. Otto Symons... why are you relevant again? You pushed his existence into the depths of your subconscious, even forgetting who he is for a moment. How is he connected to this place? His home, perhaps? You know for a fact he is in prison at this very moment. Not something as guarded as Meursault but a prison nonetheless. The chances of him having influence from inside is low, but you should not eliminate it completely. You haven't spoken to him since Sky Casino. Maybe you should find a way to visit and question him. You snap a photo of the painting with your phone. With proof of his involvement, nobody will have to think twice to allow you to interrogate him. Before you can do that, however, you have to solve whatever is going on in this hotel first. Whether it was caused by Otto Symons or not.

The sound of the piano once again quietens down as you shut the tall door behind you. While teleporting back to your room would be the quickest way to return, you decide to walk back along the same route to make sure you haven't missed anything. You regret it immediately. Horror invades your every pore as you realise you have missed something big. The hallway is different. And there, in the corner of your eye, a wall snaps into place, silently laughing at you for not noticing sooner. Everything makes sense now; Rika's warning about travelling the hotel on your own, the paintings changing, the disappearance of Ogawa Shin - a dreadful thought crosses your mind and you pale at its very existence. Perhaps Ogawa Shin too has been trapped by the breathing walls of the Begonia Hotel and is still wandering in the hallways, looking for a way out. Or worse; his corpse is rotting in the darkest corner of this place, forever caged in by four walls.

Ignorance is bliss. For the first time in a very long while, you agree with that statement. While you are usually nervous about not knowing, this time it is the known that causes you fear. The mere thought of staying here, sleeping and putting yourself in the most vulnerable position while unconscious, makes you sick to your stomach. How are you supposed to relax enough to fall asleep, knowing that the walls can literally close in on you. You can't leave to sleep in the Casino either – how can you leave the two Hunting Dogs alone? What if something happens? Something you could have prevented if you were present? You're usually not one to be consumed by guilt but if something does go wrong, your ability is ideal to escape the living walls. You can simply grab Jouno and Tetchou and teleport away.

With this newfound confidence, you decide to keep exploring. While trying to open other doors in the new hallway, it quickly becomes clear someone doesn't want you snooping around. All of them are locked. The feeling of being watched intensifies. You follow the hallway to a dead end. And there, right in the centre, a familiar painting is hung up. It would seem that whoever put it here really likes messing with your head. Because with the dark secret of the hotel now revealed, new light is shed on the painting of Theseus. You can almost feel his fear and despair, clinging to that piece of thread. All he wants is to find a way out of the labyrinth, but in the process he puts himself in a vulnerable position. You misread the scene the first time you saw it. He knows he's being watched, but he lets it happen. There's nothing he can do to make it stop – the labyrinth will find another way to torture him. Theseus and the labyrinth. What an uncomfortable parallel.