Panic

It was a light voice, a hint of anger in her tone, whispering quietly as if she was trying to soothe her. The girl felt a hand softly stroked her head, giving her a sense of calmness even when she didn't whose hand it belonged to.

She tried to look up. Instead of a face, all she saw was black smudge, covering everything that could give her clue to this person. She then tried to look around the room she was in but her head was firmly nestled to the other female chest as if preventing her from seeing anything.

Yumi gritted her teeth when another wave of pain attacked her at the same time another sentence was spoken. Blearily, she registered the worried calls from Rodrick and the book being taken away from her grip. 

"But what about you?"

The voice this time was quieter, softer, cracking at the end as if she was holding herself back from crying and the girl belatedly realized, it came from her own mouth.

Just as the person opened her mouth, the image began to distort as if she was watching a TV with bad signals, the colorful lines covered the screen with static noise that rang in her ears. 

Her head pounded hard as the images began to get more distorted, the shape of the person gradually getting more and more wrapped. The only thing she could see were thousands of white dots filling the screen up, the static noise turned into a high-pitched howling sound. 

She shook her head, trying to somehow make the voice disappear to no avail, succeeded in only increasing the burning pain even further. She couldn't hear his alarmed cries any longer, her ears were full of the ringing.

The white screen began to glitch, the monochromatics line ensured their place to cover the screen. A distorted voice replaced the howling. 

F̷̛̥ő̸̋u̸̎͝n̶̛͋d̴̛̂ ̷̥̊y̴̛̓õ̸͝u̷̡̿

Through her increasingly darkened vision, Yumi saw the panicked look marring the boy's face as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she laid limp on the table, scattering the books even further. 

The boy went pale and froze. When Yumi opened her eyes, Rodrick exhaled in relief. "Don't scare me like that." But then her dark brown eyes crept to the back of her head revealing white and hollow orbs.

Silence never felt this cold and dreadful. All of the boy's senses shut down, his chest felt heavy as if his heart wanted to escape his body, his breath became quick and short, he closed his eyes and with trembling lips muttered, "What should I do.... "

'Move your legs damn it, move.' Rodrick came to his senses and  rushed to check her pulse. The veins in her wrist pulsated in a weak and slow rhythm. He cleared the rest of the mess on her table and darted his eyes around to look for what can help solve this mess. 

The books were useless and comforting himself wasn't helpful, then he saw the door in front of him wide open. 

In a quick act of desperation Rodrick sweeped her under his arms, adrenaline took over and her weight mattered nothing to him, he kicked out a few of her books that obstructed his path. "Sorry I'll just buy you a new one." he whispered to her as he makes his way outside of the Library.

He tries to be fast and careful to prevent any harm that may come to her and once he's out of Yumi's home he sees the two servants.  

"Lancer, Help!" he yelled before almost tripping at a huge crater that is a result from the commotion they had an hour ago. 

Lancer widened his eyes in shock the moment his eyes laid on his Master body. He didn't even hear the panic shouts from the Rider's Master, asking for help. All he could focus on was the stillness of her body, the way her arms hung weakly at the sides. His blood ran cold. No, this couldn't be happening. 

In an instant, he was in front of the shorter male, evident anger in his eyes. The male scooped the girl over his arms, relishing himself in her warmth. Her head lolled to his shoulder, her breathing fanned his neck, faint but still there. Good, she's alive. He allowed himself to feel a tiny bit of relief.

His spear ready in hand, he pointed it toward the male, its sharp tip glinting under the sunlight. His eyes narrowed dangerously and he gritted his teeth. 

"What did you do?" He hissed.

-- 

She was back in the room but this time, she was alone, no trace of the other female from earlier. Now without anyone blocking her sight, the girl could see the room clearly. 

It was dark and gloomy. Water seeped through the grey brick walls, letting moss grow on its damp surface. The sound of liquid dropping came from somewhere behind her.The air felt stuffy and she coughed when she inhaled a large amount of dust. There was no furniture in sight, only a single bowl was placed beside the door. 

The girl tried to walk around but the rattles coming from below stopped her. She looked down. One of her legs had been chained, a thick metallic cuff was encircled around her pale ankle. 

What is this place? 

"Easy now," Rider held Lancer's arm before he could even harm the boy. He glanced at his master who's sweating hard and had quivering lips which made it hard for him to speak. "What happened boy?"

He flailed his arms in the air trying to make out of the sudden trouble. "I-I just told her to read this book and," he took a few more short breaths. "Then she collapsed and i don't know what happened so i carried all the way here." 

"What's gonna happen to her?" he said while his voice shakes in worry.

Rider dropped his guard and smiled at his master, "You did what you can, now leave it to Lancer here." He shifts his momentum to slap Lancer behind the back. 

"This boy is innocent, I've been with him for at least a day. Now be at ease and allow us to help fix whatever mess this girl got into." he whispered into Lancers ear with a calm and heavy tone.  

The veins on his bulged with how hard Lancer gritted his teeth. The male tried to keep the swirling wrath inside him low as his grip on the spear tightened, holding himself back from attacking the auburn haired male.

Should he trust Rider's words?

With a flick of his wrist, his spear dispersed in thin air. The male held the girl properly in his arms, hands placed on her back and under her knees. 

"I trust you didn't do anything just now," he said as he turned around to carry his Master to her room. 

"But the next time I see ya do anything strange." Lancer turned his head to the side to look at the male from the corner of his eyes, enough for him to glare at the male with utmost ferocity.

"You're a dead meat."

And with that, the male walked away, leaving the two other male in the vicinity to their thoughts. 

--

The girl found out that the chain was long enough for her to walk around the room but short enough that she wouldn't be able to escape if the door was opened. 

She stepped closer to the bowl beside the door, curious to see what's inside. Water filled it to the top, probably used for bathing. Black smudge covered the part where her face was supposed to be, however, she could still see the unruly hair that looked as if it hadn't been brushed for ages. 

Even she couldn't see her own face. 

The girl puckered her lips, widened her eyes, anything to somehow make the smudge cleared up. Nothing. She sighed in defeat. 

A loud bang on the metal door jolted her surprised.