Chapter 14- Next

{Lancer}

There was no sound, no echo of her footsteps, no soft breaths or curses when she couldn't work something out in his fancy kitchen. His small chuckled when he listened to her struggles and finally decided to go help her only to find that she was standing there, waiting because she knew he was awake. Her mouth...her eyes...

It was utterly silent without Saber here in his home. After the hospital, she had quickly left with only a small goodbye. And shocking enough, she had stood at the door and whispered,"Bye." And they both leaned closer and kissed. Not passionately, not roughly, just a peck like they were a couple. Her face had contorted into confusion and she scurried away, shaking her head like what they had done was going to ruin her life. Distraught, he sat up in bed and looked towards the two large windows overlooking the city below. The cars made sounds as they rushed by random passerby's who screamed profanities and shook their fists rudely at taxi drivers.

He stood tall and looked over his shoulder when there was a small ring. Doorbell. He shrugged his tense shoulders and shook his head, he wasn't in the mood for guests tonight but once the doorbell stopped, an insistent knocking came after. He ground his teeth in annoyance and strode from his room towards the door with utter annoyance of this random person.

He pulled the heavy door open and blinked at the small huddled figure standing before him. Assassin.

He jumped back, lances appearing in his hands as he twirled them in his fingers threateningly. A small petty person like him was a weakling compared to himself but he still didn't want to take the chance. It wasn't like assassin to come up front to someone else even if the war was over. He eyed him suspiciously, guarded.

"What is it?"

Assassin looked from the threshold and to Lancer without any emotion, considering his face was covered from head to toe in black. Only the indent of his mouth and eyes were what indicted a man even existed in there.

"Well?"

"I've come with a message." His voice was thick and deep with an accent and almost hard to understand.

"From who?"

Silence. He guessed he wouldn't be willing to answer. Lancer didn't move from his position and instead walked closer to the bedroom, where he knew Assassin wouldn't follow.

"Here."

Assassin let a note slip from his hands and fall to the ground. It disappeared into smoke and landed in Lancer's hand. He blinked down at it and when he looked back up, Assassin was gone. Still suspicious of the situation, he crossed towards the living room and laid the note down on the table, fingering the thin little note.

Inside his head, something lurked forward and hissed,"Read it."

He jumped and scanned the room with his eyes but no one else was inside with him and assassin was surely gone. Confused, he sat back down but his shoulders wouldn't relax, his fingers digging into the soft couch.

He pulled the note back up to his eyes and one sentence was left there with red splotchy handwriting.

"Rider first, she's next."

He squinted at the paper without understanding of what it meant until it dawned on him. Rider had invited them to the park and it had in turn been Caster. Did that mean the huge man was dead? Or was this all a trick? And of they said 'she' was next, did that mean Saber? That was the only 'she' he knew that would be related to his past of the holy grail war...

He stood up quickly and went to grab his coat when the voice returned, dark and taunting.

"She doesn't care about you...she likes the curse.."

He blinked and swiveled around once more but he knew how familiar the voice sounded, although more raspy and sinister, he knew it to be his. As he tried to ignore it, despite how the words bothered him, he past by the mirror attached to his wall and stopped. Slowly, he turned towards it and sadly looked upon his reflection; the mole standing out against his skin.

Curse...

He looked away and walked out his home, unable to shake the thoughts now implanted in his head.

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"Can you open the door?"

Silence was his answer beyond the door into Sabers home. His worry was immense and he couldn't help the way his foot tapped the floor constantly with anxiety. He leaned forward again, crushing the note in his hand and knocked five times more, annoyed. Slowly, the door creakily opened and a blonde girl he knew yawned as she peered up at him, her eyes half lidded.

"What do you want?!" She exclaimed, holding the edge of the door as if to close it immediately.

His eyes fell and he took notice of he checkered pajama pants and tight, sky blue shirt, fit against her skin. As if seeing his stare, she raised her arms over her chest and crossed them, arching an eyebrow.

He cleared his throat, not very apologetically,"Right...I-"

He held out the crumpled paper towards her and she stared down at it for a long time for actually grabbing it. When her fingers brushed his, she jumped and spun around, note hand.

Her eyes scanned the paper with curiosity and her emotions flickered from frustration to confusion.

"Is this a prank?" She questioned, dropping the note to the floor with a careless shrug,"Who's she? Me?"

"That's my idea, Saber." He kneeled down and scooped the note into his hand, twitching when the voice came back tauntingly.

"We can talk about it tomorrow then." She whispered and backed away into her house, ready to close the door when he stopped her from doing so.

"This is important."

Her face dropped suddenly and her teeth caught her lower lip, head tilting to the side as if she were listening to something. At the very same time, he blinked with confusion and the voice hovered inside his head.

She really hates you. Just leave, she doesn't need to know anything.

Saber cringed awkwardly and her gaze lifted to his,"Will you just go! I really don't have the patience for some note most likely scribbled by you!"

"Why would I do that?"

She thinks you're a liar. Everyone does.

"You would be the only one who would, right?"

"That makes no sense!"

Liar.

His shoulder rose with stress and frustration as she pushed more weight against the door he was holding open.

"You think I'm weak, don't you?" She snarled and eyed him with defiance.

"No!"

Liar.

Her eyes were wide open now and she was grounding her teeth together.

"Really then?" She chided,"Then why are you always on top of me! You must think I'm weak, thinking I'm just some easy woman!"

His eyebrows rose and he was having trouble keeping his anger down,"I don't think that!"

Liar, liar. Always will be.

"You always-" her voice was drowned out by the one in his head-,"And I-"

Liar, Liar. She hates-

"It's frustrating and-"

You. No one ever loves you except for your face. You'll be alone for ever..

He slapped his free hand down against his leg and exploded,"Shut up!"

Saber's cheeks pinked and her fists shook. Lancer's eyes widened and he calmly shook his head to explain but she was harshly growling.

"Get out! Get away! If you have the nerve to talk to me like that then-"

"No..Arturia.." He began but she was too far gone.

"Don't ever call me that again. I deserve respect, perhaps you don't think so." She was forcing the door closed now, her body disappearing.

"I-"

"Goodbye." She called angrily and slammed the door in his face, leaving him in stunned, regretful silence.

The voice squeaked up again, mockingly and hissing it's chuckle.

"Was it me who you told to shut up, hmm?"

He pound his palm against his forehead and ran it up into his hair with frustration and a burning anger for the little devil inside of him.

"What in the world are you?" His eyes were placed on the door before him, contemplating if he should barge in right then and there and tell her all of what was happening but then again...there was a small seed inside of him that had him angry at her too. Of all the things she had said, she only had proven that she believed him to be a liar. He thought she all people would think against such things but if that weren't true...

His palm fell to his chest where his heart had started to pound uneasily. He was unsure of what the hell to do for her or what to say now. She wasn't an easy lady, who wore dresses and jumped when a handsome man walked by. She was once a king, land torn away from her grip...she didn't care about such frivolous things...and he liked that about her. She proved a challenge, and she was similar to him in so many ways. But of knight not as anything else. At one time, he liked her unladylike way but he knew what her other side looked like and he silently wanted to see it again. The jealousy he had felt just from knowing Archer had done things to her he hadn't her tried frustrated him and the yesterday seeing him,( even if it was an illusion) kiss Arturia was even more so annoying that if Lancer wasn't at least a little sympathetic, he would have killed him.

His other hand now hovered over the door to Saber who he was starting to be in need of her attention, even her fierce glare made him feel...light.

He turned on his heel in an instant, remembering what she thought of him. He wouldn't talk to her, not just yet, maybe not until he sorted out the thing in his mind.

There was a hole. And a worm was digging it between them. It pained him at the same time and yet he felt strangely...alright with it. He stopped dead in his tracks when his foot touched upon the stairs.

"Dangerous." He muttered under his breath, realizing what he had almost done. Fallen down about 10 steps, even for him he could break his bones. The voice breathed raggedly,"So close..so, so close."

"What are you?" Lancer yelled angrily, leaping down the steps two at a time.

There was utter silence as he waited, heart calming down despite how much exercise he was doing that would send any other human caterwauling into breathing fits.

Then there was a sound. The sound of a ragged voice sucking in a voice stricken with coughs. It sounded so much like him, too much like him only sick and defeated. He shivered from that and his eyes leapt up towards the ceiling as if a thin, bony version of him with his bones sticking from his body would be looking down at him.

"I'm you." He said.

And then a fit of coughing left his lips. Lancer could only imagine blood seeping from cracked lips. His lips?

"I am you if you continue down this path..."

His eyes widened and he paused his feet at the last step.

"Path?"

"Here's a riddle:

I am always around, but never seen. I am often avoided, but you can't out run me. What am I?"

Lancer's mind ran through the words and he found himself drumming his fingers against the stair railing. He shut his eyes, this time focusing on his memories, where the words would apply, where they bothered him most.

He opened his eyes, the word just at the tip of his tongue.

The voice seemed to be waiting patiently, knowing he knew.

"Death."

"Correct! Another riddle! This one is easy!"

Lancer's fingers tightened around the railing now, skin growing pale.

"If the first answer is correct and I am you then what will you be in just a few days?"

He pushed his body from the stairs and smashed against the door, swinging it open in the process,"Dead."

"Correct!" There was another fit of coughing and this time a gurgle and spit.

Lancer's shoulders rose with tension and he looked back over his shoulder. What was happening?

The sky seemed dark blue with bruised closed rolling their way in. The city would soon be covered with rain.

But what he didn't know, was the one thing he already did.

She's next.