Author's Note: And here we go with the new story I promised in the last chapter of my previous one. Kinda scary how those fics took a life of their own, but one must listen to the muse, right? Feedback is highly appreciated!
Disclaimer: Characters appearing from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer are not mine, but property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy etc etc. The name "For the Sake of Revenge" is credited to the amazing band Sonata Arctica, anyone who's into power metal with a touch of progressive should check them out!
For the Sake of Revenge
She was alone and cold and it was dark and she had no idea where she was or how she had gotten here, no idea if she was in danger, but her heart hammered in her chest with fear as she stared into the darkness as hard as she could, eager to see something, anything.
Far away, she could hear something drip steadily, the only noise she could make out, between the hammering of her own heart in her ears and the rushing of her blood, then, the dripping was joined by shuffling, somehow wet footsteps, and her dread rose to new heights as she realized that they were approaching her, that something was approaching her in the darkness, she instinctively knew it was evil, and she couldn't get away, she was trapped, alone, alone in the dark, trapped and the footsteps were coming closer and closer and then someone was grabbing her, holding her, and a voice called out her name, and she realized she was screaming…
…was screaming when her eyes flew open, her frightened gaze meeting the worried one of her girlfriend, her heart still beating up to her throat.
"Hush, Sweetie, it's okay, just a bad dream", she heard Pat mumble soothingly, briefly closing her eyes when she was pulled into a comforting embrace; even though the dream was already fading, she still was scared out of her mind, and thus clung to her loved one after a few seconds, a shuddery breath escaping her.
Still making soothing noises, the taller woman rubbed her back as she held her close; after another two minutes, Willow finally had calmed down enough to lighten her grip on her girlfriend a bit, her heart still beating faster than normal when she slowly laid back down.
"That must've been one Hell of a bad dream", Pat mumbled, moving one hand to caress her hair; shivering at the few memories she still had of said dream, Willow nodded, snuggling closer to the taller woman when she laid back down next to her, her voice trembling just enough to let her notice when she replied. "It was… Sorry for waking you up…"
"Never mind that", Pat shrugged it off, "want to tell me about that nightmare?"
"I don't remember much anymore", the redhead gave back, her heartbeat slowly calming down as her girlfriend gave her best to soothe her, "can't say I'm not glad about that though, what I do remember is… Well, I guess it doesn't sound so scary now, but I was all alone and it was dark, I mean really dark, not-able-to-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-eyes-dark, and… something was moving towards me, I have no idea what it was, but it was scaring me, a lot…"
"I wonder where that came from", Pat muttered after thinking about this for a while, long enough to make Willow wonder if she actually had fallen asleep again, but saying those words before the witch had had the chance to say her name and find out.
"What do you mean?" she thus asked instead, shifting a bit afterwards to make herself more comfortable in her girlfriends embrace, her heartbeat now back to normal, the closeness and tenderness between the black haired woman and her calming her down considerably.
"Well, they say dreams come from your subconscious, whoever they are", Pat shrugged in reply, "so I wonder where that came from. Some big test coming up or something?"
"No", the witch immediately gave back, knowing the dates for any upcoming tests and exams by heart, "not for another six weeks, and it's not one that freaks me out, so…"
"Hm", the demon made in reply, letting out a yawn before speaking on, now sounding curious. "Did you ever have prophetic dreams before?"
"What?" Willow gave back, surprised, "no… That's Buffy's domain, part of the Slayer package. You think it was one?"
"I hope not", the black haired woman grimaced in reply, something the witch could see quite well, her eyes by now having adjusted to the darkness in the bedroom – a darkness which wasn't really dark, compared to the one in her dream, she thought to herself.
"Because if it was, it'd mean that I screwed up royally", the demon now went on, gaining the redhead's attention again, "or I would've been there with you to protect you from whatever it was you were scared of."
"It was dripping", Willow replied automatically, without thinking much about it, surprising herself with her own words the moment they left her mouth; she shook her head as if to clear it, then made herself smile at her girlfriend, hiding how uneasy she felt now that the possibility of a prophetic dream had been brought up, not liking the thought at all.
"Let's hope it doesn't come back", she added after a moment, yawning as well afterwards, "even though I have no nasty test tomorrow, I should get some more sleep, the first lecture is with that annoying guy I told you about, the one who never needs to breathe…"
"I'll cuddle with you to keep the bad dreams away", Pat offered in reply, making the redhead smile and nod; the couple shared a brief kiss, then both made themselves as comfortable as they could, Willow once more telling herself that it surely had been an ordinary nightmare and no prophetic thing at all before she finally drifted off into sleep again, slumbering peacefully through the rest of the night until her alarm clock tore her out of her much more harmless dreams early in the next morning.
By the time the shrill, annoying sound of the alarm clock woke her up, Willow had forgotten all about her unpleasant dream; the only thing she still remembered was how she had talked to her girlfriend afterwards, and even that had become a blur, wiped from her memory by the sleep which had followed.
Since next to her, Pat was still fast asleep, there also was no chance to ask her if she still remembered, unless she'd wake her up; not wanting to do that though, not for something as silly as a bad dream, the redhead got out of bed as quiet as she could instead, making her way into the bathroom and reassuring herself that the door had been properly closed behind her before she undressed and stepped into the shower, soon relaxing beneath the hot water.
To her dismay, she couldn't enjoy the shower as long as she would've wanted to, knowing that she had to be at the campus in time for her early morning lecture; thus, she got done quicker than usual, finishing the rest of her morning hygiene rather fast as well before she moved back to the bedroom and got dressed, smiling at the sight of her loved one still slumbering and snoring softly.
Not wanting to leave without at least a small kiss, Willow bent down and planted a smack on the taller woman's cheek; to her amusement, Pat let out a low grunt in reply, didn't wake up though, the witch shaking her head to herself while she straightened up again and collected the stuff she'd need for her lectures that day, then left for the campus at last.
When she arrived there, most seats in the lecture hall were already taken, but to her happiness, Buffy had kept the one right next to her free; quickly, before the blonde might have to use her Slayer strength to make sure the seat really would remain free for her best friend, Willow hurried up the stairs and let herself fall into the seat, giving the smaller woman next to her a grateful look.
"Thanks for keeping that seat free for me", she also verbalized her gratitude once she had removed one of her books from the bag and had added her notebook and pen, "looks like the place is packed again…"
"Yeah", Buffy agreed, "and I wouldn't be able to bear that professor and his robotic talking without my best friend by my side. I'm just glad you arrived in time, I already thought I'd have to use some Slayer moves on the other students, in case you'd come here too late."
"As if I'd ever come too late", the redhead huffed in reply, making her best friend smile; after a moment, she smiled back, then the professor entered the hall and the lecture began, forcing both Buffy and Willow to focus on him, both women giving their best to keep up with his rapid, but monotone speech, both of them glad when the lecture finally ended an hour later.
After two more lectures, it was time for lunch, to the great relief of both Buffy and Willow – the redhead always had enjoyed it to learn new things and to sit in class, but the morning just had been too tiring, at first with Professor Roboman and then with the two other teachers, both of them seemingly incapable of speaking in any other way than a droning monotone, an unpleasant fact which had forced Buffy to pinch herself several times so she wouldn't fall asleep.
"Please tell me the lectures after class will be held by more exciting people", the blonde sighed out while she stood in line with her friend; after quickly checking the schedule, Willow smiled and nodded, to the obvious relief of the Slayer, making her smile happily while she loaded food on her tray. To the relief of both of them, it didn't take them long to find a free table once they had gotten their lunch, the two making themselves comfortable and taking rather big bites of their food before Willow spoke up, keeping her voice low so no one around would hear her words. "Anything interesting happening during patrol lately?"
"Nope", Buffy replied at once, "just the usual stuff, vampires, demons and the like. It's almost a bit weird, actually, I mean, it's been a while since we've been busy with a Big Bad, right?"
"I guess so", Willow agreed, briefly wondering if the power-stealing girl they had dealt with two months ago could be counted as a Big Bad, then deciding against it, "but isn't that a good thing?"
"A few years ago, I would have agreed immediately", Buffy gave back, taking the time to wolf down a forkful of French fries before she went on, "but by now, I've been the Slayer long enough to know that usually, calm times mean nothing good."
"Well, I hope you're wrong this time", the witch stated after thinking about this for a moment, "but, unfortunately, I have to agree with you anyway, things always were calmer before something really bad happened."
"Unless during that mess with Amy and the red mist of doom", the Slayer thoughtfully replied, making Willow nod after a moment as she thought of how the influence of the powers Amy had later wielded had made the vampires and demons – her girlfriend, to her dismay, included – much more aggressive and wild than usual.
"Speaking of demons", Buffy now gained her attention again, "how's Pat doing? I haven't seen her since the last Scoobie meeting, for some reason, she hasn't gone on patrol with me lately."
"I didn't let her", Willow giggled in reply, causing the blonde to raise an eyebrow at her, "or, better said, I asked her not to. With all the new stuff we have to learn here now, I wanted her at home to cuddle with me once I'm done studying, but if you need help, she'll surely be glad to come along… I think by now, she's itching to beat something up anyway."
"Probably", Buffy smirked, making the redhead smile as well; by now, they both handled those more unpleasant side effects of Pat's demonic nature easily, something which had taken them some time to get used to, but had been aided considerably by the fact that, ever since her relationship with Willow had begun, the demon had used her powers strictly to help her and her friends.
"I'll ask her if she wants to go along again tonight, or tomorrow", Willow now offered, making Buffy nod; the two smiled at each other once more, then the redhead picked up her sandwich, but before she could take a bite of it, the sound of shuffling footsteps came up behind her, probably caused by some student too lazy to lift his feet properly, a noise she wouldn't have paid much attention to normally, but which sent shivers up and down her spine now, a brief memory flashing up in her mind of darkness and cold and fear…
"Willow?" the Slayer distracted her, the concern in the blonde's voice making the witch realize that she had zoned out for a while there, "are you okay? You've gone pale and you were kinda staring holes into the air."
"It's nothing", she replied at once, so quickly that it made Buffy raise an eyebrow again, "I just had this stupid nightmare last night, I don't even remember it anymore, but when some guy walked by now and kinda shuffled along, it made me think about it again… Sorry for zoning out on you."
"No problem", Buffy reassured her, giving her yet another smile; briefly, the witch smiled back, then they both focused on their food again, quickly getting done with their lunch before they made their way to the hall where the next lecture would be held, the weird reaction of the redhead to the shuffling footsteps soon forgotten as once more, they had to focus on their professors and the remaining classes of the day.