To her relief, the door didn't turn out to be much of a challenge; one powerful spell of pure force was enough to break it out of the frame, even though briefly, she wondered if she hadn't made too much of a commotion now and perhaps had alerted the other witch to her presence.
Then, she remembered the scream and shrugged it off, telling herself that she'd be able to handle whatever the witch might throw at her; with her resolve face firmly in place, she entered the tower, finding herself in a rather shoddy looking entrance hall, the paint peeling off the walls and ceiling in large patches, mould growing here and there, water dripping somewhere regularly and quite annoyingly.
"Should focus more on housekeeping than on kidnapping people", Willow mumbled to herself as she spotted the stairway leading up to the top of the tower; the stairs didn't look all too trustworthy, but since clearly, the dried out witch had managed to get Pat up there somehow, they had been carrying their weight, so she figured that she'd be okay.
Still, she held her breath as she set her foot on the lowest stair; it creaked ominously, but held, and she let out a relieved sigh before she continued moving upwards, her heart skipping a bit every now and then when yet another stair creaked or even gave way a little beneath her feet.
Finally, she had made it to the top of the stairs, finding herself on a small platform on the very top of the tower, in front of yet another door; holding back the urge to just barge in, she pressed her ear against it instead, trying to hear anything which would tell her if the witch was there with her partner, not sure what to think of the silence behind the wood – on one hand, Pat wasn't screaming anymore, but on the other hand, she could think of twenty unpleasant reasons for why her partner was so quiet.
Well, she then told herself, refraining from speaking out loud now as she didn't want to alert the other witch after all, no use in standing around out here any longer… Time to face the music.
She took in another deep breath, steeling herself for what she might find behind that door, then grasped the handle and turned it, relieved to see that the door wasn't locked; it swung open soundlessly, probably the only thing in this tower which didn't creak or groan, leading to a room almost as big as the entrance hall downstairs, and just as rundown as said hall had been.
This time though, Willow noticed nothing of the peeling walls and the dirty ground beneath her feet; all her attention was focused at once on the table which stood in the middle of the room, her loved one lying flat on her back on said table, heavy chains around her wrists and ankles securing her to the piece of furniture, one glance being enough to tell the redhead how much the other witch had fed off her partner already.
Dully, she remembered how the dark magic within her had taken over a while ago, and had stolen some of the demon's energy; back then, several strands of her hair had gone temporarily grey, but this time, it was even worse, the grey now dominating, with only a few strands of black left, and the way her clothes hung quite loosely on her body showed Willow that she had lost quite a bit of weight, as well.
Momentarily, Willow was stunned by the sight, asking herself how this could have happened so fast when the demon had been taken mere hours ago; then, her gaze took in even more details and those thoughts were banished to the far back of her mind as her heart clenched up yet again.
As if being fed off wasn't enough, the demon obviously also had taken quite a beating; the skin around her good eye had darkened to a purplish bruise, a bloodied cut high on the cheekbone with the flesh around it bruised as well, and another one low on her jaw, the witch only now noticing how bloodied and raw her wrists looked, showing how hard she had tried to free herself.
"Jesus", Willow finally brought out, managing to tear herself out of her shocked state enough to rush over to the table, "what did she do to you…?"
Only now, she remembered to look around if the other witch was anywhere in sight, not sure if she should feel relieved or worried when she couldn't spot the woman anywhere; then, she shrugged it off and grasped one of her partner's hands, startled at how cold the skin felt, briefly sure that Pat was dead after all – before she noticed the slow rising and falling of her chest, briefly closing her eyes to regain some control and taking in a few deep breaths.
"Pat", she then tried to make her lover react to her presence, since her touch had accomplished nothing, not sure if the taller woman was asleep or simply out cold, "Sweetie… Come on, if you can hear me, wake up…"
Careful to keep her fingers away from any of the cuts and bruises, she moved her free hand to tenderly run it down the demon's cheek; again, no reaction came though, showing her that the black haired woman indeed had been knocked out by what had been done to her, thoughts of vengeance briefly filling her mind as she thought of the person who had done this to her.
No time for this now, she then told herself, breathing deeply yet again to regain her composure, just focus on getting her out now.
It took her a few moments to find the locks which secured the chains around Pat's wrists and ankles; focusing on the first one, she touched it lightly with the tips of her fingers, imagining the small mechanism inside, the bolts and how the key would push them up and make the lock snap open upon turning…
The lock opened with an audible click and the chain fell down to the floor with a shockingly loud clang; and where Willow's voice and touch hadn't been enough to wake Pat up, this obviously had done the trick, since the demon flinched on the table, then let out a barely audible groan, her good eye fluttering, the noise and sight being enough to distract the witch from the task at hand, her heart feeling as if it was getting torn out of her chest once more when the taller woman gave a terrifyingly weak jerk on the chains still holding her, her voice barely audible as she started to mumble.
"No", she brought out, clenching her fists, clearly not realizing that at least one of them had been freed, "no more, please… No more…"
"Hush", Willow hurriedly tried to calm her down, knowing that the last thing they needed now was for the taller woman to freak out and maybe start burning the place down, "it's me, Honey, it's okay, I'm here to get you out… You'll be okay…"
To her relief, the demon did react to her this time, somehow managing to force her good eye open despite how drained and exhausted she clearly was; momentarily, her gaze was full of disbelief – and then, Willow felt almost as shocked as she had been when she had laid eyes on the captured woman for the first time as tears started to glisten in her eye, her face working as she fought to contain her emotions.
"You'll be okay", she repeated, not sure what else she could say, "I promise, I'll get you out of here and you'll be okay…"
"She said you wouldn't come", the demon pressed out in reply, finally losing the fight against her tears, a few of them rolling down her cheek, "she said no one would come, that no one would find me here… And after a few days, I believed her…"
A few days?! Willow's mind reeled at hearing this, how is this possible?! It's not even been a whole day since this woman snatched her!
"…she lied", she made herself reply, telling herself that she could figure this out later, once she had gotten her partner out, "I'm here, and I'll get you out… Just hold still for a moment so I can open these locks…"
She bent over the taller woman to briefly, but tenderly kiss her on the forehead, then focused on the locks again, not having noticed how the demon had stiffened at her movement; despite her rather upset state, it didn't take her long to open the three remaining locks, her voice full of concern when she asked Pat if she could stand.
"I think so", the demon gave back after considering this for a moment, to the witch's relief having calmed down enough to stop the flow of tears; giving her an encouraging smile, Willow helped her to sit up, then with getting off the table, keeping an arm around her waist as she led her to the door, hoping and praying that the witch who had done this to her partner wouldn't show up in the last second and try to thwart their escape.
Apparently though, even though the redhead had no idea how the other witch could have left, seeing that the only way to the top of the tower was the stairway she had taken and she hadn't passed her there, the woman was one, off to do only God knew what; deciding not to worry about her, Willow tightened her grip on the demon's waist, not wanting her to end up tumbling down the stairs in her weakened state, relieved when, after what seemed like half an eternity, they had made it to the bottom of them safely, even though her partner was out of breath and sweating profusely, showing how much of a toll the simple walk down the stairs had taken on her.
"You'll be okay", Willow told her as the taller woman leaned against the wall, looking as if she was about to pass out any moment, "I promise, we just have to make it to the portal and then you can rest and recover…"
Nodding, Pat forced a weak smile on her face, then moved away from the wall again; leaning heavily on the redhead, she let the smaller woman lead her out of the tower, her dismay about the whole situation reaching new heights when Willow stopped dead in her tracks once they had moved outside and just stared.
"…what?" she finally dared to ask, prompting the redhead to look up at her, her eyes wide and full of shock; and moments later, Pat felt like simply sitting down and giving up as the witch replied, her words shattering the tiny bit of hope she had had about making it out of this place alive to even tinier pieces. "The portal I came through to here… she said she'd keep it open, but… it's gone."