Chapter 8: 'Banana's in Pyjamas'

Back at Tescos, Willow and Spike regarded each other nervously. Inching through the door, Spike backing off slightly, Willow closed the door behind her, before leaning against it.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered fiercely. "You're evil!"

"So are you, last I heard"

"What? No. How did you know about that?"

Spike smirked, and leant casually against the wall. "News travels. Specially near-apocalypse news caused by an evil Wicca"

"Will you stop saying that? I'm not evil anymore"

"No less evil than me pet"

"Much less! I haven't massacred half of Europe for one thing!" Willow frowned, confused. "But I'm not evil. Giles has seen to that. I'm working with a coven, and working here – and I don't want to be evil anymore. I don't want people to be afraid of me"

Spike glanced at the stripy blue and white uniform Willow was wearing.

"You sure about that?"

Willow narrowed her eyes. "Yes" She said shortly. "Now what do you want, Spike?"

The vampire looked hurt.

"I told you Red, I've come to buy my groceries"

"From here?"

"I used to shop here a lot. Of course, a hundred years ago, this place was a brothel, but, you know, it hasn't changed that much" He looked around, studying the ceiling and the windows. "Yeah, the kiosk used to be right here. Lead through to a quaint little room, where you picked your…

"Spike"

He stopped talking. Willow noticed for the first time how wild he looked, his blue eyes flashing in the fluorescent light, his hair longer and less tamed. He also wasn't wearing his normal leather jacket. He was wearing what looked to be an anorak?

Willow blinked. "It's great that you're here an' all, but, can you just go? Just buy your groceries, and go?"

Spike grinned. "Oh I would Red, but, erm – look around"

Willow frowned and stepped forward, to stare round at the rest of the shop.

"I don't think anyone's going to be buying much of anything"

This was weird. The whole store was frozen. Not your arctic wind variety, but just…stopped. Willow couldn't quite get her head round what she was seeing. Her colleagues, and other customers and even Mrs. Thump the Evil Manager; all were poised, mid-movement. Willow had to smile slightly, as she saw her manager had been stopped whilst picking her nose.

"What…what is this? Did you do this?"

"Me pet? Hardly" Spike nonchalantly crossed his arms. "I just came here for some marshmallows"

Willow stared, wide-eyed. She saw Rachel, at a till, her arms out-stretched, handing another frozen customer some frozen change. It was like some had pressed the pause button on the remote.

"What's doing this?"

Spike shrugged. "Spell, I reckon"

"A spell?" Willow looked wary. She'd already caused a dimensional shift one morning, when she was late for work. The M25 had been blocked. She'd only moved all the traffic for a couple of minutes into another dimension (the one where there was no such thing as daytime television. Nice place), but it was still breaking all the laws the coven had taught her. The scary thing was, it hadn't been intentional. She'd just…thought it.

"What kind of spell?" she asked.

"You tell me. You're the Wicca" Spike moved from where he was leaning and came over to stand next to Willow. Willow flinched slightly. Neither of them got too close to the other. Spike put a hand out, testing for any barrier or shield. "Strange how we're the only ones who're unaffected"

Willow considered this, and just felt more perplexed. Spike wandered over to a random customer, who was purchasing a basket full of bananas and waved a hand in front of her face. There was no response.

"I don't understand" Willow commented, moving over to one of the store doors. They refused to open, and she pushed at it with her hands. "It's like the entire building is just frozen in time, even the doors and the windows. This doesn't make any-"

Suddenly there came a crash from behind her. Whirling around, Willow saw Spike standing shamefully over Banana-buying Lady, who was now purchasing her bananas whilst flat on her back.

"They're rigid" Spike offered. He prodded the customer with his foot. "Like mannequins" Kneeling down, Spike helped himself to a banana out her basket.

"Spike, don't!" Willow cried. She gave up trying to open the doors. "You don't know what it'll do to you"

Spike smirked, and looked up at her as she walked over. "You worried for me, Red?"

"No" Willow's eyes flashed indignantly. "And, actually, I'd rather you weren't here at all, it'd be easier and less worrying, but you are, and I've got to talk to you, and I don't want another death on my hands" Willow bit her lip, paused, lost in thought.

Spike dropped the offending banana back into the basket.

"Right you are then"

Shaking herself out her reverie, Willow spoke again. "Now, we have to find out what's going on" Willow walked back across the store, speaking her thoughts aloud. She stood at the window. "At the moment, the spell's only affecting Tescos"

"Perhaps it's a rival supermarket. Delved into the black arts for a bit of unfriendly rivalry" Spike walked up to Willow, stood beside her. She gave him a look, then continued.

"The spell, at the moment, is only affecting here. But that doesn't mean it's gonna stay like this. We have to stop it, and undo it, before it spreads"

Spike sighed. "We? Bugger. If only I'd gone to Sainsburys, I could've been home by now"

"Spike – this could be serious. We don't know what we're dealing with"

"Well why don't you phone up your friends and that ex-Librarian with the squishy frontal lobes, and ask them?" Spike paused, as he saw a look of doubt cross Willow's face. "Unless, of course, they're all too scared of you?"

"Spike, shush"

"Why Red? You-"

"Shush!" Willow froze. Reflecting in the glass in the front of her, was a large hairy demon, crossing an aisle right at the back of the shop. Dog food, she thought correctly. Spike noticed the demon too, and fell silent.

"We're trapped in here with a demon" Willow whispered, stating the obvious.

"You don't say"

"I'm trapped in here. You're trapped in here"

Spike got the gist of where she was going with that.

"Thanks" He told her.

From the back of the shop, the demon roared.