The sun shone in through the balcony windows highlighting dust
motes that floated through the air, twisting and tumbling in
the gentle air currents. It fell across the bed and the
scattered books and fuzzy, glass eyed toy animals that lay
upon it. It fell on the floor reflecting from the numerous
mirror shards that lay embedded in the stained carpet causing
the room to shimmer with random spots of bright light. The
light picked out the cracked wall where the plasterboard had
split and indented tearing the wallpaper like a network of
veins. It enhanced the reddish-brown stain that ran from the
top of the crack down the broken wall and ended among the red
trestles surrounding the face of the pale figure of a young
girl lying naked and sprawled amongst the cruel shards.
It was cold and there was an ache that would not stay still long enough for one to say where it had come from but seem to come from all places at once. But she was getting warmer now, a peaceful, clean warmth that slowly spread across her sore body soothing her as it pasted when it reached her face she slowly opened her eyes and squinted into the morning sun.
Willow squinted against the bright light and screwed up her face in a tired yawn,
"Would you turn the light off please Buffy I'm still sleeping." One stiff arm reached out for the covers as she turned over closing her eyes. Eyes that snapped open as her questing hand encountered nothing but her own bare flesh and her shoulder landed in something cold and wet. Finally focussing Willows eyes gazed at her old chest of draws only an arms length from her nose and the wickedly sharp piece of mirror that was embedded in it causing her to see her own surprised face. The shock of seeing a face staring back at her resulted in Willow drawing back with a sharp gasp that turned into a gasp of pain as several strands of her hair were pulled out due to the dried and drying blood around her sticking them to floor. One glance to see what had pulled her hair got the young which to her feet with a sharp cry horror and disgust.
"What. ew, ew, EW, EW!" Hopping from foot to foot in an attempted to get away from the blood-matted carpet she stepped right on a splinter of glass the sudden pain causing her to trip and fall back against the wall and slide down to land bottom first in a rather wet patch of floor. Considering that things couldn't get any worse Willow made a half dash half limp for the door and managed to get out without any more injuries.
Shutting the door on the blood stained mess that use to be her room Willow turned and slumped against the door as reality crashed down around her with a thump and the events of the night before followed hot on its' heals. The spell, the pain and the blood, her desperate pleas to live and finally the engulfing black void as she had, she now realized, fallen unconscious. What had happened to her room after that she had no idea, but it looked as though someone had been smashing mirrors, throwing everything that they could lay their hands on around the room, before emptying a hospitals supply of blood on the floor. Had she done that? It couldn't be her own blood, there was far to much there for her to be alive or for that matter that much in her body at all. She must have blacked out and in a trance or something torn up her room and. poured dye on the floor. Yes that was it! In a weird spell induced trance thingy she had wrecked the room before falling unconscious. Stupid spell. Happy with this solution Willow put on her resolved face and straightened up and turned towards the bathroom but caught sight of herself in the hall mirror.
Willow stopped and turned fully towards the mirror taking in the state of her appearance. The back of her head was covered with. whatever she had poured over the floor, matting her hair together into odd spikes, curls and tuffs and turning her red hair into an odd combination of muddy browns and bright reds. The same mixture of colours covered her back and left side, against the paleness of her skin it looked like. well if she wanted to tell the truth she thought she looked like the anatomy drawings where the skin had been removed, and that was just so. I'm naked.
"Any part of me that wasn't already red is so going to be now" Willow thought as she dived towards the bathroom forgetting the glass in her foot and ending up limping the rest of the way. Having made the bathroom, and locked the door behind her, she turned on the shower and sat down on the edge of the tub lifting her injured foot to see what she had stepped on. The shard had gone right into the centre of her instep but had not stuck in too deeply still having a millimetre or so above the skin. Gritting her teeth and pinching the splinter between thumb and forefinger Willow quickly pulled it free gasping at the sharp stab of pain that its' extraction produced. The chip was thrown into the sink and Willow went under the shower. The hot water was at that moment the most wonderful thing in existence not only starting to remove the colour from her skin but also relaxing her sore muscles. Letting the water just run over her body the young witch began to calm down and think about what had happened to her as of last night. "First I do a spell that involves me cutting my hands," raising her hands to her face she saw that there was only a very faint scar in the middle of each of her palms and thanked the goddess for the healing that must have been part of the spell. "I have a bowl of my blood, guess that all that red stuff wasn't just paint or dye - Yuk, and then I faint." Blindly Willow grabbed the scrunchy and poured on some shower gel, as she began to rub at the more obstinate red patches on her skin she tried to figure out what she had done next.
"So," she began, talking aloud to try and get her tired brain to work out the answers, "I fall unconscious and then I turn into destructo-girl tearing my room up, smashing mirrors and pouring something else on the floor as well as my own blood. Or could it have all been my blood? No. Don't be silly Wills' you would have to be drained completely of blood to cause that much mess and as you are still here and still you then it must be some thing else as well." Dropping the now pink scrunchy to the floor Willow began to shampoo the gunk out of her hair feeling very grateful for having had it cut shorter; to have gotten this out of her old long hair would have been an almost Angelus worthy torment.
"Ok so my night goes like this: do very painful spell, black out, become a walking mess maker, and apparently Miss Expeditionist 2000, I am so going to die if any one saw me (please goddess let no one have seen me) and then fall asleep in the remains of my room. All things considered not a good night for me." With a sigh Willow pushed her head under jet of water and rinsed the pink foam that had formed under her ministrations out.
Shivering as she stepped from the steamy shower the red head grabbed a large bath towel quickly wrapping it around herself and taking a smaller one began to dry her hair.
"Well Rosenberg another spell gone kablewie on you. Giles always said that you need emotion control to focus the energies but did you think about that? No course not all you could think about was Oz and see where it has got. got." It was then it hit her, she had just thought about Oz, when for the last several days he had always been there in her thoughts and, what was more, there had been no pain at the memory, no anger, no huge canyon sized sense of lose. The spell had worked.
"Yes!" literally jumping for joy Willow started laughing, "I did it! Oh, oh, happy, happy, so happy! Yes! Hurray for magic. Goddess thankyouthankyou, Thank you!"
Still almost dancing the young and exceedingly happy witch skipped out of the humid bathroom and down the hallway towards her room. Luckily for her the red imprint of her pert buttocks on the door reminder her of the sticky mess inside before she could enter and make her shower a waste of time. Okay. Now she had a problem, as the rest of the house was still in one piece she must have stayed inside the room, which meant that her clothes were also inside the room, and` if that were true, then even if she could get to them then they were in no state to be worn now. Fine a bit of a downer but no problem there must be some clothes somewhere that she could wear.
"Now think Willow if you were clothes where would you be hiding? Ah ha parents room." Turning towards the stairs and her absent parents room Willow came to a shocked halt as she once again faced her reflection.
"Oh my Goddess, my hair!" Staring in shocked fascination she slowly walked towards her reflection one hand rising to stroke through the overly red hair as her mirror image did the same. Stopping just before the surface Willow pulled a strand of her damp hair down before her eyes, and focused on it. The previously reddish-brown hair was now a vibrant reddish-bronze and was still damp; when it was dry Willow had a sinking feeling that it was going to be even redder. Stepping back she turned her head from side to side to get an overview of the entire look.
"Well at least it seems to have coloured it evenly all over. I really, really wish I knew what I did last night." Her hands began to push her hair around to see if it was as bad as she thought, and found much to her own surprise that it kind of suited her. Yeah, Oz and all that were gone - or at least no longer painful - so a new look for the new Oz free Willow. Happy and determined once again she turned around briskly and entered her parents' bedroom.
Twenty minutes later after an exhaustive search through her mothers, and in desperation her fathers, clothes found that neither parent had any underwear that might fit, thought the idea of wearing her parents underclothes was just not a good one anyway, and that the only clothes that were anywhere near her size were a pair of stretchy, black lycra leggings and an oversized pink, woollen jumper, the lack of bra making a shirt, blouse or even a t-shirt out of the question due to the only ones that might fit being a) white and b) thin. On the upside there was an old pair of her trainers that had gotten mixed in amongst her mothers shoes at sometime and had up and till now remained undiscovered.
Pulling on the leggings Willow noticed, to her own dire embarrassment that the hair on her head was not the only hair which had been dyed in her unknown late night escapades. Flushing red she quickly finished pulling them up and shoved the jumper over her head, momentarily mixing up a sleeve and the neck hole inside the woollen overwhelming mass, and shoved her feet hurriedly into her shoes. Looking to her mothers' dressing table mirror for guidance she straightened the fluffy giant she was forced to wear and began a search for a brush still smiling happily despite the odd clothing. Willow finally discovered a brush in one of the dresser draws as her parents' radio-alarm clock went off making her jump and clutch at her suddenly rapidly beating heart.
"Good Morning Sunnydale," the radio boomed, "I'm Leechy here for the next four hours with your morning favourites but first with the time being nine o'clock here's you're very own Teresa Zee with the -"
"Nine!" Willows uncontrolled scream of panic momentarily drowned out the broadcasters' voice. "It can't be nine. I mean... Lecture in half hour. I'm going to be in so much trouble. I'm going to go in and they are all going to stare at me and." Trainers a white blur the flustered girl dashed down the stairs and out of the house in her haste slamming the front door so hard the inset glass rattled violently.
However, despite her flustered state and the panic she was currently in the happy smile never left the corners of her lips and her eyes shone.
It was cold and there was an ache that would not stay still long enough for one to say where it had come from but seem to come from all places at once. But she was getting warmer now, a peaceful, clean warmth that slowly spread across her sore body soothing her as it pasted when it reached her face she slowly opened her eyes and squinted into the morning sun.
Willow squinted against the bright light and screwed up her face in a tired yawn,
"Would you turn the light off please Buffy I'm still sleeping." One stiff arm reached out for the covers as she turned over closing her eyes. Eyes that snapped open as her questing hand encountered nothing but her own bare flesh and her shoulder landed in something cold and wet. Finally focussing Willows eyes gazed at her old chest of draws only an arms length from her nose and the wickedly sharp piece of mirror that was embedded in it causing her to see her own surprised face. The shock of seeing a face staring back at her resulted in Willow drawing back with a sharp gasp that turned into a gasp of pain as several strands of her hair were pulled out due to the dried and drying blood around her sticking them to floor. One glance to see what had pulled her hair got the young which to her feet with a sharp cry horror and disgust.
"What. ew, ew, EW, EW!" Hopping from foot to foot in an attempted to get away from the blood-matted carpet she stepped right on a splinter of glass the sudden pain causing her to trip and fall back against the wall and slide down to land bottom first in a rather wet patch of floor. Considering that things couldn't get any worse Willow made a half dash half limp for the door and managed to get out without any more injuries.
Shutting the door on the blood stained mess that use to be her room Willow turned and slumped against the door as reality crashed down around her with a thump and the events of the night before followed hot on its' heals. The spell, the pain and the blood, her desperate pleas to live and finally the engulfing black void as she had, she now realized, fallen unconscious. What had happened to her room after that she had no idea, but it looked as though someone had been smashing mirrors, throwing everything that they could lay their hands on around the room, before emptying a hospitals supply of blood on the floor. Had she done that? It couldn't be her own blood, there was far to much there for her to be alive or for that matter that much in her body at all. She must have blacked out and in a trance or something torn up her room and. poured dye on the floor. Yes that was it! In a weird spell induced trance thingy she had wrecked the room before falling unconscious. Stupid spell. Happy with this solution Willow put on her resolved face and straightened up and turned towards the bathroom but caught sight of herself in the hall mirror.
Willow stopped and turned fully towards the mirror taking in the state of her appearance. The back of her head was covered with. whatever she had poured over the floor, matting her hair together into odd spikes, curls and tuffs and turning her red hair into an odd combination of muddy browns and bright reds. The same mixture of colours covered her back and left side, against the paleness of her skin it looked like. well if she wanted to tell the truth she thought she looked like the anatomy drawings where the skin had been removed, and that was just so. I'm naked.
"Any part of me that wasn't already red is so going to be now" Willow thought as she dived towards the bathroom forgetting the glass in her foot and ending up limping the rest of the way. Having made the bathroom, and locked the door behind her, she turned on the shower and sat down on the edge of the tub lifting her injured foot to see what she had stepped on. The shard had gone right into the centre of her instep but had not stuck in too deeply still having a millimetre or so above the skin. Gritting her teeth and pinching the splinter between thumb and forefinger Willow quickly pulled it free gasping at the sharp stab of pain that its' extraction produced. The chip was thrown into the sink and Willow went under the shower. The hot water was at that moment the most wonderful thing in existence not only starting to remove the colour from her skin but also relaxing her sore muscles. Letting the water just run over her body the young witch began to calm down and think about what had happened to her as of last night. "First I do a spell that involves me cutting my hands," raising her hands to her face she saw that there was only a very faint scar in the middle of each of her palms and thanked the goddess for the healing that must have been part of the spell. "I have a bowl of my blood, guess that all that red stuff wasn't just paint or dye - Yuk, and then I faint." Blindly Willow grabbed the scrunchy and poured on some shower gel, as she began to rub at the more obstinate red patches on her skin she tried to figure out what she had done next.
"So," she began, talking aloud to try and get her tired brain to work out the answers, "I fall unconscious and then I turn into destructo-girl tearing my room up, smashing mirrors and pouring something else on the floor as well as my own blood. Or could it have all been my blood? No. Don't be silly Wills' you would have to be drained completely of blood to cause that much mess and as you are still here and still you then it must be some thing else as well." Dropping the now pink scrunchy to the floor Willow began to shampoo the gunk out of her hair feeling very grateful for having had it cut shorter; to have gotten this out of her old long hair would have been an almost Angelus worthy torment.
"Ok so my night goes like this: do very painful spell, black out, become a walking mess maker, and apparently Miss Expeditionist 2000, I am so going to die if any one saw me (please goddess let no one have seen me) and then fall asleep in the remains of my room. All things considered not a good night for me." With a sigh Willow pushed her head under jet of water and rinsed the pink foam that had formed under her ministrations out.
Shivering as she stepped from the steamy shower the red head grabbed a large bath towel quickly wrapping it around herself and taking a smaller one began to dry her hair.
"Well Rosenberg another spell gone kablewie on you. Giles always said that you need emotion control to focus the energies but did you think about that? No course not all you could think about was Oz and see where it has got. got." It was then it hit her, she had just thought about Oz, when for the last several days he had always been there in her thoughts and, what was more, there had been no pain at the memory, no anger, no huge canyon sized sense of lose. The spell had worked.
"Yes!" literally jumping for joy Willow started laughing, "I did it! Oh, oh, happy, happy, so happy! Yes! Hurray for magic. Goddess thankyouthankyou, Thank you!"
Still almost dancing the young and exceedingly happy witch skipped out of the humid bathroom and down the hallway towards her room. Luckily for her the red imprint of her pert buttocks on the door reminder her of the sticky mess inside before she could enter and make her shower a waste of time. Okay. Now she had a problem, as the rest of the house was still in one piece she must have stayed inside the room, which meant that her clothes were also inside the room, and` if that were true, then even if she could get to them then they were in no state to be worn now. Fine a bit of a downer but no problem there must be some clothes somewhere that she could wear.
"Now think Willow if you were clothes where would you be hiding? Ah ha parents room." Turning towards the stairs and her absent parents room Willow came to a shocked halt as she once again faced her reflection.
"Oh my Goddess, my hair!" Staring in shocked fascination she slowly walked towards her reflection one hand rising to stroke through the overly red hair as her mirror image did the same. Stopping just before the surface Willow pulled a strand of her damp hair down before her eyes, and focused on it. The previously reddish-brown hair was now a vibrant reddish-bronze and was still damp; when it was dry Willow had a sinking feeling that it was going to be even redder. Stepping back she turned her head from side to side to get an overview of the entire look.
"Well at least it seems to have coloured it evenly all over. I really, really wish I knew what I did last night." Her hands began to push her hair around to see if it was as bad as she thought, and found much to her own surprise that it kind of suited her. Yeah, Oz and all that were gone - or at least no longer painful - so a new look for the new Oz free Willow. Happy and determined once again she turned around briskly and entered her parents' bedroom.
Twenty minutes later after an exhaustive search through her mothers, and in desperation her fathers, clothes found that neither parent had any underwear that might fit, thought the idea of wearing her parents underclothes was just not a good one anyway, and that the only clothes that were anywhere near her size were a pair of stretchy, black lycra leggings and an oversized pink, woollen jumper, the lack of bra making a shirt, blouse or even a t-shirt out of the question due to the only ones that might fit being a) white and b) thin. On the upside there was an old pair of her trainers that had gotten mixed in amongst her mothers shoes at sometime and had up and till now remained undiscovered.
Pulling on the leggings Willow noticed, to her own dire embarrassment that the hair on her head was not the only hair which had been dyed in her unknown late night escapades. Flushing red she quickly finished pulling them up and shoved the jumper over her head, momentarily mixing up a sleeve and the neck hole inside the woollen overwhelming mass, and shoved her feet hurriedly into her shoes. Looking to her mothers' dressing table mirror for guidance she straightened the fluffy giant she was forced to wear and began a search for a brush still smiling happily despite the odd clothing. Willow finally discovered a brush in one of the dresser draws as her parents' radio-alarm clock went off making her jump and clutch at her suddenly rapidly beating heart.
"Good Morning Sunnydale," the radio boomed, "I'm Leechy here for the next four hours with your morning favourites but first with the time being nine o'clock here's you're very own Teresa Zee with the -"
"Nine!" Willows uncontrolled scream of panic momentarily drowned out the broadcasters' voice. "It can't be nine. I mean... Lecture in half hour. I'm going to be in so much trouble. I'm going to go in and they are all going to stare at me and." Trainers a white blur the flustered girl dashed down the stairs and out of the house in her haste slamming the front door so hard the inset glass rattled violently.
However, despite her flustered state and the panic she was currently in the happy smile never left the corners of her lips and her eyes shone.