Chapter Four

          The line was beginning to haze. Dream and reality no longer stood apart. They were now one and the same – feeding from each other, using each other. They were pulling her further and further into their pit of deception. Things that once meant so much to her were now slipping from her thoughts. Fears were manifesting from her mind – everything that terrified her now existed and plagued her while she slept.

Or was it when she was awake?

Willow could no longer tell when it was she slept and when she woke. The madness that thrived within her told Willow that the world of color she sometimes found herself in, a world of friends and happiness, that that was the land of dreams and not to believe them. Her lingering sanity, however, pleaded with Willow to ignore the realm of grey, a place of despair and sadness, and to awake to her life.

But her sanity was no more then a whisper and Willow was lost to her madness.

"Where's Buffy?"

"What a silly question, Willow."

"Silly? I don't understand Mrs. Summers."

"Willow, honey, Buffy's dead."

That initial instinct to refuse such an answer, to argue that it was absurd – Willow knew Buffy was alive, saw her just hours before – that instinct was utterly withered and dying. Buffy lived in the colored-world and the colored-world was a land of dreams. No, Willow did not argue the frank statement of Buffy's death. Instead, she simply shrugged and continued her work without a second thought or feeling of loss.

Oblivious. Deceived. Fading.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Buffy sat at Willow's side morning and night for three days hoping, praying that her friend were break the spell she was under. Only twice did Willow awake but on both occasions she did no more then mutter incoherent words before falling back into slumber. Buffy was distraught and overcome with grief. Every hour, every minute that her friend lay helpless was another hour, another minute that Willow suffered while she was able to do nothing. At a loss as to what to do Buffy could do nothing but watch and wait.

Spike and Tara tried every hour to pull Buffy away but their attempts were futile for she stubbornly refused to budge. Xander had come to see Willow a couple of times but the sight – his childhood friend slowly dying in her own dreams – was too much for him to handle. Anya had attempted to be gentle-hearted but her un-thought bluntness only angered Buffy and the grieving Slayer had thrown the ex-demon from the room.

Buffy felt helpless and weak – emotions she was not at all accustomed to – and therefore grew to detest herself for not being able to help the one person who truly needed her.

Research brought no new information to light and the Scooby Gang had reached the end of the road. There was no where else to look, no one left to turn to. For the first time, they failed to find an answer.

"I won't accept that," Buffy argued through her tears. "There's got to be something. A book we overlooked, a contact we skipped."

"There's nothing," Giles admitted pitifully.

"There has to be," Buffy pleaded. "We can't just give up. I won't fail her."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Angel, Cordelia and Wesley stood outside the gate of a Victorian-styled mansion. All looking for the strength to speak and the words to stay. Cordelia's vision had immediately sent the three former Scooby's into a panic. Willow was in danger and the gang in Sunnydale was out of options.

Without a word spoken between them, the three piled into Angel's car without so much as a glance back at Angel Investigations and headed towards the only person with any hope of feeling Willow. Cordelia stood nervous and skeptical; Wesley was un-admittedly frightened; and Angel, well Angel was determined. He had known exactly who was needed and how to find her.

She had, after all, been his masterpiece.

"Daddy has come to see us, Miss Edith."

"We need your help."

"The stars are whispering. Do you hear them? Psst, psst, psst. She's in trouble, isn't she my Angel? You're redhead witch."

"Can you help her or not?"

"My head is swimming with her, I can't hear anything else. She is falling, Miss Edith. Falling deeper and deeper. Soon she will be lost. We must save her, for Daddy."

"Where has she gone, Dru?"