A few hours later, Pat had gone out for patrol while Willow once more had opened up her laptop and continued working on her paper; now that she was alone in the apartment, her worries surfaced again though, making it hard for her to focus on the paper, the witch catching herself several times with her fingers just resting on the keyboard, looking right through the screen – and into the past, to the horrible hours when she had been so sure that her girlfriend was dead.
She couldn't stop the cold shiver that ran down her back when she remembered once more how Pat had went down without a sound, the blink of an eye after the assassin who had been after Buffy had snapped her fingers; she had relived that moment again and again in her nightmares, always with an outcome much worse than what really had happened, several times even managing to wake up her girlfriend with her moans and whimpers. Dully, she wondered to herself how much longer she'd be dreaming about that moment, and about what had followed it; in her dreams though, the demon crumbled to dust when they met on the sidewalk in the pouring rain, turning out to be the figment of her imagination she had feared she would be, instead of the perfectly fine woman she still was with.
Giving her best to push those thoughts out of her mind, Willow told herself that there was no need to think of that horrible time again; after all, Pat was alive and well, and just had gone out for patrol and would be back soon, just as well as she had been when she had left.
"At least I hope so", the witch mumbled to herself, not even realizing that she had said that out loud; it took her quite the bit of willpower, but finally, she managed to focus on her paper again, her fingers moving over the keys slowly at first, then faster as the words started coming to her.
Just like during the previous evening, she soon didn't notice anymore how time passed once she had gotten fully into the work; by the time she finally leaned back for a short break and her gaze fell on the clock, she frowned to herself when she saw how late it had gotten, worry instantly filling her heart again as her thoughts returned to Pat and what she might be doing right now – or whom she might be fighting – before she pushed them aside, telling herself that surely, the demon would be fine.
Eager to distract herself from those worries, Willow focused on the paper again, reading through what she had written and correcting several typos she found; once she had gotten done with that, she decided that she'd done enough work for the day, quickly saving her changes, then opening one of her favourite internet sites, not feeling like going to sleep yet.
She spent almost another full hour browsing the site, checking new entries in the forum and replying to some of them; then, her tiredness finally became too great to ignore, and she shut down the laptop, carefully placing it on the table before she got up from the couch and made her way into the bedroom, yawning to herself while she changed into her pyjama.
Before she laid down, she checked the clock again, frowning to herself when she saw how late it was; then, she once more pushed her worries aside and got into bed, snuggling into the covers – which were a poor substitute for her girlfriend – and making herself comfortable, drifting off into sleep a few minutes later.
She didn't know how long she had been asleep when the noise her girlfriend made as she came finally came home woke her up again; blinking sleepily, she sat up on the bed, listening to Pat taking off her boots in the anteroom, her footsteps then approaching the bedroom, the door opening a few moments later.
Clearly not aware of the fact that her girlfriend was awake, and now at least trying to be quiet, the demon tried to sneak to the bathroom as silently as possible; the moment she approached the bed on her way to the bathroom door, Willow frowned to herself as a smell she quickly identified as smoke hit her nostrils, making her wonder if Pat indeed had encountered the one who had killed poor Jane.
"Hey", she spoke up, holding back the urge to giggle when the taller woman visibly jumped, startled; turning around, she looked at the bed, the eyes of the redhead by now adjusted enough to the darkness to let her see how she raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you're asleep", she stated after a moment of silence, taking a step closer to the bed now and giving Willow another chance to smell the smoky odour she had brought in with herself; smiling, the witch shrugged, feeling surprisingly awake now that her girlfriend was back and hopefully fine. "I was until you came home and thumped all over the place when you took off your boots. Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine", Pat reassured her at once, "just wanted to wash down quickly, I'm afraid I'm all stinky."
"Yes you are", Willow confirmed, "did you run into that other flamey guy?"
"No", the demon sighed, "unfortunately not. I did run into some other big nasty and had to burn him quite badly before he finally bit the dust, so hence the bad smell I'm bringing with me."
"You better go and wash then", the redhead helpfully advised, making the demon bite her tongue as she held back a snarky remark about how this was what she had been planning to do anyway; she just nodded, not even taking the time for a kiss, but immediately making her way into the bathroom, closing the door behind herself so the noise of the shower wouldn't be too loud.
Even though she only washed down quickly, just to get the smell out of her hair, Willow was fast asleep again by the time she got out of the bathroom; smiling to herself, the demon watched her slumber for a while, then moved to the window and glanced outside into the night, watching the quiet streets for a while before she finally got into bed and quickly fell asleep, as well.
In the next morning at campus, Willow went to the cafeteria right after arriving at the college, eager to get some coffee; even though she had fallen asleep again quickly after Pat had come back home, and had slumbered peacefully for the rest of the night, she still felt tired, something she blamed on the fact that she had stayed awake longer than usual, spending so much time in front of her laptop.
Fighting down the urge to yawn, she entered the cafeteria and moved straight to the counter, grimacing when she saw the rather long line there; obviously, she wasn't the only one in need for coffee, hoping that at least, the ones in front of her would get done quickly and that no one would have any stupid, special wishes. Luckily, that hope was fulfilled, the line moving along quite fast; it only took a few minutes until she stood in front of the cafeteria employee and told him her order, giving him a smile and thanking him when he handed a paper cup of steaming hot coffee to her half a minute later.
Moving away from the counter again, she took a careful sip of the black liquid, briefly closing her eyes as she felt warmth spread within her; then, she sped up her steps and moved to the lecture hall where her first class would be held, arriving there a good ten minutes before the lesson would start. As always, the other students who were already there were using those minutes to chat among each other; it took only a few seconds until the girl sitting next to her tapped her shoulder, keeping her voice low just like the others when she spoke up. "Hey, have you heard about Jane yet? Isn't it horrible?"
"Yes", Willow agreed at once, her heart once more flooded with sympathy as she thought of her study partner and the gruesome death she had been subjected to, "poor her, it's awful…"
"And there was another one", the other girl now helpfully informed her, making her eyes go wide as she wondered why no one had informed her about this yet – after what he had said about this mysterious new foe, she would've thought that at least Giles would keep an eye open for more such deaths.
"There is?" she thus asked, her stomach knotting up when the girl nodded, her voice almost going down to a whisper as she replied. "Yes, close to the cemetery, you know that one which is so awfully close to the old High School? A guy, burned to death, just like poor Jane, it was in the paper…"
"Poor guy", Willow gave back, the first thing which came to her mind and probably an appropriate answer as well; she cleared her throat, trying to clear her head as well, her voice surprisingly steady when she spoke on. "Do they know who he was yet?"
"No", the other student shook her head, to the witch's dismay, "they're working on it…"
"Oh, okay", the redhead mumbled, not all too smart; the girl just nodded, then fell silent as the door opened and the teacher entered, greeting the students with his usual lack of enthusiasm, making several of them jump when he let his stack of books fall on the table in front of him.
Unlike most other professors would have, this one didn't bother to even mention Jane and her untimely death; instead, he started the lecture right away, and even though she tried hard to concentrate, Willow found herself unable to focus on his words, her mind running wild as she pondered what she just had learned.
The thought that there had been a second victim so shortly after the first was unsettling, as it showed that Giles had been right and that Jane had only be the first one to be killed in such a horrendous way; it also made her aware of how fast they had to be to figure out who was responsible for this, the thought of how many more people might die in case this creature would keep up the habit of killing every night making her blood run cold.
Even though she wanted nothing more than just jump up, rush outside and call at first Giles, then her girlfriend, she somehow managed to stay in her seat until the lecture was over; the moment the professor had dismissed them though, she almost jumped up and rushed outside, not even noticing the surprised glance the girl who had told her about the latest victim gave her.
As fast as she could without actually running, she made her way to one of the few quieter corners of the campus, then quickly found her cell phone and called Giles; to her relief, he took the call right after the second ring, sounding worried the moment she had introduced herself, well aware of the fact that she was at college and that she usually only called from there when something had happened.
"There's been another victim", she let him know without beating around the bush for long, keeping her voice low in case anyone would walk by, "close to the cemetery, the one close to the High School… and I have the feeling that it's not over yet… or that it will be anytime soon if we don't figure out how to stop it."
"I'm afraid you're correct about that", Giles sighed out, not surprising her when he asked her if she'd go and check out the crime scene again, something she already had been anticipating.
"Yes", she thus immediately gave back, "I'll call Pat and ask her to come with me, just in case…"
"Good idea", the Watcher agreed, "and let me know if you find anything. I'll keep an eye out for more news about this, maybe we can figure out a pattern about how the victims were chosen…"
"You do that", Willow agreed, even though she thought it wouldn't do much good – so far, the demons they had encountered aside from battles against the various Big Bads had always killed randomly, not caring whom they were finishing off, but just eager on spreading pain and mayhem, as it was their nature.
Before he ended the call, Giles took the time to tell her to take care; she reassured him that she would, then quickly hung up and pushed the speed-dial button for her girlfriend's phone, hoping that the call wouldn't wake the demon up, since then, Pat wouldn't exactly be capable of communication. To her relief, the black haired woman sounded quite awake when she took the call, and mildly curious – after all, Willow hardly ever called her during college hours, either, and the fact that she did now showed that it was some kind of emergency.
"I just heard that there's been a second victim of the new flamey guy", the redhead let he girlfriend now after a short greeting had been exchanged, "so I called Giles first and he wants me to check out the crime scene again. I'm gonna skip class and go there now, I was wondering if you'd come along…"
"Sure", the demon agreed at once, "where did it happen?"
"Close to the cemetery, the one close to the old High School", Willow informed her, glad that she had agreed, even though she hadn't expected anything else, "I'll meet you there in twenty minutes?"
"Fine with me", Pat agreed, then asked if she should bring anything along; after a moment of thinking about it, Willow told her that it wasn't necessary, then said goodbye and hung up, leaving the campus and heading for the cemetery a minute later.