The next morning was just as peaceful as the rest of the night had been, the couple having breakfast together – to Willow's quite big surprise, since usually, Pat avoided it to get up so early – before the witch left for campus, already looking forward to the lessons of the day.
The moment she entered the cafeteria though, eager to get some more caffeine before the first class, she realized that her good mood wouldn't remain much longer – the faces of the students around were shocked, sad or both, and they all kept their voices low as they talked to each other, briefly making her wonder what was going on. Before she could find someone she knew and ask them though, one of the guys she shared her psychology class with spotted her and moved up to her, keeping his voice low as well when he spoke up. "Willow, hey, good morning… You didn't hear yet?"
"Hear what?" the redhead gave back, hoping he wouldn't notice how fast her heart suddenly was beating, the certainty that something horrible had happened again all at once filling her mind.
"Carina was killed last night", the student informed her, the witch letting out a gasp in reply – she hadn't known the girl very well, only had sat next to her a few times during class, but she knew that Carina had been a kind, loveable girl, always willing to help whenever someone needed it.
"She was killed just like Jane and that guy from the video rental store, the newspaper said so", the guy now went on, making her look at him again, her head swimming as her mind was racing, trying to shut up the nasty voices which were whispering unpleasant facts.
"And the police is totally useless", the student went on, now not sounding down and sad anymore, but slightly angry, "I mean, how hard can it be to find someone who burns people alive? That's not a very unobtrusive way to kill someone, after all!"
Maybe not if a human does it, but we are in Sunnydale, Willow thought to herself while she nodded in reply, momentarily asking herself again how people could live here for years and not notice what was going on – before she reminded herself of the fact that after all, she hadn't been that much different when she'd been in High School, before she had met Buffy and had learned the truth about the town.
"That's horrible", she made herself say, since the way the guy was looking at her now made it clear that he expected some kind of an answer, "poor Carina… Let's hope they'll catch this bastard soon."
"Yeah", the student agreed, clearly satisfied by her words since he excused himself and moved to one of his closer friends; remaining where she was, Willow looked after him, her mind picking up speed again, her heart hammering up to her throat as she thought about what this could mean.
Two people were killed when Pat was on patrol alone two nights in a row, that nasty, unwanted voice whispered to her, then you went with her and no one died… And yesterday, she went alone again, and again, someone's been killed. You can't ignore this anymore.
Even though she hated to do so, she had to admit that this was right; by now, all the coincidences had become too many to ignore, her thoughts returning to the button she had found at the spot where the second victim had been killed, then to the strong smell of smoke which had clung to the demon once when she had come home, in the same night a house had been turned down.
Then, she thought of how Pat had looked when she had come back home the previous night, her heart performing a daring summersault in her chest when she wondered if maybe, the police found some black and red hair at the spot where poor Carina had been killed; and even though she didn't want to know, didn't want to face the possibility that her girlfriend might be the one responsible for those deaths, she knew that she had to, and that this would have to be the first thing she'd do right after coming home.
Please let me be wrong, she thought to herself and to anyone else who might be listening and willing to help, not sure how it would be handled if she'd really find out that her girlfriend was the one who had done all those horrible things, please let it all be just a row of freaky coincidences and nothing more…
With quite the display of mental determination, Willow finally managed to push those thoughts aside, telling herself that it was useless to ponder this now and that she had to focus on her classes; as quick as the rather long queue allowed it, she got the cup of coffee she had come to the cafeteria for in the first place, then made her way to the hall were the first class of the day would be held, already knowing though that no matter how hard she'd try, she wouldn't be able to concentrate properly, not with all the worries and fears that now were on her mind.
Just as she had planned to, the first thing Willow did after coming home was to start up her laptop and hack into the police database again, even managing to ignore her girlfriend when she asked her what was going on; frowning, Pat watched her type away on the keyboard, asking herself if something had happened at the college and if this event was responsible for how obviously upset her girlfriend was.
"Hey", she tried to gain her attention again, sitting down next to her, "what's wrong? Are you okay?"
To her dismay, Willow didn't even look at her, but kept staring at the screen of her laptop, her face paling so drastically that for a moment, the demon feared she might faint; then, finally, the witch cleared her throat and looked at her, her voice flat when she replied. "Something is wrong indeed, I'm afraid… Look."
With those words, she turned the laptop on the table so Pat could look at the screen, the black haired woman squinting as she did so, as always not all too happy about reading stuff on a computer monitor, something which was quite straining for her good eye. Still she quickly figured out what the witch was showing her, and frowned to herself – it was a police report, on yet another victim of their new fiery villain, a girl from the college who had been killed the previous night.
Briefly, she wondered if Willow had known this girl well and that her death was the reason why she was so upset; then, her gaze fell on another part of the file, and she frowned to herself when she realized it was about the evidence that had been found at the new crime scene, one of those things being a long strand of black and red hair.
"Why are you…" she started, then the realization hit her and her eye went wide as she looked up from the screen and at her girlfriend, her voice full of disbelief when she spoke on. "You think it was me, don't you. You think I killed those people…?"
"I'm not sure what to think", Willow gave back, knowing that she had to choose her words carefully if she wanted to avoid starting a nasty fight within the next few minutes, "but… Sweetie, honestly, I'm not accusing you of anything, but, well, I found that button that has been missing from your shirt that one night, at the place where the second victim was killed… And then you smelled of smoke one night after that house was burned down…"
"I explained to you why that happened", Pat gave back, the hint of annoyance in her voice growing stronger as she continued. "And there must be millions of those buttons out there! Why do you think I did this?"
"Please don't get mad", Willow tried to calm her down in reply, even though she knew that it wouldn't be of much use, not with this level of annoyance already showing through the demon's voice. "But, Sweetie, you have to understand…"
With those words, she began listing all the things she had noticed, too many things to be written off as simple coincidence; at first, Pat just listened to her, but the longer she talked, the angrier the demon was looking, to the witch's great dismay.
"So", the taller woman slowly started as soon as Willow had finished talking and had fallen silent, "you piled up all that… evidence… Never thought of maybe asking me about it, but instead just kept collecting it, and now you throw it into my face like that? And then you expect me not to get mad?"
"As I said, I'm not accusing you", Willow tried to reason once more, shifting on her seat nervously – she hated it to fight with her girlfriend, but by now, she was quite sure that it would happen sooner or later, and most likely sooner.
"Maybe… maybe someone's trying to frame you", she went on, desperately looking for the answers she wanted to be given as well, "or… something else… Did anything weird happen when you went on patrol alone?"
"…no", Pat gave back after a moment of hesitation just long enough to let Willow notice, the flicker in her eye as well showing that she wasn't fully honest, "and I can't believe that you at first think I'd so something like that and only when I get mad about that, you try to figure out other possibilities!"
"I'm sorry!" Willow replied, now getting slightly worked up as well, "but, come on, you can't tell me this doesn't seem strange to you! If Buffy found all this evidence with any other demon, she'd be sure he's the one responsible!"
"Oh, so you wanna say that Buffy would be here already to kick my ass if she knew about this?" Pat snapped, getting out her cigarettes and lighting one of them up before she spoke on. "Seriously, I can't just get it into my head that you think I'd go out and kill people at night! You of all people should know I'm not like that! Goddammit, you were there when I lost that fucking eye, fighting on your side!"
"I know!" Willow tried to calm her down once more, "and I'm not saying it's your fault, really… Maybe someone's controlling you, or there's a spell…"
"Or maybe it's not even me", the demon now nearly shouted, jumping up from her seat, too agitated to remain there, "did you ever consider that?"
"I do!" Willow gave back, "I said so, maybe somebody's framing you! Please, just calm down so we can talk about this…"
"So we can talk about how maybe, someone made me kill those people?" Pat demanded to know, the witch's tries to calm her down clearly not working at all. "Maybe we can also come up with an answer to the question why, after years of fighting with you guys, on the good side, I suddenly should feel the urge to go and kill people, huh?"
"Look", the redhead tried reason once more as an answer, "as I've said before, I'm not accusing you of anything… I know you're on our side! Do you think I'd still be with you if I thought anything else?"
Even though she had tried to keep her calm during the unpleasant discussion, she was getting angry as well now, and the fact that the demon was looking daggers at her didn't help to keep those feelings down, either.
"We have to figure this out", she went on, giving her best to hide her anger, knowing it would only make things worse, "or even more people are going to die! If you're on our side, you don't want that to happen…"
Instantly, she realized that this had been the wrong choice of words when she saw how the gaze of her partner darkened; and when Pat spoke up in reply, she did so between clenched teeth, sounding as if she was close to exploding. "So, now we've moved from 'Maybe someone's manipulating you' to 'If you're on our side?' When did that happen?"
"Don't yell at me", Willow snapped as an answer, now getting up as well, the demon only realizing now how loud her voice actually had been, "this isn't leading anywhere! We have to figure this out somehow before more people die, and that won't happen if you stand there, are sarcastic and yell at me!"
"Well, we won't figure it out if you start working on it with the thought that I did it!" Pat heatedly replied, crossing her arms over her chest and letting out a snort when Willow tried to tell her that this wasn't the case.
"And you want me to believe that?" she then demanded to know, another snort coming from her when Willow could do was stare at her in reply, asking herself when this had gotten so out of hand and how she was supposed to bring this back on track.
"I have enough of this", Pat now let her know, her voice going back to a level more fitting for indoors, but still sounding angry, "and I don't need to listen to this. I'm outta here."
"Where are you going?" Willow demanded to know, startled at this unexpected turn of the talk; for a moment, she wasn't sure she'd even get an answer, then Pat gave her another glare, her voice full of contempt when she replied. "I'll go and find the one who did this, I'll beat him up and then I'll drop him at your feet. Maybe you'll believe then that it wasn't me."
"Sweetie, no, wait", the witch tried to stop her, even reaching out and grasping her arm; to her shock, the demon shook her off and gave her another glare, then stormed off before she had the chance to reply anything, the apartment door slamming shut behind her just a few seconds later.