It didn't take the couple long to find the guy, and the reason for his screams; he was on all fours, crawling away as fast as he could from an overly large, black dog, the beast staring at him with red eyes as it growled lowly, saliva dripping from its sharp teeth, alarming hissing noises coming up where it hit the asphalt, making it boil visibly.
"A dog", Pat stated, wishing that she had brought along a weapon despite her brave next words, "not very creative."
"But dangerous enough if it bites you", Willow pointed out to her, "also, quite a big dog, not to mention that acid saliva… or whatever that is."
"Please", the man now stammered, either ignoring them or not even noticing them, "please leave me alone, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry!"
The only response he got was that the growls of the dog became a bit louder – before the muscles in its hind legs tensed visibly beneath the shaggy black fur, and moments later, it jumped, only to be thrown aside seconds before it could collide with the now screaming again man, hit by the spell Willow had fired at it.
"Good one", Pat complimented, looking around for something she could use as a weapon, not spotting anything useful though; she held back a rueful sigh, then clenched her fists and let them flame up, figuring that the guy wouldn't notice in his panicked state and that, even if he did, it could be written off as part of his nightmare.
"Hey!" she called out when the dog snarled and moved closer to the man again, slower this time, "hey, doggie! Good dog, over here!" For a moment, she felt quite dumb, talking to a dog like that; then, the glowing red eyes focused on her, and the volume of the animal's growls increased again, the demon not appearing very impressed though.
"I can do that, too, you know", she snarled while Willow hurried to where the man now sat on the ground, staring from the dog to her partner with wide eyes – which impossibly widened even further when the black haired woman's good eye began glowing red as well and she started to growl lowly in the back of her throat, her gaze never leaving the dog's.
"Make her stop", the man whimpered, reaching out with one and clutching Willow's arm with surprising strength, "tell her not to antagonize him, he'll kill her!"
"No worries, she knows what she's doing", Willow gave back, giving her best to sound soothing and reassuring; the man just let out a whimper in reply, then moved even closer to her and buried his face in her shoulder when the dog let out a shockingly loud growl and jumped, Willow forcing herself to not look away as well when the large, muscular body collided with her partner.
A low grunt came from Pat as she went down, the dog on top of her; snarling, she grabbed the thick fur with both hands, the stench of burning hair filling the air as she pushed him back, his jaws snapping shut inches from her throat moments later, making the animal growl even louder in obvious dismay.
"Good dogs don't bite", the demon scolded in reply to the growling, glad that none of the acid saliva had hit her during the few short moments the dog had been on top of her; in response, the animal started circling her, growling and snarling, quite the similar expression on Pat's face as she turned with him, not letting him out of her sight for a second, her brain racing as she tried to figure out how to end this quickly. Before she could come up with the perfect way for this though, the dog jumped at her again, now eerily quiet; reacting purely on instinct, she sidestepped easily, then threw herself forward and on the large animal's back as it skittered to a halt, figuring that if neck breaking had worked before, it'd also work now.
Not even noticing that she was growling again, Pat grabbed the dog's head as tight as she could, making sure to keep her fingers away from his jaw; for a moment, the animal squirmed and fought beneath her, then she jerked his head roughly to the right, the neck breaking with an audible crunch and the dog going limp beneath her.
"Did she kill him?" the man wanted to know in a tiny voice, his face still hidden against Willow's shoulder; she nodded, then realized he couldn't see that, giving her best to sound kind when she replied verbally as well. "Yes, she did, you can look up again."
Immediately, the man let go of her, then jumped up and rushed to where the demon was now standing, next to the dead dog; she just had time to make the flames flickering around her fists vanish, then he had almost tackled her and hugged her fiercely, sobbing his heart out while she just stood there, looking quite bewildered.
"Thank you!" the man cried, nearly impossible to understand thanks to how hard he was crying, "I thought it would kill me! That was so awful!"
"Well, it's over now", Pat gave back, finally moving one hand to pat him on the back, giving Willow a scolding look when the witch couldn't help herself, but just had to grin at the sight, "so no worries, you're safe now, pal…"
"Thank you", the man sobbed again as an answer, tightening his hug around her; feeling more awkward than ever, the demon patted his back again, then even muttered "There, there", this time deciding to ignore it when she heard her partner giggle slightly.
Finally, the guy pulled back from the hug, to the taller woman's obvious relief; he wiped his nose, then looked up at her and thanked her once more – before he turned and hurried off, clearly eager to get home after this frightening encounter.
"Look", Willow gained Pat's attention again moments later, distracting her from the sight of the practically fleeing man, "the dog is… dissolving or something, not just vanishing like that demon did…"
"I wonder if that means anything", the demon pondered out loud while she watched how the dog practically liquefied into a puddle of black goo, soft sizzling noises accompanying the gross process, "we should call Giles and tell him what just happened, maybe that'll help him with research… And also, we know now it's not just us."
"Good idea", Willow agreed, already getting her cell phone out of her pocket, "I just hope he won't ask us to come back for more research, honestly, I'm tired, I just want to go home and get some rest."
"Me too, after all that action", Pat agreed at once, momentarily surprising the witch – after all, fighting usually made her blood well up and gave her certain needs which had nothing to do with resting.
"Let's hope that'll be all for tonight", the demon went on, either not noticing her girlfriend's surprise or deciding not to acknowledge it, "if I have to fight any other nightmare creature, I'll really lose my temper."
"And we don't want that to happen", Willow smirked, making the taller woman grin back and shrug; she bent down for a quick kiss, then the witch finally dialled Giles' number, not surprised when he picked up at once – even if he had called an end to their research session, she'd known that he'd still go through his books until his eyes would water.
"Hi Giles, it's me", she greeted him after his curious "Hello?", "we might have some information which might help with figuring this out."
"Just a moment, I'll get something to write", the Watcher gave back at once; a low thump came through the line when he put the phone down, then Willow heard him walk a few steps, followed by some rustling, before he picked the phone up again and asked her what had happened.
"At first some demon attacked us", she let him know, "which was part of one of Pat's nightmares, but after she'd killed him, he just vanished. And after that, we heard some guy screaming for help and when we found him, he was threatened by a huge nasty dog, which we got rid of as well, but it didn't just vanish like the demon, it kinda… dissolved. Into some nasty black stuff."
"That might be very helpful", Giles let her know, scribbling down what she had told him on his end of the line, "the fact that the dog didn't just vanish might mean that whatever is responsible for this is growing stronger…"
"That'd be bad", Willow grimaced, "but it'd be just typical if it'd turn out to be true. Well, just wanted to tell you this, we're still on our way home, thanks to those incidents…"
"Oh, well I won't keep you much longer then", Giles gave back at once, "I'll call you in case I find out something new, alright?"
"Alright", the redhead agreed, then said goodbye and ended the call, giving her partner a dismayed look afterwards while she tucked the phone back into her pocket.
"Giles thinks that the dissolving instead of vanishing means that the power behind this is getting stronger", she let the taller woman know, grasping her hand as they started walking again, "and I'm afraid he's right."
"Unfortunately, he usually is about such things", the demon agreed, not liking the thought much, either, "but until we found out more, we can't know for sure, so let's hope for the best."
Nodding, Willow smiled up at her, making her return the smile at once; then, they both fell silent as they continued the walk back to their home, now both eager to get back to the apartment and enjoy as much calm time there as they might get, both of them aware that, with the threat at hand, there might not be many chances to rest and relax in the immediate future.
Quite some time later, Willow had made herself comfortable on the couch, trying to ignore the new unpleasant situation for the time being and to focus on the chapters of the textbook she was supposed to read for one of her classes until next Tuesday; to her left, Pat was lounging in her favourite armchair, reading a book of her own – albeit one which had nothing to do with college or any class, since it was one of the thrillers she preferred – and listening to what the redhead always called "her metal stuff" via headphones, not wanting to disturb her partner's learning with too loud music.
She was so engrossed in both the book and the music that she didn't notice that, for the last five minutes, Willow hadn't been focusing on her book, but on her, watching her with a small smile curling her lips; even though she was well aware of how the demon's worst nightmares could endanger her, should they keep on coming true, she forgot about all of that for now, allowing herself a minute of just dwelling on how happy she was with everything in her life right now, and on how big a part the taller woman had contributed to that.
Her smile widened slightly as she thought of that, then finally made herself focus on her textbook again; she only managed to read one paragraph though, then the phone rang and tore her out of her concentration, making her flinch slightly as the shrill ringtone broke the silence. To her slight amusement, it apparently was loud enough to be heard even over quite loud music, since Pat jumped in her chair as well, then let her book drop into her lap and pulled out the earphones, sounding quite dry when she spoke up, her words making the redhead giggle and nod.
"Bet that's Giles with some dire news about our little nightmare problem", the demon stated while Willow got up from the couch and took hold of the phone, frowning when she looked at the display and saw that it wasn't Giles calling, but Buffy.
"You lost that bet", she then let her partner know, "it's not Giles, it's Buffy." Curious what the Slayer might want at this late hour, she pushed the button which took the call and held the phone to her ear, only to be surprised again moments later when Dawn's voice came from the speaker, the surprise turning to worry though when she heard the hint of panic in the teenager's voice.
"Willow? Pat? Which one of you is it? Hello?" Dawn demanded to know, her voice trembling just enough to let the witch notice, prompting her concern to rise even further while she told her that it was her and asked her what was wrong.
"Buffy left for patrol an hour ago", the brunette let her know, still struggling to keep her calm so she'd be able to tell the redhead what exactly was wrong, "and shortly after she'd gone, a bunch of vampires came, they're surrounding the house and are throwing stones through the window and hammer on the door, I'm scared Willow! I tried to call Buffy, but she didn't answer!"
"She might be in a fight right now, too", the redhead gave back, then realized that this maybe hadn't been the best thing to say if she wanted to calm Dawn down, quickly speaking on, her words making her partner look slightly worried, as well. "Try to remain calm, and stay where you are, okay? Don't open the door, and don't worry about the windows, you know they can't come in without invitation… Pat and I will be there as fast as we can, and we'll get rid of them, so no worries."
"Come quickly, please", Dawn sniffled in reply, while in the background, Willow could hear the sound of another window being smashed, accompanied by the jeers and yells of the vampires, "I'm scared…"
"I know", the witch gave back, "we'll be fast, I promise." She reminded Dawn once more to stay where she was, then hung up, quickly explaining to Pat what was going on; the only response was that the demon threw her book on the table, then shut off her MP3 player and got up, making her way into the bedroom, where she kept a chest of weapons next to her side of the bed.
While the demon was getting a weapon, Willow moved to one of the living room cupboards, finding what she had been looking for there – a wooden box filled with the various ingredients she used for her spells regularly, along with several leather pouches containing already mixed and prepared powders, the witch quickly choosing the one which held the mixture for the spell to produce artificial sunlight.
Just as she put the pouch into her pocket, Pat returned from the bedroom, carrying her favourite weapon, the large, double-bladed axe; the redhead wasn't surprised to see she had chosen that one, figuring that, with nightmares most likely coming true all over town, the people who might see them on their way to the Summers house wouldn't pay her much attention even if she'd walk through the streets carrying the weapon unconcealed – not that they seemed to care much even in normal circumstances, being the residents of a town like Sunnydale.
"Ready to go?" she asked, making the taller woman nod before she gestured at the box of magic supplies and asked what Willow would take along, smirking slightly at the witch's reply. "Sunlight-in-a-bag, it'll surely help if there are too many for you to fight alone. Are you only taking that axe?"
"Nope", Pat reassured her partner, "I also got a dagger, just in case. And a stake, of course."
"You're armed to the teeth then", Willow giggled, making Pat's smirk widen while she nodded; then, they both made their way to the small anteroom, quickly putting on their shoes and jackets there before they hurried off to the Summers house, eager to get there before the vampires might come up with any plans to get Dawn out of the house.