By the time the hoarseness of her voice and the pain in her raw throat forced her to stop screaming, Willow had not the slightest clue how long she had been in this coffin already; the low thumping of earth falling down on the lid had stopped, forcing her to ask herself if she had been buried fully now and what would happen once the air would run out – if she'd really die then, or if she'd just wake up again, the mission to defeat the nightmare demon merely failed instead of ending her life, and all because of one little oversight.
Asking herself how they all could have been so stupid, she closed her eyes, feeling like crying, but having no tears left to cry; only now, she realized how stupid it had been to let that outburst from before happen, her blood running cold as she thought of all the air she had wasted with yelling and crying.
Okay, no more shouting and no more tears, she told herself, making sure to not do so out loud, not wanting to waste anymore air by talking to herself, focus now on getting out of here, you can do it, this is what your magic is for… She opened her eyes again, even though it didn't make much of a difference in the coffin's total darkness, and tried to focus on the variety of spells she had learned during the years; she knew that there had to be something which would help her to get out of this whole mess, and all she had to do was remember.
The fact that by now, it was getting noticeably harder to breathe, didn't exactly make this easier for her; and again she found herself wondering how much air she had wasted with yelling instead of finding a way to get out of this, the panic slowly starting to cloud her mind again as various unpleasant scenarios of suffocation started appearing in front of her inner eye.
She got so absorbed in those ponderings that at first, she didn't even notice that earth was falling down on her again; and when she did, it only made her shiver again as she asked herself if whoever had been burying her before had come back now, to heap even more earth on the grave or to make sure that she still was down there, and still unable to get out. Giving her best to breathe as flatly as possible, Willow tried focusing on her magic once more, but by now, it seemed as if all the spells she had learned in her life had been wiped from her brain; she couldn't come up with a single one that would help her to get out of this coffin, and the knowledge that she'd die soon if she couldn't remember anything made thinking about it only harder.
More earth fell down on her, distracting her even further as she flinched; she squeezed her eyes shut, feeling close to tears again, suddenly wishing for nothing else than just waking up in the living room of Buffy's house, safe and sound, as it usually happened during nightmares, when no demons were around to make them come true, putting her in such dreadful situations without a way to get out again… "Willow?"
Her partner's voice was so unexpected that at first, Willow was sure she had imagined it and didn't even bother responding, telling herself that it was a hallucination brought on either by a desire of her brain to make the last few minutes easier or by lack of oxygen, or maybe even a mix of both; then, Pat called out her name again, the hint of fear in her voice all at once convincing her that she wasn't imagining it.
For a moment, she almost called out, then remembered the scarce air supply and that, telling herself that she couldn't have an idea how long it would take the demon to dig her out, it wouldn't be wise to waste it any further; and thus, she just hammered against the coffin lid instead, hoping that Pat would be able to hear her through all the earth that surely still was covering the coffin.
The response was non-verbal, but immediate – more earth trickled into the coffin, and she could hear the sounds of frantic digging from above her, not even noticing that she was holding her breath as she waited for her partner to dig deep enough so she'd find the coffin. To her relief, the taller woman apparently had put as much strength as possible into the task, since it seemed like only a minute had passed when something hit the wooden lid with a low thumping sound, followed by the muffled voice of the demon as she muttered curses to herself; and a few seconds later, the lid was pulled off and Pat's arms were around her, lifting her up and out of the coffin, a shudder running through her as she clung to her partner as tightly as she could.
"It's okay, I've got you, it's okay", she heard the demon mumble while she was carried up a rather steep slope of earth, out of the grave; once she had reached the grass, Pat tried to lower her onto the ground there, with no success though since the witch was still clinging to her, refusing to let go. Figuring that Willow wouldn't release her grip on her any time soon, she lowered herself on the ground instead after a moment, making the redhead end up sitting in her lap, another shiver running through the smaller woman when she felt the demon's hug around her tighten, giving her the comfort she needed after this horrible experience.
"I thought that's it", she finally brought out after a few moments of just letting the taller woman hold her, "I couldn't think of any spell to get out of that coffin, and the air was running out, I was noticing it, and I got a splinter in my palm so I knew I could get hurt here, even though it's just a dream, so…"
"Willow", Pat interrupted her, not unkindly, "you're babbling. Hush, or you'll start to hyperventilate."
"You're right", the witch mumbled after a moment, realizing that she indeed had been babbling, "but I'm just so glad you're here and got me… Wait. How did you get here? This is still a dream, right?"
"Yes and no", the demon sighed out in reply, smiling wryly at the confused look Willow gave her as an answer, hurriedly explaining what exactly had happened and how she had ended up in this dream with her.
"At first, it seemed as if everything went well", she started, "you were knocked out cold right after finishing the spell – I caught you, by the way, so you didn't hit your head on the floor or anything – and we just sat there waiting for both of you to wake up again. But then you started stirring and moaning, as if you're having a nightmare, Giles and I tried to wake you up, no luck there though…"
"Yeah, that's part of the spell", Willow agreed, silently amazed at how much hearing her partner's voice was calming her down, along with the embrace she still was held in; Pat smiled wryly again and nodded, then continued, momentarily relieved that the nightmare demon gave her time to tell the witch about everything and didn't interrupt them with any stupid attacks.
"Well, we didn't know that for sure, so we kept trying to wake you up, and our tries became quite frantic when you started screaming and crying in your sleep… And then, Buffy woke up and you were still out cold, and that's when we realized that something had gone really wrong", she went on, chuckling when Willow pointed out that this still didn't explain how she had ended up here to help her.
"Giles remembered the spell well enough to repeat it", she then let her know, her wry smile changing into a smirk, "he wasn't sure if it'd work, since technically, it's Buffy's dream and she was awake, but apparently, it did."
"Thankfully it did", the witch corrected her, "and I'll really need to thank Giles once we got back out of here… How do we get back out? I think we should do so quickly, before I was buried over there, the demon showed up and reminded me of the fact that this is her turf and how stupid it was to try and fight her here…"
"Um, well, Giles wasn't so sure about that when he did the spell", Pat admitted in reply after a moment of silence, giving her partner a sheepish look, "in fact, he should be looking into right now. I kinda talked him into sending me here anyway, you know…"
"I can imagine how you did that", Willow giggled, momentarily amazed that she was capable of laughing so shortly after she had been rescued from a grave, and thankful for the calming effect her partner's mere presence and voice was having on her, "you probably told him you'd beat him up if he didn't do it, right?"
"Maybe", the demon replied airily, making the redhead laugh again; she shook her head, then ignored the dreadful surroundings and their not exactly pleasant situation long enough to snuggle closer to her partner, the couple exchanging a tender kiss afterwards, the witch's voice low when she spoke up after they had pulled apart again. "Well, I'm kinda glad you did so, because now, I don't have to do this alone…"
Smiling, the taller woman nodded in reply, then pulled her close for another kiss; afterwards, she asked what they should do now, pointing out that just sitting around wouldn't help with the demon situation still at hand, making the witch nod her agreement after a moment.
"Let's see if we can leave this cemetery", she then suggested, "I don't like the thought of hanging around here, what with Buffy's nightmares involving vampires who eat her."
"Good point", Pat agreed, coming to her feet, "let's go then and see if there's an—" Before she could finish her sentence, the ground beneath her feet suddenly changed, from the solid grass and earth she had been standing on into something much softer; only when she went under with a loud splash, she realized that somehow, the cemetery had been turned into a lake, the water so cold that it made her heart hammer painfully in her chest.
Her first instinct was to let out a gasp or a groan, some sound to show her discomfort, then she fought it down, telling herself that this would be wasting precious air; instead, she forced herself to remain quiet as she swam upwards with powerful strokes, reaching the surface a few moments later, shaking her wet hair out of her face as she looked around.
"Willow?" she called out, trying to fight down the hint of panic when no response came; treading water, she turned in a perfect circle once, her heartbeat speeding up again when she couldn't spot the witch anywhere. Holding her breath, Pat dived beneath the surface again, looking around underwater afterwards, hoping she'd spot the witch somewhere; all she could see though was more water, seemingly bottomless, until the lack of oxygen forced her to break through the surface again so she could breathe, desperation slowly clouding her mind as she looked around once more and couldn't spot her partner anywhere, the redhead's absence leaving her alone in this vast lake, without a shore in sight.