She walked aimlessly in the dark night for what felt like hours. She roamed the streets, not
aware that someone was guiding her. She finally turned the last block and found what she
was looking for. The street seemed familiar enough. She carefully walked up to the
warehouse, to the door. She hesitantly took out the key and tried the lock. She was
relieved to see the door open without a problem. She took some stairs up and entered the
small apartment cautiously. She found the light switch and illuminated the room. White
sheets covered the furniture, bookshelves were empty, and walls were barren. She walked
deeper inside, walking down a small hallway, finding the bedroom. To her surprise, the
bed was undone. She walked out, and walked to the bathroom, finding a toothbrush, brush
and, mouthwash.
She walked back out, heading to the kitchen and looked for something edible to
eat. She was glad to find chips, cupcakes and rather strange bottle of wine and two sodas
of Pepsi. She grabbed the treats and headed to the bedroom, hoping to find out what had
happened to her.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“CODE BLUE! ROOM 102!” the nurse screamed as she saw no vital signs on the
scream in front of her.
Nurses and doctors ran to the designated room with a crash car, but abruntly
stopped as they saw what awaited them. A pool of blood lay on the floor, but the only
problem was the missing body. The nurses hurried to look around the room, checking the
closet, small bathroom, and even under the bed, but found nothing. The window was
closed, confusing them more. Dr. Hopkins pushed himself through the small gathering and
soon had the same shocked expression on his face.
“Where’s the patient?”
No one could reply.
“She couldn’t have just disappeared?”
They shook there heads, still in disbelieve.
“She couldn’t have just left, she was in a coma....dieing,” she reminded them.
They all agreed with him, but still remained frozen in place.
“We have to find her.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Willow took a quick shower after she had made the discovery of a towel and soap.
She hurried back to the bedroom and rummaged though some drawers and then a closet
next to it. She found four T-shirts, one pair of leather pants, a pair of sandals, and a pair of
boxers. Not the best selection, but it would do. She grabbed a T-shirt and pulled it on,
directly going to the bed and pulling the covers over her.
She had taken the liberty of looking around the apartment before she had taken her
shower and found some boxes half taped with items inside. Only for the food she had
found earlier, there was nothing else to eat in the house. There was no phone or gas for
that matter, which explained why there was no heat. The house was filled with dust,
indicating that no one had been there for some time, except for the unmade bed. The
bedroom had offered her the only clue to her life perhaps. On top of the bed had been a
notebook that contained scribbles of information and an unfinished letter.
She was sure she should had been more frightened, perhaps even be frantic, but
she felt safe here, everything even seemed a bit familiar, she felt at home. She snuggled
into the cool black silk sheets and pulled the black comforter on top of her.
She would need to rest before she left. She most have been in the mist of moving,
or something and knew once she left she could start to find out about herself. The voices
in the wind warned her the longer she stayed in this town, the more dangerous it would be
for her. The closed her eyes, enjoying the voices whispering soothing lullabies. She
welcomed sleep, knowing who she could see, knowing who she would find soon.
She soon drifted off to sleep, moaning his name in her sleep, as he welcomed her
into his arms.
“Angel.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
“Mr. Giles, if you could please calm down for a moment. I understand that this is
bizarre, added to it the fact your niece was dying......”
“How can you lose a person in a coma?!” Giles yelled, not able to control his
temper.
“We didn’t lose her, Sir. Last shift nurses may have taken her down to the morgue
already.”
“How can you know, if the warning of her flatlining came to your station after she
was missing?!”
Xander and Buffy remained behind him, confused, hurt and angry as he was. They
were still in shock over the revelation that Willow’s body was missing.
“That may have been an oversight by our nurses when the shifts changed..” the
pale and nervous nurse tried to explain.
“An oversight. A dying person is an oversight! Bloody hell, has anyone checked
the morgue?!” he yelled louder.
“We have two nurses as well as two resident doctors checking, once we find her,
we’ll let you know.”
“Yes, please. Don’t make it an oversight if you don’t mind!”
The nurse left in a hurry, thankful to have been able to finally escape his wrath.
Giles turned to see Buffy crying, being held in Xander’s arms, whose own tears threatened
to escape. He looked around and noticed someone missing.
“Where’s Oz?”
“He went...he went to take..a walk,” Xander answered with a strained voice.
“Is she....is she..really....dead..?” Buffy asked between sobs.
“I’m not sure...the doctor...he didn’t think she would....”
Finally Xander’s tears began to fall, knowing the likelihood of the nurses finding
his best friends body in the morgue.
“I’m going to check her room, perhaps they missed something,” Giles told them as
he turned and let a tear slip from his eye.
He walked to the room he had seen her in less then two and half hours ago. He
walked into the restricted room and nearly gagged as he saw the amount of blood on the
floor and on the bed. Unknowest to him, Buffy and Xander had followed him and saw the
same horrific scene. Buffy nearly toppled over, caught only by Giles, who had heard there
gasps. Xander, however, ran from the room, past the emergency door exit, out to the cool
air, and threw up the small amount of food he had been able to intake since the whole
nightmare had begun. A nightmare that had been started by a worthless piece of shit, and
this time he wouldn’t be able to blame Angelus, it was all Angel’s fault his world had
come crashing down around him.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Angel awoke startled. He had managed to sleep a good hour past sunset,
something he had never done before. His aching limps served as a reminder of what
haunted him awake and asleep, but finally, this sleep had offered him what he had so much
craved, rest and peace.
Yes, he did still dream of the redhead that had haunted him these past nights, but
this time is was not of what had happened at that mansion that night, but solely of the
gentle, caring soul he had known before in Sunnydale. She had looked as he usually
remembered her, in green overalls with her usually decorative T-shirts. It was that vision
that he saw once more in his dreams tonight. He urged her to return to him, apologizing to
her for all that had happened, to forgive him for all he had done to her in the past and
present, to thank her for all she had done for him, for going as far as losing her life for
him, a miserable undeserving soul.
And she came to him, let him envelop her in his arms. She looked confused, lost,
and hurt, but in all her emotion, trusted him. The moment he held her, his soul had felt a
sudden peace he had longed to have.
He picked up the phone and dialed Cordelia’s number. <Maybe she has more
information on Willow>.
His heart sank once more, dreading the possible thought of never seeing his little
witch again.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Willow awoke refreshed. The food and sleep had done wonders for her. The pain
she had felt earlier in the evening was slowly becoming a faint memory. She slowly got up
and headed to the chair that had her clothes laid out. She would need to be creative in
order to cover herself properly. She reached over for the boxers first and could hardly
hold them up. The next up were the large leather pants. To keep both from falling, she
ripped the T-shirt she had slept in and managed to make it into a belt/sash. She tied it as
tightly as possible, praying the extremely baggy pants did not fall. She put on both v-necks
on, hoping it concealed her bra-free breasts. She grabbed the bit of money she had found
in the nightstand drawer. She looked around the small room, hoping to return one day,
then took the notebook from the bed and walked out of the bedroom, out the door to
catch a train to LA.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“Mr. Giles, we weren’t able to find your nieces’ body in the morgue, nor have we
been able to find her throughout the hospital. I am dumbfounded to say were she is, or
what her condition is,” Dr. Hopkins said worried and completely embarrassed.
“What I don’t understand doctor , is how an 18 year old woman in a coma can just
completely disappear.”
“I do not have an explanation for it...we’ve checked all cameras and video around,
but there is no sign of her.”
“I just can’t believe that of all places in this damn town here in a hospital...a place
that should be safe...away from anything...”
“Giles?” Oz said as he tapped him on his shoulder.
“Not now, Oz. As I was saying....”
“Giles?”
“What?!” Giles yelled as he turned to look at Oz.
“I think we should talk first before....”
“I was talking to Dr. Hopkins about this just now and you...”
Before he could say another word, he was being pulled away be Oz, Xander, and
Buffy.
“What is the problem...”
“What if Willow was taken?” Xander asked worried.
“What do you mean?”
“You said it yourself. There was no way she could have gotten up and walked
away. What if what ever she was trying to stop in LA came back for her? What if someone
took her?” Oz reasoned with him.
“But why? Who would take her?” Giles asked, processing the information he had
just received.
“That’s what we have you for?” Xander reminded him.
“Right, then...Buffy, Oz, you both go and set up a search for her. Xander call
Cordelia, she may be the only one who knows why Willow went to LA. Amy is still
unconscious, but as soon as she wakes up I’ll speak to her. I’ll go to the library and see if
there is a prophecy or something. Meet me in the library in an hour.”
The group went off, leaving a very confused doctor behind, determined to find
their friend.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Willow handed the ticket agent a ten dollar bill for a train ride that cost a sixty.
“You must be joking with me right?” the middle-aged attendant asked her.
“I need to get to LA.”
“As much as I want to be president, but dreams can’t come true all the time.”
“This is all I have.”
“Then that won’t get you even six miles from here. Look, your holding me up
from my beauty sleep. You either have the money or not.”
She took back the bill and pulled out a dollar bill. She confidently put it on the
counter, and waited for his reaction.
“You got to be joking me right. Your wasting my time, little girl. A dollar? Didn’t
pass kindergarten did you?”
“Are you sure that’s a dollar. That looks like a hundred dollar bill.”
The guy looked closer then looked up at her, about to tell her to go to hell, but
was stopped by her gaze. She held his gaze, never blinking an eye.
“You might want to look at that again. I think you were mistaken, that’s should be
more then enough.”
The man looked lazily down, then met her gaze once more.
“Yeah, more then enough.”
He punched a ticket up for her and handed her ticket as well as forty dollars in
change.
“Have a pleasant ride.”
“Thank you.”
Once she left the counter she let a tear escape her eye. A sudden wave of pain and
guilt plagued her. She cursed the voice in her head for telling her how to trick him, for
scaring her about a power she never thought possible to have. She wasn’t normal, there
was something wrong with her. She went up to the attendant and handed her the ticket.
She stepped onto the train and took her seat.
As the train pulled out of the station the haunting nightmares that had plagued her
returned. <Were they true? But how? How is it possible?> The comfort of safety she had
once felt back in her apartment was gone. She frantically opened the notebook and began
to read it.
She found what looked like spells scribbled across many of the pages, some telling
her what the purpose of it was. She pulled the unfinished letter and began to read it, her
mind racing to find some form of recognition.
Giles,
I know I should have told you all that I was going, but I didn’t have enough time.
He needs our help, he’s in trouble, I know he is. I can’t explain it, I wish I could, but there
are just so many things you don’t know about, it would be hard for any of you to
understand. I just wish you aren’t mad at me too much.
I’ll call as soon as I get there. I know you’ll want to.........
She read over the letter at least four times, trying to remember who Giles was,
who she should have told she was leaving? It was all too confusing for her to think. Her
head began to throb as she heard pounding close by. She whispered the haunting melody
she knew by heart
“I search for the sign
that will set my soul free
My heart must be pure
So that I can find peace
My grief cannot last forever
My love will be fulfilled
I pray a sign will help me
Be all that I can be”
She closed her eyes, the words filling her mind. Tears began to stain her face as
she tried hard to remember why the song she sang was so important. She looked out of
the window as the train pulled away, feeling she had been here before, not so long ago.
She looked next to her and stared at the empty seat. Someone should have been with her.
Was it supposed to be Giles, or maybe Angel. It didn’t make sense. She fell into the
confines of sleep, the only way the terrible pounding in her head would seize.
She prayed she’d find him, it would be the only way to save herself.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Giles waited impatiently for the group to return from their patrol. It had been more
then four hours since the disappearance of Willow’s body. The small group had searched
the entire town, but had found nothing. Even Willy was unable to help, even with money
and fights encouraging him.
He had looked through each prophecy he could find or something that the damn
books could help him in, but none came. He rubbed his tired red eyes and looked up from
the blurry book and caught sight of the empty chair in front of the computer.
His mind trailed back to that horrific call he had received from Cordelia a night
ago. It had been a call he had always dreaded. There was no getting over the fact that the
teenagers that helped Buffy had become to mean so much to him. They had, in some
sense, become his children, which made the news of Willow in the hospital badly hurt
make him feel worse.
They had all rushed to the hospital to see a frantic Cordelia trying to explain what
had happened, but it was until they he saw her lifeless, bruised, bloody body on the bed,
did he realize how real the dangers they faced were. How many times hadn’t they fought
the worse and won? How many times hadn’t they teased death?
But now one of them had fallen. A pure, sweet generous soul had befallen a
gruesome attack, of which had cost her her life. But what had made it far worse, what
made his soul heavy with guilt was the fact that the angel had gone to battle by herself,
with no help of any of them.
Perhaps if they had heard Willow’s reasoning or if they had listened to Cordelia, if
they had given them the benefit of the doubt. If they had cared, then this might have never
had happened. But none of them had wanted to see past their feelings of anger, or envy
and even their denial.
Now they would have to live with the feeling that they had failed their friends, a
guilt he was sure they would never be able to forgive themselves for. His thoughts were
interrupted by the rush of three voices coming in the library doors.
“Did you find anything?”
Their expressions were enough of an answer.
“What do we do?” Xander asked, scared to hear his reply.
“We keep searching.”
******