Stalker Willow

By Sam James

TIMELINE: Set in S4 after "Something Blue"
RATING: PG (less violence and sex than the show usually has)
DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Willow, Giles, Xander, Oz, etc. belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and 20th Century Fox. WB just rents them. I claim no ownership of anything other than the plot.

The counterman looked bewildered. He walked over to where Oz was eating his hamburger. "Son," he said, holding out the phone. "It's your wife, she really needs to talk to you."

Oz looked at the phone like a snake watching a pouncing mongoose. He dropped his burger on the floor and ran.

It was her again. Everywhere he used his credit card or cash card, that place would quickly get a phone call from Willow. He always told the storeowner to refuse the calls and had begun doing his shopping during times when he knew she'd be at class. Twice the police had arrested him when his description came over their wires with orders to transfer him to the Sunnydale PD. That was chancy of Willow, but he was a good sport and denied any knowledge of who might have hacked his description into their files.

That night, Oz registered as George Lint at the motel. He even paid cash. Still the phone rang. Oz picked it up and hung up. After the sixth or seventh time, he yanked the phone cord out from its jack.

He didn't know Willow could be this obsessed. He didn't know how he should cope with Stalker Willow.

That morning, as he stopped for gas, he saw the gas station's camera stop its programmed swivel and focus on him. Willow was watching him again.

Figuring that there was no sense paying cash when the hacker spy had already located him, he gave his credit card to the attendant. After a few minutes the man came back to him, extremely confused.

"The machine rejected your card," he said. "But it printed you a love letter." The man looked at Oz, "Are you someone famous?" But Oz grabbed the printout, tossed the man a ten-spot, and just drove off without looking.

At the next rest stop he picked up the phone and dialed Giles' number. Someone had to talk some sense into the fixated Hacker. "Hello Oz," came Willow's voice. "I've programmed the phone company to play this recording if you try to contact anyone in Sunnydale or Angel in LA. Unless I'm at home in which case we have serious talking to do. Please Oz, come back."

He hung up the phone so hard that the person on the phone next to him gave him an annoyed stare. Oz shrugged, "Bad news from home," and moved on.

At lunch two girls approached him. "You're Oz, aren't you?" one of them asked.

He nodded warily. "How do you know?"

"You need to call Willow and talk."

"Who are you? What do you know about Willow and me?"

"Willow's sent your picture and description to all the Wicca circles and most of the Internet groups. She's got the whole country looking for you."

"Great, just great," Oz muttered. That was too much. He went over to the phones and called. Called Willow.

"Oz," she said. "Come back to me, please."

"I can't," Oz replied. "It's not safe for you."

"Not being with you is what isn't safe for me." Willow said. "I've almost died several times since you've left. I can't concentrate on anything. My schoolwork is all shot to hell; even Buffy's making better grades than I am. And my spells have gone all wacky. Please come back Oz. Come back and make everything all right."

"Willow, have you heard the saying, 'If you love something let it go. If it comes back, it is yours. If it doesn't; it never was.'" Willow's crying was the only answer.

"Willow, please, call off your Internet buddies and the surveillance. Let's just be two lovers parting amicably, their love still attached."

"No!" Oz heard the determination in Willow's voice. "I won't let you go. You're my heart. Without you, I'm empty."

"I'm sorry Willow, but I have to do this." As he hung up, his werewolf hearing caught the words, "I have to do this too."

That night, he was assaulted in his hotel room. Three big vampires walked in, chained him up and threw him into their car. They drove through the night to an airfield, found a pilot, and turned him into a vampire right before the sun rose. That night the vampire pilot flew them to Sunnydale and the four then dragged Oz to a dorm. Dazed ,he recognized it. They were taking him to Willow.

The head vampire knocked on the door. Willow opened it. "Do you have him?" A vampire lifted up Oz's head. "And you didn't vamp him, right?"

"Pure and unsullied as was our side of the agreement. Now you keep yours."

"I fed her sleeping poppies," Willow smiled the grin of the mad. "She's all yours. Come on in. I invite you."

Oz's heart sank as he saw Willow's overly bright eyes. And fell still further as he saw the sleeping form of the slayer, oblivious to the goings on.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Red Witch," one of the vampires said as the others carted the Slayer away.

At last Oz and Willow were alone. Oz wanted to scream, but Willow left the gag in place and the chains.

"Now Oz, I've prepared the cage for you to live 24/7," said Willow. "You will never leave me again and we'll always be together. She forced some liquid down his throat. "And this little love potion will ensure that." Oz looked at his Willow, his love. Her smile was still quite insane but to Oz it no longer mattered. He followed when Willow led him to his cage.

"You said if you love something set it free," Willow told him as she locked the cage. "Well, hackers just don't let things go. Now you're here with me, just as you are supposed to be. Forever." Oz gazed adoringly at his Stalker Willow. But buried inside, a part of him never stopped screaming.

The End

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I'm sorry. I like Willow. But this just came out. If you like my stories and want to encourage me to write more or just comment, please send feedback to [email protected]

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