Amy tries to break free

A few hours later Amy knocked on Willow's door.

"Amy, you know you can't--"

"Shut up," Amy responded, pushing Willow aside and walking into the Summers house. "I don't want to be around you any more than you want to be around me after the way you and my other so-called friends abandoned me, but I haven't got a choice. I've been cursed and I need your help to break it."

"I'm not really the go-to gal for this sort of thing," Willow said uncertainly. Still, Amy looked pretty badly shaken up. At the very least Willow felt she ought to find out what was going on. "What kind of curse?"

"Warren cursed me. Made me addicted to his-- oh goddess, I don't even want to say it!" Amy started to sob.

"Would writing it down help?" Willow asked. She grabbed a pen and a pad of post-it notes (TM) from by the phone and offered them to the ex-rodent, but Amy waved them aside.

"His cum, okay? I'm addicted to his cum!"

"Eww!" Willow made a disgusted face. "I mean, even before I was gay that'd gross me out. Why would he do that?"

"You mean besides being too pathetic to get laid any other way?" Amy asked. "To enslave me. He wants to use me to get to Buffy. Another one of his sick **** fantasies. What did Buffy do to him anyway, to make him hate her so much?"

"She saved his life," replied Willow.

Amy looked confused. "THAT'S why he hates her?" she asked. "I mean, keeping Warren alive is reason enough for other people to hate her, but you'd think he'd be grateful."

Willow hadn't had much training in psychology, but Warren was simple enough to figure out even after a freshman intro course. "Warren hates women," she explained. "The fact that he owes his life to one is, like, the ultimate insult. He's gotta take her down so he won't be in her debt anymore."

Amy shook her head. She'd done some not-so-great things since becoming a witch, but even she couldn't understand that level of depravity. Better to focus on her immediate problem.

"Can you break the curse?" asked Amy.

"I think Tara and I could do it together," Willow said. "I'll call her and get her over."

"Hurry," said Amy. "I'm already jonesing for another dose. If it gets too bad I'll have to give him what he wants so he'll give me what I need."

"What does he want you to do?" Willow asked.

Amy handed Willow Warren's list. Willow took it and read it over as she called Tara and explained Amy's problem. Willow had to give Warren credit for imagination, if nothing else. It was a good plan from an evil misogynistic sadist's point of view.

"Tara says we can break Warren's hold on you," Willow assured Amy after she got off the phone. "Just hold on for a few minutes, she'll be right over." Amy managed a sickly smile and sat clutching her knees, rocking back and forth.

A few minutes later Tara walked into the house carrying a bag of spell components in one arm and a prayer rug tucked under the other.

"If I understand Willow right I think I know what Warren did to you, and I can get you out from under him," Tara said. She blushed, realizing the sort of imagery that word choice called up. To hide her embarrassment she knelt down, setting up the prayer rug and laying out ingredients. "When this is done you won't need his..." she tried to think of a good euphemism but came up empty. "Well, you know." She sighed and plunged on. "There will be... side effects."

Amy gave her a dubious look. "What kind of side effects?"