Willow had just gotten out of the shower when there was a knock on her door. Wondering whom it could be, she quickly pulled on a robe and went to answer the door.
"Chloe, Clark. What are you guys doing here?" Willow looked at the duo in confusion. What could they want from her at 11:00 at night. Willow was beginning to get a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She stepped aside and motioned for them to enter the room. "Is something wrong?"
Clark and Chloe entered the motel room and stood awkwardly for a moment, neither of them sure exactly how they should proceed. After several seconds of uncomfortable silence, Chloe spoke.
"We were hoping that you could tell us about the Hellmouth," she said simply.
Clark gave her a look. "Well, I was thinking that we could have built up to that question a little more smoothly. But I guess subtly takes a back seat to Chloe's inquisitiveness.
Willow could feel a headache coming on. She sighed. This was definitely not how she had wanted to spend her night. This was very, very bad. She knew that she could try to deny having any idea what they were talking about, but by the look in Chloe's eyes, she knew that would be futile. She sighed again. "All right, I'm going to go put some clothes on. This could turn out to be a rather long night."
A few minutes later Willow emerged from the bathroom in a pair of pajama bottoms and and Sunnydale University T-shirt. She motioned for Clark and Chloe to take a seat. They sat on the edge of the bed, and Willow grabbed a desk chair, moving it so she could sit across from them.
"So. First off, how do you know about the Hell mouth." Willow asked.
Clark smiled sheepishly, "Well, I heard you mutter something about it under you breath at the
Talon. It really caught me attention, and I asked Chloe to help me do some research on it. We managed to find out a little: that the name was literal, and that there are demons and vampires and stuff."
Willow nodded, "And how much of it do you believe?
Chloe and Clark exchanged a glance. "Well," Chloe said, "as I was telling you earlier, we've seen a lot of really strange occurrences here in Smallville. Now mutants may be different than demons, but I have to say, I don't think we're really in a position to doubt much. I promise you, nothing you tell us will end up on the front page of the newspaper."
Willow sat in silence for a moment, wondering how much she should tell them. She had only just met them, but she sensed that she could trust them. But still, she wasn't sure how much of her experiences in the past four years she should share. She wasn't so much that she didn't trust Chloe and Clark, it was just that she didn't know if she wanted them to get involved in Sunnydale matters. She didn't want to give them information that might somehow get them into trouble.
While Chloe was watching Willow, anxious for her to speak, Clark was studying Chloe. She was so intellectually curious; he got a kick out of watching the excitement on her face. It dawned on him in that moment that he would never be doing something like this with Lana. He would have never even thought to go to Lana to talk about something like a Hellmouth. Chloe on the other hand took abnormal experiences is stride. Even several close brushes with death didn't stop her from pursuing the truth. As much as her constant drive to get a story could bother him, he knew that when it came down to it, she wouldn't knowingly put a story in front of her friendships. Clark was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, he could tell Chloe his secret.
Willow took a deep breath, and finally began to talk. "I've lived in Sunnydale my whole life. About four years ago a girl named Buffy moved to town. That's when everything changed."
TBC
