You painted a vivid, melancholy picture of the mundane, bleak shadow life Alex Hill had been leading. His routine was so structured and sad it made my heart ache for him. Peppering in the missing eye, his "dates," and nightmares of past events transformed Alex into Xander everywhere but in his own head.

I am really enjoying this original, exciting story. Xander's voice inside Alex' head is like a third character in the car, and seeing Spike through Alex' eyes is fascinating. What the holy heck did Willow do to the poor boy and why? I'm looking forward to more of this.