Nightmare on Fleet Street (Part 6)
Chapter 20
She didn’t even realize she had started shaking. Nellie wasn’t sure if it was from fear, or some kind of demented happiness. He was concerned. Sweeney Todd was concerned, for her. Alone in the hallway she allowed a hiccup of tears to turn into a smile. She hadn’t told him Johanna now knew she was his daughter, hadn’t thought of a way to bring it up. He was bound to find out when she was gone, which gave her a variety of things to worry about on her return. And worrying about a return meant actually going. Because, after all, James wouldn’t want her dead, and she would be damned if she was going to let a bunch of brain-dead idiots kill her.
Nellie’s hands curled into her skirts and she stopped her march for the door. Her rolling pin was in the parlor. When Sweeney had first appeared she had dropped it.
Toby and Johanna would want to know where she was going. Or would they?
The baker’s tremors continued as she stared at the door which held her boy. He was sick of her, frightened, and completely cold. Could she take an indifferent reaction from him when going out into a situation with a ridiculously high risk of never coming back? She could ignore them, grab it and then leave, but now that she found herself thinking about it, she wanted to say goodbye to him. Even if he pushed her away she wanted to hold him close one last time.
Her quivering fingers steadied when she grasped the door knob. Feeling tears prick at her eyes from the thought of never seeing Sweeney or Toby again, Nellie pushed open the door.
Utter silence greeted her, making her feel uncomfortable as she shuffled into the room.
“Mrs. Lovett?” Johanna asked softly.
Nellie ignored the girl and scanned the ground for her rolling pin. Spotting the filthy object, she forced herself to move towards it with deliberate steps.
“Wot you doin’?” Toby asked suspiciously.
The baker felt an odd prickle as she lifted the tool turned weapon. “I’m goin’ out.” She said simply.
“Why?” The insistence, and perhaps fear, in the boy’s voice drew her attention.
“I’m tryin’ to put an end to this mess, luv.”
“On your own?” Johanna interjected.
“I’m not knockin’ the whole lot down, I’m tryin’ ta end their bein’ monsters.”
“How?” Toby insisted, expression becoming more and more troubled.
“I’ve got a bit of potion from the apothecary, an’ some natural resistance to their bite.” She smiled at her son, glad to see something other than a scowl on his face.
“That’s ridiculous.” The girl muttered from her chair.
“S’more than tha’! Ya ain’t goin’ mum, it’s suicide!” Toby leapt up from his chair and ran towards Mrs. Lovett, wrapping his arms around her the moment he got close enough. “M’not lettin’ ya go!” If the monsters could break down a demon like Mr. Todd, who’s to say what they could do to his mum?
“Hush luv,” she cooed softly, wrapping her arms around him in turn. “I’ll be back.”
“Ya’s better!” He cried into her chest. “Ya best be comin’ back mum, ‘cause if not, I’ll be goin’ for ya!”
“Now luv, you’ll never do somethin’ so foolish. Ye’ll be stayin’ ‘ere with Johanna, Sweeney and James.” She felt little inclination to mention the two unconscious men, and the gaggle of frighten maids she knew were hidden about the house.
Toby sniffed away several more tears into her skirts before continuing. “I don’ care who’s ‘ere. I don’ want you ta go missin’ mum. Not again.” His voice grew in volume as his little speech plodded forward. “An’ I didn’ mean nuffin’ earlier! I’d go after ya ‘gain, wif or wifout Mr. Todd.”
“You can’t leave Mr. Todd. Think about everythin’ ‘e’s done. For both of us.” The last of Nellie’s words came out little more than a whisper.
Toby didn’t know what to say to that, as Mr. Todd had risked himself several times that day in order to save him. He wanted to do everything he could to stay loyal to Mrs. Lovett, but he didn’t know what to make of his loyalty when she was asking him to stay behind while she put herself in danger.
--
“She’s something else, isn’t she?”
Sweeney did not want to talk to James, but in his immobile state, he was the only company he could get. Though perhaps there was an advantage to that.
“Why did you do it?”
“What?”
“Make a plague for her. Why did you do it?”
The apothecary was silent a moment before simply stating, “she’s amazing.” It didn’t bother him Sweeney had connected the dots between his twisted scheme and Eleanor.
A portion of the barber’s mind agreed, but that was not the answer he was looking for. “And what does that mean to you?”
“What?” He sounded confused.
“What events make you think that.” Sweeney clarified, annoyance creeping into his voice.
“I thought I told you that is none of your business.”
“Pardon me,” he spat. “For feeling a certain desire to know why you’re sending her out to possibly die from a plague you created, for her.”
Sweeney only heard James’s sigh, having turned his head to glare at the ceiling.
“For being so damned annoying Todd, you make a good argument.”
Deciding not to press his luck, the barber stayed silent.
“I believe I came into her life several months after you left it, or should I say Benjamin left it?”
--
“An’ tie ‘em up with somethin’.” Mrs. Lovett indicated towards the men with her rolling pin. “When they come ‘round again I don’t want ya bashin’ ‘em over the head.”
Toby forced a small smile for her, while Johanna continued her disbelieving stare.
“I’ll be seein’ ya both.” She finished forcefully, a grim look of determination set on her face.
The closing of the parlor door seemed to shut Nellie off from the world, while opening the front revealed a whole new one.
--
“My shop was new in the area, and I was opening up just down the street from her emporium.” James ran a hand through his graying hair, an oddly wistful look on his face; Sweeney frowned at him in annoyance. “She came into my shop the day it opened. Though she never admitted to it I’m fairly confident she was trying to steal from me. Not that I cared. I was… I was just stunned to see a woman like her. Even though she only came to me to try and get medicine for her husband, I wanted to get to know her. Later on she just teased me about the dress she wore catching my male eye… Even though I told her countless times I was looking at her face.”
Sweeney found himself incapable of watching the happy memories pass across the apothecary’s face, and uneasily turned his head away. At the same time this man was meeting Nellie, he was suffering a most hellish fate. To look back on those events and have to think about how everyone else’s lives would have just kept going was not something Sweeney had willing done before. Never before had he cared to hear about the happy memories people possessed during his absence. It was truly selfish for him to think no one could have been happy once he left, but a part of him had always believed that when Benjamin Barker died, so had the happiness in the world.
“I was more than happy to give her what she wanted…I told her as long as she came back I wouldn’t charge her for her first visit.” James’s lip twisted slightly, though it was indiscernible as either a frown or a smile. “I didn’t see her for several weeks, so I went to her shop.” A definite smile appeared on his face. “Things just sort of… picked up from there.”
--
Nellie’s stomach twisted and a shiver crawled down her spine. The dimmed light of dusk and settled over the city, and the sky was further blackened by a plume of smoke in the distance. With a jolt she realized it marked the remnants of her shop.
A figure next to her made a sound akin to a growl, making her entire body tense. Her eyes flickered nervously across the small horde of once-men that were congregated at the judge’s front door. Nellie’s eyes stopped at one whose mouth was hanging open. A blob of surprisingly viscous saliva made its way out of his mouth and landed on the stone stairs with a sickening splat.
The baker felt her stomach turn in disgust.
Even if this bloody cure works, they ain’t gunna be normal, she thought, nose wrinkling with distaste.
“Might as well try a lamb before I go for a ram, eh?” Nellie doubted her words were understood by those around her, though they were more for her comfort than their understanding. Silences had always bothered her. Taking a phial in hand, the baker debated on how she was to get some of the substance into the motionless people.
--
“She always said she was going to pay me back. I don’t think I would have ever thought about taking her money.. Especially after I learned what her situation was. Her husband was dieing and she was spending a considerable amount of time and money on him. Not that a wife shouldn’t, but…” James fidgeted slightly, deciding to skip over his description of Albert Lovett. “I offered anything I could do to help her, and to make sure she didn’t see it as charity I ate at her shop everyday and she gave me my meals for free. Her place was busy, though it was not nearly as popular as it is now. I really didn’t get to see her much during my visits, though.”
Sweeney forced himself to continue staring at the ceiling instead of looking at the apothecary. Mrs. Lovett’s business had been incredibly run down when he had returned, and though he doubted it had been that way during his entire absence, he did have to wonder how she lost her customers. Perhaps the prices had simply gotten to high for a limited amount of custom she was receiving? The barber pushed the annoying thoughts away and told himself to focus on James’s story.
“Of course because of not seeing her is how I learned about Lucy.”
The barber tensed and he could feel himself stop breathing, though he oddly felt detached from his body.
“I asked about the room and a number of people were happy to tell me it was occupied by a widow.”
Sweeney’s teeth gnashed together. A widow? How quickly was their marriage abandoned after he had been sent away?
“She was the talk of the town, trying to gain favor with judge Turpin.” The barber’s sharp intake of breath prompted James to inch away from the table. “I asked Eleanor about it on one of her visits to my shop. She sort of…cracked, when I asked.”
The slight confusion in the apothecary’s voice drew Sweeney out of his red clouded vision. Mrs. Lovett, cracking? Apparently James even thought it unreal, though he had experienced it.
“She was always more open with me away from her shop, but I had never seen her like that before. Devastated….I suppose enough pressure puts a breaking point on anybody.”
--
Nellie held her hand away from her body, flicking her wrist violently as she attempted to dislodge saliva from her finger tips. She was most certainly not doing that again. Feeling bile rise in her throat she hurriedly turned away from the creature she had been standing in front of. The effects of the cure did not appear to be immediate, if there were any at all, and since she did not want to lose what was left of the light Nellie decided to strike out.
She could die trying to spread the cure, but without it her likelihood of perishing increased. “Men an’ their bloody schemes,” she muttered to herself.
The baker clutched her rolling pin to her chest as she headed down the street. The creatures that still moved on their own accord had congregated into small groups of three or four and several she caught sight of were holding various limbs. If she didn’t, hadn’t (there was no pie shop now, was there?) spent most of her time chopping up human corpses the scene would have definitely been more gruesome.
“The moment a man stops underestimatin’ ya is the moment ‘e gives ya the worst job.” She told the street.
The low rumble of growling Londoner’s seemed to agree with her.
--
“Everything just sort of spilled out of her, like she was confessing to something. First it was ‘he was taken away’ and then it was, ‘a long time ago there was a tenant’. I didn’t want her to stop talking so I just didn’t say anything. Eventually she calmed down enough to explain the scraps of information she gave me.”
The barber did not particularly like the clarity in which James told his memories. Sweeney wondered if his annoyance came from the fact he had locked away most of his memories; but a little voice in the back of his head provided a completely different answer.
“Benjamin Barker,” James began carefully, watching Sweeney. “Had moved into the room above her shop with his wife. Charming couple, she told me. But their heads were in the clouds. Eleanor stressed the empty headedness of Lucy more than…her husband’s.” The apothecary was extremely confused on how to refer to Benjamin, as he was, quite apparently, his current audience. Still not even having the man’s eyes though, James decided to keep referring to them as two different people. “Eleanor told me how she became friends with them. She also confessed she had fallen head over heels for Benjamin.”
Sweeney managed to calm himself enough to blink before turning to the apothecary. “What?”
--
Chapter 21
James stared at Sweeney, trying to exactly understand what was being asked. The barber stared straight back at him, not even blinking.
“You….didn’t notice?” He finally asked.
Sweeney turned his head away once more, looking irritated.
“Someone was in love with you, and you didn’t notice?”
“I had a wife! A daughter!”
The volume and anger in the other man’s voice took James by surprise, and he found himself backing up.
“Why would I care to look at other women?”
James held back a scoff. “She said you were comfortable friends, you didn’t see anything then? Were you so oblivious?”
“I don’t need to answer any of this.” Sweeney ground out.
“Then why am I even talking to you?”
Sweeney fell into silence, debating on whether or not he really wanted to hear the rest of what James had to say. Yes, he did, but was it worth divulging the full extent of his ignorance as Benjamin? He drew a steady breath, hoping to clear away his anger and draw on his old memories. “I suppose we were close. I considered us friends; we were both married, we were both happy! At least,” he scowled at the ceiling once more. “I thought she was.”
“She wasn’t unhappy,” James defended Eleanor quickly. “Not until you were taken, anyway.” He took a cautious step back towards the barber, trying to clear his uneasiness. The apothecary did not want to admit he was afraid of a severely inured man. “Eleanor told me about how she had to hide everything. Lucy had broken down completely, leaving Johanna’s care to her. Her husband was diseased and didn’t care much about the tenant problems. For months she took care of a hysterical woman, a baby, her gluttonous husband and a shop! She told me she hadn’t cried since the night you were taken away.”
A strange feeling worked its way up from Sweeney’s gut, and he fought against everything to choke it back down. After all, there was no cause for him to feel guilty. He had done absolutely nothing wrong, in such a case he should have been pitied too. But of course, he was no longer that man to be pitied. His throat burned and ached, but the barber refused to succumb to the emotion that had built up inside him.
“After she told me everything she tried to leave.” James was tempted to omit this part of his beginnings with Eleanor, but figured presenting Sweeney with everything might actually jar the man from his ridiculous façade. Eleanor was in love with the barber, she had admitted it, so the sooner Sweeney was forced to accept his own feelings the better. There was significantly more to them than landlady and tenant if she was willing to cover up his crimes. “I’m still not sure why I did it. I just kissed her like it was the most normal thing to do. Of course afterwards I was utterly afraid she would think I was taking advantage of her, and tried to do everything so she understood I didn’t mean to. Not that it mattered…it become clear to me she definitely didn’t think I was. Albert’s medicine was switched the next week and he died shortly after.” A partial laugh escaped his lips. “Half of me was afraid she would find out I killed him, the other half said she already knew.”
How could someone not care if their spouse died? At that moment Sweeney could have almost laughed. His ridiculous Barker qualities were seeping through. It was quite possible for someone not to care when their spouse died, not everyone was married because of love. He had never before noticed anything unpleasant between Albert and Nellie, but he had never really noticed anything to begin with. A partial snarl appeared on his face as his eyes began to sting. She was in love with you. A little voice in his head taunted. You didn’t see it, you didn’t notice. And you still don’t care.
“We became closer and much more open with one another afterwards… of course the public was one to notice too. Not that they didn’t already think I was shagging her and stealing all of her money.” An amused smile flickered onto his face and James found himself almost forgetting Sweeney was in the room. “They were rather far off, but rumors do tend to get twisted around quite a bit.” His happiness began to fade slightly when the rumors he had been living with for the past months came to mind. Ever since her business boomed anyone who came into his shop was muttering ‘something between them two, mark my words’ ‘sneaky fellow- seems normal for her to be with him’. James recalled nearly throwing a pair of old crones from his shop for calling Eleanor a whore.
“Is that the end of your pitiable tale?’
It took the apothecary a minute to realize the voice was Sweeney’s. He cautiously peered at the man’s face, almost afraid of finding what he thought he heard.
Sweeney’s jaw was clenched tightly shut as he attempted to fight off the few tears escaping him. Oblivious to the stunned man next to him, all the barber heard was the chant in the back of his head.
I care, I do… I actually care.
--
Feeling desperate to distract herself from the gloomy atmosphere in the parlor, Johanna was almost thrilled when she caught sight of something silver on the floor. Toby didn’t even notice when she stood to fetch it. His eyes remained fixed on the judge and the beadle, as if glaring at them would make Mrs. Lovett come back. The two men had been tied up with only a slight groan on their part, and the boy had become a sentinel just a moment after securing the last knot.
Johanna twirled the silver in her hands, for a moment forgetting the glum child. It was a razor, beautiful crafted and as the shine and color told her, silver.
It was that barber’s… her father’s.
She didn’t recall him dropping it, but she didn’t really remember him having it in the first place. Biting her lip, she decided it was time to face the music. After all, talking with her long-lost father, who appeared to be dead and reborn as someone else, was probably better than struggling through another conversation with Toby.
“I’m… going to see how they’re doing.”
He nodded his head slightly as she slipped out of the room, not even registering her words.
--
Despite his limited acquaintance with the man, James had high doubts he cried regularly. In fact, there was something slightly unnatural about seeing tears streaking down his cheeks. Though that may have been because of the snarl on his face. The apothecary found he could only stare. Had he done this? Had he made the man cry? At the very least what he said had to have been the cause.
“You had no idea, did you?” The words were out of James’s mouth before he registered that he was the one speaking.
Sweeney didn’t reply, and more tears pooled in his eyes.
Starting to feel a little unnerved James was glad of the sudden knock on his door. Not caring to think on who would even bother with knocking, he practically ran towards it in his haste to get the crying barber out of his line of sight.
“Johanna?” He gawped, she looked back at him with a great deal less surprise on her face.
“Yes sir.” She muttered.
They stared at each other a moment longer before James realized he was blocking the door and stepped aside. After doing so he came to the conclusion it was in fact a very stupid idea to let her in the room, Sweeney would most definitely be difficult to handle if he saw her.
“Johanna, could you-”
But it was too late, she was already next to the table and staring down at the barber. James froze, waiting for type of explosion on the man’s part. Instead, silence filled the room, fueling the apothecary’s uneasy mood.
Johanna had something clutched in her hand, and as she began to raise it up, James noticed it was a razor. For some unexplainable reason he thought Johanna was about to kill her father, but instead she laid it next to his head.
“You dropped this.” Her voice was soft, but the silence in the room made stand out.
“Yes,” Sweeney answered, voice sounding hoarse. “I see I did.”
The girl shifted uncomfortably for a moment before continuing. “Mrs. Lovett is doing quite the brave thing.”
James tried to keep his jaw from falling open. Small talk. She was trying small talk with the barber. He gave a mental snort, wondering how she would actually get out of him. The fact he had replied to calmly in the first place had been a bit of surprise.
“I suppose it is.” His voice was about as soft spoken as his daughter’s.
“Are you worried?” Johanna queried, addressing the remnants of tears she saw. “Toby is too. He tired to make her stay.”
“Sounds like something the boy would do.”
She bit her lip, pausing briefly. “I don’t think he likes you.”
Another silence filled the room, the type which should have been filled with a laugh or a contemptible snort.
“He only puts up with me because of Mrs. Lovett.” Sweeney answered curtly.
Johanna decided there was humor in the situation anyway, and a tiny smile appeared on her face. “And I suppose the same goes for you?”
The barber pulled a face, and didn’t reply.
Deciding the man wasn’t half bad when he wasn’t trying to kill people, she continued talking. “I don’t really know why Toby dislikes you so much… well, he told me why and I suppose I understand… Maybe it’s just because I haven’t known you that long?” Johanna looked down at her hands, no longer wanting to see his expression as she spoke. “She told me about you… Mrs. Lovett. That-”
“And?” Sweeney cut her off, voice going sharp.
The girl jumped slightly at the harsher tone in his voice. “And?” She mumbled.
“What do you make of it?” His tone held a twinge of contempt. “Are you sick to know the truth?”
Johanna frowned at the question. “You’re rather harsh, aren’t you?”
Well, past formalities, the child was rather blunt. But, most children are in any situation. Once their conversation had picked up, James had rested his back against the door and watched. He confessed to himself it was rather entertaining, though in a very cheap way,
“I guess I am.” The man snapped.
“You were fine a moment ago.” The child muttered. “Or is that you hate yourself so much that you want me to as well?”
--
The sun had fallen away and left the sky to darkness, but Eleanor was still seeing the world with the red light. The smoke from the fire, or fires, as it had spread, had turned everything red; making the world appear to be swathed in blood. She had found the sight unnerving, but was forced to push the feeling to the back of her mind. What she was doing required her full focus. Her shaky hands wiped soot and sweat onto her skirts before they dove back into the rumble.
A groan from the burnt wood caused a spasm in her already fluttering heart. She had to work faster.
--
Chapter 22
Sweeney’s mouth opened to give Johanna’s inquiry a curt response of ‘no’ when the word died in his mouth. He didn’t hate himself, did he? The barber enjoyed his work, each dead man was one less stain on the world, every death had felt like one stroke closer to Turpin and his revenge. And yet he did not want Johanna to know him. Was that because he hated what he was?
No, a voice countered, you’re trying to shield her. Protector her from a monster. His face continued to fall into one of confusion. Did a man who didn’t hate himself, call himself a monster? Could he be anything but for what he did?
In the brief time Johanna had been in Mrs. Lovett’s company, the woman had imprinted a strange mark on the girl. She had said when you wanted to yell, yell. There was no point in being polite, especially in such a peculiar and desperate situation. It had been a blissful feeling for Johanna, letting her tongue run free.
The look of utter confusion on the barber’s face shocked her though. As the time between his response and her question began to lengthen, she had to resist the urge to look at the apothecary and ask if she had broken him. Her question had obviously struck a cord with him.
For a moment she cursed Mrs. Lovett, and then she immediately forgave her. If the man murdered people, what would he care if his daughter was blunt? A tiny shiver crept down her spine at the thought. He murdered people, and Mrs. Lovett helped him. As she had originally thought with the baker, could the barber very well be insane? If her father was a murdering mad man, what did that make her?
A question none of us have an answer too, James thought; face twisting into a frown with the deepening silence. He had often wondered if he hated himself for what he did, and despite years of pondering no answer had come to him.
Something broke the stillness of the room.
The sound seemed to echo from behind him, and the apothecary quickly forgot the confused father and daughter. Eyebrows coming together he cautiously opened the door, wondering if he had imagined the sound. He poked his head out into the hall, straining his ears.
“-hwp-”
Someone was shouting.
Adrenaline suddenly shot through him and he found himself running towards the front door without realizing he had registered the sound. The lightest rustle behind him told James that Johanna was following him.
Toby poked his head out into the hallway, but James sprinted past. If it was Eleanor, why didn’t she simply come in? Had the cure worked, was it the men on the porch confused, and suddenly wanting in? He skidded to a halt in front of the door, wrenching it open without a second thought. The sight he saw was not a welcoming one.
“Thank God, sir! Please, I- I don’t know… Johanna?” The boy’s stuttering words transformed quickly into a breathless sigh of awe.
“Anthony?” The blonde asked, standing behind the apothecary.
“Introductions later, inside, now!” James found himself snapping, ushering the boy in. It wasn’t possible, how could they have gotten to her?
Anthony stumbled slightly as he complied, the burden of an unconscious Mrs. Lovett across his arms slowing him.
Forcing himself not to immediately charge back to his lab, Mayhew poked his head quickly outside, dreading the sight of a horde of monsters finally come back to their maker. All he saw were several men strewn across the lawn. Pushing the anomaly aside, he slammed the front door shut.
“Down the hall!” He ordered, voice harsh and loud.
“Yes sir.” Anthony’s steps were hesitant until James strode out in front of him, cursing all the while.
“Mum?” Toby’s eyes were wide as Anthony and James went by. Shock froze him to the door and made it impossible for his legs to move forward and let him follow.
Johanna hurried to the boy’s side, face a shade paler despite her quick run. “I’m sure he’ll do everything he can Toby. She’ll be fine.” The words were hollow, and the boy didn’t even hear them. The image of the dark blood stain on Mrs. Lovett’s dress was fresh and vivid in their minds.
--
James threw papers and glass containers to the floor, hurriedly clearing space on one of the cluttered counters. He swore when something landed on his foot, but otherwise ignored the mess he made.
“Put her down here and then go fetch water from the kitchen.”
Apparently losing the power of speech Anthony just nodded his head and laid the baker down.
“And tell Johanna to fetch me needle and thread.. I might need to stitch her up.”
The order was met with another quick nod and a dash for the door.
Sweeney had been jerked form his thoughts the moment James had took off down the hall. When his daughter had followed he had become even more curious. Despite all the protest his body mustered, the barber sat up at the sight of Mrs. Lovett. His breathing had hitched and momentarily stopped at the sight of her blood. She wasn’t stirring, she wasn’t moving… he couldn’t even see her breathing!
Acting on impulse Sweeney forced his body to turn, dangling his legs off the side of the table. Blood began to pool in his mouth as he bit his cheeks, preventing himself from crying out in pain. His side was doing it’s best to get him to stay still. He spat blood onto the floor and forced his feet to make contact with the floor.
Preoccupied with Eleanor, James didn’t notice the barber’s stirring. He ripped apart the dress at the center of the bloody patch, and sucked in a breath when he realized what ever had caused the damage had broken the bone in her corset. Pieces of the whalebone were no doubt now lodged in her side. He swore again, wondering where the water he had asked for was.
James nearly jumped out of his skin when the pale hand of the barber came into his vision. His astonishment grew as he took note of the man just standing there, as if his own body wasn’t badly damaged. His reprimand of get back on the damn table died in his throat when Sweeney’s fingers brushed against Eleanor’s hands.
In a surprisingly delicate fashion the barber lifted her hand away from what she clutched. The burnt looking box was still held close to her chest by her other hand.
Sweeney’s lips parted in surprised. “She went back for my razors.”
--
Chapter 23
Johanna only gave herself a moment to feel guilty as she gave Toby another reassuring pat and dashed down the hall. Anthony had come, and she wanted to know how. Ever since the men had turned she had feared he had as well, or was eaten. Now that her savior appeared to her alive and well she wanted to know how. She also wanted to know what had happened to Mrs. Lovett.
If the monsters had gotten her… Well, Johanna wasn’t quite sure what that meant if they did. She never had the stomach to ask Mayhew fully about his compound, and the judge had never liked her asking questions.
She caught him as he stepped out of Mayhew’s lab, looking slightly dazed. He didn’t seem to notice her, or know where he was going. When his confused eyes finally found her, his face lit up.
“Johanna!”
A smile bloomed on her face despite the circumstances and she forgot about her questions for a moment. “Anthony, I-”
“Where’s the kitchen?” He asked rather sheepishly, seeming to ignore her words.
Her mouth hung open and confusion washed her features for a moment. “Oh… it’s this way.”
“He-he asked me to get water for Mrs. Lovett.” Anthony quickly stuttered in apology. “He wants needle and thread as well.”
Mayhew’s snappish nature around the injured Mrs. Lovett had obviously struck a cord with the sailor. Johanna smiled reassuringly. “Quickly then?” Just because she could, she grasped his hand and pulled him in the right direction.
--
Toby felt incredibly conflicted. He wanted to stay and watch over the judge and beadle, but knowing his mum was wounded and not knowing how she was being treated made him want to run after her. Johanna had rather hurriedly took off, but Toby was quite aware of the look she had given the sailor. It reminded him of the way Mrs. Lovett looked after Sweeney, so he immediately knew she was heading after Anthony.
Mrs. Lovett… tears began to well in his eyes and Toby was suddenly compelled to run down the hall and look after her. He had absolutely no idea how to treat the bloody wound he had seen on her side though, and tears of frustration tracked down his cheeks.
He had promised her that he would let nothing bad happen to her. At that moment he severely wished he had gone with her, despite her protests. Surely he could have done something; but then he realized he had no idea what had hurt her. She had proved herself very capable of taking care of the monsters, and she had told him she was immune. But if the men hadn’t done it, who or what had?
His knees gave way under him and he let himself fall to the floor, crying out his frustration and guilt.
--
Sweeney had loosened Mrs. Lovett’s grip from the box, and the moment he had it away from her he was tempted to throw it against the wall. She had gone off and hurt herself because of him, again. First with trying to rescue him from outside the shop, and now this. Didn’t she see the danger before she walked into it?
Bloody stupid woman! He cursed in his head, immediately making himself feel guilty. Finding himself in desperate need to vent his confusing emotions, Sweeney tightened his grip on the box in preparation to throw it, but he stopped himself. She risked her life for this box.
His eyes snapped down to the burnt wood, as if the item had suddenly changed. He had murdered with these razors, and when he had come back to London they had almost seemed like old friends. Did she still believe that after everything that had happened, all he would need was the company of silver?
Well why wouldn’t she? A little voice challenged. You haven’t been particularly nice to her. You never even thanked her for what she did!
Sweeney wanted to throttle the voice in his head, but instead laid the box down next to her head, leaving his hands free to brush the hair from her face. She had to recover… she had to get better so he could thank her.
That wont change anything. The voice of his doubts taunted.
Yes it will. He thought firmly, it will…
A loud curse from Mayhew drew the barber back to reality. His dark eyes snapped over to the apothecary with a glare. He didn’t notice, thoroughly focused on removing splinters from Mrs. Lovett’s side. The man had proceeded to curse and shout at any given opportunity since she had been brought back wounded, yet Sweeney noticed a strange calmness underneath it. James seemed perfectly capable at what he was doing, and his hands moved assuredly and didn’t shake. Yet he sounded as if he was on the verge of a breakdown. It was a strange way to deal with stress.
Yes, but you kill people, the truth stated. Sweeney frowned at that. When compared to that, James had an excellent way of handling stress.
--
“Anthony, please, just…” Just tell me where you’ve been. But the question made Johanna feel selfish, so she changed it to one of more pressing concerns. “Can you tell me what happened?”
The sailor was shaking slightly as he dug through the cabinets in search of a pot or a basin to hold water. A large tub of water was already in the kitchen, and though it had probably been originally intended for dishes it had been abandoned for one reason or another. Anthony froze at Johanna’s question, hands wrapped tightly around a large porcelain bowl.
He kept his back to her, and his voice barely reached Johanna’s ears. “I… After everything… I wanted to get help from Mr. Todd.” Anthony slowly turned around, looking sheepish. “I was so worried about you Johanna, but when I got the shop everything was burned. I dug through everything trying to find if they were inside when it happened…” He started to frown, eyes going down to the bowl in his hands. “The stairs… from the way everything else was destroyed it was strange that they were still standing. I had no idea why she was up there to begin with, I called to her, but I don’t think she heard me.”
Johanna felt a great deal of confusion, why would Mrs. Lovett return to her shop if it was burned down?
“I mean… Mr. Todd’s shop was just as destroyed as hers.”
The girl recalled her conversation with Toby, but she had no idea what could have been so important to Todd that she would willingly risk her own life for it. Especially if the shop was burned, how would she have known it could have survived? Even with that scenario in mind, Johanna still found it difficult to think of Mrs. Lovett as that devoted to the man. Then again, she was an accomplice to his murders.
“She noticed me when she was coming back down- it must have been a miracle that they held on the way up. She was barely down when they collapsed.” As if suddenly remembering he was supposed to helping Mrs. Lovett recover, Anthony hurried to fill the bowl with water. “I pulled the beams off of her but after she told me to come here she passed out.”
Johanna felt part of herself grow cold in dread.
As if noticing her change of thought Anthony remembered the other request. “He- he asked for needle and thread too.”
She barely nodded her head before she ran from the room to fetch her sewing kit.
--
Pulling himself up from the floor Toby hurriedly scrubbed at the tears on his face. Not knowing how long he had been crying his eyes out only made him feel more guilty. Not caring to check on the ‘prisoners’ Toby hurried out into the hall, determined to at least see Mrs. Lovett. His mum needed someone, and he doubted either man she had with her would do.
The increased volume of curses led the boy to the door of the lab but instead of marching inside and taking his mum’s hand, he froze. The view given to him was one that he had never expected to see. The last he had seen of Mr. Todd the man had been unconscious and bleeding, much like his mum. Now the demon was standing over Mrs. Lovett, the strangest expression of concern plastered on his face. Toby felt the blood slowly drain from his face as the barber’s pale finger traced a tender path down the baker’s cheek. What gave that man the right after everything he had done?
Everything he had done…
It made the boy increasingly sick when he realized Mr. Todd’s last few acts had been in protection of Mrs. Lovett. How he had been trying to find ways to escape and find her, how he wanted to chase after her. Those torturous facts only served to remind Toby of how he had hindered the barber’s progress. Before his mind could even start working on how Mayhew knew at least how to stitch his mum up, he was pushed from his place at the door by Anthony. The sailor barely seemed to notice Toby, and instead looked frightened at the prospect of having to interrupt the cursing apothecary.
Turning away from the door Toby decided to move before he got in anyone elses' way.
--
Johanna got the strangest sense of nostalgia upon entering her room. As if the room had suddenly turned into a monument to remember the very much active and alive Mrs. Lovett. Shaking off the feeling the blonde hurried to where she kept her sewing kit. Having no idea of what Mayhew would need, she grabbed the box with both hands and headed back towards her door.
Her body froze before she could fully leave the room, and Johanna slowly turned her head to look back on the empty space. It was as if ghosts suddenly inhabited her room. A shiver crept through her body before she bolted for the stairs, determined not to let those dark thoughts brew any longer.
Mrs. Lovett was not going to die.
--
Breaking another chair only served to vent part of Toby’s turbulent emotions. Though the furniture’s destruction was not for removing his feelings, it did help make the boy feel better. Picking up a leg from the chair, he smashed off the last bit of frame that still stubbornly clung to it. Giving the weapon a few experimental swipes through the air, Toby gave a content nod of his head.
Though an intact chair was more useful against the monsters, a smaller piece was much more maneuverable. Now if he only had gin and a few matches… He roughly pushed the thought aside, as it only served to remind him of Mr. Todd.
Slinking back out into the hallway, Toby paused to listen- wondering if anyone heard the crash of breaking wood. When no footsteps appeared to be coming his way he sprinted down the hall towards the door. He felt he had to run, for if he walked he would surely loose his nerve, and he couldn’t allow that to happen. Toby wanted to do the one thing he seemed to good for- reduce the London monster population.
He blocked out all thoughts of Mrs. Lovett as he stepped outside of the Judge’s home.
Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3/ Part 4/ Part 5/Part 6/ Part 7/ Part 8
She didn’t even realize she had started shaking. Nellie wasn’t sure if it was from fear, or some kind of demented happiness. He was concerned. Sweeney Todd was concerned, for her. Alone in the hallway she allowed a hiccup of tears to turn into a smile. She hadn’t told him Johanna now knew she was his daughter, hadn’t thought of a way to bring it up. He was bound to find out when she was gone, which gave her a variety of things to worry about on her return. And worrying about a return meant actually going. Because, after all, James wouldn’t want her dead, and she would be damned if she was going to let a bunch of brain-dead idiots kill her.
Nellie’s hands curled into her skirts and she stopped her march for the door. Her rolling pin was in the parlor. When Sweeney had first appeared she had dropped it.
Toby and Johanna would want to know where she was going. Or would they?
The baker’s tremors continued as she stared at the door which held her boy. He was sick of her, frightened, and completely cold. Could she take an indifferent reaction from him when going out into a situation with a ridiculously high risk of never coming back? She could ignore them, grab it and then leave, but now that she found herself thinking about it, she wanted to say goodbye to him. Even if he pushed her away she wanted to hold him close one last time.
Her quivering fingers steadied when she grasped the door knob. Feeling tears prick at her eyes from the thought of never seeing Sweeney or Toby again, Nellie pushed open the door.
Utter silence greeted her, making her feel uncomfortable as she shuffled into the room.
“Mrs. Lovett?” Johanna asked softly.
Nellie ignored the girl and scanned the ground for her rolling pin. Spotting the filthy object, she forced herself to move towards it with deliberate steps.
“Wot you doin’?” Toby asked suspiciously.
The baker felt an odd prickle as she lifted the tool turned weapon. “I’m goin’ out.” She said simply.
“Why?” The insistence, and perhaps fear, in the boy’s voice drew her attention.
“I’m tryin’ to put an end to this mess, luv.”
“On your own?” Johanna interjected.
“I’m not knockin’ the whole lot down, I’m tryin’ ta end their bein’ monsters.”
“How?” Toby insisted, expression becoming more and more troubled.
“I’ve got a bit of potion from the apothecary, an’ some natural resistance to their bite.” She smiled at her son, glad to see something other than a scowl on his face.
“That’s ridiculous.” The girl muttered from her chair.
“S’more than tha’! Ya ain’t goin’ mum, it’s suicide!” Toby leapt up from his chair and ran towards Mrs. Lovett, wrapping his arms around her the moment he got close enough. “M’not lettin’ ya go!” If the monsters could break down a demon like Mr. Todd, who’s to say what they could do to his mum?
“Hush luv,” she cooed softly, wrapping her arms around him in turn. “I’ll be back.”
“Ya’s better!” He cried into her chest. “Ya best be comin’ back mum, ‘cause if not, I’ll be goin’ for ya!”
“Now luv, you’ll never do somethin’ so foolish. Ye’ll be stayin’ ‘ere with Johanna, Sweeney and James.” She felt little inclination to mention the two unconscious men, and the gaggle of frighten maids she knew were hidden about the house.
Toby sniffed away several more tears into her skirts before continuing. “I don’ care who’s ‘ere. I don’ want you ta go missin’ mum. Not again.” His voice grew in volume as his little speech plodded forward. “An’ I didn’ mean nuffin’ earlier! I’d go after ya ‘gain, wif or wifout Mr. Todd.”
“You can’t leave Mr. Todd. Think about everythin’ ‘e’s done. For both of us.” The last of Nellie’s words came out little more than a whisper.
Toby didn’t know what to say to that, as Mr. Todd had risked himself several times that day in order to save him. He wanted to do everything he could to stay loyal to Mrs. Lovett, but he didn’t know what to make of his loyalty when she was asking him to stay behind while she put herself in danger.
--
“She’s something else, isn’t she?”
Sweeney did not want to talk to James, but in his immobile state, he was the only company he could get. Though perhaps there was an advantage to that.
“Why did you do it?”
“What?”
“Make a plague for her. Why did you do it?”
The apothecary was silent a moment before simply stating, “she’s amazing.” It didn’t bother him Sweeney had connected the dots between his twisted scheme and Eleanor.
A portion of the barber’s mind agreed, but that was not the answer he was looking for. “And what does that mean to you?”
“What?” He sounded confused.
“What events make you think that.” Sweeney clarified, annoyance creeping into his voice.
“I thought I told you that is none of your business.”
“Pardon me,” he spat. “For feeling a certain desire to know why you’re sending her out to possibly die from a plague you created, for her.”
Sweeney only heard James’s sigh, having turned his head to glare at the ceiling.
“For being so damned annoying Todd, you make a good argument.”
Deciding not to press his luck, the barber stayed silent.
“I believe I came into her life several months after you left it, or should I say Benjamin left it?”
--
“An’ tie ‘em up with somethin’.” Mrs. Lovett indicated towards the men with her rolling pin. “When they come ‘round again I don’t want ya bashin’ ‘em over the head.”
Toby forced a small smile for her, while Johanna continued her disbelieving stare.
“I’ll be seein’ ya both.” She finished forcefully, a grim look of determination set on her face.
The closing of the parlor door seemed to shut Nellie off from the world, while opening the front revealed a whole new one.
--
“My shop was new in the area, and I was opening up just down the street from her emporium.” James ran a hand through his graying hair, an oddly wistful look on his face; Sweeney frowned at him in annoyance. “She came into my shop the day it opened. Though she never admitted to it I’m fairly confident she was trying to steal from me. Not that I cared. I was… I was just stunned to see a woman like her. Even though she only came to me to try and get medicine for her husband, I wanted to get to know her. Later on she just teased me about the dress she wore catching my male eye… Even though I told her countless times I was looking at her face.”
Sweeney found himself incapable of watching the happy memories pass across the apothecary’s face, and uneasily turned his head away. At the same time this man was meeting Nellie, he was suffering a most hellish fate. To look back on those events and have to think about how everyone else’s lives would have just kept going was not something Sweeney had willing done before. Never before had he cared to hear about the happy memories people possessed during his absence. It was truly selfish for him to think no one could have been happy once he left, but a part of him had always believed that when Benjamin Barker died, so had the happiness in the world.
“I was more than happy to give her what she wanted…I told her as long as she came back I wouldn’t charge her for her first visit.” James’s lip twisted slightly, though it was indiscernible as either a frown or a smile. “I didn’t see her for several weeks, so I went to her shop.” A definite smile appeared on his face. “Things just sort of… picked up from there.”
--
Nellie’s stomach twisted and a shiver crawled down her spine. The dimmed light of dusk and settled over the city, and the sky was further blackened by a plume of smoke in the distance. With a jolt she realized it marked the remnants of her shop.
A figure next to her made a sound akin to a growl, making her entire body tense. Her eyes flickered nervously across the small horde of once-men that were congregated at the judge’s front door. Nellie’s eyes stopped at one whose mouth was hanging open. A blob of surprisingly viscous saliva made its way out of his mouth and landed on the stone stairs with a sickening splat.
The baker felt her stomach turn in disgust.
Even if this bloody cure works, they ain’t gunna be normal, she thought, nose wrinkling with distaste.
“Might as well try a lamb before I go for a ram, eh?” Nellie doubted her words were understood by those around her, though they were more for her comfort than their understanding. Silences had always bothered her. Taking a phial in hand, the baker debated on how she was to get some of the substance into the motionless people.
--
“She always said she was going to pay me back. I don’t think I would have ever thought about taking her money.. Especially after I learned what her situation was. Her husband was dieing and she was spending a considerable amount of time and money on him. Not that a wife shouldn’t, but…” James fidgeted slightly, deciding to skip over his description of Albert Lovett. “I offered anything I could do to help her, and to make sure she didn’t see it as charity I ate at her shop everyday and she gave me my meals for free. Her place was busy, though it was not nearly as popular as it is now. I really didn’t get to see her much during my visits, though.”
Sweeney forced himself to continue staring at the ceiling instead of looking at the apothecary. Mrs. Lovett’s business had been incredibly run down when he had returned, and though he doubted it had been that way during his entire absence, he did have to wonder how she lost her customers. Perhaps the prices had simply gotten to high for a limited amount of custom she was receiving? The barber pushed the annoying thoughts away and told himself to focus on James’s story.
“Of course because of not seeing her is how I learned about Lucy.”
The barber tensed and he could feel himself stop breathing, though he oddly felt detached from his body.
“I asked about the room and a number of people were happy to tell me it was occupied by a widow.”
Sweeney’s teeth gnashed together. A widow? How quickly was their marriage abandoned after he had been sent away?
“She was the talk of the town, trying to gain favor with judge Turpin.” The barber’s sharp intake of breath prompted James to inch away from the table. “I asked Eleanor about it on one of her visits to my shop. She sort of…cracked, when I asked.”
The slight confusion in the apothecary’s voice drew Sweeney out of his red clouded vision. Mrs. Lovett, cracking? Apparently James even thought it unreal, though he had experienced it.
“She was always more open with me away from her shop, but I had never seen her like that before. Devastated….I suppose enough pressure puts a breaking point on anybody.”
--
Nellie held her hand away from her body, flicking her wrist violently as she attempted to dislodge saliva from her finger tips. She was most certainly not doing that again. Feeling bile rise in her throat she hurriedly turned away from the creature she had been standing in front of. The effects of the cure did not appear to be immediate, if there were any at all, and since she did not want to lose what was left of the light Nellie decided to strike out.
She could die trying to spread the cure, but without it her likelihood of perishing increased. “Men an’ their bloody schemes,” she muttered to herself.
The baker clutched her rolling pin to her chest as she headed down the street. The creatures that still moved on their own accord had congregated into small groups of three or four and several she caught sight of were holding various limbs. If she didn’t, hadn’t (there was no pie shop now, was there?) spent most of her time chopping up human corpses the scene would have definitely been more gruesome.
“The moment a man stops underestimatin’ ya is the moment ‘e gives ya the worst job.” She told the street.
The low rumble of growling Londoner’s seemed to agree with her.
--
“Everything just sort of spilled out of her, like she was confessing to something. First it was ‘he was taken away’ and then it was, ‘a long time ago there was a tenant’. I didn’t want her to stop talking so I just didn’t say anything. Eventually she calmed down enough to explain the scraps of information she gave me.”
The barber did not particularly like the clarity in which James told his memories. Sweeney wondered if his annoyance came from the fact he had locked away most of his memories; but a little voice in the back of his head provided a completely different answer.
“Benjamin Barker,” James began carefully, watching Sweeney. “Had moved into the room above her shop with his wife. Charming couple, she told me. But their heads were in the clouds. Eleanor stressed the empty headedness of Lucy more than…her husband’s.” The apothecary was extremely confused on how to refer to Benjamin, as he was, quite apparently, his current audience. Still not even having the man’s eyes though, James decided to keep referring to them as two different people. “Eleanor told me how she became friends with them. She also confessed she had fallen head over heels for Benjamin.”
Sweeney managed to calm himself enough to blink before turning to the apothecary. “What?”
--
Chapter 21
James stared at Sweeney, trying to exactly understand what was being asked. The barber stared straight back at him, not even blinking.
“You….didn’t notice?” He finally asked.
Sweeney turned his head away once more, looking irritated.
“Someone was in love with you, and you didn’t notice?”
“I had a wife! A daughter!”
The volume and anger in the other man’s voice took James by surprise, and he found himself backing up.
“Why would I care to look at other women?”
James held back a scoff. “She said you were comfortable friends, you didn’t see anything then? Were you so oblivious?”
“I don’t need to answer any of this.” Sweeney ground out.
“Then why am I even talking to you?”
Sweeney fell into silence, debating on whether or not he really wanted to hear the rest of what James had to say. Yes, he did, but was it worth divulging the full extent of his ignorance as Benjamin? He drew a steady breath, hoping to clear away his anger and draw on his old memories. “I suppose we were close. I considered us friends; we were both married, we were both happy! At least,” he scowled at the ceiling once more. “I thought she was.”
“She wasn’t unhappy,” James defended Eleanor quickly. “Not until you were taken, anyway.” He took a cautious step back towards the barber, trying to clear his uneasiness. The apothecary did not want to admit he was afraid of a severely inured man. “Eleanor told me about how she had to hide everything. Lucy had broken down completely, leaving Johanna’s care to her. Her husband was diseased and didn’t care much about the tenant problems. For months she took care of a hysterical woman, a baby, her gluttonous husband and a shop! She told me she hadn’t cried since the night you were taken away.”
A strange feeling worked its way up from Sweeney’s gut, and he fought against everything to choke it back down. After all, there was no cause for him to feel guilty. He had done absolutely nothing wrong, in such a case he should have been pitied too. But of course, he was no longer that man to be pitied. His throat burned and ached, but the barber refused to succumb to the emotion that had built up inside him.
“After she told me everything she tried to leave.” James was tempted to omit this part of his beginnings with Eleanor, but figured presenting Sweeney with everything might actually jar the man from his ridiculous façade. Eleanor was in love with the barber, she had admitted it, so the sooner Sweeney was forced to accept his own feelings the better. There was significantly more to them than landlady and tenant if she was willing to cover up his crimes. “I’m still not sure why I did it. I just kissed her like it was the most normal thing to do. Of course afterwards I was utterly afraid she would think I was taking advantage of her, and tried to do everything so she understood I didn’t mean to. Not that it mattered…it become clear to me she definitely didn’t think I was. Albert’s medicine was switched the next week and he died shortly after.” A partial laugh escaped his lips. “Half of me was afraid she would find out I killed him, the other half said she already knew.”
How could someone not care if their spouse died? At that moment Sweeney could have almost laughed. His ridiculous Barker qualities were seeping through. It was quite possible for someone not to care when their spouse died, not everyone was married because of love. He had never before noticed anything unpleasant between Albert and Nellie, but he had never really noticed anything to begin with. A partial snarl appeared on his face as his eyes began to sting. She was in love with you. A little voice in his head taunted. You didn’t see it, you didn’t notice. And you still don’t care.
“We became closer and much more open with one another afterwards… of course the public was one to notice too. Not that they didn’t already think I was shagging her and stealing all of her money.” An amused smile flickered onto his face and James found himself almost forgetting Sweeney was in the room. “They were rather far off, but rumors do tend to get twisted around quite a bit.” His happiness began to fade slightly when the rumors he had been living with for the past months came to mind. Ever since her business boomed anyone who came into his shop was muttering ‘something between them two, mark my words’ ‘sneaky fellow- seems normal for her to be with him’. James recalled nearly throwing a pair of old crones from his shop for calling Eleanor a whore.
“Is that the end of your pitiable tale?’
It took the apothecary a minute to realize the voice was Sweeney’s. He cautiously peered at the man’s face, almost afraid of finding what he thought he heard.
Sweeney’s jaw was clenched tightly shut as he attempted to fight off the few tears escaping him. Oblivious to the stunned man next to him, all the barber heard was the chant in the back of his head.
I care, I do… I actually care.
--
Feeling desperate to distract herself from the gloomy atmosphere in the parlor, Johanna was almost thrilled when she caught sight of something silver on the floor. Toby didn’t even notice when she stood to fetch it. His eyes remained fixed on the judge and the beadle, as if glaring at them would make Mrs. Lovett come back. The two men had been tied up with only a slight groan on their part, and the boy had become a sentinel just a moment after securing the last knot.
Johanna twirled the silver in her hands, for a moment forgetting the glum child. It was a razor, beautiful crafted and as the shine and color told her, silver.
It was that barber’s… her father’s.
She didn’t recall him dropping it, but she didn’t really remember him having it in the first place. Biting her lip, she decided it was time to face the music. After all, talking with her long-lost father, who appeared to be dead and reborn as someone else, was probably better than struggling through another conversation with Toby.
“I’m… going to see how they’re doing.”
He nodded his head slightly as she slipped out of the room, not even registering her words.
--
Despite his limited acquaintance with the man, James had high doubts he cried regularly. In fact, there was something slightly unnatural about seeing tears streaking down his cheeks. Though that may have been because of the snarl on his face. The apothecary found he could only stare. Had he done this? Had he made the man cry? At the very least what he said had to have been the cause.
“You had no idea, did you?” The words were out of James’s mouth before he registered that he was the one speaking.
Sweeney didn’t reply, and more tears pooled in his eyes.
Starting to feel a little unnerved James was glad of the sudden knock on his door. Not caring to think on who would even bother with knocking, he practically ran towards it in his haste to get the crying barber out of his line of sight.
“Johanna?” He gawped, she looked back at him with a great deal less surprise on her face.
“Yes sir.” She muttered.
They stared at each other a moment longer before James realized he was blocking the door and stepped aside. After doing so he came to the conclusion it was in fact a very stupid idea to let her in the room, Sweeney would most definitely be difficult to handle if he saw her.
“Johanna, could you-”
But it was too late, she was already next to the table and staring down at the barber. James froze, waiting for type of explosion on the man’s part. Instead, silence filled the room, fueling the apothecary’s uneasy mood.
Johanna had something clutched in her hand, and as she began to raise it up, James noticed it was a razor. For some unexplainable reason he thought Johanna was about to kill her father, but instead she laid it next to his head.
“You dropped this.” Her voice was soft, but the silence in the room made stand out.
“Yes,” Sweeney answered, voice sounding hoarse. “I see I did.”
The girl shifted uncomfortably for a moment before continuing. “Mrs. Lovett is doing quite the brave thing.”
James tried to keep his jaw from falling open. Small talk. She was trying small talk with the barber. He gave a mental snort, wondering how she would actually get out of him. The fact he had replied to calmly in the first place had been a bit of surprise.
“I suppose it is.” His voice was about as soft spoken as his daughter’s.
“Are you worried?” Johanna queried, addressing the remnants of tears she saw. “Toby is too. He tired to make her stay.”
“Sounds like something the boy would do.”
She bit her lip, pausing briefly. “I don’t think he likes you.”
Another silence filled the room, the type which should have been filled with a laugh or a contemptible snort.
“He only puts up with me because of Mrs. Lovett.” Sweeney answered curtly.
Johanna decided there was humor in the situation anyway, and a tiny smile appeared on her face. “And I suppose the same goes for you?”
The barber pulled a face, and didn’t reply.
Deciding the man wasn’t half bad when he wasn’t trying to kill people, she continued talking. “I don’t really know why Toby dislikes you so much… well, he told me why and I suppose I understand… Maybe it’s just because I haven’t known you that long?” Johanna looked down at her hands, no longer wanting to see his expression as she spoke. “She told me about you… Mrs. Lovett. That-”
“And?” Sweeney cut her off, voice going sharp.
The girl jumped slightly at the harsher tone in his voice. “And?” She mumbled.
“What do you make of it?” His tone held a twinge of contempt. “Are you sick to know the truth?”
Johanna frowned at the question. “You’re rather harsh, aren’t you?”
Well, past formalities, the child was rather blunt. But, most children are in any situation. Once their conversation had picked up, James had rested his back against the door and watched. He confessed to himself it was rather entertaining, though in a very cheap way,
“I guess I am.” The man snapped.
“You were fine a moment ago.” The child muttered. “Or is that you hate yourself so much that you want me to as well?”
--
The sun had fallen away and left the sky to darkness, but Eleanor was still seeing the world with the red light. The smoke from the fire, or fires, as it had spread, had turned everything red; making the world appear to be swathed in blood. She had found the sight unnerving, but was forced to push the feeling to the back of her mind. What she was doing required her full focus. Her shaky hands wiped soot and sweat onto her skirts before they dove back into the rumble.
A groan from the burnt wood caused a spasm in her already fluttering heart. She had to work faster.
--
Chapter 22
Sweeney’s mouth opened to give Johanna’s inquiry a curt response of ‘no’ when the word died in his mouth. He didn’t hate himself, did he? The barber enjoyed his work, each dead man was one less stain on the world, every death had felt like one stroke closer to Turpin and his revenge. And yet he did not want Johanna to know him. Was that because he hated what he was?
No, a voice countered, you’re trying to shield her. Protector her from a monster. His face continued to fall into one of confusion. Did a man who didn’t hate himself, call himself a monster? Could he be anything but for what he did?
In the brief time Johanna had been in Mrs. Lovett’s company, the woman had imprinted a strange mark on the girl. She had said when you wanted to yell, yell. There was no point in being polite, especially in such a peculiar and desperate situation. It had been a blissful feeling for Johanna, letting her tongue run free.
The look of utter confusion on the barber’s face shocked her though. As the time between his response and her question began to lengthen, she had to resist the urge to look at the apothecary and ask if she had broken him. Her question had obviously struck a cord with him.
For a moment she cursed Mrs. Lovett, and then she immediately forgave her. If the man murdered people, what would he care if his daughter was blunt? A tiny shiver crept down her spine at the thought. He murdered people, and Mrs. Lovett helped him. As she had originally thought with the baker, could the barber very well be insane? If her father was a murdering mad man, what did that make her?
A question none of us have an answer too, James thought; face twisting into a frown with the deepening silence. He had often wondered if he hated himself for what he did, and despite years of pondering no answer had come to him.
Something broke the stillness of the room.
The sound seemed to echo from behind him, and the apothecary quickly forgot the confused father and daughter. Eyebrows coming together he cautiously opened the door, wondering if he had imagined the sound. He poked his head out into the hall, straining his ears.
“-hwp-”
Someone was shouting.
Adrenaline suddenly shot through him and he found himself running towards the front door without realizing he had registered the sound. The lightest rustle behind him told James that Johanna was following him.
Toby poked his head out into the hallway, but James sprinted past. If it was Eleanor, why didn’t she simply come in? Had the cure worked, was it the men on the porch confused, and suddenly wanting in? He skidded to a halt in front of the door, wrenching it open without a second thought. The sight he saw was not a welcoming one.
“Thank God, sir! Please, I- I don’t know… Johanna?” The boy’s stuttering words transformed quickly into a breathless sigh of awe.
“Anthony?” The blonde asked, standing behind the apothecary.
“Introductions later, inside, now!” James found himself snapping, ushering the boy in. It wasn’t possible, how could they have gotten to her?
Anthony stumbled slightly as he complied, the burden of an unconscious Mrs. Lovett across his arms slowing him.
Forcing himself not to immediately charge back to his lab, Mayhew poked his head quickly outside, dreading the sight of a horde of monsters finally come back to their maker. All he saw were several men strewn across the lawn. Pushing the anomaly aside, he slammed the front door shut.
“Down the hall!” He ordered, voice harsh and loud.
“Yes sir.” Anthony’s steps were hesitant until James strode out in front of him, cursing all the while.
“Mum?” Toby’s eyes were wide as Anthony and James went by. Shock froze him to the door and made it impossible for his legs to move forward and let him follow.
Johanna hurried to the boy’s side, face a shade paler despite her quick run. “I’m sure he’ll do everything he can Toby. She’ll be fine.” The words were hollow, and the boy didn’t even hear them. The image of the dark blood stain on Mrs. Lovett’s dress was fresh and vivid in their minds.
--
James threw papers and glass containers to the floor, hurriedly clearing space on one of the cluttered counters. He swore when something landed on his foot, but otherwise ignored the mess he made.
“Put her down here and then go fetch water from the kitchen.”
Apparently losing the power of speech Anthony just nodded his head and laid the baker down.
“And tell Johanna to fetch me needle and thread.. I might need to stitch her up.”
The order was met with another quick nod and a dash for the door.
Sweeney had been jerked form his thoughts the moment James had took off down the hall. When his daughter had followed he had become even more curious. Despite all the protest his body mustered, the barber sat up at the sight of Mrs. Lovett. His breathing had hitched and momentarily stopped at the sight of her blood. She wasn’t stirring, she wasn’t moving… he couldn’t even see her breathing!
Acting on impulse Sweeney forced his body to turn, dangling his legs off the side of the table. Blood began to pool in his mouth as he bit his cheeks, preventing himself from crying out in pain. His side was doing it’s best to get him to stay still. He spat blood onto the floor and forced his feet to make contact with the floor.
Preoccupied with Eleanor, James didn’t notice the barber’s stirring. He ripped apart the dress at the center of the bloody patch, and sucked in a breath when he realized what ever had caused the damage had broken the bone in her corset. Pieces of the whalebone were no doubt now lodged in her side. He swore again, wondering where the water he had asked for was.
James nearly jumped out of his skin when the pale hand of the barber came into his vision. His astonishment grew as he took note of the man just standing there, as if his own body wasn’t badly damaged. His reprimand of get back on the damn table died in his throat when Sweeney’s fingers brushed against Eleanor’s hands.
In a surprisingly delicate fashion the barber lifted her hand away from what she clutched. The burnt looking box was still held close to her chest by her other hand.
Sweeney’s lips parted in surprised. “She went back for my razors.”
--
Chapter 23
Johanna only gave herself a moment to feel guilty as she gave Toby another reassuring pat and dashed down the hall. Anthony had come, and she wanted to know how. Ever since the men had turned she had feared he had as well, or was eaten. Now that her savior appeared to her alive and well she wanted to know how. She also wanted to know what had happened to Mrs. Lovett.
If the monsters had gotten her… Well, Johanna wasn’t quite sure what that meant if they did. She never had the stomach to ask Mayhew fully about his compound, and the judge had never liked her asking questions.
She caught him as he stepped out of Mayhew’s lab, looking slightly dazed. He didn’t seem to notice her, or know where he was going. When his confused eyes finally found her, his face lit up.
“Johanna!”
A smile bloomed on her face despite the circumstances and she forgot about her questions for a moment. “Anthony, I-”
“Where’s the kitchen?” He asked rather sheepishly, seeming to ignore her words.
Her mouth hung open and confusion washed her features for a moment. “Oh… it’s this way.”
“He-he asked me to get water for Mrs. Lovett.” Anthony quickly stuttered in apology. “He wants needle and thread as well.”
Mayhew’s snappish nature around the injured Mrs. Lovett had obviously struck a cord with the sailor. Johanna smiled reassuringly. “Quickly then?” Just because she could, she grasped his hand and pulled him in the right direction.
--
Toby felt incredibly conflicted. He wanted to stay and watch over the judge and beadle, but knowing his mum was wounded and not knowing how she was being treated made him want to run after her. Johanna had rather hurriedly took off, but Toby was quite aware of the look she had given the sailor. It reminded him of the way Mrs. Lovett looked after Sweeney, so he immediately knew she was heading after Anthony.
Mrs. Lovett… tears began to well in his eyes and Toby was suddenly compelled to run down the hall and look after her. He had absolutely no idea how to treat the bloody wound he had seen on her side though, and tears of frustration tracked down his cheeks.
He had promised her that he would let nothing bad happen to her. At that moment he severely wished he had gone with her, despite her protests. Surely he could have done something; but then he realized he had no idea what had hurt her. She had proved herself very capable of taking care of the monsters, and she had told him she was immune. But if the men hadn’t done it, who or what had?
His knees gave way under him and he let himself fall to the floor, crying out his frustration and guilt.
--
Sweeney had loosened Mrs. Lovett’s grip from the box, and the moment he had it away from her he was tempted to throw it against the wall. She had gone off and hurt herself because of him, again. First with trying to rescue him from outside the shop, and now this. Didn’t she see the danger before she walked into it?
Bloody stupid woman! He cursed in his head, immediately making himself feel guilty. Finding himself in desperate need to vent his confusing emotions, Sweeney tightened his grip on the box in preparation to throw it, but he stopped himself. She risked her life for this box.
His eyes snapped down to the burnt wood, as if the item had suddenly changed. He had murdered with these razors, and when he had come back to London they had almost seemed like old friends. Did she still believe that after everything that had happened, all he would need was the company of silver?
Well why wouldn’t she? A little voice challenged. You haven’t been particularly nice to her. You never even thanked her for what she did!
Sweeney wanted to throttle the voice in his head, but instead laid the box down next to her head, leaving his hands free to brush the hair from her face. She had to recover… she had to get better so he could thank her.
That wont change anything. The voice of his doubts taunted.
Yes it will. He thought firmly, it will…
A loud curse from Mayhew drew the barber back to reality. His dark eyes snapped over to the apothecary with a glare. He didn’t notice, thoroughly focused on removing splinters from Mrs. Lovett’s side. The man had proceeded to curse and shout at any given opportunity since she had been brought back wounded, yet Sweeney noticed a strange calmness underneath it. James seemed perfectly capable at what he was doing, and his hands moved assuredly and didn’t shake. Yet he sounded as if he was on the verge of a breakdown. It was a strange way to deal with stress.
Yes, but you kill people, the truth stated. Sweeney frowned at that. When compared to that, James had an excellent way of handling stress.
--
“Anthony, please, just…” Just tell me where you’ve been. But the question made Johanna feel selfish, so she changed it to one of more pressing concerns. “Can you tell me what happened?”
The sailor was shaking slightly as he dug through the cabinets in search of a pot or a basin to hold water. A large tub of water was already in the kitchen, and though it had probably been originally intended for dishes it had been abandoned for one reason or another. Anthony froze at Johanna’s question, hands wrapped tightly around a large porcelain bowl.
He kept his back to her, and his voice barely reached Johanna’s ears. “I… After everything… I wanted to get help from Mr. Todd.” Anthony slowly turned around, looking sheepish. “I was so worried about you Johanna, but when I got the shop everything was burned. I dug through everything trying to find if they were inside when it happened…” He started to frown, eyes going down to the bowl in his hands. “The stairs… from the way everything else was destroyed it was strange that they were still standing. I had no idea why she was up there to begin with, I called to her, but I don’t think she heard me.”
Johanna felt a great deal of confusion, why would Mrs. Lovett return to her shop if it was burned down?
“I mean… Mr. Todd’s shop was just as destroyed as hers.”
The girl recalled her conversation with Toby, but she had no idea what could have been so important to Todd that she would willingly risk her own life for it. Especially if the shop was burned, how would she have known it could have survived? Even with that scenario in mind, Johanna still found it difficult to think of Mrs. Lovett as that devoted to the man. Then again, she was an accomplice to his murders.
“She noticed me when she was coming back down- it must have been a miracle that they held on the way up. She was barely down when they collapsed.” As if suddenly remembering he was supposed to helping Mrs. Lovett recover, Anthony hurried to fill the bowl with water. “I pulled the beams off of her but after she told me to come here she passed out.”
Johanna felt part of herself grow cold in dread.
As if noticing her change of thought Anthony remembered the other request. “He- he asked for needle and thread too.”
She barely nodded her head before she ran from the room to fetch her sewing kit.
--
Pulling himself up from the floor Toby hurriedly scrubbed at the tears on his face. Not knowing how long he had been crying his eyes out only made him feel more guilty. Not caring to check on the ‘prisoners’ Toby hurried out into the hall, determined to at least see Mrs. Lovett. His mum needed someone, and he doubted either man she had with her would do.
The increased volume of curses led the boy to the door of the lab but instead of marching inside and taking his mum’s hand, he froze. The view given to him was one that he had never expected to see. The last he had seen of Mr. Todd the man had been unconscious and bleeding, much like his mum. Now the demon was standing over Mrs. Lovett, the strangest expression of concern plastered on his face. Toby felt the blood slowly drain from his face as the barber’s pale finger traced a tender path down the baker’s cheek. What gave that man the right after everything he had done?
Everything he had done…
It made the boy increasingly sick when he realized Mr. Todd’s last few acts had been in protection of Mrs. Lovett. How he had been trying to find ways to escape and find her, how he wanted to chase after her. Those torturous facts only served to remind Toby of how he had hindered the barber’s progress. Before his mind could even start working on how Mayhew knew at least how to stitch his mum up, he was pushed from his place at the door by Anthony. The sailor barely seemed to notice Toby, and instead looked frightened at the prospect of having to interrupt the cursing apothecary.
Turning away from the door Toby decided to move before he got in anyone elses' way.
--
Johanna got the strangest sense of nostalgia upon entering her room. As if the room had suddenly turned into a monument to remember the very much active and alive Mrs. Lovett. Shaking off the feeling the blonde hurried to where she kept her sewing kit. Having no idea of what Mayhew would need, she grabbed the box with both hands and headed back towards her door.
Her body froze before she could fully leave the room, and Johanna slowly turned her head to look back on the empty space. It was as if ghosts suddenly inhabited her room. A shiver crept through her body before she bolted for the stairs, determined not to let those dark thoughts brew any longer.
Mrs. Lovett was not going to die.
--
Breaking another chair only served to vent part of Toby’s turbulent emotions. Though the furniture’s destruction was not for removing his feelings, it did help make the boy feel better. Picking up a leg from the chair, he smashed off the last bit of frame that still stubbornly clung to it. Giving the weapon a few experimental swipes through the air, Toby gave a content nod of his head.
Though an intact chair was more useful against the monsters, a smaller piece was much more maneuverable. Now if he only had gin and a few matches… He roughly pushed the thought aside, as it only served to remind him of Mr. Todd.
Slinking back out into the hallway, Toby paused to listen- wondering if anyone heard the crash of breaking wood. When no footsteps appeared to be coming his way he sprinted down the hall towards the door. He felt he had to run, for if he walked he would surely loose his nerve, and he couldn’t allow that to happen. Toby wanted to do the one thing he seemed to good for- reduce the London monster population.
He blocked out all thoughts of Mrs. Lovett as he stepped outside of the Judge’s home.
Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3/ Part 4/ Part 5/Part 6/ Part 7/ Part 8