Authors Note: I'm Back. Again. And this time with a piece of work I'm actually pretty fond of. HAHA. I'm not fond of my work very often...course I'm never satisfied, but that's what makes me hungry to write more. Anyways, that's not the point. The point is that if you would be kind enough to read and review I'd love you forever and ever. Thanks!
Disclaimer: Sweeney...and Mrs. Lovett don't belong to me. Don't you get tired of reading disclaimers?
REVIEW PLEASE!!
Ashes
The crackling of the fire warmed the room. The rain storm outside had not ceased, and didn't seem like it planned on doing so anytime soon. The rain went ahead and hacked away on the old rooftop of the barber shop. Standing by the window, Sweeney Todd loomed over Fleet Street, eyes glued to nothing in particular.
Once in awhile, he would pace, but ended up at the fogged up window all over again. The rain fell too fast to see, especially with the fog, but nevertheless he stood by it anyway, brutally glaring at the soaked up streets of London. Down the rickety old stairs, his landlady, Mrs. Lovett sat, cuddled up in the chair by the orange and red flames, a book still in her hands. Her stomach moving slowly up and down with every breath she took, the book doing the same.
The pitter-patter of the rain continued, but the rhythm was broken, when the pie-shop door creaked open, sending the little, welcoming bell to jingle merrily. Sweeney entered the room. His body completely soaked. His black orbs shining in the glow of the fire. His heavy footsteps did not bother the sleeping Mrs. Lovett.
The heat that surrounded the room startled him. The barber shop was freezing cold most of the time, especially in this weather. He could smell the burning of the wood, and the warm feeling he thought he had left behind so long ago. But here it was again, turning his skin a light shade of pink. The warmth that he had not felt in fifteen years suddenly set him into a trance. But this couldn't be the same warmth, though it was in the same place, it was surely different. The warmth then felt so distant...so far out of reach like his old life.
His first thought was to shake is landlady awake, for he wanted to be sure that everything was ready for tomorrow, incase the judge and the beadle arrived, but thought better of it. Her sleeping form was slightly shaking which each breath she took. Her skin almost too pale. This would be worshiped, and envied in many countries, England being one of them, but the almost skeletal look on her face, and deep sunken eyes ruined it for her.
Yet still, her skin glowed in the dim light, and her auburn curls, that were now tumbling down her shoulders proved her past beauty. But this didn't marvel Mr. Sweeney Todd. He sat in the little chair across from where she slept, having a staring contest with the dormant piano in the corner of the room, and surprisingly, he was winning.
His landlady began to stir a bit before her eyelids fluttered open. The light flooded her eyes. Though it was dim, it was a big contrast from the dark sleeping stage. "Mr. Todd?" She called out, her voice strained. He didn't respond, nor give up his staring contest. "Mr. Todd? Can you hear me; is there something you need, love?" Her voice quivered, but managed to squeeze out what she was trying to say.
"Yes. Is everything ready for tomorrow?" His question going straight to the point. "Yes, love. Everything. Don't you worry? Perhaps you should get some rest..." She let out a small smile before folding her page and snapping her book shut. "I don't need rest Mrs. Lovett." He turned to face her. His eyes searching for hers. "I insist that you should close your eyes for awhile." She pushed further, getting up to sit on the armrest of the chair that Sweeney was on.
The room held its breath. "Why did Lucy leave Johanna?" His voice broke the silence. "Mister Todd..." She began, avoiding his eyes at all costs. "Just tell me." He urged her to go on. "Mister Todd, she couldn't handle it and I don't blame her. She was raped by the horrid judge...and...And she had no man to take care of her...and she couldn't face it alone." Mrs. Lovett bit her lower lip, hoping that she sounded pitiful enough. Her inner voice was screaming at her about the base wrench who thought nothing more of herself...and couldn't face the real world.
As if he was reading her mind, he stood up and through her against the chair he was sitting in previously, his hands tightly wrapped around her throat. "She didn't believe that I'd come back? I told her I'd come back for her and Johanna. You could have taken care of the girl why didn't you? Spit it out, woman!" His voice becoming increasingly loud.
Though the warmth still hovered in the air, the fire was in his eyes, while mercy shown brightly in her's with a glint of hope that was naturally there. He treated her as if this was all her fault. That all his anger had to be taken out on her when there was nobody's throat to slit. "I tired, sir, I tried!! But the judge he threatened to send me where you were. He threatened to throw me to Bedlam." She breathed deeply, uneasily filling her lungs with air.
He released his hands from around her throat. He remained standing over her. His eyes focused on her forehead. "Life ain't been kind to you either, ay Mrs. Lovett?" He asked her for once, letting the minute bit of gentleness show in his voice. But that was enough for her. The moment before was quickly forgotten. "No, I'm afraid it has not." Her eyes went down to the floor, as if she was ashamed.
Once again, the room was flooded with nothing more than the simple, yet eerie silence. The fire continued to crackle, emitting little sparks of light into the air. "I used to think...that everything would be so simple. I would marry, have kids, live a happy life...and then die. I never expected this." He muttered, to her surprise.
"Everybody believes that once in their lifetime, love. Some of us just never wake up from that dream...or fantasy...and they never step out into reality. When things are going so perfect...something's bound to happen. When they say...it's too good to be true..." She was interrupted by Sweeney. "It's too good to be true." Sweeney nodded his head, looking down to the same spot Mrs. Lovett was staring at.
"There's hope yet..." She smiles that bright smile she smiled so many years ago. All of a sudden, everything that seemed so distant came back to him. The bright smile, the laughter. The world that he left behind. The short sweet conversations and jokes they'd make in this very parlor to the same sound of crackling fire. But he, a different man, sat with a stranger's memories.
"You see the fire?" She whispered. He did nothing more than nodded; referring to the fact that he had heard her. "It's going to stop burning...eventually...but even so, the room remains warm. And who says we can't start another fire?" She used their heat source for an example. Her fingers toyed with her curls, twisting them until they couldn't be twisted, and then, untwisting them.
"How about the phoenix? Dies and rises from the ashes." She looked at him hoping that he'd understand her drift. "Mrs. Lovett, I'm not a bird." He rolled his eyes a full 360 degrees, before returning to give her a playful smirk. "We can start over, Sweeney. Anybody can start over. All you have to do is find it in you...a reason to start over, perhaps?" She said. "I have no reason. End of story." He stubbornly responded.
"You're asking me to create something out of nothing." He told her. "Not nothing. You have remains. You can still be a barber...and we'll just leave your old life behind." She replied. "I've left my old life behind, long ago, Mrs. Lovett." He notified her. "I'm quite aware of that, Mr. Todd. But don't you think you're ready to move on?" She pleaded hopefully with her eyes. "No. What's with that glint of hope in you always, even when things are hopeless?" He asked. She didn't respond.
Instead she said "Sweeney, I'll always be here for you...no matter how many times you change your name." She made sure he knew that she would be with him always quietly. "We're not married, Mrs. Lovett." He said sarcastically. "Ah, but we've been through so much together, we might as well be." She shrugged, hoping that she had not angered or upset him in anyway whatsoever.
"Things change, Mr. Todd, people change, but sometimes love doesn't." She whispered this into his ear. "How would you know?" He questioned her. "Perhaps I would know best, Benjamin Barker." She sincereley hoped that her words had not angered him in anyway. And it didn't, he remained seated, and unharmed by her words.
"Benjamin Barker is dead." He spat the words out. "Yes, he is. Now there's another man in his place. And sometimes, what you get more than what you bargained for." She closed her eyes, letting herself soak up the warmth of his body, and the fire. "My fire's been burned, out. You're fire's been burned out. But our time's not up. There's still some heat left. We can start over." She said.
"Mrs. Lovett, do you really think I could start over after what has happened all these years past? I'm here to avenge Lucy and that's all I care about." His harsh words didn't effect her current state. "What about Johanna." She asked him direct with strength. "Stay out of this." He spat out at her. "I've been with you all those years. Before her. I don't think I can stay out." She confirmed.
"What do you mean before her? You were merely a friend." He looked at her, his eyes full of sorrow and unfallen tears. "Merely a friend? Merely? I thought you would have more heart than that!" Her eyes swelled up with the tears that refused to fall. She flew out of the chair and across the room, to where a small glass globe sat, collecting dust, and shouting out nothing mire than forgotten memories.
With one throw, she threw the globe onto the floor with all the strength in her frail body. The glass shattered the sound drowning out the fire and the rain in their world for a moment. Little pieces scattered themselves across the floor, and the little snow scene inside fell apart. The snowman missing his head, and the miniscule roses originally scattered at the foot of the snowman were all over the place. The little boy in the scene holding hands with a little girl, dancing merrily around the snowman they had just built, lay in pieces under their feet.
"Why'd you do that?" His voice was now filled with pain instead of anger and confusion. "I don't know. It was ours. And our lives certainly aren't perfect, and theirs shouldn't be either!" She fought back tears threatening to fall. "Trapped in that perfect world..." She muttered sadly at the ornaments that were now pretty much useless.
"Once upon a time that was you and I." The sadness in his voice showed, as he bent down slowly to finger the living rose. "And once upon a time, our world was a beautiful place for us. But guess what? We never got our story book ending." She looked at him, finally letting those tears fall slowly. Without thinking, he slowly reached his arm around her, letting her cry into his chest.
The crying quickly stopped, and Sweeney bent down to throw the big pieces of glass into the blazing fire. As he tossed it, watching the glass melt and turn a shade of red, he couldn't help but the think to himself if his landlady was right. The fire grew brighter, swallowing up the sweet past that now melted into a bitter taste in their mouths.
He looked at her eyes brimmed with tears. Now he was more certain than before that the years had not been kind to her at all. "Mrs. Lovett...exactly what happened between those fifteen years I was gone? To you." He clarified his question. She didn't respond. He stood her up and swung her into a slow dance to the rhythm of the falling rain.
"Come on, Nellie. Tell me." He had used her first name, which was bitter on his tongue at first, but came out sweet in the end. "To me? Well, Albert died, without being missed. Lucy...ended up in the streets. But you know all about that." She bit her lower lip again, a habit she had when she didn't want to tell somebody something. Something that Sweeney, or rather Benjamin had become accustomed to over the years.
"Nellie. What?" He knew the look all to well to pretend not to notice it. "Judge." She whispered. The only words that came out of her mouth. More tears began to brim her eyes. She started to cry hysterically. "He...he did what he did to yer, yer Lucy." She bawled out, clinging to him as if he was the last resort of life.
"That bastard. We'll get him. We'll get him good and the Beadle too. They'll both be pleading for death by the time I'm done. Don't cry, my pet. Please." He lightly kissed her temple, stopping her tears, and falling into yet another moment of silence. "Didn't we used to dance like this?" He asked, pulling her closer into his embrace.
"When Lucy was pregnant with Johanna...and Albert was drunk and passed out? Yeah. Good times. Good times." She laughed to herself. He chuckled as well, leading her to give him a surprised look. "You know...it's was always so cold upstairs...I missed having you in the winter." He whispered quietly into her mess of curls.
"Even when you had Lucy?" She raised her brow. "Even when I had Lucy." He admitted. "She slept on her side, I slept on mine." He shrugged his shoulders. "You missed the warmth of your landlady?" She asked, a smile creeping onto her face. "I missed the warmth of my darling landlady." He smirked. The smile was now fully plastered onto her face, and beaming with happiness.
But quickly she frowned. "But you don't anymore." She said sadly. "Says who?" He traced her cheekbones with his rough thumbs, planting a small unexpected kiss on her collarbone. "We could have a life together the two of us..." Her mind wandered off. "Haven't we had this conversation before?" He interrupted. "I didn't know you were listening." She smiled at him innocently.
"Perhaps." He said, clutching tighter to Mrs. Lovett, swaying together. "There's not enough room in the world for everybody." He smirked at her. "Aw, well, there'll always be room for us." She cooed at him. "Nellie...my dear sweet Nellie." He looked at her, and closed his eyes. The image of the small, fragile blonde that stuck for so long in this head was quickly replaced by an exotic, auburn haired Mrs. Lovett.
"Perhaps." He repeated again, more to himself than to her. "Perhaps what?" She clearly had not been paying attention. "Perhaps we could rebuild that fire that burned out...oh so long ago." He whispered. "Really?" She muttered into his chest. "Really." He said, smiling a real smile, or at least real enough for Sweeney Todd. The smile would have to do until the Judge and the Beadle had died their painful death.
"You know, your wedding day, when Lucy was standin' there in her white gown...she looked so beautiful, I couldn't help but to be happy for you." She smiled at him. "What? And if she wasn't so pretty, you wouldn't have been happy?" He asked. "No, I would have felt sorry for you." She smirked, and leaned her head against his chest. "Maybe it'll be you standin' tall in that white gown someday." He smiled at her. "I dont' want to be standin' there, unless your standin' at the alter." She countered, and he nodded. "Perhpas I will be, someday. Someday."
He gave her a light peck on the lips. Leading her to smile brightly. The smile he had missed so much for fifteen years, the unforgettable glitter in her eyes, and the laughter that made his landlady his and nobody else's. She had never been anybody else's. Always his. And her ability to forgive, but not forget reminded him of that, and her strength to keep living out of that perfect world would kept him going.
It was true that once upon a time that perfect world belonged to them. Where little faults were forgotten through laughter and apologies. Where the silence would always filled. A world they had promissed to never forget, and never leave behind. But in reality, they ended up far from that perfect world, but like Mrs. Lovett said, sometimes you get more than what you barginned for. The world had gotten lost in the grey of London. The sorrows sat upon their shoulders would never be lifted. Even by the possible wedding vows. But they could be forgotten, and that was a big step for both of them, especially Sweeney.
Sometimes you can create something out of nothing. A new life wasn't a bad idea. Knowing them, they'd take the good memories, with the worse and end up in the middle of nowhere. But at least they'd have eachother. Without knowing it, he realized, that heaven had always been in somewhere in the distance since he arrived in the pie shop that day, and now, here with the landlady whom he claimed his own, it was closer than ever. And that was a feeling he'd give anything to remember.
As the night went on, the memories that felt so far away felt closer. Though they couldn't remember the conversations, but they could always pretend and imagine the words that they would use to comfort each other. The words that were simply lost in the back of their heads. The warmth that he swore he had left behind suddenly flooded his body. The landlady that he thought had left with Benjamin Barker was again embraced in his strong arms, dreaming away of the future that he said they could possibly have.
The crackling of the fire had finally ceased, the last spark, ending its life. The rain outside turned into a light pitter-patter. The infamous Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd sat clutching onto each other like old times. Using what was left of each other, the ashes of their old life for warmth, for love, for everything that they had both left behind. The hope that was so close, they could taste it.
They closed their eyes, falling into a quiet, and peaceful sleep, knowing that with patience, their phoenix's would rise from the very ashes they died in and their fires would soon be blazing brightly all over again. And they would continue to roar, and crackle with all the good times, and all the bad until the very, very end.
End Note: Please Review and make my day!