Hello, all! This is just a short drabble of which I posted today as part ofa challenge betweena friend and I (more info in my profile). Please read and review! This was beta'd by my own eyes, so any mistakes are mine.

This is where I'm putting my disclaimer.

She remembers long ago, when things seemed so awful. When Sweeney was back with Lucy, living up in the apartment. And Nellie thought things had been bad then. Funny, how things change.

She remembers how she had pined for who was then Benjamin, and how she knew Lucy didn't know what she had. The ignorant girl had the privilege of being with that wonder of a man, and it seemed she didn't even care.

Nellie remembers back when she would go up to the apartment to collect the rent, and how Benjamin would speak to her with a happy face and warm smile as he paid her the meager amount of money he had earned, and how Lucy would just stand in the background, looking so innocent. But Nellie knew that behind that serene and innocent smile Lucy gave her, she was just radiating triumph that Benjamin was hers, and Nellie couldn't have him. Her eyes always shone with envy for that vile woman, Lucy's eyes always seemed to call out to her and say,

You can look, but you can't touch. He's mine.

She remembers how she would send Lucy those horrible glares when no one was looking; she hated Lucy. Hated her more than anything or anyone else. It hurt her so much to know that as she would toil away in her small kitchen all day, baking pies no one would eat, as Lucy Barker sat upstairs, looking all innocent and pretty as her husband worked all day.

Barker.

Nellie felt that the name rightfully belonged to her, who else was there for him when his wife decided to take the easy way out?! Who was there when he decided to murder and bake corpses into pies, for God's sake?! She was!

She knew Benjamin, her Benjamin, was much too good for Lucy. He deserved someone that would always be there for him, someone who would know what they had!

Nellie smiled to herself. That bitch Lucy deserved what she got. Something much worse than death. Going insane and be damned to live on the streets, begging for money seemed about right. That vile woman, no, that vile thing, deserved that fate. Nellie laughed in triumph knowing that Lucy would never have her Benjamin again, and he was hers for the taking. All she had to do was erase his memory from that old hag and replace it with thoughts of her.

Nellie's smile turns to a look of disgust as she thinks about the woman who had once captivated Benjamin Barker's heart, and now haunts Sweeney Todd's thoughts. The utter hatred wells up inside of her, amounting into something beyond that of hate. Nellie Lovett hates Lucy Barker more than words could describe. She hates that once pretty face, she hates her little frame, her witty remarks, the way she could throw a glance and have Benjamin at her command.

Nellie wanted, needed to know how she did that. Tears slowly roll down her face as she realizes she is so close, yet so far. How could that woman still be with that man, years later? How could she still haunt his thoughts and dreams (if he ever slept), and he still loved her as he had fifteen years ago?

Nellie is so conflicted. She loves that man more than anything in the world, but he is completely unaware. He is so preoccupied with his past; he can't even live in the present, let alone think about the future.

A worried Nellie Lovett cried herself to sleep after a long day of work in the kitchen, thinking about her lost love, Benjamin Barker.

So thanks for reading!

Please tell me what you think, and I'll be posting more stories in the immediate future, hopefully much better than this. ;)