Author's Note: Just a short little thing that was rattling around in my head. Hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: Sweeney Todd, sadly, does not, in any way, shape, or form belong to me. A very depressing thought. I don't even own the lyrics in italics at the bottom of this. Those too, belong to the same people who own Sweeney Todd. They are from the wonderful song, 'Johanna'. Which is also where the title of the story comes from.
If Angels Could Prevail
Sometimes Johanna Barker would sit at her window in the judge's house, and her mind would drift far away. At such times she would wonder and on some deeper level she would know that life hadn't always been this way.
She had been happy once; she knew it. She couldn't remember it, but she was sure it was true.
There were nights; rare nights, when her nightmares would seem to pause and for mere moments she was content.
A woman would hold her. A woman with a pink bonnet and a loving smile.
There was a man too. A man with dark hair. He would hold a flower and talk to her, his eyes shining with love. Just talking, and she would feel secure in the knowledge that these two people, the man and the woman, were the whole world and that they loved her and thought her the world.
Such simple peacefulness.
These moments, though, were always quickly shattered. Pain would suddenly blossom on the man's face and he would be dragged away. The woman, too, would disappear and soon the hateful, smirking, Judge Turpin would be there and all was darkness.
In her waking moments she dwelled on these nightmares, and on the man and the woman. Were they figments of her imagination or were they real? Did they, at one time, care for her? If so, what would her life be like now if she were with them? Would she be happy?
Foolish thoughts, and ultimately she would force herself out of them. She wasn't with them, after all. What good would such thoughts do her? Only serve to make her present life that much more unbearable, that was what.
Besides, there were people who had it much worse than she did. The beggar woman that she often saw outside her window, for example. What a woman like that would probably give to live in a mansion like Johanna, herself, did.
So there really was no use dwelling too heavily on those dreams. Those nightmares, where the peace was always broken and life became every bit as dreary as it was in her waking world.
Her life probably never had been and never would be like that, she decided. There was no hope. Not really. That man and that woman didn't exist, and she, Johanna, would just have to live with it.
Sitting at the window Johanna sighed and lifted her eyes to the sky, to the freedom she was sure she would never have.
And you'd be beautiful and pale,
And look too much like her.
If only angels could prevail,
We'd be the way we were,
Johanna…
The End.
A/N: I know it's short, but reviews would make my day! Please? I'd love to know what you think, good or bad.