Damned and Divine

"Frozen in time yearning forbidden wishes
Damned and divine
Scars of my broken kisses
What will follow if tomorrow's blind?
My eternal night
Every single dawn I die again"

1. Minor Cuts

Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street, was in awe. The Honorable Judge Turpin had finally come for a very close shave. The barber welcomed him with a little bow and beckoned him to sit down in the barber chair. Of course, Sweeney's face was calm as ever and didn't betray any emotion, but deep inside he was dancing with happiness. But he didn't expect what was to come. He never thought for even one second that his road to vengeance would be interrupted. He didn't hurry to slit the Judge's throat. The barber wanted to enjoy every moment before the actual kill. And of course, offer him the closest shave he'd ever know.

As Sweeney was sharpening his razors, Turpin started singing something about "pretty women". The barber joined him, trying to make him feel as comfortable as possible. The Judge would not expect what was going to hit him.

So you can imagine Sweeney's fury and frustration when, just as he was about to stick the silver blade into the judge's flesh, the door flung open. On the threshold stood none other than Beadle Bamford, who said in a hurried tone:

"Pardon my intrusion, my lord. I came to remind you the meeting you need to attend will begin in exactly fifteen minutes…"

Turpin looked at him, considering what he had just said.

"You are more than right, Beadle. Being late does not make a good impression."

The judge quickly sat up and removed the cloth from his throat. Studying his reflection in the mirror, he said in an admiring tone:

"You truly are one of the best barbers in London, Mr. Todd, if not the best…I can assure you that you will have me as a client again soon. Until then…"

Turpin threw a little bag on the counter. As it fell, the barber heard the clinking of the many coins inside.

"Good day, Mr. Todd."

And with a tinkle of the doorbell, the judge and his evil lackey were gone.

Sweeney Todd was numb. He kept his eyes on the door, as if he expected the judge to come back and receive his death. And the barber stood there motionless for seconds, minutes, hours…

At the end of a boring day like any other, Toby lay asleep on the couch, the bottle of gin in his hand. The woman the boy considered to be his adoptive mother smiled when she saw him. She carefully extracted the bottle from his hand, kissed him on his cheek, and then headed for her bedroom.

Mrs. Nellie Lovett had finished her job on that day, serving her famous pies and cleaning the tables and the dishes afterward. And of course, she had brought Mr. Todd's dinner. Her tenant had seemed even more distant this day than usual. He didn't even spare her a glance, let alone speak to her. Although Mrs. Lovett knew the reason, she still felt heart-broken. If the judge wouldn't have walked out of the shop alive, maybe Sweeney would have finally started to notice her. Damn that judge…

The baker sighed and exchanged her usual dress with her nightgown. She took out the pins that were keeping her hair up and blew the candle out, letting darkness flood her room. She slipped under the covers of her bed and quickly fell asleep. Thinking of the barber upstairs, of course.

A few hours later, Nellie was awakened from her sweet dreams by banging, thudding and crashing sounds from above. The baker groaned and covered her ears with a pillow, but to no avail. What was the damned barber up to?

Sighing, she threw the pillow and lit a candle. The clock showed quarter past two in the morning. The thuds never ceased, so Nellie got out of bed, wrapped a dressing gown around her thin frame and started towards the stairs which led to the barbershop. She passed through the parlor, where Toby was sleeping like a log, and reached the stairs. The baker hesitated for a moment. She didn't know what was on his mind.

However, Nellie took heart and stared to ascend the stairs. Once all the way up, she did not bother to knock. The second she entered the shop, a vase shattered against the wall beside her. The baker yelped.

"Mr. T! What's gotten into ya?" she said in a high-pitched voice.

The barber didn't answer, but continued to throw and smash objects through the room. Oh, she knew what was wrong with him. Nellie's eyes scanned the place. It was a complete mess. Only two objects had escaped unharmed: the chair and the pictures of the barber's former family.

"Mr. T! Stop this madness this instant!"

Sweeney did what he did best: he ignored her. The baker was really scared now. She hadn't seen him this angry before. Taking a deep breath, Nellie started towards the barber, at the same time trying to dodge the flying objects. She noticed with surprise that even the razors, his friends, were lying on the floor. The contents of the drawers were also thrown all over the place, the mirror (which had been cracked before) now lay in thousands of pieces on the floor, and the barbering tools were also broken. The bed sheet was torn up and feathers from the pillow were floating in the air. The night's cold air entered the room through a broken window pane.

It seemed that Sweeney's fury and desperation were showing up now. Stepping carefully over the shattered objects, Nellie finally reached the barber.

"Mr. T, please stop! It ain't no good in what you're doin'!"

Sweeney didn't even flinch. Seeing as she couldn't get him to react no matter what she said, the baker took the last two steps that were distancing her from him and tried to get a hold of his arms. He wrenched himself from her grasp, but she did not let go. Instead she did the more risky, but also probably the more effective move. She wrapped her arms around him.

Sweeney stopped immediately, as if trying to register what was happening. He stood frozen, but the baker could feel him tremble with fury in her arms. And this scared her more than anything. But she still didn't let go. She could feel her own frantic heart beating even faster than his. And then she realized that she was hugging Sweeney. She was actually hugging him. But Nellie was too scared to enjoy it.

After a few moments which seemed like hours, with a sudden move, Sweeney wrenched her off him and started vandalizing the room again. Nellie tripped and almost fell in the pieces of glass from the broken mirror, but she quickly regained her balance and started again towards the barber. This was too much. The barber was getting on her nerves.

"Mr. Todd, considerin' that I am your landlady and this is my house, I order you to stop immediately, or I will call the police and throw you out in the streets!"

She didn't even register that what she said was contradictory; she couldn't both call the police and throw him in the streets, but of course she never intended to do either in the first place. She wasn't scared anymore; all her fear had transformed into anger.

But when she got near him, SWISH!

With a swift movement of the barber's right arm, the razor cut through the delicate skin of the baker's left cheek. Time seemed to have stopped. Sweeney had finally stopped from his rampage and was looking at her, breathing hard.

Nellie drew one hand to her cheek, wondering why she hadn't seen that one coming. She looked at the blood on her fingers and pursed her lips.

"I'm sorry to have disturbed you, Mr. Todd. It won't happen again. Goodnight."

And with that she spun on her heels and left, slamming the door after her. Sweeney stood staring at the closed door, his lips parted in astonishment.

Nellie quickly descended the stairs, lifting the fold of her skirts and trying to control her tears, at least until she reached the bathroom. She entered the pie shop and winced: one salty tear had got into the cut on her cheek. The baker passed through the parlor, where Toby was still sleeping soundly. And thank God for that, otherwise the young boy would have gotten very suspicious.

As soon as she got to the bathroom, she started washing her face. She took a bottle of alcohol and some cotton wool from the little cabinet mounted on the wall. The cut stung terribly, but it had to be cleaned.

"I'm sorry. About this…"

She froze, her eyes on the mirror in front of her. Sweeney was behind her, on the door threshold, looking at her with his onyx eyes. The baker sighed and continued cleaning her wound.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it…"

He looked at her curiously, and then asked:

"Does it need stitches?"

"I certainly hope not. It doesn't seem that deep to me…"

The bastard. Why was she even talking to him? Well, at least she hoped she'd made him feel bad for what he'd done. The barber said nothing more, just watching her mend the wound. After she finished, Nellie turned around and headed to the door, but found it blocked by Sweeney. She looked into his eyes again, but could see no remorse, no satisfaction in them, no happiness nor sadness. She couldn't see anything. His eyes were as unreadable as they always were. The barber stepped away and let her pass. The baker walked through the parlor and went straight for her bedroom. But just when she was about to open the door,

"Um…Mrs. Lovett?"

Nellie closed her eyes, without turning to face him.

"Will you allow me to sleep here tonight?" the barber said with an uneasy tone. "I've…there's a broken window in my shop and it will get pretty cold soon…"

"Do as you please, Mr. Todd…"

And with that, the baker vanished in her room. Sweeney took a seat in one of the armchairs, the one which was furthest from the sleeping boy on the couch. For the first time since his return, the barber felt sorry for his landlady. He'd seen the fear and the hurt in her eyes. He shouldn't have reacted that way. But he'd been so full of rage because of the judge, he hadn't been thinking rationally.

Nellie couldn't get to sleep anymore. She was angry, not angry at the barber himself, but at her feelings towards him. Feelings that the rational part of her brain couldn't control.

But neither of them expected was going to happen further on.

A/N: So I've been wanting to do this for a very long time and now I finally got to write it. I hope you all like it! Reviews are more than welcome :D