Well, I have finally begun. It only took me 398 months to begin this, haha. I have had the idea for this particular story in mind for about 2 months now...long before that I always wanted to write a Sweeney fan fiction, but I never, ever wanted to write something cliché. I wanted mine to really be different, something no one was expecting. Now, I can't give myself all the credit for this story haha, because I have been inspired by a lot of other works of literature and film along the way...But I want to combine everything in a completely unique and bizarre way. I'd rather not say much else right now, about what films and books in particular have inspired me, because I want to keep the plot as secretive as possible for now. When it gets going, I really want it to hit everyone hard. I want it to be a huge shock...So I hope I can achieve that. :)
And I should add my note of warning here, at the beginning, before anyone begins to read and get into this story. I am a writer of extreme scenarios, which means I include a lot of gore, violence, sex, etc, etc in my stories. I can't tell you guys exactly what I have in store, but if you are offended by any amount of gore, sexual violence, anything at all, I advise you not to read this. If anyone has read my other fan fiction, for American Psycho, that should pretty much tell you what I am capable of writing in terms of splatter hah.
I am trying really hard to keep this authors note short but I suck at doing that haha...but I will warn everyone: I'm not the fastest writer out there. I don't put up chapter after chapter every other day, or even every week. I like to thoroughly research and create my stories. I get writers block too. Sometimes for a very long time. So I am also going to warn everyone about that. But I do know where this story will start and end. And with that, I leave you all with : The Ordeal.
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When a person looks into a mirror, they can envision an entire life for themselves. Nellie Lovett was no different in the fantasies she saw for herself when she peered into her looking glass, than anyone other low class woman living in the dreary city of London in 1865. Except the face she saw in the center of the mirror beside her was that of a murderous barber, and not of a kingly, prosperous judge or some other nonsensical man of a higher class. No. Nellie Lovett simply saw her own pallid face, only the beauty of it was heightened by the happiness she imaged she would someday have. In her fantasy, Sweeney Todd stood beside her, not much changed from the concrete version of himself, only now his face showed the genuine love she knew he would have one day for her. Beside them stood the boy, Toby. The deadness which she saw all too often in his eyes in her own reality was now lifted, expunged from within him. The face of an angel, the lovely vitality a young boy such as Toby Ragg should have, was what she saw. But most of all, what her eyes focused on was what her fabricated image held in it's arms. What fraudulent Sweeney peered at so lovingly, so unlike the legitimate version. The rosy softness of the babe in her arms, the tendrils of hair curling off the forehead. The deep chocolate eyes. An image of the child's mother and father.
This was what Nellie Lovett saw in the looking glass. What was burned into her mind each day as her rolling pin flattened the sticky dough beneath it, or when she brought each useless but thoughtfully prepared meal up the rickety stairs to the cold man above. When his eyes flashed dead, when they felt as if they split her up the middle with their piercing animosity, that was the image she conjured for herself.
And as time drew it's long line through her life, and the profits combined from both her own and the barber's sinful, reprehensible business' became a small fortune, she smiled to herself inside, because she knew each day the image in the mirror was closer and closer to coming within her grasp. Oh, it hadn't been easy, but then, she never had expected it to be.
The dawdling way time had moved within her world made her internal clock crack slowly, and she heard it. She heard it all the time now. The sanity on her outward face was easily kept for now, but inside, she was a black turmoil of confusion and pandemonium. Her mind was as sharp as ever, but she knew she was losing something inside of her that wasn't visible. And she had known she had to act fast.
Nellie Lovett had somehow conjured up the courageous face she needed to confront Sweeney Todd one day, and everything in her world had changed. She hadn't expected the way his face fell, not in a displeased nor disgusted manner as she expected, but in a comprehensive realization of what she was asking of him.
What she was asking of him was marriage. A new life that would hopefully rejuvenate them both, if only by a morsel. They both saw the jagged, icy path their lives were headed down. They were skidding towards a black cave to be smothered in blood and sorrow, the entrance forever closed. The time was now to reverse their path, and she had seen it in Sweeney's eyes that he knew this. And so he had agreed.
Although the wedding they were able to render for themselves was less than anything Nellie Lovett had imagined for herself, she nonetheless was unable to destroy the smile that was fixed upon her face that day. The exquisite Victorian emerald that was surrounded by rose cut diamonds on an 18k gold band lay alluringly on Nellie's ring finger, and she was sure at that moment she would never set her eyes on a more beautiful object. Possessing such an item, and at that, from a man who she had long ago given her heart to, made her sure her mirror fantasy was meant to be her actual reality. If Sweeney only married me because he knew he had to, because he thought life couldn't get any worse , Nellie asked herself, why would he bother putting any thought into the object which would seal our marriage? Why would he exhaust half of the small fortune he has acquired as of late? He must have only done so because somewhere in his soul, there is still a sliver of love in him, and he is finally letting it out...and giving it to me. Yes, these were the words Nellie Lovett told herself on her wedding night, lying beside her new husband, her long ago rumpled bedding now finally legitimized. Her heart still fluttering from what activities her and Sweeney had only ended a few minutes ago, he now fast asleep beside her, an almost...content look upon his face. Was Sweeney Todd capable of being content? An almost mocking voice rang in Nellie's head. Of course he is. Now that he has me, I will see to his every need and demand, no matter what. For he is now my husband, and I could never ask for more.
But there was one more thing she needed to complete the image she had been so intensely consumed by in her mirror. Mirror mirror on the wall, give me love, once and for all. As she lay beside her newly attained husband that night, her hands drifted mindlessly onto her empty, childless belly. Oh, but to bear Sweeney Todd's child would be the most wonderful thing I could ever ask for in this world. She felt her lips curl into a smile of contentment and spectacle at the thought. Of course, the mention of any more children in the lives of Sweeney Todd and Nellie Lovett had not been brought up, not on their first night of marriage, nor in any other passing conversation...but Nellie knew a child would soon be in her belly. Because that was simply the way it would be.
But what she didn't know at that precise moment was exactly who this child would be when it came out of her womb after nine long months of concealment, and how exactly that child would come to be there. Oh yes, Nellie Lovett would have her child she always wanted. But would the world be ready when it burst out of her?
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Well, there it is. I'm sort of nervous about this haha...I've never wrote an "epic" story before, as I am hoping this one will be...and this will probably be the only first and last chapter of it's kind, where no major events occur within it...I wanted to start chapter 1 with the actual story that would take place, and get straight to the point, but I know I needed to provide a bit of background things on the relationships and such before I get started...so that's why I wrote the introduction instead of going straight to the first chapter.
Okay, I will shut up now, and hope that people actually read this and review it and enjoy it or hate it or anything really...I'm so excited for what I have planned, and things will really take off next chapter :0
xxxx Melissa