101st story and second Sweeney Todd ^^
Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to write more Sweeney Todd, especially AngelofDarkness1605 ^^ sorry this is not a Sweenett ;)
When did she stop being a living person, a tangible memory?
Lucy.
At Botany Bay, she was there. She stood by his side, faithful guardian of their long-lost happiness. At times he could feel her warm hand in his. At times, of course, he was alone. But she always came back, loving him, soothing him.
On this boat taking him to London, he didn't feel her anymore. He imagined her far away, in the town coming closer, and it was okay because soon they would be reunited. Her, and Johanna. To him, they were real.
Pushing the door of Mrs Lovett's pie shop, he almost expected to see them standing there.
His precious, his beautiful treasures.
And then he found out.
The room was just like he remembered, in some ways. Just more dusty, more empty. And then in other ways, it looked like a cage. It was haunted.
He touched her photo, barely daring to brush his fingertips against her lovely face.
So pure, so delicate, so fragile. So lost, so helpless, so broken.
She was beautiful...
Lucy.
He closed his eyes, and welcomed a ghost's icy touch.
Don't ever leave me, my love. I need you – your presence –
Lucy.
She filled all the space by his side. She filled all the space in his heart.
Immaterial.
He cried few tears of ice.
He waited for revenge. He owed it to her. He would make him suffer and die, the man who had touched her. The one who had stained her and killed her fragile little soul.
His new self yearned for blood. For suffering. For revenge. His new self yearned for the high of killing.
All the tiny, pathetic lives he crushed would never be worth hers.
The judge was his tribute to her.
He wanted to bathe his grief in violent red.
She would bathe in warm blood, and her ghost would stand, revived by the Judge's vital substance, her cheeks pink, her lips red, her eyes alive.
Her ghost would feel in his arms.
Their daughter, she would be rescued. She would be saved.
It wasn't possible, for their family to be kept apart. It was an illusion, a most cruel trick of God. If Johanna stood before him, her mother's heart would beat again. By his side.
The ghosts would depart and she would be alive.
Her face...the same as her daughter's.
She had yellow hair...
Lucy.
In the secret of his tormented mind, he pretended.
You live in me, inside my heart, in my blood, in my bones.
Lucy...
He could never sleep.
Of course he saw the horrors of Botany Bay. But it wasn't what forbid him to close his eyes, what pushed peace off him mercilessly. She was there. Her ice cold presence brushing against his skin. Taunting. Not a hand, not a breast, not a hair – presence. Skin that wasn't skin.
Ice cold.
She drove him mad.
He stood, and paced. He felt so cold.
Beside him, she nodded her approval. He couldn't see her. He felt her agreement and her love.
The sunny light of her yellow hair as she nodded.
Pale.
He closed his eyes and howled for a ghost to come alive.
The blood was warm on his skin.
The reunion hadn't happened.
The scared boy had put ice into his already hesitating heart.
Some innocence as a tribute...
He had spared him, running down to join his partner in crime. Maybe her scream was for the miracle he was yearning for. But he couldn't find it anywhere.
And then he froze.
Eyes locked on a madwoman's face.
She had yellow hair, and she was beautiful...
Lucy.
I would recognize you anywhere.
Lucy, my sweet Lucy...
At first he didn't believe.
And then he knew.
Cold rage.
Ice cold.
He danced a savage, soulless dance in the arms of a woman who loved him. And threw her back into the flaming hell of her love.
Closed the oven door on her trashing form.
Faced his ghost, come to flesh at last.
His wasted, skinny, dirty, beautiful ghost with yellow hair.
He knelt down.
Took her into his arms.
Waited.
For the world to stop.
Lucy's corpse was in his arms.
Lucy's life forever extinguished.
Ghosts flown away, emptiness left behind. He waited.
He didn't feel the pain.
His blood poured on her.
Gave her his life.
Gave her his all.
So that she could live again.
So that she danced in heaven, while he burned in hell.
But there was no such thing as heaven and hell.
Lucy and Benjamin, forever reunited.
There was a barber and his wife
And they were beautiful...