Popcorn and Passion

Chapter1

Sam Goldwyn said, "Why should people go out and pay to see bad movies when they can stay at home and see bad television for nothing."

Depp

Moving back to The Castle was a cause to celebrate. The bodies in the garden had been dug up, and the bones in the chest in the attic had been retrieved, and most had been identified and reunited with grieving relatives. Floors had been taken up and re-laid; the top landing outside the library had been replaced.

It had been a while, but they were determined to make a go of living there.

"How shall we celebrate, Babe?" Aaron was holding Spence at arms length, his hands on his shoulders. "A meal and the movies? D'you fancy that?"

Spencer grinned. "Great. There's a movie I really want to see!"

"Why didn't you say? You don't have to wait until I suggest it you know. It's your life too!"

Spencer looked down at his feet, the guilt wave washing over him again like a tsunami. Aaron lifted his head with his finger tips.

"Please don't feel bad, Sweets. It's gone now. I bear you no resentment, it wasn't your fault, and besides, we're both still here." He pulled Spencer into an embrace, the only thing he knew that comforted him.

"I'm sorr…" H stopped. Aaron had told him he wasn't allowed to keep saying that. So instead he said, "I can't help it, Babe. It haunts me."

Spencer had had some real bad nightmares in which he could remember what he had done to Aaron while under the influence of the DDB, and although often he couldn't remember the dreams, sometimes he could, and always he remembered the pain.

He clung onto Aaron. Aaron nuzzled his face in Spencer's hair.

"Don't let him win, Spence." Aaron pulled away, and held his face in his hands. He stroked the back of his fingers along Spencer's cheek bone and across his lips. "I love you."

Spencer looked up at him with wide eyes. Aaron lifted his head and kissed his lips softly. Spencer put his arms around Aaron's neck and kissed him back.

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They decided on movie and a take out after.

(Eating take out in bed felt so decadent, it made Spence giggle in anticipation.)

They drove to the AMC at Potomac Mills. They still hadn't decided which film to see when they got out of the car.

"Come on Spence. Alvin and the Chipmunks? You gotta be kidding me!" Aaron was horrified at the thought. "They talk in silly voices!"

Spencer started laughing. "Oh Babe, you are so easy to wind up!"

Aaron made a face, trying not to laugh. He put his arm around Spencer's shoulders, and they went in.

Spencer bought their tickets; Aaron bought a bucket of popcorn with extra sugar and topping for Spence.

Spencer gave him the tickets.

"'Sweeney Todd, Demon Barber of Fleet Street'" Aaron read. "That's an English story, isn't it?"

"Yes, a legend based on possible fact, although no evidence has ever been uncovered to prove the legend." Spencer began to go off on one. Aaron had promised himself he would never say 'be quiet' to him again. He was still spouting off facts when they went into the small theatre.

"…..According to the English tale, Todd was tried at the Old Bailey and hanged at Tyburn in January 1802, in front of a large crowd. But no record of the trial can be found in the Old Bailey sessions papers or the Newgate Calendar, nor are there any contemporary press reports either of the trial or of the hanging. So it ….."

"Spencey," Aaron whispered. "The film is about to start."

Spencer bit his bottom lip. "Sorry, Babe."

They settled down in the back row, (Spence would only sit in the back row. He didn't like anyone sitting behind him, especially when it was dark.) Aaron wrapped his arm protectively, if not a little awkwardly, around him. He knew that for the first ten minutes or so, Spence would be a little edgy, but as the film progressed, he got used to it, and the film took over. He pulled Spence to him, and Spence leaned on him.

"He is so familiar, I just don't know why." Spencer whispered.

"Who?"

"The actor, Depp. He looks like someone I know but I can't think who….."

"Maybe you met him in another life!"

"Shhhh!"

"Sorry!"

They sat fairly quietly munching popcorn watching the movie. There were bits when Spence had to watch it through his fingers, like when Todd was waving the razor around, saying that his arm was now complete, and when Todd cut the throats, and when the bodies fell through the trap door and…..well, most of the film actually!

"Are you sure you're enjoying this, Spencey?" Aaron whispered in his ear. "You look terrified!" Aaron was almost laughing.

"Oh no!" said Spence, not hearing Aaron at all, and all pretence at whispering forgotten. "That's horrible!"

He turned away and hid his face in Aaron's chest.

Aaron sat grinning, munching popcorn.

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The sugar in the popcorn had made Aaron thirsty.

"I need to go get a drink, Spence." he whispered. "You want one?"

Spencer nodded his head. "Don't be long, Babe."

Aaron got up and left the theatre. Most movies were finished be now, and the other screens were closed. Most of the staff had left.

As he went through the barrier, he saw a group of men enter the foyer.

He thought it was odd, as there were no more films showing. He soundlessly back tracked to stand behind a merchandise stand. The tall man at the front suddenly produced a gun, and shot it into the air.

One of the girls screamed, and another one of the men, an ugly guy with red hair, grabbed her and twisted her arm up her back.

Aaron's hand went to his ankle holster. He was armed, but his gun would be useless against what he could see. He crouched down low, and watched as the men, (There were three of them) round up the staff. Red Hair made the girl he was holding lock the doors and turn off the lights. Then they marched the staff past Aaron, up the ramp into the theatre where Spence was watching Sweeney Todd.

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He wasn't actually watching it any more.

Rather he was kneeling at the front of the theatre, with a 1014 Combat Shotgun at his head.

Just after Aaron had left, a man at the front of the theatre had stood up and fired into the ceiling and at the projectionist booth. The film stopped as the projectionist died, pulling the equipment down.

Someone screamed.

The house lights came on.

The guy with the gun waved it above the heads of the people in the theater. Some on e was crying. Everyone was frozen, unmoving, including Spencer.

"Right! Now I have all your attention, I want everyone in the front rows, over this side of the room." He indicated to his left. Nobody moved.

"Now!"

Spencer slowly got up and started to encourage the others to obey.

"Come on," he said to the couple in front. "Just do as he says."

Spencer started to move across the seats, when the gun fired just above his head. He automatically hit the floor.

The gunman walked up the aisle, and dragged Spencer out from between the seats, and back down to the front of the theatre.

He knelt Spencer on the floor with his hands behind his neck. He had plasticuffs with which he fastened Spencer's hands behind his back.

he pressed the barrel of his shotgun into the back of Spencer's head, and he stood behind him.

"Now! Let's start this again! Everyone, over this side. Let's go! Now!"

He pushed Spencer's head forward with the barrel of the gun.

"Let me see your ID."

Carefully, Spencer took his ID out of his bag, and held it up.

"F.B.I." he read, as if he had not seen these letters in this configuration before. "You could be useful."

He turned the gun around and knocked him to the floor with it.

Spencer lay still, dazed, and unmoving.