Flaming Pigtails and a Sliced Neck
Sweeney's heart stopped as he laid eyes on her. His Lucy, his sweet, sweet Lucy, whom he had killed less than an hour ago, before killing Judge Turpin, Mrs. Lovett, and then himself. He hadn't known, he had absolutely no clue it was her. He hadn't thought it was possible she was alive. Nellie Lovett had known all along, and had never told him, not even after his Lucy was dead. It was until Sweeney himself had figured it out did she confess. Her confession followed by another confession, one of love. But nothing mattered, not Nellie Lovett, not the fact he would never see his girl, Johanna, again, not even that he had murdered the bastard who ruined his life, Judge Turpin. No, the only thing that mattered was that his Lucy was standing right in front of him, ragged, dirty, and staring at him with a fearful glance.
Sweeney strode up closer to his wife, smiling for the first time in a long time. He nearly laughed at the sight of her. My God, he had thought she was dead, and here she was. Well, she was dead now, but so was he, and they were together. "Lucy. My darling sweet, Lucy," he laughed as he approached. The woman formerly known as Lucy Barker hissed and stepped back.
"You... you murderer! Witchcraft! I tried warning them! Witchcraft! But did they listen? No, no, don't listen to the poor, miserable beggar woman!" the lady cried out. "No time for me, had you? Did away with me?"
"Lucy, I would have never done that to you if I had known!" Sweeney said, stepping closer, and the woman's eyes widened.
"How the devil do you know my name?" Lucy hissed.
"Lucy, it's me. Your husband, Benjamin Barker. Look at me!" he said with his heart fluttering for the first time since he had learned that Johanna was still in London.
Lucy's eyes widened and her eyebrows raised up as she gasped. "B-Benjamin?"
The man formerly known as Benjamin Barker's eyes lit up and he grinned. "Yes, oh Lucy. I feared we'd never meet again!"
"Benjamin Barker?" Lucy asked, her face suddenly contorting up into a snarl of disgust. "It's your fault! My life was ruined because of you! You couldn't even fight for me! You let me get taken, let me be raped and abused and tortured by that man! I tried to kill myself! I did, and here I am now, tortured because of it! Judge Turpin left me out on the streets, barely remembering of my former life! The name Benjamin Barker was just a horrible after-taste in my mind!"
Sweeney's face fell, confused and utterly hurt. "Lucy, you know that I never meant for-"
"And our child! They took our child! Sweet little Johanna, stolen from us! Oh, I watched her grow up, watched her longingly, knowing that she was my own, that I had given birth to her. I watched her as a beggar, a woman so far out of her class! You don't know how horrendous it was to endure that! Yes, it's all you fault, Benjamin!" she screamed.
"Lucy, you know that-" Sweeney tried to speak, his heart slowly shattering.
"And THEN," Lucy screeched, interrupting. "You kill me! You toss me aside, a useless little piece of trash! My God, I wish you had never entered my life! I might be alive, with a family!"
"Lucy, don't you remember how much in love we were?" Sweeney said desperately, walking up closer to his furious and half-mad wife. "Two young foolish children in love? We had a family, the three of us for a short while, I couldn't have prevented this from happening. For years I have been imprisoned, and all I thought of was you. Your memory was all that I had to live for." He got close to Lucy and placed a hand on her arm. She hissed and slunk back, shaking his hand from her.
"Don't you touch me, you devil! You worked with her, that dreadful woman! The witch! Evil, just stinking from her shop! I smelled it, no one else could, only me! But who would listen to a poor old beggar woman? No one, that's who!" Lucy screeched.
Thinking quickly, Sweeney pulled a ring out of his vest pocket. "I still have it, our wedding ring. I carry it with me always, but I didn't wear it, I thought you were dead. I thought of you always, my darling Lucy Barker," Sweeney said in a last desperate plea. Lucy just scowled at it.
In a quick move, Lucy came close to Sweeney, snatched the ring up, and flung it as far as she could behind Sweeney. Sweeney's heart broke in two while Lucy looked up at him with a mad look in her eye.
"Lucy Barker died a long, long, time ago. I have no name, I had no husband, I have nothing, now that I am dead! The only two things that relate us are the cuts on our throats, the gruesome evidence of our deaths. You killed me, and for that, Benjamin Barker, I shall NEVER forgive you!" screamed the half-mad woman as she turned and stormed away, leaving a heart-shattered Sweeney to just stand and watch as she walked out of his life after death.
Just a short distance away, Nellie Lovett watched from behind Sweeney the whole scene. The joyful approach, the re-introductions, and Lucy Barker's lashing out on her husband. Nellie felt her heart sink as Sweeney pulled out his ring, and having Lucy snatch it and toss it. The ring flew and Nellie shrieked a little as it landed and rolled right in front of her feet. She stared at it a moment before looking back up and seeing Lucy scream at him one last time before stomping off. Sweeney stood there, still as a statue. He was already dead, but it seemed as if he wanted to die again. Nellie, the ever-present softness in her heart for the man who she loved, picked up the ring delicately and began walking towards her murderer. Nellie reached him and turned around so she faced him.
"Mister Todd, I believe this belongs to you," Nellie said softly, holding the ring out and looking at Sweeney's blank face. He glance up at Nellie and his eyes narrowed.
"Get away," he hissed. "You've done far enough damage for a million lifetimes AND deaths. Without your selfish jealousy, we might all still be alive, and I might be happy. Wouldn't you want that? Now all of us are dead, and Lucy will never forgive me. I can't kill myself, for not even that would work! Look at the razor mark upon my neck! I can never go back to life, and this death is the most miserable hell of them all."
Nellie looked down sadly. "Yes, I know. If I wasn't so selfish, you might be happy. But I didn't want what was best for you, love, I want what's best for me. I want you, Mister Todd, I love you. With all my heart, it's always been you."
Sweeney took the ring bitterly from her. "It would seem so, wouldn't it. And look what it has lead us to, Mrs. Lovett." They stood there in silence for a few moments. Sweeney sighed. "Mrs. Lovett, you have been kind to me. In a world where a man is showed no patience or mercy, you come along. We had many a time, did we not?"
Nellie grinned. "Yes, Mister Todd, yes we did. We shared a business, and no one but us knew. A great team we were."
"Every day I waited for the chance to butcher the Judge, waiting. But it wasn't the worst of times, the days we waited," he said, smiling a little, small smile a remembering.
"It almost seemed like we had our own child, little Toby. What a sweet boy he was, I hope he has a nice life before we meet him again," Nellie sighed.
"Toby... yes. A young, sweet boy," Sweeney said and looked up at Nellie, who was grinning back at him. "Mrs. Lovett, I do believe that your hair is on fire."
Nellie looked up at her hair. "Is it? Yes, that would naturally come after being thrown into an oven... I already put out my dress. But these small little pieces of hair at the bottom, they just burn and burn on, like little candles. My whole body is singed, but rest assured it doesn't hurt. We're already dead, after all," she smiled and looked up at Sweeney, her eyes sparkling.
"Yes, about your death..." Sweeney started, but Nellie interrupted.
"Oh hush, love. I forgive you. I will always forgive you, no matter what. I hope you know that," Nellie said, praying that her love would sink into him, that he would realize she would do anything for him where Lucy would abandon him.
"Yes, thank you, Mrs. Lovett," he said. "I only regret that I had to kill my Lucy... my betraying, cold-hearted Lucy," Sweeney hissed angrily, hatred suddenly bubbling. "All these years... she lived, and I never knew. But she changed, she did. When I spoke to her, I wasn't speaking to Lucy. The real Lucy died many years ago, as she said. Now all that lies is... is..."
"A dirty, poor, prostitute," Nellie murmured. Sweeney glared at her, but sighed.
"Yes. My Lucy is gone, and now I can never, ever find her again. Lost in a dirty, bustling city full of tears and screaming, a lost soul wandering the streets of London. Oh, Lucy," he said and Nellie saw a tear roll down Sweeney's cheek, the first time she'd ever seen him cry before.
"Dear, dear, it's all right. Nellie's here for you," she said softly like she was speaking to a child and wiped the tear from his cheek. Sweeney coiled back and frowned at her.
"I don't need your sympathy! My wife is my own business! Now I think you should leave, Mrs. Lovett. Just go," Sweeney snapped. But Nellie had waited long enough, she decided, and certainly wouldn't go. She furrowed her brow and her flaming hair glowed brighter.
"No, I don't think I will leave, Mister Todd. What you need to do is learn to forget! Forget about Lucy, she is gone, like you've said! That's not Lucy, it's a beggar woman! I've seen her pick up many a man on the streets before, and even had to chase them away from my shop before to do their nasty business! If you only knew, Mister Todd, how much more of a woman I am than her-"
"Lucy is the only woman to me!" Sweeney hissed at her. "And she is dead now, because of the both of us!"
"I was twice the woman she ever was, and loved you a million times more than her! She won't forgive you for leaving her when you didn't even have a prayer at succeeding, and I forgive you for death itself! Can't you see who it is that deserves your love?" Nellie said pleadingly. "I wasted all my life on earth with that dreadful husband of mine, praise the Lord he's not around with us, and then pining over you! I won't spend my death the same way!"
"Live with it!" Sweeney roared, but felt himself grow hotter. He assumed it was just from his anger, but he felt his heart thumping again, mending itself. In truth, Mrs. Lovett, Nellie Lovett, wasn't such a bad looking woman herself. Not as gorgeous as his Lucy, mind you, with her yellow hair and beautiful pale features that she used to posses, but were now lost in a tangled mess. Nellie was simple and enchanting in her own ways. But Sweeney had loved Lucy all his life, not Nellie Lovett. "Or die with it, since death has claimed us forever! Accept that I don't love you!"
"Only if you can accept that Lucy doesn't love you either!" Nellie shouted back, her eyes wet and sparkling. "But you can't do that, so neither will I." Nellie suddenly reached up and pulled Sweeney's head down, crushing her lips upon his.
In surprise, Sweeney pushed Nellie back from him, and stared at her with a look of shock. Nellie's face was simply glowing, and not just because of her burning hair. After a moment of staring at her, Sweeney suddenly grasped her face in his hands, quickly pulling her towards him once more, their lips meeting for the second time. Unlike the first time, Sweeney was not apposed to it, and realized that even into death, there was a woman who still loved him, murderous rage and all.
Nellie was sure she was dead now, because only through death could such a thing happen. She let him run a thumb across the quick beating pulse in her neck and she flung her arms up around his neck, knowing that this perfect moment was worth everything. The lonely years, the pies, the hinting, and the death. Oh, it was so worth it, and Nellie Lovett was sure as hell going to enjoy it.
Lucy Barker, if that was even her name any more, pondered quietly to herself over what she had done minutes before. "He ruined my life, he did. He deserved it, really!"
Then she would frown thoughtfully and in a higher voice say, "Oh, but he was so nice when you were married, wasn't he? Dear Benjamin Barker, my husband the barber."
"What kind of a profession is barber anyways? It's not like he was getting any richer, was he?"
"Well, at least he was happy with it! You never heard him complain about it, anyways! Besides, I didn't bring home any money, I stayed home with little Johanna or tended the house. It's not like I kept a respectable business."
"You were a woman, you weren't supposed to HAVE a respectable business. Benjamin never would have accepted that. A woman, working in her own shop? Preposterous!"
"Oh, but you remember our lovely neighbors, the Lovetts? Just downstairs, where they ran their little pie shop? When Mr. Lovett died, dear old Nellie took it over."
"How does that help? She never got a customer to eat her stinking pies! And Nellie was hardly respectable at all, she was always such a downer, a right little spook, she was. Always with the dark clothing and make-up, and that drab little dark shop of hers! In fact, it wasn't until Benjamin came back that she got any business! Somehow, he made the pies attractable, but how? How?"
"For God's sake, do you have to be a downer on everything? I think I should go right on back to Benjamin and tell him that we forgive him, at least it'll be nice to have someone who loves you rather than one of those tramps off the streets, though they HAVE made things a little less lonely."
"Yes, maybe I should go back," Lucy decided, and grinned as she walked back over in the direction she had left her husband. "Oh, Benjamin won't mind I was rude to him before, because he was rude to me before! It will all-" she stopped suddenly as she spotted where she had left Sweeney.
There, she spotted a flash of black and white hair and flaming brown hair, literally flaming. The two were pressed together, and Lucy suddenly caught a glimpse of her husband's face, that lying Benjamin, attached to that of their old acquaintance, Mrs. Nellie Lovett. He was kissing her like he used to kiss Lucy, passionately and softly at the same time. Nellie would react back by wrapping her arms around his neck, with his arms wrapped around her waist. They went on like that for about ten seconds or so, and then Lucy decided she had seen enough.
Lucy turned around with her lips pressed together and her blond hair tangled up with fury and dirt. "Witchcraft, I say! Witchcraft!" she stumbled off, half-mad, leaving the two companions, the woman with the Flaming Pigtails and the man with a Sliced Neck.
Isn't it just the funniest plot bunnies that hop into your head at the most random moments? My family was driving home from camping when I starting forming this in my head. :P I hope you enjoyed this! It's my first Sweeney Todd story, so please don't judge too harshly. For some reason, Insane Lucy seems very plausible, if they were to ever meet after death.
*NOTE: If anyone was wondering where exactly Sweeney, Nellie, and Lucy are, I've got no clue. They obviously wouldn't go to heaven, and I'd rather not write about hell. I don't really believe in an after-life, since I'm a good little Catholic girl, but I suppose anyone can think what they want. Personally, I just needed to write this, and am too lazy to think of where the dead people are.
Best Wishes,
Aktress.