2 years later
For two years…I fell into a kind of stupor that consisted of 3 things: Eat, sleep, and work. I didn't think and I didn't talk. I just went about my business.
I had to tell myself what to do. I had to think to myself, you will get up, in the morning. I had to think, you will eat, you will work, and sometimes this was the hardest, you will sleep.
The winter was the toughest part of the year. We couldn't deliver anything so if any disease was contracted inside the workhouse, there was a huge chance everyone would catch it. And they did. It was a simple fever and a hacking cough but it was painful none the less. I caught it too but less so then the others since I didn't spend time around anyone anymore. They all seemed to have forgiven me about the whole, sleep by yourself, thing, but they still steered clear of me.
Every night I would clutch the rose in my fist and make a wish. It was a wish that I knew would never come true but I wished it none the less.
It was like being underwater. I'd only been under water twice. Once when a health inspector scheduled a visit here and Headmaster made us all take baths. The 2nd time was when Elena, one of the elder girls, was ill. I had to deliver burlap sacks to sailors on the dock. I took a wrong step and well you can figure out the rest. Luckily it wasn't that deep so I wouldn't drown.
Anyway, it was like being underwater. It was like I was in another dimension, another world. I barely heard anything either and anything I did hear sounded like it was in a different language. I saw everything but I didn't react. I didn't react to anything.
The only thing I did react to was when one boy found documents about our past. I found out my full name was Jesse Lovett. I was actually pretty happy about finding out my last name. This way I was that much closer to finding the people who ruined my life and hurt me. But that was pretty much it.
I didn't react when Headmaster teased me about losing…him. I didn't react when Abigail had her baby and Headmaster kicked her out and nearly killed Daniel when he protested. I didn't react when our work began to double but our food and rest didn't.
I barely reacted to whipping anymore. I just cried silent tears. Silent tears that would join others when I cried myself to sleep that night. Like every night….for two years.
I had been at the workhouse for a total of 8 years. Even though I was only 14 (4 years younger than the eldest kids there) I was at the workhouse as long as them. Therefore I was allowed to help the older kids deliver sacks. My route was in the market square.
I had only just started when…it happened. It started out as just a normal day. I woke up and, in my sort of trance, and washed my face with dirty water. I then got dressed and walked upstairs. I didn't think about how I didn't have shoulder to lean on anymore. No, that ship had sailed a year and a half ago.
After breakfast I gathered my bags and a small money pouch and headed out. It was early March so it was still cold. I shivered and my teeth chattered. I wrapped my arms around myself as I walked into the market. The market square was full of small shops and stands. I began going around to each shop, asking if they needed my bags. I wasn't very persuasive but if they needed my bags they bought them even if I didn't have a catchy gimmick.
I had gone to about three stores when I found one of the only stores that you could actually walk into. It was the bakery. I walked in, the smell of baking bread and warmth of the ovens embracing me. I smiled, my first smile in a long time, and walked up to the counter. An old-ish man came up to the counter. He had grayish hair and smile lines all over his face. He was round around the belly and face. "Hello," he said.
"Hi," I said looking around.
"Do you need something?" He asked his tone warm and comforting.
More then you know, I thought, but nodded slightly. However my face must've told him something different.
"Are you okay?" He asked, looking over the counter at me, his voice calm with concern.
A lot of people had asked me that over the years and I'd always answered "sure" or "yah." I'm not sure what it was, maybe it was his kindness or his voice, but something inside me totally snapped. I dropped my sacks and money pouch and fell to the ground, tears falling down my face. "No, no I'm not," I cried, pathetically. I felt the man's hands place themselves on my shoulder.
"What's wrong is there something I could do?" He asked worried.
I shook my head and wrapped my arms around myself. "My angel," I muttered, shuddering, "my angels gone." I remembered doing this month's ago. Right after…he left I would break down like this, muttering those five words, over and over and over again.
"What? Your angel? Is it your mum? Have you lost your mum, sweetie?"
Yah right, what does he think I am, seven? And my mum? Seriously? My mum is everything but, I thought, still muttering, "My angel, my angel's gone."
It was then when it happened. A young woman came walking through the door, causing me to hear a distant, faint drumming. "What the hell's that?" The shopkeeper asked the woman.
"Just some product advertisement," the woman said. As she closed the door I heard it. A small voice. A beautiful voice. His voice.
"Wow," the man said, propping the door open and peering out, "what a voice. Who is that?"
I stood up and walked over to the door, standing in the doorway and said two single words. "My angel."
The platform was large, covered in signs that read, Adolf Pirelli, and, Pirelli's Magical Elixir. A crowd surrounded it, watching a young boy sing, advertising a hair growth elixir.
I walked, sort of in a trance, towards Toby. He looked horrible. He was skinnier and gaunter. His skin was paler and he looked hard and beaten. All of a sudden, he pulled off his hat and long golden locks fell from his head. I gasped at them. It was a wig, I could tell. He had had dark hair, not horrible fake yellow hair.
As he sang I was lost in his voice. He sang about how his fake hair was a miracle due to Pirellis Miracle Elixir which grew his hair that long. I couldn't help but smile. His voice was so smooth, even when he sang about such a lie. I was completely encased in his voice when suddenly a different voice appeared. It was deeper, rougher (however not an inch less lovely) and came from the crowd.
"Pardon me ma'am what's that awful stench?" He asked. I peered over everyone to find a man standing near the middle of the group. He had dark, messy hair with a single white streak running through it. He had dark eyes and pale skin. He wore a long work jacket and a stood next to a woman. I couldn't see her well from as far away as I was, but could still tell it was a woman.
"Are we standing near an open trench?" The woman answered, as a man near them opened a bottle Toby had passed around. A look of annoyance and worry passed over Toby's face.
"Buy Pirelli's Miracle Elixir, anything will slick, sir, soon sprouts curls," Toby sung, trying to get people's attention back on him. As I saw him sing his next line ("Try Pirelli's
when they see how thick, sir, you can have your pick, sir, of the girls!") a look of pain crossed quickly over his eyes. I knew he was thinking about me. He was missing me, and he loved me.
As he said this, I could see the man smell the bottle and look it over. "Oh great," I muttered.
"Wanna buy a bottle misses?" Toby asked a nearby lady, handing her a bottle.
Suddenly the man interrupted again. "What is this?" He asked the woman.
"What is this?" The woman replied taking the bottle.
"Smells like piss," the man declared. I gasped and through my hand over my mouth. How could he say that?
"Smells like, eww," the woman said next, smelling the bottle. "Wouldn't touch it if I was you, dear," she told a nearby man.
As she said this the man said, "Looks like piss. This is piss, piss with ink."
"Let Pirellis activate your roots sir," Toby exclaimed, desperate now.
"Keep it off your boots sir, eats right through," the man said. The crowd began to mutter at the small yell fest that was going on.
"Yes get Pirelli's, a use bottle of it, ladies seem to love it…" Toby yelled.
"Flies do too," the woman retorted.
I began to hate this woman. No, not began, I did hate her. Any woman worth her woman hood could tell this child had been beaten and hurt, and sympathize. Well, not her. I couldn't even see her but I knew, no matter what, I would despise her. No Matter What!
All of a sudden, a new voice joined theirs. It was Signor Pirelli's voice. He stormed out from behind the curtains that hid the back of the platform. A fire of rage rose from my core. He had stolen Toby from me. I began walking to the other side of the platform. It was very slow going, since the crowd was so thick.
However I soon stopped when I heard the man's voice. I had been absentmindedly been listening to Signor Pirelli and had heard him ask the crowd who'd thought his elixir was piss. The man had answered him.
"I do," he said, looking down. Coward, I thought but then again he had spoken up. "I am Mr. Sweeney Todd of Fleet Street. I have opened a bottle of Pirellis Elixir and I say to you that it is nothing but an errant fraud, concocted from piss and ink."
I kept pushing through the crowd. Luckily they were so involved with the Mr. Sweeney Todd and Signor Pirelli they didn't yell at me. They just gave me hard looks.
"Furthermore- 'Signor'- I have serviced no kings, yet I wager that I can shave a cheek with ten times more dexterity than any street mountebank!" Sweeney declared. People in the audience gasped at this wager. I kept walking. I watched Toby as he stood on the far side of the stage. Tears began to well up in my eyes. I had missed him so much. I had missed his wonderful eyes.
As I stared into his black pits of wonderfulness, even though they didn't stare back, the two men began to have a contest to see who could do shave the closest shave. I stopped and stared open mouthed as Signor Pirelli stropped his razor on a strip of leather, hitting Toby's knuckles, not even caring. I guessed Toby had to have endured treatment like this for years. My heart squeezed with pain.
I had still been walking as I watched Toby so I wasn't looking where I was going. I bumped into something and was shocked to see the woman standing right in front of me. She had long dark brown stringy hair, pale skin and dark eyes. She wore a black dress and a black hat perched on top her locks. "Watch where you're going, child," she spat at me. Gasping I hurried along, quickly glaring back. I didn't know why but I knew that woman. I had a feeling I'd seen her before, or met her. Of course that was impossible since I'd barely been let out of the workhouse before today.
I kept walking however, desperate to reach Toby. As the men showed their skill with razors Toby stood by the side obediently. I suddenly began to ran, franticly and terrified. If I didn't reach Toby soon he would disappear from me again. I then unexpectedly tripped, falling flat on my face. Well, I would've if Toby hadn't caught me. I gasped and was breathing heavily, but it wasn't from my fall, it was being in the arms of Toby. "Toby," I whispered, looking deep into his eyes.
"J-Jesse?" He said, shock clouding his face.
"Hey," I gasped, laughing slightly. Toby began breathing fast and rapidly, a smiled breaking out over his face.
"Jesse!" He practically screamed. He then pulled me closer, kissing me right on the lips. Once we broke away, we hugged for what seemed like hours. I could feel him crying into my shoulder as I cried in his.
Too soon I heard the Beadle say, "The winner is Todd." Toby stepped away, and started towards the stage.
"Meet me on the other side of the stage in five minutes," he whispered, kissing me on the cheek. I smiled and let go of his hand, clutching my rose. I then walked over to the other side of the stage.
As Toby got back onto the stage I saw Pirelli hand Sweeney five pounds. Then, without warning, Pirelli turned and slapped Toby, kicking him behind the curtain. I gasped and squeezed the rose harder breathing hard in terror. I watched Sweeney Todd gather his things without even a second glance over at Toby. I quickly walked in front of the stage, hiding behind a crate listening to Todd speak to the woman. "I do hate to see a poor boy treated like that," she said. I rolled my eyes.
"Mr. Todd?" An eager customer said, approaching him. "Do you have an establishment of your own?"
The woman jumped on him like a hawk, placing Sweeney's coat over Sweeney. "He certainly does. Sweeney Todd's Tonsorial Parlor – above my meat pie shop. Mrs. Lovett's meat pie emporium."
I gasped and stared down on the ground, gulping, suddenly feeling really nauseous. After a minute Toby appeared, nursing a black eye. "What's wrong?" He asked, sitting next to me.
I stared deep into his eyes. "Toby…" I said shocked, "…I just saw my mum."