a/n: Okay guys we're officially the Sweenetts, a group consisting of Saloma-Kiwi, Whyistherumgone, crosbyfan21, grapenut, ktki

a/n: Okay guys we're officially the Sweenetts, a group consisting of Saloma-Kiwi, Whyistherumgone, crosbyfan21, grapenut, ktkitty4, vampiremistress2sexy (welcome to our cluuuub!), and me! WOOHOO! Another note…do any of you get that whole welcome to our club thing? It's from spongebob so maybe not (welcome to our cluuub, welcome to our cluuub, welcome squidward, welcome squidward, etc.)

I did a little research and last chapter was the longest chapter I've ever written. This one might top it. This is the second last chapter before I go into the whole explanation I promised you all (aka Lindsey/sub-conscious). AND THEN THE SEQUEL! Ahh I'm so excited for that one.

4726 hits for MVR. I love you guys, I really do.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sweeney Todd. But I love him, so that counts right? XD

Chapter 7

The next day, Sweeney Todd reluctantly joined Lindsey, Nellie, and Toby on a picnic. Lindsey had been teaching Toby how to fly a kite, until he insisted he was smarter than her and could fly a kite perfectly well by himself. Lindsey had officially decided she didn't like this boy. Her mother constantly fawned over him as if he were some gift from God, not just a dirty little boy. In addition to that, Mrs. Lovett was constantly trying to get Sweeney's attention. It was no secret to Lindsey that her mother was in love with Sweeney Todd, or rather, had been in love with Benjamin Barker. But why bother now? He was a heartless, emotionless shell of what he'd been before. It wasn't that Lindsey didn't like him. He was helping the business quite a bit, and since he'd learned to put up with her talking she could go talk to him anytime he wasn't busy with a customer, even if he wouldn't talk back much, and sometimes, that's what Lindsey needed. Especially with how her mother had been ignoring her.

"I mean, it's not like she was alone 'til he showed up!" Lindsey had been ranting to him the night before. Mr. Todd was pacing back and forth, sharpening his razors and looking out the window, hoping to see the Judge coming back. "We've been together for fifteen years. Fifteen years! And now, some strange, smelly little boy comes into our shop and pushes me right out of her heart."

"What about the dress?" he asked.

"What? What about it?"

"If he'd pushed you out of her heart would she still have bought you a brand new dress?"

"That doesn't mean anything!" she insisted. "I mean, she doesn't have time for me anymore! She's always butchering somebody, or baking some pie, or serving one. And even before you got here, she did all the same things, but after the shop closed she always had time to talk. But now she's always too tired or talking to that boy."

"If it's any consolation, I don't like him either," Sweeney said.

"You don't like anyone. But thanks for trying."

"That's not true," he said.

"Alright, name one person you like. And your razors don't count."

Sweeney thought for a moment. "Well I let you come up here and pour your soul out don't I?"

This made Lindsey feel a little bit better. "But does that mean you like me?"

Sweeney stared back at her. "No."

"Didn't think so."

"You could say I…tolerate you," he said.

Lindsey gave a weak smile. "Thanks for trying."

Mrs. Lovett's voice pulled Lindsey out of her daydream. "Lindsey!" she said.

"What?" Lindsey said, snapping back to reality.

"Why aren'tcha helpin' Toby wif 'is kite?"

Anger bubbled up inside of her, but she managed to subdue it. "He doesn't want my help."

"Alrigh'. Whatever you say love."

Lindsey looked over at Mr. Todd, I told you so radiating from her angry features.

Mrs. Lovett went back to blabbering about some decorating ideas for the place. "Maybe a boars head or two," she said.

Lindsey looked over at her mother. "Excuse me, but ew!"

"Oh hush. Mr. T? You listening to me?"

"Of course," he said distantly.

"Then what did she just say?" Lindsey asked, unconvinced.

"There must be a way to the judge," he growled.

"The judge," Mrs. Lovett hissed. "Always harping on about the bloody old judge. We've got a nice respectable business now." Lindsey snorted at the word "respectable". Respectable? Them? On what planet?

"And since we're careful to pick and choose, strangers, ones who won't be missed, who's going to be the wiser?" Mrs. Lovett asked. "Oh Mr. Todd."

"We're so 'appy,"

"I could, eat you up I really could!"

"You know what we'd like to do Mr. Todd," Lindsey said, emphasis on we. But her mother didn't catch on.

"What I dream, if the business stays this good, where I'd really like to go, in a year or so. Don't you wanna know?"

"Of course," Sweeney said.

"Do ya really wanna know?"

"Yes, I do." Anything to shut them up, Lindsey decided.

Mrs. Lovett's mind went into a full daydream. Lindsey couldn't keep up with her. "By the sea, Mr. Todd, that's the life I covet, by the sea, Mr. Todd, ooh, I know you'd love it! You and me, Mr. T, we could be alone…"

"Hey!" Lindsey said, catching the word alone.

"In a house wot we'd almost own, down by the sea!"

"Where's alone leave me?" she said quietly.

"Wouldn't that be smashing? Think how snug it'll be underneath all flannel when it's just you and me and the English Channel…"

"Just the two of you?" Lindsey said a little louder. "What am I, a plate of priest?"

"In our cozy retreat, kept all neat and tidy, we'll have chums over every Friday, by the sea. Don't you love the weather? By the sea. We'll grow old together, by the seaside ooh, by the beautiful sea! It'll be so quiet, That who'll come by it, except a seagull Hoo, hoo! We shouldn't try it, until it's legal for two-hoo! But a seaside wedding could be devised, me rumpled bedding legitimized!"

"Your WHAT?" Lindsey shrieked, momentarily horrified. Until Mr. Todd shot her a look telling her that her mother was in a fantasy world. She could tell, he had no plans of moving by the sea anytime soon.

"Me eyelids'll flutter, I'll turn into butter, the moment I mutter I do-hoo! By the sea,
married nice and proper! By the sea, bring along your chopper! To the seaside, ooh, by the beautiful sea!"

Mrs. Lovett finally returned to reality. Toby had come and joined them on the blanket. Mrs. Lovett put one arm around Sweeney and one around Toby. Lindsey sat behind them glaring.

The next night was business as usual at the shop. But something unexpected happened. Toby was catching on to their scheme. After Lindsey saw her mother go down to the bake house, she returned to the shop crying. "What wrong mum?" Lindsey asked.

"It's Toby love. He knows. He knows everything. I've got him locked down there, but if he escapes, he'll go to the law."

A thought crossed Lindsey's mind. A thought so evil she began to wonder what she'd become. "You should go tell Mr. T. I'll go see what Toby's up to," she said, hoping her shaking voice didn't give her away. Her mother nodded and hurried into the shop.

Lindsey didn't know what she was doing. She took a knife off the counter. She caught her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes had turned as black and Mr. Todd's, and it frightened her. But not enough to stop her. Her anger was overtaking her. A monster was unleashed.

When she came up the stairs from the bake house, she felt slightly guilty, but free. She met her mother and Mr. Todd at the bottom, where all three were frightened by Beadle Bamford. Her mother gave a small shriek. "Excuse me sir," she said. "Gave me a fright."

"Not my intention, good madam, I assure you," he said, eyes lingering on Lindsey's chest. She fixed him with a glare and crossed her arms atop it. "Though I am here on official business. You see, there's been some complaints about the stink from your chimney. They say at night it is something most foul. Health regulations and the general public welfare naturally being my duty, I'm afraid," he said, snorting snuff up his nose. "I'll have to take a look…" he paused for a sneeze. "At your bake house."

"Of course sir," Sweeney said, smooth as anything, "But first why don't you come upstairs and let me pamper you?" Somehow, Sweeney managed to talk him into coming upstairs before looking at the bake house. And Lindsey knew he'd be dead before he got the chance.

A little while later, the trio went down to the bake house to look for Toby. Mrs. Lovett called for him, as did Sweeney, but Lindsey stayed guiltily silent. When they'd returned upstairs, having not found him, Sweeney took Lindsey aside and said, "You killed him, didn't you?"

Lindsey lowered her eyes and swallowed before speaking. "Don't tell her."

He nodded grimly.

"I had to," she whispered. "He'dve gone to the law." Mr. Todd left her, no doubt to wait for the judge. Lindsey sat in the shop a long while, crying. She didn't quite know why. What's done was done. It couldn't be undone. She stayed there, even after she saw the Judge go into the shop, heard Mr. Todd scream "BENJAMIN! BARKER!" Even after she knew the Judge was dead. She didn't move until she heard her mother scream from the bake house. She ran down to find not two, but three bodies on the ground, one, belonging to the Judge, clutching at her mother's dress. His shirt was covered with blood and his neck so gashed she'd no idea how he survived. "DIE!" her mother shouted. "DIE!" He fell back, finally dead. Mrs. Lovett looked to her daughter.

"You alright?" Lindsey asked.

"Yeah…" her mother said quietly. She looked over the three bodies, particularly the body of a blonde beggar. "You!" she hissed. The two tried to drag the body to the oven when Mr. Todd came down.

"Why'd you scream?" he said.

"Oh he was clutchin' on me dress, but he's finished now," Mrs. Lovett said, Lindsey nodding. They continued trying to drag the body to the oven. If he saw her face, they were both finished.

"I'll take care of it. Open the door," he said to the two women. They didn't obey. "Open the door I said!"

Lindsey nervously opened the door to the oven, shedding light on the bodies. Something dawned in Mr. Todd's face. He'd recognized the body. "Don't I know you? she said. You knew she lived."

"I was only thinking of you," Mrs. Lovett said, voice thick with tears.

."You lied to me."

"No, no not lied at all! No I never lied!" Said she took the poison, she did, never said that she died. Poor thing! She lived but it left her weak in the head. All she did for months was just lie there in bed Should've been in a hospital wound up in bedlam instead. Poor thing! Better you should think she was dead! Yes, I lied 'cause I love you! I'd be twice the wife she was I love you! Could that thing have cared for you like me?"

"Mrs. Lovett," Sweeney said, the manic glint returning to his eyes. "You're a bloody wonder, eminently practical and yet appropriate as always. As you've said repeatedly there's little point in dwelling on the past! Now come here my love! Not a thing to fear my love!" He began dancing her across the bake house. Lindsey froze. She knew what was coming. She tore out of the bake house, up the stairs, and into the barber shop. Ignoring the girl (who she knew had to be Johanna) sitting in the barber's chair, she grabbed a razor and ran back downstairs.

"And life is for the alive, my dear." Mr. Todd was singing. Lindsey hid in the bake house, waiting to make her move " So let's keep living it! Just keep living it! Really living it!"

With those words Lindsey hear her mother scream. A terrible scream of pain that tore into Lindsey's heart. She turned just in time to see her mother burning in the oven and Mr. Todd heartlessly closing the door, muffling the screams. Tears brimmed in Lindsey's brown eyes. It wasn't possible. Her mother couldn't be gone!

Sweeney walked over to Lucy's body and pulled it into his arms. "There was a barber and his wife…" Lindsey remembered the razor in her hand. "And she was beautiful." Her heart broke with the pain of losing her mother and the pain of what she knew she had to do. "A foolish barber and his wife." Lindsey walked over to where he was, and he didn't notice her. "She was his reason and his life." She stood over him silently. "And she was beautiful." Lindsey flicked the razor open. "And she was virtuous. And he was…"

"A traitor," she spat. His muscles tensed. "Sorry Mr. Todd. But like you said, we all deserve to die." He did not respond, merely stuck his neck out, making her task a bit easier. With a flash of silver, Nellie Lovett's murder was avenged. Lindsey walked into the middle of the bake house. With every drop of blood that fell from Sweeney Todd's neck, Lindsey knew more and more, she was alone. She stared at the bloodstained razor in her hand, feeling so lost, so alone. She stared and whispered, "And they all lived happily ever after." With that she pulled the razor across her own neck…two inches short of making an actual cut. Lindsey threw the razor at the wall, disgusted with herself. She'd killed two other people tonight, what was so different about herself? Blinded by tears, she somehow found her way back into her mother's and her bedroom, buried herself beneath the blankets, and did not move for a very long time.

A/n: Woah, I really went crazy with this chapter. Next chapter will be the last, like I said. Please please please review!!