Chapter Nine- Unheard Apologies
"I remember dancing with you." Nellie spoke to the void place in the booth. "You had so much spirit it was hard to avoid being swept up in a dance." She smiled and hummed a quick waltz.
She was mesmerized by the ghost-like seat that she found comfort in. "You remember that, don't you?" she stood and took a look at her messy station for baking pies. She chuckled, "We used to try and clean this sometimes."
She practically shuddered at the thought of scrabbling around the mess. "We would get distracted by a new recipe we would have to try." She sighed and touched her aching throat.
"No amount of tea could solve this cold." She walked, eyes drooping, to her sleeping chamber. As her head hit the pillow, Nellie fell into a deep, tormented sleep.
Sweeney Todd hadn't retired, for he was still tending to and selling the pies that Nellie had usually tended to. Customers of hers asked where she had gone to and if Sweeney was her new spouse.
Sweeney gave a simple throaty laugh and denied all thoughts of budding romance between the two. His plastic smile felt as if it could melt off of his face and onto the floor at any moment while rearing the end of the night.
The Emporium hadn't been so packed in days, even weeks. Sweeney retired gratefully into his own home. He made his way to the chest that used to be kept under his window; he lifted the lid and stared at the ruined interior.
His gaze pierced the bloodstained material his own wife put into the chest, "I'm sorry, Lucy." He reminisced of the time he took two lives in one sitting- a young boy of ten and a man from his past.
His voice grew louder than before, "I'm so sorry." He thought of his first kills- the two who ended up in his meaningful chest- the poor boy was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was sure that if Nellie was there he would've lived to serve some sort of purpose in their story.
The death of the boy meant really nothing to Sweeney, as did the death of the man, his keeper. The pain he felt as he thought of the day was all because of that chest.
"I didn't know what else to do." He spoke to Lucy as if she was really there at the spot beneath the window where she used to sit when she wasn't on the floor with Johanna and him.
"It was the only safe place." Sweeney walked to the window and sat underneath it. He dug the rattle out of underneath a floorboard and shook it a few times. There were too many things in Sweeney's ever-changing life that led him to this very spot where he would cradle whatever felt important at the moment.
It had been the picture of Lucy before, then the razor blade, next the rattle, and now he frequented the beautiful scarf. He kept most of these things in the chest, but the rattle was different.
The rattle wasn't part of his past, the significant event that revolved around the rattle happened in his present. He like to think of the things that could've happened regarding the rattle if Nellie hadn't have done what she did, but she did, so all he could to was pretend that fate wasn't ever cruel.
He could pretend that he was Benjamin Barker sometimes, though it always led to the most cruel nightmares and ghosts. The ghosts were always around him, they seemed to chant a vengeful tune that only Sweeney could hear, but the ghosts were the most hellish on the nights that he thought about Benjamin.
Sweeney begged for the ghosts to stop, Sweeney begged until his throat seemed to bleed. His pain seemed to keep the ghosts at bay if only for a few minutes therefore pain is the most visited emotion that Sweeney possesses.
His mind was left in pieces that were slapped back together all at once as the bell rang in Sweeney's shop; usually the pain was worsened by the sorrow he caused people, but he could just make out the slim figure of Nellie Lovett in the shadows of the dark room.
Nellie cut the strings that the ghosts played with on their very own marionette; the strings would get reattached as soon as she left and that's why Nellie couldn't leave that night.
Sweeney looked up to Nellie and she gasped, he was pale and he looked more tortured than he did on the day he was sent off to prison. She went to his side and held him; tonight he didn't mind the infiltration of his space. Tonight he was just glad to know he could still feel.
Nellie clung to him like a child to its mother, "What happened, Love." He couldn't speak. "No, no. You're okay, Love. Don't speak." He obeyed for the time being. Nellie spotted the rattle and the opened chest and shook her head. "If it tortures you so much-" she stopped as Sweeney started, "The ghosts." She let go and slowly stood and sat again, but in front of him this time. "The ghosts?" she asked. "It, the 'It' is the ghosts." She nodded.
"Are they here now?" she asked. Sweeney shook his head. "I'll see to it that they stay that way." She took her spot in holding him again as the pair nodded off from exhaustion due to sickness and an unyielding work day.
Come morning the two still hadn't woken, their terrible dreams hadn't stopped just because they were together as they hopped they would've. Nellie heard circus music as the objects being thrown at her became bigger and more intimidating. Sweeney saw his wife and child being dragged away by a familiar judge and his accomplice while he sat in a straight jacket beneath his window.
They both shook in terror as their eyelids rose to the afternoon sun filling up the room. They were sore from the dark boards they slept on, but thankful to be awake. They thought no amount of cuddling or stories from the past could comfort them, but the two things soon took place.
Sweeney sat on the chest as Nellie draped her arms around his shoulders and told him a story.
Benjamin and Nellie sat on the street in front of Nellie's shop and watched as people walked by. They laughed at how important the people each thought they were, they walked by beggars without giving a second thought, they walked by happy children and didn't smile at their cheerful squeals; they walked to their important places that weren't really that important.
Nellie and Benjamin had grown fond of each other and found they had shared many things in common. They sat on the snowy London street and wore real smiles on their faces as they people watched.
"Things used to be so simple." Nellie sighed. "I know." Sweeney thought of Benjamin and saw hell in the nights to come.
Yes, I do know this chapter is extremely short. My sincerest apologies for not writing in so long, it's been "hell week" at my school show and I've been at school then rehearsal then doing homework then getting those six hours of sleep that I cherish so much. This week has been the show's week, not mine. I'm still glad to be doing it though. The last show is today so I'm feeling a minor relief/sadness that it's over.
Thank-you for reading and please don't be afraid to review.
