Mrs Lovett was done with this charade. Toby had told her that Lucy had actually slipped at the top of the stairs as she was intended to. But he had saved her. That boy, who she used to care for so much, was now only an annoying liability.

She had to keep him away from Lucy, at the very least.

But that didn't matter at the moment. She was tired of waiting. Again, she thought of how she had told Sweeney to wait and he didn't listen.

Mrs Lovett understood.

She would give it another day. And if Lucy wasn't dead by then, she didn't know what she would do.

Benjamin realized the shop was still open. He quickly put on his jacket, just in time.

The bell above the door jingled as a customer entered the barbershop. "Mr Todd?"

"Barker, actually," Benjamin corrected automatically. He had gotten used to that the past few days.

The man was confused for a moment, but he accepted the change. "All right, Mr Barker. I'd like a shave."

Benjamin glanced over at Lucy. "One moment, please." He thanked whatever gods he could think of that Lucy remained quiet as he helped her downstairs.

He asked Mrs Lovett to watch her. She agreed with a heavy sigh, glancing at the customers that had started to arrive at her shop.

"Thank you," he said sincerely, earning a smile from her, the first he had seen in a while.

As he went up to his shop, he noticed a small puddle of water at the top of the stairs. No surprise. A dry day in London was a miraculous event.

The man was still there, looking awkward as though he didn't know what to do without Benjamin there.

"Thank you for your patience," Benjamin said as he entered.

"Not at all," he said, relieved to see Benjamin returned. He sat in the chair and leaned back, closing his eyes.

Benjamin was very careful this time not to get distracted. As he lathered the man's face, the urge to kill him flared up.

It was worse than it had been before. The part of him that was Sweeney Todd had grown stronger, as though the blood was what he lived on.

He struggled with the bloodlust rising in him, pushing it down as much as he could.

Why was this so difficult? Most people didn't have a problem not murdering others.

But then, most people were only one person.

blood fear death fire darkness

Lucy curled up into a small ball on the couch, hands clamped over her ears, trying to block out the voices that were screaming at her.

death evil smoke smoke devil death murder

They screamed terrible, terrible things. About how she would end up like the dead body, falling through the ceiling. About how she was weak and silly and stupid. About how Benjamin hated her for taking the poison. About how she didn't deserve to be here.

no don't listen don't listen can't listen to them

Johanna Benjamin Nellie Toby Turpin Beadle Anthony Lucy

Lucy Lucy Lucy

"Lucy…" the voices whispered, and then disappeared.

She looked up.

"Lucy?" Mrs Lovett repeated in an irritated tone, standing in front of the couch. "Do you hear me?"

"…yes," she said.

don't trust her she's the wife of the devil don't trust her

"What happened in the bakehouse?" Mrs Lovett asked.

what happened what happened blood and death and fire and fear that's what happened

Lucy couldn't respond. She didn't want to think about what had happened down there. She didn't want to relive it.

But she knew, like that night at Judge Turpin's house, it would replay in her mind forever.

forever forever why can't I forget?

Never ever forget that's life

Mrs Lovett seemed frustrated. She turned and left the room.

Lucy was alone.

where is my Benjamin where is my Johanna can't be alone or the demons will get me

She knew she had to untangle her twisted thoughts or she would never be able to live.

But they wouldn't stay straight.

Toby didn't know what to think.

Mr Barker had killed someone, that was the obvious assumption. Why else would there be blood on his sleeves? Why else would Mrs Barker have run up from the bakehouse screaming "Murderer"?

But then, she wasn't exactly sane at the moment. He could hear her in the parlor as he served customers, muttering to herself. And it didn't have to be blood, it could have been ink on Mr Barker's shirt.

Toby was an expert at deluding himself. He had had plenty of practice with that while working for Signor Pirelli. He would tell himself that his situation wasn't that bad, that Signor Pirelli would get kinder. He would even believe his lies.

But even Toby was having a hard time deluding himself into believing Mr Barker had not killed anyone.

There was a way to be sure. But after his last visit to the bakehouse, he never wanted to go down there again.

He asked himself why he didn't want to believe Mr Barker had killed anyone. After all, he had suspected Sweeney Todd and never tried to deny it.

The question made Toby think. Luckily, serving customers wasn't a particularly difficult task, so he could ponder the question while doing that.

When he found the answer, it surprised him.

He liked Mr Barker. And Mrs Barker. He loved Mrs Lovett, but she had seemed distant lately. And much too Sweeney Todd-like. He worried about her. She never seemed to sleep or eat anymore, and she paced at all hours of the night.

Just like Mr Todd.

But he didn't want to believe Mr Barker would have killed someone because he liked the Barkers. Mr Barker was so different than he was when he called himself Mr Todd. Mrs Barker was good for him.

He could just go and ask.

When the thought crossed his mind, he wanted to do that more than anything. He doubted it would put him in any danger. Mr Todd might have killed him at one point, but Mr Barker was different.

And that was the whole point. He had changed.

So Toby decided to talk to Mr Barker.

When the lunch rush was through, he carefully walked up the stairs to the barbershop.

The bell rang as the door swung open. Benjamin prepared himself to resist the bloodlust and looked at the entrance.

Whatever sight he might have expected, Toby was not it.

He looked on edge, and he had good reason to. After all, he had just seen Benjamin with clothes covered in blood.

"Mr Barker, I wanted to ask you a question," he said cautiously.

Funny how that simple sentence frightened Benjamin more than going to prison had.

"What is it?" Benjamin sat down in the barber chair, resigned to facing whatever conversation Toby wanted to start.

He took a deep breath. "Did you kill anyone?"

Benjamin had expected something along those lines. He smiled, albeit a bit sadly, at the way Toby had phrased it.

"You already know I've killed people before."

It was an answer to the question, but he knew what Toby had meant, and that wasn't it.

"I mean today," Toby said, more confidently now that he knew Benjamin would not react violently. "With your sleeves – and what Mrs Barker was shouting – I don't know what else to think."

Benjamin closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath, wondering what to tell him.

He decided on the truth. "Yes, but I did not intend to."

Toby looked at him disbelievingly. "How can you not intend to kill someone?" His voice rose almost to a shout.

"Trust me, I've been wondering that too," Benjamin said tiredly.

"Trust you," Toby muttered. He seemed angry, and he had good reason to, but there was something else in his voice and expression. "I did trust you, and now…"

Betrayed. That was it.

On top of all the other guilt Benjamin felt, now he had to feel bad about hurting Toby. The boy had had such a hard life already, from the workhouse to Pirelli to, he admitted it, living in the same place as Sweeney Todd. Now he had just started to trust Benjamin, and he had done this.

Another emotion rose inside Benjamin. He had felt it before, but it still took him a moment to place it.

It was the thirst for revenge. He wanted vengeance on whoever had made his life a living hell.

But he had destroyed his own life this time, because of one moment of distraction.

How could he explain to Toby why he had killed the man?

He didn't understand it himself.

But he regretted it more than anything he had ever done before.

It wouldn't be difficult to kill Lucy. That wasn't the issue. Mrs Lovett knew that. The girl was sitting in the other room, not even in her senses. If she really wanted to kill her, it would be easy. Take a knife, stab her a few times, and leave. Done.

The problem was that she needed Benjamin to fall in love with her afterwards. Her happy ending by the sea was still possible, she just had to be creative about it.

With that in mind, she went into the parlor.

Now, Lucy seemed more in control, but a little creepier. She sat calmly on the couch, without moving or speaking, and her eyes followed Mrs Lovett as she walked into the room.

"What are you doing?" This was worse than when she had been reacting to nothing and rattling off long lists of nonsensical gibberish.

Lucy said nothing, just watched her with those wide, unblinking eyes.

Mrs Lovett watched her for a minute, but quickly got bored. She didn't know why she had entered the room in the first place. What was she hoping to find?

As she headed toward the door, an impossibly loud scream came from Lucy. Mrs Lovett flinched horribly and spun, only to see Lucy sitting in the exact same place as though nothing had happened.

Mrs Lovett watched her suspiciously for a moment. She was about to turn away again when Lucy opened her mouth and shrieked again.

This was pointless. The girl was out of her senses.

On her way out of the room, she ran into Benjamin, who presumably had rushed down the stairs at the sound of Lucy's scream.

He barely gave Mrs Lovett a glance as he went to see if Lucy was all right.

Mrs Lovett stood in the doorway, watching the pair of them together. It didn't matter that Lucy didn't respond to anything Benjamin did, he still stayed and spoke softly to her.

Mrs Lovett felt the familiar anger at Lucy rise in her. She told herself to wait, but she knew she wouldn't be able to do it for much longer.

Soon will come, soon will last…