Chapter Ten- The Beauty of Blood in the Snow
"Sit, sir. Sit." Sweeney flowed through his old routine as he always did. He made the man in his chair feel comfortable then spilled the red liquid from his veins. The killing had become a boring constant in his life.
With the judge dead and gone he didn't have to do any of this anymore Sweeney could put down his razors forever if he really wanted to, but he somehow felt he couldn't. He wanted to keep supporting Nellie.
He didn't know what was wrong with him, why was he so suddenly in need of the feelings he had around Nellie? Nellie was an attractive woman, this was certain, but Sweeney never had a need for any woman other than his Lucy.
Sweeney looked around at the mess from the last man and decided to start cleaning without her. He cursed under his breath at the incessant stains on his floor. How could he put Nellie through this so often?
Sweeney weighed the benefits and disadvantages of his habit, though this time he wasn't weighing them for himself; he was weighing them for Nellie. Sweeney growled and kept scrubbing at the floor.
"That was an interesting sound." Nellie chucked and continued to chuckle as Sweeney jumped a bit out of shock. "When did you get here?" Sweeney asked gruffly. Nellie walked to the previously cleaned barber chair and sat in it, "A few minutes ago." She coughed a bit, but she had seemed to be getting better.
"You really didn't have to clean any of this up." Nellie hitched her legs up to her chest and rested her head on her knees. "Why shouldn't I?" Sweeney maintained his scrubbing of the floor, "I am the one who caused the mess." Nellie gave a faint smile.
"What's gotten into you?" she lowered herself to the ground and began to venture to the clean parts of Sweeney's workplace. The sat on the floor underneath the window and looked up at him. "You're still sick, Nellie. I can't have you out of work again."
He neared the last spot of blood and grew thankful that his torture was almost over. "Whatever you say." Nellie stood and went to go help Sweeney with the last of his cleaning, "Nellie, I mean it." He raised his voice. She rolled her eyes and began to clean again, "Nellie!" Sweeney roared and Nellie stood.
Sweeney's eyes found their way to her and the pitiful look on her face, "I-I'm sorry." Nellie stuttered as she walked to the door with Sweeney's eyes on her the whole time. She took the knob in her hand, Nellie waited for something, anything, to happen to keep her there, but nothing did. She opened the door and left without anymore words.
Sweeney dropped the supplies and paced to his window. "Shit." He placed his hands on the window and scanned it over. On the right side he saw a lipstick stain made by Nellie on their snow night. He let his arm wander and his hands feel the dried colour. "Can you never leave me?" Sweeney had said this over and over on some nights; sometimes he said it to the ghosts, sometimes to the Judge, and even sometimes to his wife and children.
It seemed that no matter how much blood he could spill in one day none of these things would ever leave him, he didn't want to add another person, another object, to the things that he didn't want or need in his life. He wanted Nellie to be Lucy; he wanted to have never lost Lucy in the first place.
Sweeney found a way to cut the strings for a moment before his thoughts bubble over and drowned him; he let his eyes follow to wear his arm led. He was still touching the lipstick stain at his window.
Sweeney took a coat from the closet; he slipped his arms through it and draped it over his shoulders. He put the razor that was in his hand into the pocket and walked out of the door. He strolled down the stairs and ended up in Mrs. Lovett's Emporium. "Nellie?" he called. "I'm over here, Love." Nellie called out from her bedroom and Sweeney followed her voice.
"Get a coat." He called through the door. Nellie opened the door after a moment with a coat in hand. "What's this about?" she put the coat on and was immediately led out of her home by the hand.
When the two stopped they were at a snow bank, Nellie stood at the edge and looked from Sweeney's face to the bottom of the white ditch. The two grabbed hands and stood facing forward to the bank. They spoke simultaneously, "One-Two-Three"
Benjamin held Lucy's hand as they walked the streets of London one snowy night. Lucy was about ready to burst with baby Johanna in her stomach, their faces both shone in the light as they passed the
The date was the twenty third of December that Johanna was born; Benjamin was the first to hold her as he cried tears of bliss. He was soon taken away from his family.
Nellie and Sweeney jumped and landed on in the soft snow that filled the bank, Nellie began to laugh before she turned around; when she did, she saw something that made her heart skip a beat. The beautiful snow had begun to turn a stunning red colour.
Sweeney was frozen, looking down into the sizable wound in his leg. Nellie rushed to his side, unable to comprehend the extent to which her toy was broken. She removed her coat and wrapped his leg with it. Sweeney didn't flinch at all, it was as if he couldn't feel it, yet Nellie was sure he could.
Although he wasn't expressing his pain orally, the pain in his eyes was enough to tell Nellie what he was feeling. "It'll be okay, Love." Nellie helped him out of the snow bank and they began their journey back to the warm pie shop.
By the time they where far enough back to the shop to start feeling relieved, Nellie began to shiver. She continued to help Sweeney, though he kept trying to stop and give her his coat. She declined and instead walked faster to her home.
When they arrived Nellie helped clean his wound and warmed herself up. They sat at the fire and after Sweeney had explained to her why he was hurt in the first place they shared a moment of silence.
Sweeney was the first to break the silence, "I'm sorry for yelling at you." He looked at the fire while he spoke. "I'm sorry you're such a fool." She smiled. "Who keeps a razor in their pocket?" she stared at the razor that sat near the fire.
Sweeney shifted his glance to Nellie, "I do." He grunted.
Dubbya Tee Eff. Nothing happened in this chapter. I think I might end the story soon so I can start a new one. It'll still be Sweeney Todd though, don't worry about that. I think I'll dabble in drabbles for a while.
We're trying to convince my drama teacher to do the school version of Sweeney Todd for the next show since they haven't done a musical in a while and there are a lot of us who like the show and who really want to do it. If we do I'm going to audition for Nellie and Lucy. They're my two favorite characters in the show and I think they have the most personalities of the girl characters.
I'm really excited to kill some people in the next chapter, just thought I'd let my readers know.
As always, thank you for reading and please review!