Thanks toooo…

Rainbow Username, Random Guest Reviewer person, Dionne dance, Noodlemantra, Another Random Guest Reviewer person, Helen Young, oh ANOTHER random guest reviewer person!, paigelidsey97, KaliBella, and Jillian the porcelain maiden!

Ah so many! So happy!

This is my favorite chapter hope you guys like it too!

I really tried to make it shorter but I figured that would be a little torturous to you guys…and you've already waited so long!

Chapter 11

There.

The deed was done.

It was over with, finished.

Yes…finally.

Toby sighed to the black before his eyes.

Because perhaps he wasn't like Mrs. Lovett and Mr. Todd who can sta…could…who could stand the site of blood every day.

The boy had squeezed shut his eyes and fired – once - twice…

And the world was relieved of the two.

No more secrets or…murders or conspiracies, between the pair.

The deed was done.

Toby planned to feel himself out of the room so he didn't have to look…at all. He planned to leave everything…and everyone…behind. He could fend for himself on the streets. He knew he could.

But something stopped him.

Not the regret he should have been feeling. Not the tears he should have been shedding. Not even stumbling over something on the way out.

What stopped him…was the soft whimpering of someone.

A woman's whimpering.

Mrs. Lovett's whimpering.

So instead…Toby's eyes shot open.

There the two both sat. Mr. Todd and Mrs. Lovett. Eye's squeezed shut, bodies tense and waiting…

In that moment that Toby saw the barber and the baker, they both looked so vulnerable. Even Mr. Todd looked like he had given up; accepted the fact that he was going to die. Even in Nellie's arms.

Toby's eyes grew wide with surprise and confusion. Hadn't he fired the gun? He did, he was sure of it. He heard the ear-shattering explosion. He felt the jolt between his two sweaty palms.

As Toby looked confused at the pistol in his hands, the two on the couch opened their eyes also. Toby glanced up briefly as if to check to make sure they weren't running away (or after him). He watched Mrs. Lovett as she blinked several tears out of her eyes to find out she was unharmed after the gun shots. He watched Mr. Todd look up bitterly at the boy because of the pistol still pointed at him.

But the young boy could barely stand to look at the faces as their hatred for him glowed off of them, so he fumbled to load the gun yet again. A strange noise escaped the back of his throat in his desperation as he almost dropped the weapon.

Toby flung his arm forward and this time shot with his eyes open.

Left-once.

Load

Right-once.

The two still sitting on the couch flinched again, and still…no blood resulted.

Toby pulled his eyebrows together even tighter as his eyes grew so big that it made his head ache. He struck the gun against his palm. His heart began to race. What was going on? What was happening? Could he have simply missed so many times?

All three could tell that the bullets were leaving the revolver, but no wounds showed…which meant that something was very wrong.

Toby wasn't just nervous about ending the barber and the baker's lives anymore, now he was scared for his own life. But nothing could be done anymore because the pistol was out of ammunition.

In a tense moment of frustration, Toby flung the gun to the ground, the metal clanking and skidding across the wooden floor. His gaze absentmindedly followed the object as he ran his hand through his hair and squinted his eyes in utter confusion over the situation.

When Sweeney could no longer see the flames that had been emitting from the boys eyes, his mind suddenly became aware again. For perhaps in that moment in front of the pistol, Sweeney had just given up. It was really no surprise when you think about it, he had lost all reason to live a long time ago and lost his will to live with it. But for some bloody reason the boy had failed to assist him in taking him out of his misery now a second time.

So, Mr. T quickly figured, why give him the chance to disappoint him again?

He didn't have an exact plan. Perhaps the demon thought it would come at the right time. But in that instant, as Toby stared inquisitively at the revolver, Sweeney lunged for the boy.

Seeing Mr. Todd's shadow dance on the wall behind him, Toby glanced up and took immediate action. In the millisecond where all the lad saw was the demon barber's glowing pale features coming toward him with hatred and determination, the only thing he knew was the razor in his right pocket. So he quickly reached for the cold silver and, without a second thought, whipped it open and hurled it at the barber.

Toby and Nellie both took to closing their eyes at the moment where the sharp object was to meet skin. But instead of the sound of perhaps a deep, sickening thunk, a clanking noise sounded at the back of the room. Both pairs of eyes instantly opened in surprise.

Toby's neck snapped between the apparent incorrect path of the knife and the barber. Sweeney was, to the boy's surprise, looking at the razor sitting on the floor behind him, with shock covering his features.

But, as if in the same moment, both of the boys were reminded of the circumstances and were sent by their thirst for blood scrambling in a race to the razor.

Mrs. Lovett simply sat and watched the two. Through it all, the baker felt paralyzed. The only sound being her heart and quick breaths echoing in her ears. The only movement being the rattling of her bones and hands. And she sat there until the action moved behind the couch, where she shot up and briskly turned around. She watched, terrified, as the two boys she loved fought over whose demise would come first. She stared, wide-eyed, as Toby kicked and clawed at the barber and Sweeney fought back with equal intensity. They both looked like a couple of angry cats as they viciously fought for the shining weapon.

Nellie backed up slowly, each step heavily clunking behind the other one, struggling to keep her footing as the whole situation made her light-headed. She back-stepped all of the way until she hit the fireplace, the cold air flowing out of it freezing the baker.

A sudden chill shook her body and when she recovered and looked back up, she was terrified to see that one of the boys had the upper-hand. He raised the razor high, the blade shinning. Nellie couldn't take the idea of seeing the one she loved meet his match at last. So she covered her moist face with her hands and turned around, not being able to keep back the scream that escaped her throat.

After the sound of metal slicing the thick air, dead silence encircled the parlor. And Nellie felt it only right to open her eyes to deal with the horror head on.

But as she uncovered her face, she was too horrified about what she saw right in front of her to turn back around and care about Sweeney or Toby at the moment.

The woman began to shake even harder as she, almost subconsciously, reached up with her hand and touched her cheek.

"Mr. T…" she struggled to mumble, but her voice was lost in the shock and it only came out as a high pitched whisper.

"WHAT IS THIS!?" rang through the parlor from Mr. Todd. He wasn't yelling at her though, and Mrs. Lovett knew this.

Nellie spun around, observing the barber glaring at Toby who had just been under the barber's mercy, but who was still alive. Sweeney was looking at his hand where the razor was gripped tightly. His eyebrows were pulled as close as they would go.

But Mrs. Lovett didn't care why. She regained her voice and shouted, louder this time, "MR. T!"

Like a pouting, fed up child, Mr. Todd stood up and stamped his foot roughly on the ground as he looked up frustrated at the baker.

"What?!" he shouted back, his mind momentarily being taken off of his failed stabbing at the lad.

But Nellie didn't need to say anything before the barber could see what she was yelling so desperately about. He squinted his eyes and slowly, he made his way to the right of Mrs. Lovett. The baker also moved slowly, like the world was suddenly spinning in slow motion, as she turned again to look back into the mirror.

There they both stood for some amount of agonizingly slow, breathless seconds, both with a simple look of bewilderment on their faces.

Toby scrambled to stand up as soon as Sweeney was no longer leaning hauntingly over him. But as he looked back at the two adults staring at the mirror, mesmerized, he couldn't help but mutter out a, "What? What is it?"

Neither of them really heard his voice, the whole world around seemed to just shut down.

It wasn't about what they did see in the refection…it was about what they didn't see…

As Toby slowly strolled up behind the two, he could understand why both of them looked the way they did.

"We're not there," Toby said, being the only one cable anymore of talking.

And it was true. None of the three standing in front of the circular mirror above the fireplace…had a reflection. "We're invisible!" said Toby again, trying to decide what this meant, and if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Probably not terrific, he thought.

Suddenly it hit him…"We're…"

Mrs. Lovett couldn't stand herself standing there so lamely, so she cautiously lifted up her arm and raised it to the glass in front of her face. She wanted to touch it…perhaps the mirror was just playing a joke on them. Messing with the three's eyes and minds. But as the gloved hand moved forward, the only result confirmed her worry. She gasped and her eyes darted from where they would be looking straight into hers had she had a reflection to where her hand was. Besides the fact that he hand didn't have another hand gliding on the opposite toward it, she gasped because…her hand went straight through the solid object.

Her mind regained reality, if this was indeed reality, as she found that the boys were looking at her just as horrified as she imagined her expression must look.

"We're dead…" Mrs. Lovett muttered…finishing Toby's sentence and finally figuring what all this meant…

Suddenly, something in the room was completely different.

The light seemed to change, the temperature seemed to change, the overall atmosphere seemed to change.

When Mrs. Lovett looked again at Mr. Todd, who was still standing next to her, she couldn't help but scream.

Her hands flew up to stifle the sound as she took in the new site that the barber illustrated. The whole front of his body was bright red, covered in fresh, sparkling ruby. A cut that looked deep enough to be fatal ran through his throat, and it all snaked down the curves of his body, making his clothes stick to his skin, and gave him an even worse appearance. Other blood covered his arms and his head, dry and crusty. Not fresh…not his. But this blood obviously wasn't at all shed in here, it was from that night in the bake-house.

Sweeney ran his eyes down his body as he surveyed the blood that covered him. Even he was very much frightened with the appearance he suddenly portrayed.

Suddenly, Mrs. Lovett was flooded with the overwhelming, throat choking smell of smoke. She looked away from Sweeney and looked down at her own skirt. She watched as burning, crispy flakes at the end of her dress disintegrated, embers burning an orange, hot, thin line at the edge as it all disappeared up to her knee. Even after it stopped the ends still remained burning and flakey. The disappearance of her dress reveled badly scorched flesh beyond the fabric. Her shoes were gone, her socks were burnt away, and all that remained now was the deadly looking burns. And as Mrs. Lovett blinked back the tears forming in her eyes and lifted her hands to her face, there, at eye level, she was terrified to see her hands and arms covered in the same, disgusting, peeling, burnt skin.

"Oh my god…" Mrs. Lovett muttered as more holes appeared in dress in random spots, all revealing dark, shriveled, scorched skin.

Nellie looked up, the world now just a blur behind the layer of tears covering her eyes. From the look Sweeney was giving her, the horrified eyes, the frightened look she'd never thought she'd see on him, she could tell that her face didn't look any better than the rest of her body.

Toby staggered backward, wide eyed and frightened of the two. Mrs. Lovett with her disturbingly burnt skin, Mr. Todd with the bright red rubies covering his body.

But Toby soon remembered himself… He turned his hands over and over in front of him, running his eyes down his body…searching for some reason that his reflection was also among the ones hidden in the mirror.

Suddenly remembering, the boy ran for the cellar doors, making it his mission to see if there was the presence of anything still lying at the bottom of those steps…

Exchanging one glance filled with hurt and confusion, the barber and the baker scuttled after Toby, not being able to comprehend fully what was happening to them. Mrs. Lovett even habitually lifted her dress as she ran after the boy, but she knew she didn't have to, she could no longer feel the full weight of it on her shoulders. In fact, she couldn't feel the weight of anything at the moment, not ever her own weight seemed to be present.

The two got to the small hallway between the parlor and the pie shop in time to watch Toby whip open the heavy cellar doors and freeze in horror.

There, at the bottom of the steps, with his limbs in a horribly painful looking position, and a small trickle of blood in a pool on the floor, was a lifeless Toby.

"That's me…" Toby mumbled in horror from atop the flight. He didn't even realize he'd moved at all until he found himself at the bottom of the stairs, kneeling next to his body.

"When…when I fell down the stairs…" he trailed off and looked up at the barber and the baker, looking horrified and frozen at the top of the stairs. "I don't feel any different!" he choked as the back of his throat began to ache tremendously. "Do I look any different?" he asked, his words bumpy.

He glanced back down at the boy on the cold, cement floor beneath him. It was undoubtedly Tobias Ragg. Dingy brown hair, dark, innocent eyes, small, all too fragile body. There was no use denying it. It was him. It was his body.

"Sometimes a head injury…doesn't look like much…" Sweeney mumbled to everyone's surprise.

Nellie still couldn't find words. She couldn't find the strength beneath the heaviness in her chest. Because maybe she couldn't feel anything physically all of the sudden, but that only made the emotional heaviness weigh a million times more.

Mr. Todd started a sharp descent down the stairs, eager to creak open the heavy bake house door and see what lay beyond it.

"Wait! Mr. T!" Mrs. Lovett called, her voice cracking as he turned around, annoyance now being the only thing covering his face. She gulped and muttered out, "I don't want to see what's down there…"

Mr. Todd glared at her, staring the deathly daggers straight into her chest. "There's nothing to see of you, pet," he grumbled and walked the rest of the way down.

Mrs. Lovett swallowed her tears painfully and followed the barber.

Nothing much registered for the baker after she reached the bottom step and her bare feet failed to feel the chill of the bake house floor. She remembered slightly the red blood still splattered on the wall. She remembered slightly watching Mr. Todd as he drug his feet over to where his body sat, still cradling his dead wife in his arms. She remembered thinking how Mr. Todd had spent his last seconds hoping he'd hold his real Lucy like this as soon as the pain stopped…but here he was. She remembered watching Mr. Todd kneel on the other side of the two dead bodies, and bow his head, mirroring his own corpse.

And Mrs. Lovett remembered spinning around, her eyes darting from Toby at the bottom of the stairs, to the bloody chute in the ceiling, to Mr. Todd, to the bake oven, still teasing her with its flames burning hot, to the meat grinder and back again.

And Nellie remembered repeating over and over, "I don't understand…I don't understand…I don't understand…" Only this time, her voice didn't echo off of the bake house walls…

Tehehe Happy Halloween!

But don't fret to much! The story isn't even close to being over!

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