Return Of The Demon

A/N: See! I told you we'd meet some old friends! lol We met Toby (who has mysterious bandages over his eyes...uh oh...you'll learn why in this chapter) and someone with blonde hair. Take a wild guess at who it is!

JEEZ, I was sick all week, my fever ended up peaking at 103.2 on Thursday and I was afraid I wasn't gonna be able to update you guys on the story! But I broke it sometime during last night, and I'm feeling alright now. I got a chest cold (that scuks...) but other than that, I'm rolling right along.

Chapter Fourteen

Such pretty golden locks, tangled and messy, but so damn beautiful. Sweeney wanted to touch them, run his fingers through them, feel the texture on the webs between his fingers. Lucy. That was all that came to mind. Lucy, Lucy, Lucy...oh, Lucy. Love you, love you, love you, oh Lucy, love you...

But it wasn't Lucy. No, it wasn't. It couldn't be. The small heart-shaped face was to young to be Lucy. The eyes, grim with the years, still held the youth of a girl or rather young woman. No, not Lucy, but so similar...ever so similar, it was frightening.

"Johanna-"

It was a scream, loud and earsplitting that broke off his thought like the shattering of glass. Reality slunk its way back into view, revealing the shadow cluttered store before him. The food Toby had been slicing up had fallen to the floor, the knife along with it, a good half inch of its tip stuck in the floor. The poor boy had fallen to the floor, body trembling, hand groping about the floor, edging ever so slowly towards the knife.

And then there was pain. Not a lot, but enough to redirect Sweeney's attention elsewhere. Something had hit him and rather hard if he might add. Whatever it was, it hit the floor with a clatter, the sound echoing off the walls. Sweeney looked down, his cheek throbbing, sure that it was growing darker by the second, to see a...cup, yes, a cup lolling back and forth on the ground. The rim was now broken, shards lying beside it.

"You get out of here!" Johanna shrieked, already pale face gone ten shades of white. Her eyes were wide and fearful, a hand clutched over her heart as if she were having a heart attack. Toby's hand had caught around the handle now, and he gave it a yank and fell backwards on his rump, his grip turning his knuckles white.

"Johanna? Johanna!" Toby cried, clutching the knife to his chest as if it were the last remaining stance between his survival and death. Sweeney supposed it was.

"I said get out! You can't be here! You can't be here!" Johanna cowered back as Sweeney took a step forward. She nearly tripped over her own two feet as she scrambled over to Toby, taking the knife from him. She brandished the knife in Sweeney's direction, causing him to freeze to a halt.

"Forget my face, you bastard," Johanna hissed, her language so violent, so opposite to her pretty face, "That's what you said. Forget my face. I'm forgetting! Now go!"

"Don't talk like that Johanna." Sweeney whispered, taking another step forward.

"Stay away!" Johanna cried, giving the knife a quick jab forward although it was futile. Sweeney was still a good five feet away. He stopped again anyways.

"I'm asking you politely Mr. Todd," Johanna shivered, taking a hold of Toby and nearly crushing him to her bosom, "Leave now or...or I'll call the authorities! I will! I'm not lying! I'll-"

"Johanna, please, put down the knife. You'll hurt yourself."

"Mr. Todd?" The words now came from Toby. He muttered them barely above a whisper, his brow crinkling behind the bandages. Something passed over his face, recognition, fear, something...and the Toby had Johanna about the waist and was dragging her backwards. He was muttering panicked "No, no no's..." into her chest.

"You've already done this to him," Johanna pointed frantically to his eyes, "Before you do something else go back to the rat hole you crawled out of!" She ran a hand through Toby's shaggy hair, cooing in his ear, eyes never leaving Sweeney. He didn't move, but took another step forward...and then another, followed by another and another until finally he was crouching before the two.

Johanna was shaking, the knife still out before her, but she had frozen, unable to move. Toby had gone still as well, sensing Sweeney near him, his senses more acute now that his sight had been lost. If it was entirely lost or perhaps there was just a bad cut. 'Don't be stupid,' A voice accused somewhere in the back of his head, 'The boy's blind.'

"Johanna. Put it down. I know you. You wouldn't hurt-"

"Watch me." Johanna retorted, but there was no venom. It was timid, and she knew that he was right, but refused to believe it. Sweeney reached out and Johanna drew away, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. Sweeney reached out to the quaking weapon, wrapping his hands around the blade, making sure to keep eye contact with the girl he wished more than anything he could tell was his daughter. Johanna did nothing, but refused to let go out of the defense.

"If I was going to hurt you, I would've done it already." Sweeney sighed, almost gently, his other hand slipping over Johanna's. She gasped, jerking the knife a bit, and Sweeney's brow suddenly came together and red spilled over the silver of the blade. Johanna gasped, her hand wrenching away and going to her mouth, the tears tracking over her cheeks now.

Sweeney took the knife and tossed it aside. Ripping the end of his cuff, he wrapped it about his palm, cringing as pain flared up. Johanna had moved away, letting go of Toby who had now scrambled away behind the counter, the sound of items clattering to the floor as he was obviously searching for something.

"How...?" Johanna murmured, watching him with watery eyes. Sweeney didn't know what to say, but rather sat down in front of her, crossing his legs. He felt terribly strange at that moment, as if they had been doing this for the past hour. As if this were no big deal. Like they had been sharing a story around the fire with no worries...only now, Toby was standing over him, hovering in front of Johanna, a jack knife in his possession.

"You need to leave Mr. Todd." Toby said, his voice quivering.

"Toby." Sweeney said it firmly, watching Toby inwardly cringe. The boy had to be about twenty-three now, and he was still so fearful. That made intimidation better though, it made it easier to get under their skin. Although, as he was thinking this, it hit Sweeney that his daughter had to be nearing twenty-six...oh dear Sweet Jesus. She could've already lost her virginity for all he knew, even gotten married and had her first kid. Well, let me tell you, he'd find the man who'd stolen her purity from her and-

"Leave us alone...go back to Hell." Toby didn't sound as confident as he looked, and he knew it. Johanna wrapped a pale hand about his wrist pulling him back. She took the knife from his fingers, placing it on the floor beside her, and putting a chaste kiss on the inside of his wrist.

"We need to renew your bandages dear. Head on up stairs."

"But Miss-" Toby panicked, taking Johanna's hands in his. Johanna rubbed them reassuringly.

"Mr. Todd will not hurt me. If he does, I swear," She glared at Sweeney, "He will be dead like that." She gave a small snap of the fingers. Toby looked uneasy, his slim form shaking.

"We just need to...to talk." She whispered, wiping her eyes, her make-up smudging. Her blonde hair was tousled as she ran a hand through it, the knots becoming worse. Lucy's hair had never looked like that. And as Sweeney sat watching, unable to say a word, his throat dry, he couldn't help but wonder the sudden change in her reasoning. How she had decided to cave into him. Had it been something he said? Or perhaps the lack of hostility? The latter seemed more likely than the former. He would have to ask her once they were alone.

"Forget my face." Yes, Sweeney remembered that. But how did she-

It clicked right then and there. The girlish looking boy all those years ago. The one that had hidden in the trunk, watched him kill that bastard of a judge. The one he had been so close to killing before Mrs. Lovett's terrified screams had echoed up from the basement.

"Forget my face." That boy...that girl. It was Johanna. Now Sweeney really couldn't talk. In fact he wasn't sure if he could breathe. He felt miles away, the ground suddenly seeming to no longer be there.

"Mr. Todd?" Johanna was there before him again, a hand waving before his eyes. Beyond her, Toby had frozen on the stairs, head cocked slightly, and then he made his way up. Sweeney watched him, face crumbling a bit. She had said it was his fault. But...how?

"It killed him from the inside I suppose you could say." Johanna sighed, looking at the stairs, seeming to read his mind. God, she really was Lucy's daughter, despite the messy hair. Sweeney raised an eyebrow as she looked back to him. His dark eyes trailed over her, drinking in every curve and angle that he had never seen grow that he should have.

"Seeing Mrs. Lovett die. Seeing all that blood. For such a small boy, it's so hard to take in. It was horrible really..." Johanna wrung her hands together, staring down at the unkempt nails with distaste. There was dist under them, dust streaking the edges.

"How did...?"

"He came up stairs to your "shop"," Johanna put quotations around the word with her fingers as she pointed up, "He was crying, and I mean, crying. The kind where it seems like your losing your mind. I don't think he knew I was there until I hurried to help him." Sweeney wasn't catching on, growing slightly impatient. Yes, she was her mother. Drawing everything out like any woman would, making the stretch out before getting to the point of it all. She seemed to sense this and looked away, frowning.

"He came up. I was still in the chair and he...he was in hysterics. I-I didn't know wh-what he was going to d-d-do," Johanna had started to cry again, and she hurriedly wiped them away with her fist, but more kept coming, "The razors...they-they were still on the t-table..." She hiccupped violently.

"Johanna-"

"I couldn't stop him. Before I knew what he w-was d-doing...he'd cut out his eyes!"

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I'm so evil! XDXD How'd you like that? I was debating on how to do it, and this little devilish plot just kind of "stuck" itself right in the eye...literally! lol

And yes, I understand, it's cruel. But my friends, that's how I roll. And what's Sweeney Todd without the brutality, huh?