Title: The Demon on Academy Street
Genre: romance, tragedy, horror
Rating: M for language, violence, and suggested themes
Pairings: JohanXJudai (spiritshipping); hinted others
Summary: Based on "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street". After fifteen hard years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, Johan Andersen, now adopting the name Jehu Ralleigh, returns to London to find his beloved husband supposedly dead and his son in the hands of the evil Lord Viper. In his anger, Johan goes on a murderous rampage on all London. With the help of Ms. Asuka Tenjoin, an old friend of his, he opens a barber shop in which he lures his victims with a charming smile before casually ending their lives with a flick of his razor across their necks. But not one man nor ten thousand men killed can satisfy Johan's lust for vengeance on those who've caused his years of pain and the loneliness of losing his family. But to get his revenge, all he needs to do now is try to convince the wicked lord who accused him of the crime, raped his husband and drove him to supposedly committing suicide, and stole his son, to sit in his chair of death.
Me: The next chapter, the final chapter, is up and a-running, peoples! Johan just found out the mother of all secrets, and now, this chapter will show just how he handles it!
Lucy: But will it turn out to be all happy-happy in the end, or is it sad?!
Me: Read on!
Chapter Twenty: The Finale Part III
"Oh no... Oh God..." Johan breathed silently, looking down at the beggar before him. The beggar laid before him on the ground, on his side, eyes closed as if he were in a peaceful sleep. Dark brown hair hung limply in front of some part of his face, and it was a bit longer than Johan remembered. The cut across his neck was bleeding slightly, not as deep as Johan had believed it was.
Johan reached down and cupped the beggar's cheek, his eyes wide, his body trembling.
"'Don't I know you?' he said..." he murmured. Johan turned and locked eyes with Asuka. "You knew he lived. From the first moment that I walked into your shop, even before then, you knew my Judai lived!"
Asuka's eyes widened at the accusation. "I did not! I was only thinking of you!" she cried.
Johan brought the beggar's limp body into his arms and peered down at him. He tore a piece of cloth from his shirt and wrapped it around the boy's bleeding throat.
"Judai..." Johan whispered his husband's name, letting tears fall after so long.
"Your Judai!" Asuka pointed to the beggar in Johan's arms. "A crazy beggar picking bones and rotten spuds out of alley trash-cans! Would you have wanted to know that was all that was left of him?!"
Johan glanced at Asuka with hurt written across his face. Asuka saw the tears that were streaming from his emerald eyes, staining his cheeks, since he had not cried on so long.
"You lied to me!" Johan accused in a broken voice.
Asuka put on a nearly straight face, her eyes showing all of her emotions. She looked depressed and sad and lonely all at the same time. Her hands clenched the material of her dress.
[Asuka]
No, no, not lied at all.
No, I never lied.
I just did not tell all.
"Judai..." Johan sobbed, pressing his forehead against that of his husband.
[Asuka]
Said he took the poison, he did.
Never said that he died.
Poor thing,
He lived.
Asuka spoke somewhat quickly, as if trying to explain her story before Johan got fed up with her chatter and killed her. He seemed to be ignoring her as she spoke. He only had eyes for his husband.
"I've come home again..." Johan whispered to the man he held in his arms, brushing some of the man's hair from his face.
[Asuka]
But it left him weak in the head,
All he did for months was just lie there in bed.
Said he jumped off a cliff into the sea, he did.
Poor thing,
He lived, it would seem.
"Judai..." Johan breathed. He couldn't seem to hold the man he loved close enough. He thought about all the times he had seen the beggar. He knew now that Judai recognized him.
Johan hated himself for not recognizing Judai sooner. If he had, then maybe...
Johan couldn't feel the man's gentle breaths, so weak and frail they were that they went unnoticed. Johan believed that the man he was holding in his arms was truly dead.
Asuka took a step forward.
[Asuka]
Should've been in hospital,
Wound up in Bedlam instead,
Poor thing!
"Oh, my God..." Johan murmured to himself, remembering merely moments ago when the beggar, his beloved Judai, had whispered 'Don't I know you, Mister?'. Johan had slashed his throat open.
Johan tightened his hold on his husband as he recalled that moment.
[Asuka]
Better you should think he was dead.
Better you not see what your beloved had become!
Yes, I lied 'cos I am your friend!
Asuka walked over and tried to place a hand on Johan's shoulder, but the bluenette jerked away from her and just kept peering down at the man he held so close to his chest in his arms.
"Judai..."
Asuka clenched her fists and bunched up some of the material to her black dress. "I thought the same as you! I thought he was dead as well! I found out that he lived when I saw him a few days ago!" she cried.
Asuka closed her eyes and thought about why she had done what she had done. She should have told him that she knew Judai was alive. She should have told him the moment she found out. But she did not want him to see what had happened to Judai. She didn't want him to see the mess that being raped had turned Judai into.
"I didn't tell you to protect you from seeing what he had become!" she told the bluenette.
As usual, Johan didn't answer her. He just kept staring down at the man in his arms, tears streaming from his green eyes, landing on the lips and face of the man that he loved.
"What have I done?!" Johan cried out loudly, to the heavens.
"Could your heart have bared seeing the one you love like this?!" Asuka demanded to know the answer. She had to know what Johan would habe done if he had known.
Johan placed a soft kiss on Judai's forehead and laid him down on the stone ground. He rose to his feet and turned to Asuka with a sadistic smirk on his lips that made the blond take a step back.
[Johan]
Miss Asuka,
You're a bloody wonder,
Eminently practical and yet
Appropriate as always.
As you've said repeatedly,
There's little point in dwelling on the past.
Johan took a step towards Asuka, but the blond didn't trust him as much as she had wanted to. She looked down and saw that his razor was on the floor.
She stepped forward to the bluenette and kicked the razor far away, so that Johan had no access to it. It landed right near the grates that led down to the sewers. If worse came to worse, Asuka could just kick it down in, and Johan wouldn't get it.
[Asuka]
Do you mean it?
Everything I did I swear
I thought
Was only for the best,
Believe me!
Can we still be
Friends?
No, come here, my love...
Not a thing to fear,
My dear...
What's dead
Is dead.
Johan grabbed Asuka's hand and drew her forward, as if he were going to start a dance with her. Asuka peered up into his eyes, the eyes of a man who had lost everything in the world.
[Johan]
The history of the world, my friend.
Asuka looked to the beggar's body. She believed he was dead, but she thought that maybe, if they were lucky, there would be a chance that Judai was still breathing and that he could be saved.
[Asuka]
Oh, Mr. Ralleigh,
Ooh, Mr. Ralleigh,
Maybe he can be saved...
[Johan]
Is learn forgiveness and try to forget.
Johan ignored what Asuka had said and twirled her around, his eyes narrowed a great amount. Asuka pushed away from Johan and decided to think positive, but her positive thoughts started to die.
[Asuka]
Maybe he can be saved,
Maybe the poison didn't harm him too bad.
Maybe he always knew it was you,
And yet...
Maybe he can't be saved...
Johan glared when she said that.
[Johan]
And life is for the alive, my dear,
So let's keep living it-!
[Both]
Just keep living it,
Really living it-!
As soon as they stopped, Johan turned and walked back to Judai. He sunk to his knees besides the weak beggar and lifted the man that he had... no, still loved, into his arms. More tears returned.
Asuka took a step forward, but Johan whirled on her and glared.
"Leave me, you hear!?" he shouted, causing Asuka to jump in terror. He pointed to the stairs. "Go upstairs and clear out that shop! We leave tomorrow night!"
Asuka pursed her lips and looked to Judai's weak and frail form. "Oh, Mr. Ralleigh..." she mumbled, fiddling with a piece of her hair. "What if he can't be saved? What if he's-"
"No! Get out!" Johan shouted at her, like a madman. Asuka jumped and took a few steps away from the barber. "Go pack up and wait! Grab the boy, get the girl, and get out!"
His tone was utterly broken. He sounded like he had just lost everything in the world that meant the most to him. He almost had. Asuka frowned and curtsied to her old friend.
"Yes, Mr. Ralleigh. We'll wait upstairs for you," she told him.
Asuka turned and fled up the stairs to pack, waiting for Johan to come up the stairs after her and pack up his stuff. Johan heard the door to the basement close tightly behind her.
He peered down at Judai and brushed some of the boy's brown hair away from his face.
[Johan]
There was a barber and his husband,
And he was beautiful.
A foolish barber and his husband,
He was his reason and his life.
And he was beautiful.
And he was virtuous.
And the barber was...
Naive.
Tears sprang to his eyes again, and Johan clutched Judai as close as he could. "What have I done, Judai? What have I done?" the bluenette breathed through his sobs. "Forgive me..."
Johan heard a sound behind him. He glanced over and spotted a very dirty Martin climbing from the sewer grates. Martin looked at the pies, the oven, to Viper's body, and then to the body that Johan was cradling in his arms. Johan turned away and peered down at Judai. He buried his head in the nape of the boy's neck.
"Mr. Ralleigh..." Martin took a step towards Johan.
"Leave me..." Johan breathed.
Martin looked at Viper and then over to Judai's body. He noticed how beautiful the brunette was, and he instantly felt bad about having thrown the beggar out of the pie shop so many times.
"Mr. Ralleigh..." Martin began softly. "Don't you know..." he whispered, looking around at the pies, the bodies, and at the razor that had done it all in the first place. "It's not nice... to hurt people?"
Johan whirled on the boy with a venomous glare.
"Out, I say! Pack your things and get out!" he shrieked his command to the boy like a demon.
Martin turned and flew up the stairs to Asuka, who told him to pack and to wait for Johan so that they could close down the shop and prepare to leave, leaving London forever and never returning. A new life.
Johan clenched Judai and cried.
He cried for what felt like countless hours. Fifteen years of pain and heartbreak was released as he sobbed. Judai, his Judai, his reason to live. His whole world was in his arms, dead.
Johan felt something shift in his arms, but he did not look down.
"Ohh..."
The voice sounded like an angel, a soft, weak whimper. Johan's eyes widened, and he glanced down, seeing the beggar in his arms shift slightly, eyes squeezed tightly, as one does just before waking up.
The brunette slowly let his eyelids flutter open, and he looked right up into teary emerald eyes.
"J-Johan?" he breathed.
The barber was silent for the longest time. So many things he wanted to say. He wanted to hold the man he loved, kiss him, and let him know that they would never be separated again.
But Johan remembered what he was going to say when he saw Judai after all these years.
"Judai..." Johan whispered.
He touched the brunette's cheek with the tips of his fingers. The cloth around Judai's neck was covered in blood, but Judai would live. The brunette looked into Johan's eyes and just stared. Johan smiled at the man he loved, stroking his cheek with the tips of his fingers. Judai didn't even seem to mind the blood on Johan's body.
"I'm home."
---
Me: Yes! Judai lives! Hah! How's that for a twist ending, y'all?! In the original Sweeney Todd, we all know how that one ended, so we decided to do a little difference and changed the ending to one that everyone would like!
Lucy: We hope you enjoyed this story, and we want you all to know that there is an alternate ending to this, though you can all probably imagine how that turns out, and yet, we will update it soon, anyway, as a bonus chapter!
Me: Please review nicely, and thank you all for reviewing and reading this story! We hope to have the alternate ending up as soon as we can, so please, everyone, review!
Both: Thank you all!