Chapter Eight

Blood

Gyda watched with horror as the blood squirted from the dead man's throat, her own desire of feeding off of it almost being too much for her to handle. She gazed up at the man before her with surprised eyes and fear – not of him, but what she could do if she let herself go – wondering what to do next with the body.

Without thinking, she covered her mouth and looked away from the killer in front of her, not being able to have a conversation with him just yet as she could hear someone coming up the stairs. She watched silently and with slight annoyance with herself as her body clung to the position she was in and letting Mr. Todd stare at her with suspicion and wariness.

Before he could open his mouth to say anything, Gyda grunted and chewed the inside of her cheek subconsciously as she now calmed her nerves after about ten minutes enough to be able to talk without it being too much of a worry to do. Her ears began to twitch and her eyebrows furrowed in thought as the familiar sounds of feet came climbing up his stairs and towards his shop.

Gyda watched his black hair move as his head followed the sounds of feet, his eyebrows narrowed and his mouth pulled down in a scowl. It seemed he didn't want any more customers today and her eyes caught wind of Nellie's hair just before she even reached the door.

Mrs. Lovett busted into the room with a tired look on her face, not noticing the looks on either party's faces. Mr. Todd turned away from the door and started to clean his razor, whilst Gyda avoided looking in the cabinet beside her at all costs. "That lad is drinking me out of house and home," she stated with a sigh, looking to be in a better mood than before.

"How long till Pirelli comes back?" Mrs. Lovett looked around, her hands on her waist with a confident aura surrounding herself. The white-haired beauty finally took a step forward since the killing and patted her friend on the back with a soft smile on her face. "He won't be back." Sweeney turned to face the Baker from downstairs and didn't even look up from his weapon.

Mrs. Lovett gasped in shock. "Mr. T, you didn't," She said in displeasure, disappointment swirling in her eyes. Sweeney only looked at the box, to which Mrs. Lovett closed the door and waddled over slowly. She lifted up the lid, letting out a deranged gasp before Gyda walked over to the chair, looking out the window.

"You're barking mad. Killing a man that had done you no harm," Nellie declared, looking at her long lost friend with a look of disapproval. "He recognised me from the old days. Tried to blackmail me. Half me earning and Gyda." Sweeney dropped his razor from his line of sight to glaze over at Nellie Lovett. "Oh, well. That's a different matter, then. For a moment there, I thought you had lost your marbles." The baker shrugged her shoulders before lifting the lid once more.

Gyda could hear her grumble in disgust from her position in the chair. "All that blood. Poor bugger. Oh well." It was like everything was trying to torment the red-eyed female into letting out her secret. Gyda denied herself from looking over, but could sense fabric being pulled and blood squash underneath Nellie's hand before a rattle of coin was enveloping the air.

"Well, waste not, want not." Gyda continued to look out the window, before she got up and decided it was time to man up and deal with the problem as it goes. "So," Nellie trailed off, dropping the lid back over the bloody corpse. "What do we gonna do with the boy, then?" Gyda felt her mouth open and close as she asked the important question.

"Send him up," Sweeney spoke softly, glancing to Gyda, who nodded her head and went to grab the boy, but Nellie stopped her with a hand touching her forearm. "Oh, we don't need to worry about him. He's a simple thing," Mrs. Lovett argued. "Send him up!" Sweeney was getting impatient with Mrs. Lovett's answers.

Now, Mr. T, surely one is enough for today." Gyda looked up at her friend with a wonder on how daring the crazy woman go to, to get her way with Mr. Sweeney Todd here. "Besides, I was thinking of hiring the lad to help me around the shop." Mrs. Lovett stood closer to Mr. Todd, who looked discontent and uncomfortable with how close the two were at the moment.

Mr. Todd seemed to lock eyes with Gyda and was looking at her for some sort of guidance or acceptance which left the Two-hundred year old vampire thinking. "Me poor knees aren't what they used to be." The barber only nodded his head and walked away. "All right."

"Of course, we are going to have to stock up on the gin. Boy drinks like a sailor." Gyda only chuckled at her friend's words before she saw Sweeney's eyes narrow with confusion and tilted her head to the side with curiosity. 'What is he looking at?' She thought to herself, biting her tongue to refrain from making a noise.

"The Judge."

Both females' faces turned from one of confusion to one of acceptance and understanding. Both knew about Sweeney's horrid past with the Judge and could understand what it meant for him to see him in person after fifteen years of being falsely charged for something he didn't understand other than his wife was beautiful.

He turned to see the two were still in the room and eyed the door. "Get out," he demanded, his voice below the average tone of his normal voice, but louder than a whisper. He gritted his teeth when Mrs. Lovett didn't oblige and growled out "Get out!" Before she did as told of her. Gyda went to go with her, when she was stopped by his voice.

"Not you. The Judge can't see you. Hide somewhere in this room and stay there. Do not talk to him, do not glance at him. Got it?" The warmth in Sweeney Todd's eyes when looking at her usually, was gone. Instead, demons swirled in the black bits of his eyes, almost daring her to disobey their orders and see what would happen next. "What about the blood on your shirt? He'll see it," She said in a hushed whisper, concerned for the possible well-being of the man before her. Sweeney chuckled at her before shaking his head. "He won't. Now hide. Go."

Gyda nodded her head compliantly, not bothered to start an argument when she knew that the Judge was a man that she didn't want to meet anyway. She found a spot beside the curtains that led to a small door that could only possibly enter to his lair, so she stood still as she waited patiently for the time where she was able to reveal herself from the curtains once more.