"Anthony, wake up, wake up."
Anthony opened his eyes. He was still on the ship. Not that he was surprised by now; it had happened every morning for the past month or two, or three. They should be almost there by now.
But usually Carrie didn't yell at him to wake up. He sat up and looked at her. Her usual overly perky smile was missing, and she seemed almost normal except that she had been crying and looked as though she hadn't slept that night.
"Yes?" He responded cautiously.
She just stared at him. Anthony wasn't sure what was going on.
"Anthony?" She looked lost. Then she burst into tears. Anthony looked in awe. He had no idea what was going on.
"L...look Carrie, what is the matter?"
She stopped sobbing. "I… it's my entire fault."
"What is?" he responded trying to be patient. Which was something he was usually good at, but somehow it was not there for him, at that moment.
She looked up and walked to the connecting bars of their cells. Her tears were still coming. "I…I should have know better, I should have seen, I should have died with her. I helped her…."
Anthony was confused, but allowed her to go on.
"I helped her….damn it I helped her….I helped her kill….and helped her get away with it….how stupid could I have been….how stupid…."
Her façade had cracked. And now it had shattered. She began bawling again, and many of the other prisoners began to swear at her, and yell for her to shut up. This only made it worse.
The guards had to come and tell her to shut up or else, before she at least stopped bawling. After they left and most people when back to sleep, or back into their minds, she approached Anthony again.
"Anthony? Am I evil? For helping?" she whispered quietly.
Anthony wasn't sure he was qualified to answer that with what little knowledge he had. But he tried anyway.
"Not if you had no idea what you were doing."
It was true, Anthony thought, or at least he hoped it was true. Or else he was sure that he would be in even bigger trouble. He had helped in someway bring about the chaos in the bake house, however that happened, he had played some role. And Anthony liked to think, that because of his naivety, that he wasn't evil for helping along such madness, and death.
Carrie smiled slightly. She went back to her mat and lay down.
And Anthony lay down too. He thought again about what he could remember of that red blur of a night. His thoughts turned to Toby, razor held high, laughing madly, and mumbled things. A bit like Carrie and a bit younger too. Then slowly a piece of the puzzle slid into place in his mind.
Toby didn't kill all those people. No, just one. Just Sweeney Todd. Because he had killed the rest of those people and he was scared of him, and hated himself for not having seen it coming.
Just like Anthony couldn't help but feel in his darker thoughts aboard this ship. Carrie's cry echoed in his head. "How stupid could I have been… how stupid?"
And Anthony couldn't help but answer it since it was one of his own questions as well. "Very stupid, very stupid indeed."
