The Life and Death of Benjamin Barker
By SimplyElymas
Author's Note
I'm amazed by the quality of the writing in the Sweeney fandom, so my offering is most humble. I'm heavily influenced by the ST revival, but one never knows. I certainly will not be using the asylum idea, which I do love, and has been fictionalized brilliantly, but does not fit my story. If you're curious about my style, it's heavily influenced by both Susanna Clarke and Neil Gaiman. As far as Sweeney goes, I think my writing in the area has been influenced by azurelacroix and BellaSpirita. (If you haven't read their stories, The Epilogue and Death and the Lady, let me tell you something: You're a complete idiot. I was a complete idiot myself until a few months ago, so don't worry. Just read them.)
Disclaimer
I am not, in fact, Christopher Bond, Stephen Sondheim, John Doyle, or any of those nice people. (I'm also not Madonna, Fabio, Barbara Bush, or Michael Crawford. You know, just for the record.)
Prologue: Habeas Corpus
Well, naturally, my old friend, but they haven't a body. No one can prove anything without a body.
Mr. Henry Barker, in conversation.
But the body is deeper than the soul and its secrets inscrutable
- E. M. Forster
On a cold February morning in 1846, the body of a man was found, throat slit, in the bake house of Lovett's World Famous Meat Pies, Fleet Street, London. He was very pale, and completely clean shaven. His red hair was neatly trimmed in the current style, but mussed as though he had been in a fight, and streaked through with gray.
A necklace of delicate blood droplets dripped down his throat, pooling like a jewel in the hollow of his collarbone. His thin, colorless lips were slack, revealing well kept teeth and a wet, red mouth, like a cavern. He wore a fine linen shirt and meticulously washed trousers. When the man was stripped, it revealed a tight, solid body, growing somewhat soft about the middle, with an extraordinarily muscled right arm, noticeably longer than his left. Aside from his head, the man was completely hairless.
Beside him were found the weapons used to kill him – two straight razors with handles of silver. The blades were sharpened to what could only, ironically, be called a razor's edge. They were coated thickly with dried blood. There were no signs that the man had fought for his life. Indeed, on his dead face there seemed almost to be a disquieting smile of relief.
The only thing of value found on the body was a small black ring edged in gold, placed meticulously upon the man's left little finger. Engraved on it in nickel were the words, "From Mr. Barker to Mrs. Barker. Love, Benjamin."
While all evidence found at the scene of the crime pointed seemed to indicate that the man was Benjamin Barker, each and every witness brought in could not help but identify him as the preferred Fleet Street barber and Mrs. Lovett's fiancé, a Mr. Sweeney Todd.