Several hours later, Erik wandered onto Fleet Street. The only good thing about London thus far had been the abundance of shadows and fog to hide in. It would have been massively inconvenient for anyone else, but Erik was not a creature of the light. He tripped over more and more beggars as he walked, finally arriving at the address Anthony and Todd had mentioned on the ship. There was a foul-smelling pie shop on the bottom floor and a drab, unoccupied flat upstairs. There was a dingy, rusted barber's pole at the second story's side-door. Erik was about to steal up the stairs when he caught sight of Todd in the window of the pie shop with a woman Erik didn't know. He tapped the window quietly. Todd was holding something up to the light, staring at it in a very odd way, and he didn't acknowledge Erik. The woman did. She let out an unlovely shriek at the sight of him. Sweeney didn't move or turn around, but motioned Erik into the shop with a wave of his hand. The woman, a small filthy looking little thing with huge eyes, backed away as he entered the shop.
"Dear Lord! And I thought you were a ghost, Mr T!" she gasped. She regained her composure and wiped her hands on her stained apron.
"Another Ghost of Christmas Past?" she asked coldly.
"The Lord, nor Christmas have anything to do with me, madam," Erik said quietly. He saw a flash of smile pass her face before it corrected itself into a distrustful frown. She didn't seem too afraid of him, but careful, guarded, and somewhat worn down by life itself.
"My Lucy....no one cared! They let him...they..." Todd was muttering to himself.
"Sweeney?" Erik whispered, lowering his voice to a soft purr. Sweeney visibly stiffened turned to Erik, his eyes glazed and rolling with shock. For the first time, Erik could see what Sweeney was holding so lovingly. A razor, a beautiful razor of silver. There was a box with several more on the table near Sweeney.
"Speak to me, dear friends...tell me what to do..." Todd whispered softly to the silver.
"Tell me what they did so that I may know how messy we should make the revenge!" Erik urged softly, gently into Sweeney's ear. Todd trembled, and the visage of a revenge-obsessed madman slipped to reveal a man broken and destroyed by the world.
"She loved me...she loved me to the end and she would not succumb to Judge Turpin's advances...She loved me so much she turned him away, but somehow he lured her to his house and he...he..." Todd shook his head, refusing to continue. Erik understood. He glanced over his shoulder where the woman was standing with her arms crossed.
"She poisoned herself out of shame," she said simply. Todd shuddered violently and Erik thought for a moment the barber would burst into tears.
"My Lucy's dead!" he whispered. Mrs. Lovett shifted from foot to foot a little gave the woman a hard stare. Oh, no, Lucy is not dead. Mrs. Lovett was too nervous at the mention of her. The woman met his eyes and, Erik raised his head almost imperceptivity. She froze, staring at him in what seemed very close to terror, realizing he'd caught her lying. Erik shook his head slowly, agreeing to keep the secret, then bent to Sweeney.
"He will pay. We will make him pay," Erik whispered into Todd's ear again. Todd bent his head to the razor once more, murmuring to it. Abruptly, he straightened and turned fully to Erik.
"He will die for what he did to Lucy!" he growled. He stood there for a moment, before his eyes finally cleared and focused on Erik's mask.
"You and I shall have our revenge! This is Mrs Lovett. She will assist us," Todd said, gesturing to the woman, who gave Erik a quick smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Care for a pie, sir? I promise I'll make sure there's nothing in it that shouldn't be," she said. A glance at the counter and Erik declined. She shrugged, as if she had expected no different.
"Well, then, let's get down to business, shall we? In order to bring customers, say the judge and your bonnie lass's beau to the shop, we need to advertise a bit. There's this barber who sets up shop in the market. Mr Todd will have to upstage him first. Quite the finch-bird, he is!" she said, pushing the two down at a table. Her accent and quick-talking made her nearly impossible for Erik to understand her. Todd grunted softly in agreement, the distant glaze coming to his eyes again.
"And Christine?" Erik asked. Todd ignored him, but Mrs Lovett gave him an indulgent smile with frost around the edge.
"Well, I'll keep an eye out for 'er. There ain't too many other Frenchies in town, and they'd all come to market, so a bit of asking and she'll be discovered. Later, we'll figure out how best to find your bonnie girl!" Mrs Lovett replied, patting him on the shoulder. He flinched away, glaring at her.
Sweeney felt sick to his stomach. His Lucy, his beautiful Lucy had been raped and murdered by Turpin! Perhaps the judge hadn't actually administered the dose, but he was not free from guilt! He killed Lucy just as if he had put a pistol to her head. And Johanna was in his care! Todd thought maniacally about rushing down to the judge's house to barge in and slit the bastard's throat. But he had his razors back, the chased silver razors Mrs Lovett had kept for so long, just for him. They were speaking to him, urging him to use them to exact his vengence, they sang to him so sweetly, it was almost like hearing Lucy's voice again. His resolve was strong again, and now he was determined the world would suffer with him! Starting with Erik, of course. As the man in the mask sat at the table, Sweeney further rehearsed his plan. But first he had to find that girl!
Mrs Lovett offered Erik a place to stay in her parlor, but he politely declined. Sleeping under the same roof with Todd wasn't something Erik felt entirely at ease with. He wandered the streets. It was merely twilight. Across the street, he saw Anthony, wandering aimlessly, lost in thought. Erik surmised he could kill the young man for practice and he wouldn't have noticed, as Anthony bumped into several people on the sidewalk and narrowly avoided a hansom cab, never seeming to notice. His face was creased in near-dispair and he never looked up from his own feet. Erik vaguely recalled the same look on Raoul's face when he and Christine had met on the roof of the Opera House- troubled and rather disgustingly in love. He crossed the street and yanked the young man out of the path of another cart. Anthony's eyes finally unglazed and focused on Erik's.
"Mr. Erik, sir, I..."he stuttered, badly startled.
"Making sure you don't kill yourself, young man." Erik said as he let go of him. The sight of new love, and the pang that went with remembering it, was too much for him tonight. The boy had obviously met some pretty little strumpet and lost his heart at first sight, as Erik had when he first heard Christine's crystalline voice. He pushed the memory away. He knew that getting rid of Raoul would certainly hurt her, but he knew he could make her happy. This little trip would prove to her that he could be just like any normal man. Perhaps then he would finally earn her love.
He passed a rather large house and noticed a small blonde girl staring down at the street from her window. She reminded him a bit of a young Christine... he shook his head, he was seeing Christine in every yellow-haired girl he passed. He hadn't been without her for years, and the pain of her loss was an open, scalding wound to him. Not for the first time, he thought again of ending his own miserable life and forgetting about revenge, to let Christine move on without him. But it's obvious she hasn't, if what Sweeney says is true. Could he leave her insane and raving, could he leave her like that when it was his fault? No, he could ease both their sufferings, take her back to Paris with him. He just had to endure the pain of being without her for a little while longer- and they would both be free. That insufferable boy just simply had to die first. First him then Sweeney.
Yes, the task at hand, sufferings and sorrows aside; Erik wondered exactly what Sweeney was planning for him, for he was sure at this point Sweeney had a plan that involved him in ways that Erik was not going to be happy with. He was also sure that Todd would have to die once revenges were carried out. Todd being as crazy as he was, this would not be an easy task. But he had killed many men before and was sure that one more would not be a problem. Now he had to plan a countermove to Sweeney's plot.