So here you are all my loves, a new chappy.

Enjoy and this chapter takes place a few months after the last one

Chapter 15- Thinking nothing of it

I've heard it said that when you dream, you get more real rest, and you wake up feeling less tiered during the day. I don't think I believe this. I simply think it depends on what kind of a dream you're having. Of course, the dream I had that night was one that kept me up for hours on end and made me more tired in the morning.

It was Mr. Barker(Not the first time I've dreamed about him, certainly not the last). I saw him rounding a corner in the streets of London; oh, he looked just as beautiful as the day he left. His face lit up in a smile. His fast walk became a jog as it became clear what he was rushing toward; his home. "Lucy!" He hollered as he bounded up the stairs, taking two or three at a time. "Johanna! I've come home!" He got to the door at the top and of the stairs and jiggled the handle… it's locked.

He peeked inside. "Lucy?" He saw the dust and the emptiness. He saw all of his things and possessions missing. "Ello?" Then he just started pounding on the door. His smile faded, he looked to be becoming frantic. Finally, he gave up his pounding and he turned around and wondered what to do. His beautiful features looked forlorn and lost. It broke my heart, even in the absentness of a dream, to see him in such a state.

In a moment, his face lit up again and he thudded back down the stairs. He ran to the door just to the left of the stair case. His face was overall an array of emotions. His brows were raised high in hope, his cheeks were flushed red with the cold in a way that makes you just want to reach out and place your hands on them to warm and calm him. He was biting his lip, a weak gesture that I never had seen him actually display before and his eyes were dark with sites of the lost years he was gone printed into them but also moist with confusion for the whereabouts of his family.

"Mrs. Lovett!" He shouted pounding on the door to my shop too. "Mrs. Lovett? Are you home?" He glanced in there too… and saw nothing but dust again. All of the color remaining in his pale face flooded out of him and disappeared in the cold puddles of a previous rain below. He leaned up against the door and sighed. Tears rolled down his gorgeous face.

I woke up in the middle of the night embarrassingly whispering to myself . "Don't worry Mr. Barker! I'll come for you," In fact when I sat up, Juliet was sitting on my bed giggling at me. I had told her my dream and she suggested that maybe it's because Mr. Barker was back now. That it was some sort of vision, not that I believe in that stuff.

I hope she's wrong, I cannot imagine Mr. Barker going back to the house now; not with no one home and no one there to explain things. It only made me wish more that Ben and I were out of this place.

After our brief coversation, I somehow managed to fall back into a dreamless sleep

I knew I must have been in the workhouse for at least a couple months because that morning I slept through the wake-up bell.

The first thing I knew in the morning was "ELEANOR LOVETT!" being shouted into my ear.

My eyes shot open as I found the headmaster standing over my bed with a deep scowl on his face. I blinked a few times and whispered, half asleep. "Present?"

He grabbed me by the arm and yanked me out of bed. Then he pulled me close to his face. I was forced to smell his horrid breath as he spat, "See that this does not happen again,"

I scowled back at him, but didn't dare say anything, I knew better then that now. He threw me back down, but not onto the bed. My feet slipped out from under me and I landed hard on the cold cement floor.

All this before I was even really awake.

The breakfast bell rang before I had a chance to ask Juliet or Elizabeth why they hadn't woken me up.

I thought nothing of it when I saw the older girl who took care of Ben, but not Ben in the dining hall that morning. After…

How long has it been? How long have we been here? Well, Christmas was about a month ago so…? Three and a half months… or so?

Well after whatever-amount-of-time we have been here, I had gotten use to Ben not being at meals every once and a while. I now know that what Juliet had said was correct. Whenever he was crying or being too loud (Which apparently was happening a lot more without me around) they would lock him in the ward. He'd be back in the dining hall the next day.

And oh my, how he'd grown. In just two months he seemed to have matured so much, and not entirely in a good way. I never see him smile when I catch a glimpse of him in the dining hall. Not that he has a reason to. I miss his smile, his laugh. The way he seemed to love and trust me so much. Even from the distance I can see how much he misses that too.

As I observed once, he won't even let the girl who cares for him hold him. He simply grasps her hand and doesn't bother to even look up at her…

I'll get us out of here soon enough Ben

Sitting down at breakfast that morning, I remembered. Ben wasn't at any of the meals yesterday either.

I thought this strange but shook it off. I probably hadn't seen him at supper yesterday. He'll be back for dinner, right?

But then, he wasn't at dinner. At least not that I saw. Perhaps he's sitting in a new place. Perhaps another older child is caring for him right now.

But as supper rolled around, Ben still wasn't to be seen. For whatever reason… I still thought nothing of it.

How foolish of me.

When the last bell of the day rang and everyone scurried off to their dormitories, I still thought nothing of it. When I sat down on my bed with Elizabeth and Juliet across from me to talk, I still thought nothing of it.

I hadn't gotten a chance to say anything to the girls before the fat man who I hadn't seen since he had talked to Katie all those months ago came into the room and said very loudly, "MRS. LOVETT?"

I gave Elizabeth and Juliet a look before standing up. I whispered half sarcastically, "Why didn' you wake me up this morning? Now look what you've gotten me into!"

Juliet smirked before I turned around and walked to the front of the room to see what the short fat man wanted.

I should've been more worried.

I should've thought more of it.

Especially when I saw the pudgy man standing at the front of the women's ward calling my name.

I shouldn't have figured that he was coming to give me a lashing for what had happened this morning.

I shouldn't of.

I should've known.

O.o