A/N: The Reviews are greatly appreciated! thanks for the support!
Disclaimer: Yup don't own.
I breathed deeply and closed my eyes for a few moments, leaning up against Cole's headstone. He was in the same cemetery as the Damons. Why couldn't it have been me or someone else? Why a whole family? It seemed that I was not meant to have family. Mom was killed, dad committed suicide, Cole was gas-poisoned and now the Damons were dead. Dead, dead, dead, I was surrounded by death. Now I could only hope that Aunt Bella wouldn't be next.
I refused to believe that the Damons just dropped dead. They were practical people; they wouldn't be as insolent as to let the gas from the gas-fireplace fill their house and lungs. But yet, all the evidence pointed towards it. Still… perhaps I just didn't want to believe my second family was dead. I heard the rustling of a few dead leaves, but thought nothing of it. I focused on the task at hand: figuring what really happened to the Damons.
More rustling, just more annoying noise really. I tried tuning it out, but found that to be very difficult as the noise grew closer. Unable to ignore it any longer, I stood up from the ground. Much to my relief and partly to my chagrin, it was Aunt Bella.
"Hey kiddo," she said quietly as she walked over to me, hands in the pocket of her zip-up hoodie. "How's it going?" I could practically read "Sympathy" on her forehead. Well I didn't need sympathy; I was sixteen and could take care of myself.
"Pretty good," I shrugged, "mulling over things," more of trying to investigate really. Though everything added up, something still didn't make sense. The Damons wouldn't let themselves leave this place so easily. Aunt Bella sighed.
"Jamie love, it's not good to dwell on these things." I felt my mood darken. Aunt Bella called me 'love'. That was what Mrs. Lovett called me; only Mrs. Lovett. I stood up from the ground, brushing off my jeans. A few dead leaves crunched under my feet; autumn was drawing nearer.
"Jamie," Aunt Bella called after me as I started my walk home. "Please don't be like this," she quietly begged. I knew what she meant. Don't be moody like this; don't distance myself from the world like this. But it was something I just couldn't help. It was who I was; distant and moody.
I stopped my walking and turned on my heels to face Aunt Bella once more. "I need to go back," I told her, more than sure she had no clue what I was talking about. "Back home I mean," I elaborated. "I need to go back to Fleet Street."
Aunt Bella stared at me blankly. I guess it did sound sort of insane when spoken aloud. I wanted to go back to the used-to-be haunted pie shop on Fleet Street. But I did, it was home. It was more of a home than when I had a home with my parents and Cole. After mom and dad died, our home was sort of broken.
"I'm sorry Jamie- you what?" Aunt Bella slightly leaned in, wanting to make sure that she heard me wrong. Never breaking my gaze from her eyes, I repeated.
"I want to go back to Fleet Street." Truth be told, I had an odd feeling about it, like I would find something there. Something important, maybe even a clue as to what really caused the death of the Damons.
Aunt Bella opened her mouth to argue with me, but saw no use. She knew how I was: stubborn. When my mind was made up, it took a lot of time and a good persuading argument to convince me to change my mind.
"Fine," she sighed, putting her hands back in her pockets. "Fine I'll drive you there tomorrow." That sounded like a good plan, except for the tomorrow part.
I shook my head in disagreement. "No, tonight, you'll drive me there tonight," I insisted. It had to be tonight. Aunt Bella was becoming a little fed up with my antics but because my close friends died, she was just being nice. I could tell. Cole was the same way when mom and dad died. Always took it easy around me, if I didn't want to do homework he wouldn't force me to. Even the teachers were being wary and it was rather annoying. But this time I would use it to my full advantage.
"Very well, I'll bring you back to Fleet Street tonight." And with that, Aunt Bella walked away and I could let out my happiness.
I was going home! 186 Fleet Street would soon be in my view. I could almost smell the musty scent of the old pie shop mixed in with the aroma of dried blood… hm, now that I think about it, perhaps growing up on Fleet Street for a year wasn't very… healthy. But home was home and I couldn't wait to go back.
My feet pounded against the ground as I ran back to Aunt Bella's house. I was going to burst into my room but that sort of backfired. My door was closed all of the way, unlike what I had thought and crashed into the door. "Ow," I moaned, rubbing my forehead. That was the second time that week that had happened. I opened my door properly and stepped inside my room.
I reached for my suitcase that was placed under my bed. I wasn't just planning on going to Fleet Street; I was going to stay for a few days. I tossed random, most likely not matching clothes into my suitcase and zipped it up.
"I'll be in the car!" I shouted into the house and dashed to the vehicle, taking my place in the front seat after tossing my suitcase in the back. Minutes later, Aunt Bella got into the driver's seat and we headed out.
The ride couldn't have seemed longer. I did everything I could to keep myself entertained. I blasted the radio, listened to my iPod, stared out the window absent-mindedly. Finally, after what seemed like years of traveling in the car, we arrived.
"I don't understand what this will accomplish," Aunt Bella sighed, about to get out of the car.
"You can wait here," I stopped her. She wouldn't listen to me though.
"No that's alright; I want to see the place you lived in for a year. How on earth you managed to do that, I'll never know." She muttered the last part, but I heard her loud and clear, taking a bit of offensive. Did she think me incapable of such responsibilities? Feeling a tad bit offended, I stepped up to the pie shop door. This was it; I was going to see what this place looked like after not being here for a year. Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the door, smiling faintly as the bell dinged like it always did.
Memories came flooding back to me. Me first stepping into the place, meeting Mrs. Lovett for the first time, meeting Sweeney for the first time, Eric Hope coming over and finding out who my adoptive parents were. Everything, good and bad, came back to mind.
These are my friends, see how they glisten
See this one shine, how he smiles in the light
My friend, my faithful friend
I glanced around. I could have sworn I heard a voice sing. It sounded like Sweeney. But that was quite impossible seeing how he was dead.
I'm your friend too Mr. Todd
If you only knew Mr. Todd
Ooh, Mr. Todd you're warm in my hand
There it was again, the singing. Only this time, it was Mrs. Lovett's voice that I had heard. Still, they were both dead, for real this time. I was probably just reminiscing a little too much. At least that's what I hoped.
Aunt Bella stayed put by the door. The place seemed to terrify her. I didn't blame her, this place was supposedly haunted. Actually I know for a fact it was haunted, I met the ghosts themselves. Floorboards creaked underneath my feet as I stepped back outside and went up the barber shop stairs.
The bell tingled like the one in the pie shop did; only it seemed less cheerful. Like the demon barber himself. I shook my head, not wanting to think about that at the moment for the pain was too much to handle. My mind was quickly distracted from thoughts of Sweeney because of what was going on in the barber shop.
I couldn't believe my eyes. Surely this was just a hallucination! I didn't want to believe it, but some part of me did. No, this couldn't actually be happening. Before me, Sweeney was facing the window, kneeling with Mrs. Lovett behind him with a hand on his shoulder. This just couldn't be real.
Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney were back.