Johanna was restless. She stayed obediently by me, but would always mutter under her breath, pulling at her hair. Not once did she look up at me, but instead she stayed knelt on the floor, her eyes always fixated on a certain point.

I waved a hand past her eyes, but could not distract her. If anything, her muttering increased. I sighed, looking towards Mrs Lovett, who was sitting on the floor herself with Toby on her lap. Almost as if feeling my eyes upon her, she immediately turned to look at me.

"'ow is she coping, love?"

"Obviously, not very well," I replied, looking down on her. I sighed. "Would you look after her? I have been told in exchange for this journey I must take care of some certain business."

Mrs Lovett nodded, patting Toby's back. I scowled at him slightly. I could not understand how Mrs Lovett could still love the boy after what he had almost put us through. How dare he still seem so frightened of me?

I walked off towards the main cabin where a small set of steps- a set which I dared not summarise as a staircase- lay. My face became colder than it had ever been before. The only thing I could hear was the thudding of my feet against the wood and the gradually increasing moans of the prisoners down below.

Mrs Lovett had been right when she assumed that this was a prisoner's ship. She may have been wrong, though, if she assumed I was told to make up for our free journey on this ship. I found that the guards cared very little if we were on or not. They themselves were past caring.

No, the fact was that there was a different interest held for me.

Instead, I wished for a moment simply to gloat.

Once I reached the bottom of the steps, I looked about me. They led straight into the corridor which these prisoners had walked not long ago. On either side of that corridor, there were rows of cells. The moment I started to walk down them, arms shot out of the bars towards me, trying to grab me sleeves. I scowled at all of them, shaking them away from me.

I was only interested in one of those cells.

Oddly enough, it seemed to be the only one that no one was waving from. I stopped in my tracks for mere moments, thinking. I remembered all too clearly when I had been locked away in a place similar to this. I had not been as foolish to scream at those walking by. There had been little point in it now, and it seemed my interest did not think so either.

I carried on walking until I reached the last cell. With a smile, I turned to look into the cell.

"Hello, Anthony."

The figure that had been crouching on the floor of the cell looked up at me.

"Mr Todd?"

I nodded slowly, still grimacing. In a blink of the eye, he had rushed up to the cell door, his hands gripped around the bars until the knuckles turned white, his face a mask of anger.

"What do you think you're doing here!"

"Gloating, if I may say so."

"I'd rather you not to, but I haven't a clue why you are on this boat in the first place! Mr Todd, have you not done me enough trouble?"

"It seems not."

He gritted his teeth, gripping the bars even firmer.

"You must have come here for a reason, now tell me that and leave me be!"

"I came here for no other reason but to tell you this," I said smoothly, staring at him. I saw his eyes had become almost glassy with lost youth. To se it happen to this man sent a warmth through me I had not experienced for so long.

"Tell me what?" he asked curiously.

"Just a little simple something."

My arm reached until I had his collar in my hand, pulling him towards me until our noses almost touched.

"I just want you to know that if you don't die by the end of your first week in prison, I'll be proud of you. But if you don't die, I'm afraid I'm going to have to finish the job for you."

"You couldn't get past the guards," he said fiercely.

"I would have thought that too, but how do you suppose I'm on this boat this very second?"

Anthony opened his mouth slightly, but snapped it closed, thinking it better to say nothing at all. I nodded triumphantly.

"If I can do it once, you should know I can do it again."

"What is your obsession with us?" he asked passionately. "Have you nothing else in your life?"

"Johanna is my life."

"Our rings tell us that we are each others. She is not yours!"

"She is mine for those years that she was not," I said calmly, yet clenching my fist all the same.

"How many times must you be told! Johanna is not your daughter."

"You have no idea, Anthony." I shook my head as I spoke. "The very story would kill you."

"Then if we should meet again, you should tell me it."

"I intend to," I said darkly. Anthony stared at me, looking into my eyes.

"You're a sick man," he said quietly. "Why couldn't you just have been happy for her? For us?"

"I wondered that myself," was my reply. "I really could have. I could have let her be. I could have left her with you. But…Anthony, you've never dreamed of this?"

"Mr Todd, you've become somewhat more melancholy," Anthony said warily.

"Perhaps I always should have stayed so. The truth is, Anthony, I know very well you haven't dreamed as long as I have."

"I've dreamed long enough," he said firmly.

I could not help but chuckle darkly. Shaking my head, I clenched his collar tightly.

"Not as long as I have."

Anthony scowled at me, pulling himself from me. For a moment, he stared, and then with a fury hit the side of his cell with a clenched fist. I heard no wince of pain from the blow, and nor did I see his countenance change from the pure anger he held for me.

"Then if I should admit you've held these dreams for any time longer than I have, when must this become any more than a defeat for me? You may take her, sir, but you shall never require that love which I have found in Johanna."

His words were rushed, barely any sense, but I understood them well. I gripped the bars of the cell wall, gritting my teeth.

"You think too little of me. I have no lustful thoughts for her. How may I do so? She is my daughter, nothing more and nothing less. The very idea…I simply could not fathom it. I have bought my ticket to Hell, and need no such thoughts as those to gain my entrance any quicker."

Anthony seemed almost to snarl after I had finished, and started to pace his cell.

"I have little left to drive me to death. I do not need you here to complete it."

"You wouldn't possibly be able to tell how much fun it is," I said quietly.

Before Anthony could even turn to face me, I was gone.

I had taken my vendetta. Or, at least, the most that I should require for a life time. It was enough this boy should leave for prison. Never had I before pitied a prisoner, but if I had been Benjamin Barker, I should have wept for Anthony.

When I got back to the deck of the ship, I looked across to see everything as I had left it. Johanna still sat by the sidelines, rocking gently. Her eyes did not stir as I moved towards her.

"Johanna," I said gently. "I'm back."

She still did not move, but a single lock of hair slipped from behind her ear in front of her eyes.

All of a sudden, her eyes flashed at me.

"Papa?"

For a moment, I froze. In that word, fifteen years had all of a sudden disappeared.

"Johanna?"

"I don't like this, Papa," she said with tears down her cheeks, flinging her arms around my neck. "Please, Papa, I don't like it!"

I was silent. What was there for me to say? Johanna sobbed silently into my chest, shaking uncontrollably. Slowly, my arms wrapped around her, savouring it. With a sigh, I patted her back gently, as if she were a baby to be nursed. A child, even. My child.

"It's fine, Johanna," I murmured. "Don't worry, it's fine."

All that I could hear was a faint sobbing emitting from her. I hushed her, attempting to soothe her. My struggles were not rewarded full and well, but I could not have been happier.