Simply Starve This Sin
Chapter 2: A Secret
As the dark couple soon returned to their home, they were smirking to one another as they linked arms. They couldn't wait to see their young daughter, even though by now the little one ought to be sleeping soundly.
Nellie was first to enter their abode, shaking her head at her husband, whispering, "We're gonna be the talk 'o the town now 'cause of you!"
Sweeney flashed a smirk and pushed her with his callous hands, so she went further inside the front door.
"Now, now, pet," he breathed back, those black vacuum-like eyes eating into her own. "See it as free advertisin'. With a rumour of me as a funeral-wrecker goin' round we'll surely 'ave more business for the patisserie..."
She scoffed out a laugh, gawping at him in disbelief, "And that means ya ruin my cousin's funeral? Just f'some measly customers? And it ain't no rumour, is it?"
He raised his brows, shrugging at her.
"Well, you be angry 'bout it. You won't be once the gossipers hand over their life savings just to see if the hearsay is true." he replied, hands rolled up into balls as she turned away from him, standing at the foot of the staircase as she peered up at the landing.
A look of concern struck over her features and he knew what she was thinking.
Where was the babysitter?
They'd had a trusted neighbour that had been willing to help out, and she had seemed honest enough, especially as she was being paid for it. They'd told her to meet them by the front door as soon as they got back - maybe she just hadn't heard them? Yet the couple were already overly paranoid about their safety of their daughter, as they had received so many near misses with the authorities over the months, as they had almost found out about the Todds and their previous...
... family business, shall we say.
That, mixed with the grief that Nellie had let take her over, had made life hard on the two of them, even the slightest risk had panicked them.
The two of them wanted to be the cleanest of clean now they had a child in the world, but the two of them found that they almost missed living in sin, it had made the couple seem so alive and thriving...
Sweeney stood behind his wife, leaning on the banister as he mirrored her actions. The two of them waited silently, knowing the sitter must have heard the door's movements as they'd walked in, so where was she? As Nellie was beginning to start up the staircase, the dark couple heard little baby coos, to which they let both let out a deep breath, air that they hadn't even realised that they had both been holding in.
"Rue darlin'," Nellie whispered, a small smile on her lips, despite her head going into a confused overdrive as to why her child wasn't asleep yet. "Is that you?"
A little "bu-bu-bu-ba" came in reply to Nellie to which the two parents couldn't help smiling in spite of their confusion.
They suddenly heard frantic thumping sounds as their daughter crawled towards her mother's voice and began to giggle, now in plain sight to her parents. She perched on the top of the landing, too close to the edge for either of her parents' liking. Nellie gasped, being pushed out of the way as Sweeney darted up the stairs, scooping her up from the floor, to which his little girl giggled, sucking her thumb. He held her to his left, her little head of growing burgundy curls laid against his chest as she looked up at him so innocently with those same unbelievably black eyes. He then kissed her forehead, holding his other arms around her tiny frame protectively.
His wife had a hand on her heart, calming herself from her anxiety, feeling a wave of happiness rush over her as she looked upon the scene of her family.
Sweeney looked over at her with wide eyes, "What's she doin' here?" he asked, and she wasn't entirely sure why since she couldn't exactly give her husband the answer either.
"I don' know, but that'll be last time I'm relying on a neighbour to look after 'er, it was bad enough the first time I left 'ere without her, I don't wanna be worryin' about her not bein' looked after properly..." she replied, slowly making her way to where her husband stood on the landing (the heaviness of her mourning dress was ridiculous, Sweeney knew this and took an arm away from his daughter to aid his wife up the stairs).
"Pet, you go an' lie down, I'll sort this out," he said calmly (yet Nellie sensed the dark undertone), pulling her up so she was standing across from him. She sighed heavily, feeling like she'd just done a workout after climbing the stairs so she felt there was no point in disagreeing at this point, "Alright love."
Rue made an uncomfortable grunt, from this noise the two of them could tell she was tired.
Her mother chuckled, and she also managed to earn a smile from her father (or was it something else that was pleasing him?). "G'night little 'un." Nellie croaked, closing her eyes as she bent down and nuzzled her nose against Rue's, kissing her forehead just like Sweeney had. "No bedtime antics, alright? Y'Dad's had a tirin' day too, ruinin' funerals."
Sweeney choked back a laugh at her dig, watching as she waved at their daughter (whom he held in both arms now) and blew her a kiss, strolling down the hall to their bedroom for her well earned rest. The poor woman had just found her true self again after her husband had crashed her cousin's funeral (something she was secretly thankful for), so it was only right that she deserved her beauty sleep. His eyes turned away from his wife to set on Rue, who peered up at him in curiosity with her big black eyes, still sucking her thumb. The mix of the dark couple's genes was imminent, he loved seeing the two of them in his daughter, it was something he would never have to admit because he didn't need to, anyone could see it in his eyes as he looked at her. "Come on you," he whispered, carrying her in the direction his wife was going, so lost in his little girl that he failed to notice Nellie poking her head out and mouthing 'Don't bloody kill anyone!' before quietly shutting their door.
"So the sitter went an' left you did she?" he spoke, turning in the opposite direction of his daughter's closed door, this was in order to reach a hand down and turn the knob, he began to back into it. "What did she go and do that for? Weren't playin' silly buggers again were you?" Rue continued to stare into his eyes, the innocence sparkling in them as she stopped sucking her thumb. He narrowed his eyes in mock interrogation, letting out a "Hmm.". His daughter mimicked his serious expression, making him smirk - nothing like a Todd displaying their annoyance. The kid was promising.
Her room was pitch black, as the curtains had also been drawn, something the sitter must have done. Only seeing vague outlines, Sweeney held in a curse (sparing his young daughter's ears, how thoughtful) and lightly dropped his daughter next to his feet. "Don't move, pet." he breathed, fumbling with the cabinet next to him, attempting to find the matches. He really ought to keep them on his person, he really was getting careless.
Eventually he found them, striking the match before his eyes, his ghost-like skin was illuminated with a golden glow. Lighting his way around Rue's room (which had previously belonged to Toby, then Violet), he managed to find all the candles, finally now able to see his surroundings clearly.
As he blew out the match, Rue began getting boisterous due to her tiredness, so he lifted her up gently, ignoring her tugging at the collar of his shirt. He laid her down caringly in her cot, hushing her when she gave out little whimpers. "Shh," he said, placing a finger to his lips. "Bedtime now. Close your eyes." He closed his eyes, placing his hands together as he leaned his head towards them in a sleeping action. She seemed to quieten and he opened his eyes, watching similar ones staring up at him, narrowing with tiredness as she let out a little yawn.
He smiled, bringing a hand down to brush his thumb and fore-finger lightly up and down against her smooth cheek, her eyes closing due to his actions.
The man stayed quiet, continuing his cheek-stroking for a while before her breathing seemed to steady and she stopped trying to open her eyes to study him. Without a word, he moved his hand reluctantly from her, gazing down at the little girl completely flat-out asleep. "Just like Nell," he murmured, a touch of a smirk reaching his lips. "Always bloody stubborn when it comes to stayin' awake, but she ends up falling asleep in the end..."
After sometime of watching his daughter, he tore his eyes from her studying her room. No sign of anyone being in there since they'd left... other than the curtains...
He decided he'd leave the candles to burn out overnight, in case either of them were awakened by their daughter during the night. Taking one last look at his daughter he managed a small smile, quietly tip-toeing towards the door. He pulled it slightly, frowning when he noticed he could hear a muffled moan from something - it wasn't his daughter, or he would have recognised it and flinched back to her instantaneously. It came again and he pulled the door shut subtly, eyes widening when they were met with the baby-sitter, tied up in - what were those? Bandages? He could see little red hand prints on her face, clearly only small, baby hands could be the culprit behind the marks. His mouth opened slightly, in shock and awe at the snoring sitter.
He hadn't expected this (who would). Had his little girl done this?
Part of him denied it, and didn't want to believe his 9-month-old child could possibly torment, and kidnap a grown adult in such a way...
Then there was a part of him that loved it. His own little monster, why keep her so innocent anyway? Being innocent was completely pointless, it hadn't done anything for Benjamin, so he wasn't about to push that message across to his daughter.
What would Nellie think? Should he tell her?
'No.' he thought, his hands frantically gripping strands of wiry black hair. 'I can't possibly tell 'er about this. It's irrational, and after the stunt I pulled at that funeral, no way would she believe me anyway. In the mornin' I'll just move the woman, and Nell won't even know she were 'ere. She'll blame the sitter, the sitter won't come back and she'll never know about our daughter taking a hostage... If it were in fact Rue...'
He wasn't ready for the stress of waiting until morning, he needed to move this woman, now. Quietly cursing, he roughly placed his hands around the woman's waist, causing the woman to flick open her eyes, and she began struggling to his dismay. He casually rolled his eyes, throwing her over his shoulder with ease, making as little noise as possible as he opened the door into the hallway.
The muffled yells of the woman as she punched his back amused him, he itched to murder her, and he wasn't quite sure why, it all seemed rather sudden to him, and he wasn't planning on killing her at all. It just happened to be such an idealistic murder opportunity, he surely couldn't pass up on it? It had been so long since he'd last held his trusty razors, and swiped across someone's throat to feel the blood slowly rippling down onto his knuckles.
'You 'ave a child, that's why there's no need to.' a voice came from inside him. 'If you miss those razors so much why not just go back to bein' a barber?'
Sweeney frowned, now at the landing with the struggling woman, totally in his own thoughts unlike the strong female over his shoulder who was trying to break free with all her might, thrashing her limbs and crying out through the muffled bandages wrapped tightly around the majority of her body. At capturing and securing a 'victim', Sweeney was still admiringly effortless.
"I can't just go back to that now," he whispered back to his internal voice. "The throats would just seem... too inviting. I need something else to soothe my itch..."
With that discovery, he quietly made his way down the stairs, stifling a laugh as he unintentionally smacked the mummified sitter's head against the ceiling each time he reached a new step. He was praying every time that it would knock her out so he wouldn't have to put up with her incessant struggles, alas God did not answer his prayer.
Now he was downstairs, his two girls upstairs would not be able to hear him if they were sound asleep so he finally growled, "Oh will you shut up woman? I'm not gonna kill you, alright?" The woman's cries seemed to grow louder at this, was she really that stupid? He'd told her what she'd wanted to hear hadn't he?
A game was in order.
"Or I could kill you..." he whispered icily, her struggles seemed to cease as he said this, perhaps she was frozen in fear. "There's nothin' stopping me. How about, you don't ever mention this night, or what's 'appened to another livin' soul, and I'll let you live?"
A muffled noise of approval greeted his ears, to which a menacing smirk spread over his features.
He had to keep this night secret.
He wouldn't kill the woman, but he needed assurance that she wasn't going to be a tell-tale on him.
And he'd have to make it quick, or Nellie would suspect something.
He suddenly realised how much trouble children truly were.
Or perhaps he'd just noticed how much of himself was truly in the genes of his little daughter...
A/N I know it's 2 days early, but hope you enjoyed. There may be another chapter uploaded as normal on Wednesday, if I can proof read quick enough xD Thanks to everyone who reviewed :)