A/N Terrible sorry about the lack up update yesterday. I had someone over, was out late.. all that fun stuff. Which is kinda weird, seeing as I'm pretty sure this is the first time my personal life as ever directly interfered with my story updates.. Anyway, on a happier note, we hit ONE HUNDRED reviews last chapter! WOOT! First time for me on any of my stories. Thank you all so much for sticking around, especially on a project like this...


17

"Sorry dear."

"Oh well.. it's alright." Johanna forced a smile for the baker.

"I'll clean it up, what should I use?" Mrs. Lovett pressed her shaking hands into the folds of her skirts, hoping to conceal their tremble.

"Clean it up? Mrs. Lovett why would I let you do that?" The girl shook her head. "Though I will continue apologizing for the manner in which you were brought here, you are like a guest. I wont have you doing that work."

The baker felt like laughing at the girl, but instead she just nodded her head. Despite the circumstances, she had been raised by a 'gentlemen'. She supposed proper manners must have been instilled in the girl at a very young age, probably from a governess. Wherever that governess ended up though…

"Now.. Eh." Johanna attempted not to look at the mess, but failed spectacularly. "I'll call someone, I suppose.." Her eyes dragged themselves back to Mrs. Lovett. "Are you feeling unwell?"

The red-haired woman burst into laughter.


Was this… the end?

It was strange to think of it like that. Over. Not necessarily completed, but finished none-the-less. Sweeney didn't particularly like that.

He had never let something get in his way before, he was slowly but surely heading towards his goal. His goal was slipping away form him though, just as surely as he was sliding down to his death. Sweeney did not want to die in a chute, on a rescue operation, practically within his own home. It was so utterly strange and, a little voice in the back of his head whined, uncalled for, that he felt like throwing a fit. But that would surely quicken his descent and end his life faster.

This was not how he wanted to die, and despite all his efforts it seemed to be where it was going to happen.

That was until, his muscles gave up on him, he started to fall (again) before hitting the second trap door at the bottom of the chute.

Finally realizing that he wasn't dead, Sweeney's face broke into a large grin. He quickly removed it, becoming irritated; though rather grateful no one had been around to see it.


Taking an involuntary step backwards, Johanna was forced to consider a new possibility about her 'guest'. Perhaps it wasn't that she was unfazed by the living dead roaming the streets, but more like the fact after witnessing them, she cracked. After all, who wouldn't be unnerved by it? And who in their right mind started to laugh after throwing up?

When her laughter dwindled to a quickly snuffed chuckle, Mrs. Lovett looked over at her hostess. "Sorry dearie, jus' an odd time to be askin' someone if they're alrigh'!"

"I suppose.." The young girl replied, debating on whether or not to take another step back. She bit her lip. "But really.. are you sure you don't want some sort of.. medical assistance?"

"Medical?" The word sounded foreign on her tongue. "No need luv, I've held myself together fine for years."

Johanna wasn't quite so sure about that.