Seymour stared back at him in horror that he was probably doing a horrible job of hiding, eventually managing to get out a meager "Mr. Mushnik, you scared me, I…" and trailing off as he unceremoniously interrupted him. "l scared him? After what I've seen, l scared him? You think l didn't know, huh? Oh, l knew. l knew you'd lay down here, on your pathetic little cot and dream about her. But I didn't know the lengths to which you'd go… the depths to which you'd sink!" Seymour swallowed nervously, trying to process this. "What depths? What sink? What're you talkin' about?" Mr. Mushnik looked at him with exasperated anger before gesticulating wildly. "You chopped up her boyfriend with my ax and you fed him to that plant! I saw it happen!" Seymour instinctively backed away from him until he hit a wall, terrified and reeling from this revelation. "...It's true, I chopped him up, but I didn't kill him!" Mr. Mushnik's exasperation and anger only increased at this, as did Seymour's hopelessness and helplessness, but then his expression shifted, much to his surprise, to something almost akin to kindness, as well as… pity?
He gave a world-weary sigh, even more than usual for him, before addressing him again. "You know, Krelborn, it kills me doing this… But considering you're almost like a son to me, I'm thinking… maybe we don't have to go to the police." Seymour breathed in sharply with shock. "...We don't?" Mr. Mushnik shook his head contemplatively. "I'm thinking… what if I kept my mouth shut and we forgot all about this?" Seymour tilted his head, confused by this uncharacteristic generosity even in the midst of everything else that was going on. "...You'd do that, sir?" Mr. Mushnik nodded, a strange look on his face, unreadable despite the years upon years Seymour had spent learning how to search it for trouble. "Just give me my gun, so you don't end up pulling any other crazy stunts like this on anyone else she's been with, and after you clean up the mess you've made I'll never speak of it again. Trust me, I'd never even think about this again if I could." Wordlessly, Seymour pulled the as of yet unused gun out of his pocket and shakingly handed it over to him, watching him turn it over in his hands for a moment before getting it into the proper position to shoot it, placing his finger on the trigger, and point it at his chest, causing his heart to plummet. "...What… what're you doing?" Mr. Mushnik gazed at him contemptuously, the pity surprisingly not completely gone from his expression. "I'm taking you to the police, that's what I'm doing." That had… that had been a trick?! A trick that he had fallen for? Just like that stupid deal Orin had managed to get out of him earlier?
As Mr. Mushnik marched him up the stairs and across the storefront to the front doors, occasionally hurrying him along with the business end of the gun, Seymour reeled from fear and from how idiotic he had been to fall for that. Of course Mr. Mushnik wouldn't be merciful to him, who would be? Despite his instinctual fear, the prospect of death wasn't completely, 100% uninviting… it'd be an end to all this, all this suffering, and everyone would obviously be better off without him and his incompetent comedy of errors… As they made their way out of the front door, Audrey was suddenly in front of them with a bottle of Sominex in hand, completely shocking him. "What's going on?! Stop pointing a gun at him!" Audrey unceremoniously knocked the gun out of his hand and onto the street, somehow not causing it to go off, and Mr. Mushnik got an all too familiar death grip on Seymour's wrist before dragging him slightly to get in between her and it, his voice and countenance more gentle with her than he was being with him. "Seymour here ax murdered your boyfriend, so I'm taking him to the police. They'll take it from there; you don't need to do anything else. Just go back to bed, Audrey." Seymour started to sheepishly repeat his earlier explanation about how it was true that he had chopped up Orin but not true that he had killed him, quickly trailing off as Mr. Mushnik's death grip on his wrist somehow tightened even more and sharp nails digging into and seemingly through his skin were added to the equation, and Audrey shook her head, quickly dipping down and retrieving the gun in one smooth motion before Mr. Mushnik could do anything to stop her.
"That creep isn't my boyfriend, Seymour is." She turned to him and took his non-death gripped hand in her free one, a warmth in her gaze that made his heart skip what had probably been several beats. "I'm so sorry, Seymour, I know I said I'd be waiting for you when you got back and I should've been, but I decided to pick up some Schmendricks' for us… I thought I'd get back in time, but it was so busy, and then you weren't there, and… I couldn't sleep tonight, I felt so bad, not even with Sominex…" Seymour stared at her in shock, tears, relieved ones this time, gathering in his eyes, before moving closer to her. "Really? You really didn't stop feeling that way about me?" She shook her head, more gently this time, causing the last bit of tension in his body and mind to flow out of him, replaced with love and the sheer joy of the sweet understanding that was apparently still between them. "I would never; I love you, Seymour." As he struggled to formulate a return of that amazing sentiment he had never hoped in his wildest dreams he would receive from anyone, let alone her, the most wonderful person that ever lived, Mr. Mushnik exasperatedly sighed and tightened his death grip even further, bringing much of that tension right back.
"That's great, really, but I still need to take him to the police." After a long pause, Audrey backed away from them slightly, breaking her contact with him, and Mr. Mushnik broke his contact with him as well, viciously grabbing for her arm that held the gun before she could do anything with it. Seymour stood frozen in shock and angered fear as they fought for control of it, the fight not even lasting long enough for him to begin to try to will himself to do something about it and ending with a shooting pain in the dead center of his chest. He fell to the ground, dazed, and just as quickly Audrey was at his side, holding him close to her and from what little he could see through the blurriness of his vision desperately pressing her shawl against his chest, even as it became more and more stained with red… red that he slowly realized through the haziness that was now clouding his mind was… was his blood. "Don't die, Seymour, I need you. Please, please don't die." Seymour stared up at her, struggling to keep his gaze on her and maintain his ever fading grip on consciousness. He felt strangely… contented and serene now, for once in his life, being held by Audrey and wrapped up in the comfort of her love and the knowledge that she was somehow, miraculously his girlfriend… at least for now. But that wasn't the 'at least for now' of her inevitably figuring out that she could do way better than him, not anymore; instead, it was an oddly less horrifying one. Seymour shakily managed to cup her cheek in his hand, wiping a tear away from her eye with his thumb. "...I love you too, Audrey…" He felt his remaining grip on consciousness start to fade, and he surrendered to the fading, to the warmth and relief and sweet understanding that was finally his.