There is drama, but not soap opera drama. Though, if it turned out that way anyways, I'm sorry, I hope you like it, and a word from Sweeney at the end.
Chapter 10
As we’d hoped, it started raining through the day, without hinting at stopping early. Even so, just a downpour during the day would keep less determined women indoors. But luck was on my side, and the rain fell in sheets right into the night. The sound soothed me and helped me to relax. I jumped at every clap of thunder though, despite the calming effect the rain had on me. I waited anxiously in my room as nighttime fell on the little house, waiting for my moment to escape.
There was a tiny tap on my window. “Melody!” I heard Lianna hiss. I hadn’t had the heart to tell her I wanted to be called Melanie. I snuck over to the window to see her standing out in the heavy rain, a cloak pulled up over her head. I grabbed my own (we each had plain black, hopefully the easier to blend into the night) and clambered clumsily out of the window. Despite my un-gracefulness, we were on our way in no time.
However, we had hardly set off into the darkness when we heard a dark voice behind us. “And where, pray tell, are you going?” My eyes narrowed in dislike. Brenton.
“Run!” Lianna hissed, but before we could get any speed up, he’d caught up to us. Lianna pushed me forward and turned to confront him.
“Get going! I’ll hold him off!” Lianna growled, now grappling with Brenton, who was much larger than her. I could tell she wouldn’t be able to hold him off for long.
“Are you nuts?!” I hissed through the storm as lightning flashed.
“Just GO!” Lianna cried through the gale, over the thunder. I bit my lip, then turned and ran for the city, clutching my cloak around me.
Through the pouring, torrential rain, I thought I heard a gunshot.
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I stared around at my surroundings helplessly. I was completely lost. I’d never really explored much of London, and the only landmark that would let me know for sure I was on Fleet Street would be the famous Pie Shop, over which was the equally famous Barber Shop. I took off running again, not trusting my surroundings enough to stop for any length of time.
After a few blocks I found I was getting short of breath, and I would have to stop soon. I turned down a random street, praying there’d be somewhere I could stop and take a breath before continuing looking for Fleet Street. I hadn’t heard any shouts or footsteps for a while, so I hoped I had lost Brenton. I couldn’t help wondering what had happened to Lianna, though. She’d been a good friend. I didn’t even know if I’d ever find out what happened.
Lady Luck was with me again; at the far end of the street, a familiar building was just visible through the sheets of rain, a building with an abnormally large window on the second floor, through which was the barber shop I’d been pining for.
But just as I started down the street, I was suddenly slammed against the wall of a building. It didn’t matter that we were in view of the street and about a dozen buildings; no one would see us through the storm. My breath quickened in terror as I looked up into the very wet, very angry face of Brenton.
“What did you do with Lianna?” I demanded in a shaky voice. He smirked.
“I didn’t bring a gun with me for nothing,” he growled menacingly. I whimpered in terror. His hand clenched around my throat.
“How dare you betray me like this?! I do your family a favor by courting you, and this is how you repay me?!” but I knew that anger in his eyes had nothing to do with ‘charity’ or ‘the goodness of his heart’ or anything like that. What I saw there was lust, pure lust. He didn’t want me for me. He wanted me so he could go to all his fancy rich parties with a pretty little woman on his arm, and show off to his little rich friends and gloat. It had nothing to do with doing my family any favors. However, seeing as I was being strangled slowly, I couldn’t voice any of this.
“Well, you little bitch, I’ll give you two choices,” he snarled, and I felt my feet lift off the ground. I couldn’t breathe! My mouth was opened desperately, but no air reached my lungs. He drew a knife. “You can stay with me, as your parents had planned,” he drew the knife down my face, and I writhed in the brief pain of it. “Or you can die. Your choice.” A tiny cry escaped me as the blade dug into my side, deep enough to scrape against my ribs, but yet still not quite deep enough to kill.
Suddenly, I fell to the ground with a splash, the puddle I landed in stained red from my blood. I gasped for breath, sucking in the air cleaned by the still-raging storm around me. Air had never tasted so good. But I was weak; when I looked down at my side, not only was my dress soaked in my own blood, but so was my arm on that side. The blood was slowing now, but it had taken a lot out of me. The cut on my face stung. I looked up to see what had become of Brenton.
My former suitor was now the one pinned to a wall, by what appeared to be a dark, furious, soaking wet demon wielding something bright silver. It took me a moment to recognize him-I wouldn’t have if not for the white streak in his hair-as Sweeney Todd.
I instantly felt my body relax, leaning my back against the wall as I remained in the puddle, hardly noticing how cold the water was. Even when he was looking more furious than I had ever seen him, he made me feel safe.
“Get the hell off this street, and don’t let me catch you here again,” he hissed. I had a feeling that, had we not been in the middle of the street and he’d had enough hands to get me and his body back to the shop, Sweeney would have killed him there and then. Brenton looked terrified enough to obey, though, as he scampered away into the night. As the barber turned to me, I suddenly found my lap of great interest.
It was very quiet now, the soft falling of rain the only sound in the night. It was a rarity; an uncomfortable silence between the demon barber and I. I swallowed nervously as I stammered out the only thing I could think to say:
“Thank you. I-I’m sorry.” I could feel the confusion radiating from him, and I explained. “I didn’t want to leave. It wasn’t my idea. I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay here…with you.” I felt my face turn about five different shades of red as I realized what I had said. I heard a quiet sigh. Or, I thought I did. It was hard to hear such a quiet sound in the torrential rain.
“Can you walk?” he asked, and I could hear the effort behind keeping his voice cold and detached. I frowned. I wasn’t sure. I hesitantly used the wall to stand, but my legs were shaky. I tried walking on my own, not wanting to show how much my side-wound really did hurt, but I stumbled and very nearly fell. To my own slight surprise, I felt his hands catch me, steadying me and letting me lean against him for support.
A flash of lightning broke through the rain.
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Before I knew it, I found myself back in the barber shop I had been longing for. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it until I was back there. By then the blood had stopped pouring out of my wide wound, but it was still oozing out sluggishly. I collapsed weakly into the barber’s chair when I was close enough, leaning my head back slightly in exhaustion. I couldn’t stop fidgeting nervously when Sweeney left to go find bandages for my wound (the cut on my face was already scabbed over), but I resisted the urge to follow him, though I couldn’t hold back a quiet sigh of relief when he returned. And it had nothing to do with getting me to stop bleeding.
He quickly bandaged the wound (I decided that where he learned how was going to be a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ subject), and though they were a little painful while they were being put on, I knew that they had to be put on tightly. Plus, I was pretty sure if I could handle a corset, I could handle a few bandages. When they were on securely and we were both sure I wasn’t going to bleed to death, we fell silent, lost in our own thoughts, with me sitting in the chair, and him staring out of the huge window.
After a while, I broke the silence. “How’d you know I was there?” There was more silence while he pulled himself out of his thoughts.
“I saw you,” he muttered. “Through the rain. You are lucky as
hell that I can recognize you under a cloak.” I smiled slightly. For some reason, that made me happy. I stood up, though it was not without effort, and walked over to him quietly.
“Thanks again. For saving my life. Twice.”
He turned to say something, but I don’t think either of us realized how close we were to each other. His face was inches from mine. As usual when I was around him, in any proximity, my heart jumped around irregularly. I also don’t think either of us anticipated what he did next.
He gently brought his lips to mine, and I felt my body tense as an automatic reaction. My mind associated this with pain. But the logical half of me knew better, and I didn’t move an inch, though that little irrational bit of me wanted me to break the kiss and back away. I didn’t move. And, though I was fighting my own little internal battle, it didn’t feel awkward at all. In fact, it felt very nice. I had never seen him be so gentle. Maybe this was the side of him I had never gotten to see, the one that had been consumed by hatred and revenge.
Then it was over, faster than I would have liked. He turned from me and stared out of the window again, looking slightly angrier than before. Like he was suddenly fighting with himself, like I had been.
Feeling I had bothered him enough for one night, I left to return to the pie shop below.
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-Sweeney Todd-
Why did I do that? What in the
hell possessed me to do that?! I suddenly felt like my skull was cracked in two, though the action had seemed harmless enough at the time. I was stupid and impulsive and didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I would be the first to testify that being in a relationship once does
not make things easier. Especially when, to half of my mind, it had felt like betrayal.
The other half wanted me to declare that I loved her, because I did love Melanie. I just didn’t know how to say so. I don’t think I’d ever felt this confused. Half of me had felt betrayal, but the other half had a question I loathed;
If Lucy’s dead, who are you betraying?The logical answer was no one at all. But I felt like my heart was suddenly being pulled two different ways. Yes, Lucy was dead, but that didn’t mean I didn’t love her. But I loved Melanie too. For the life of me, I didn’t know what to do. The little voice was right-Lucy was dead and staying faithful wasn’t going to bring her back. Legally, I wasn’t doing anything wrong. But it felt so wrong, even if in the brief moment I had kissed Melanie, it had felt very, very right.
I didn’t know what to do.
((Oh god, the OOC-ness! I hope you liked it...OOC-ness and all...))