Fanfic 100 - 074, Dark.
Sep. 16th, 2007 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolevalanTitle: Even When They Leave
Fandom: Sweeney Todd
Characters: Benjamin Barker, Lucy Barker, Johanna Barker
Prompt: 074, Dark
Word Count: 333
Rating: PG
Summary: Not all things heal with time.
Author's Notes: Not much to say on this one. Brief as it is.
I dream of her. It is not always the same dream, but she is always the same. In our home, hair catching the poor light from the window and magnifying it as she does a simple, mundane task. Humming. Writing a letter. Sipping coffee. I sit in the corner and watch her. She can’t see me.
Our daughter comes in, beautiful and pale. She keeps growing, dream by dream, a little chatterbox, though I can never make out what she says. I reach out to touch her braids, but she doesn’t turn. Can’t feel it. Once, I dream she shivers, as if I’m a ghost. Perhaps I am, in the logic of such dreams.
Lucy laughs at something our girl says. And even with my insubstantial hand always short of her shoulder, I would happily remain this way forever. Just out of reach. It would be enough.
--
I dream of her. It is not always the same dream, but she is always the same. She will be doing some simple, mundane task. Just as always. Our home is different. Less sun gets in, and there are odd shadows in the corners. She isn’t afraid. She still hums.
We are always alone now, we two. I sit, and watch her as she works. The room is close and foul and I wish her out of it. I wonder if she smells the blood. If she does, she makes no sign. The large chest at the foot of the bed reeks of it, even so.
Eventually, she looks up. Sees me there. I stand, and sometimes try to speak, but fail. I always fail. How long we stay that way I can never be sure. Finally, she says, eyes clear and lucid, expression sweetly puzzled “Don’t I…know you…mister?” in a voice that rasps like weathered wood.
“No,” I try to say. But she does.
She recognizes her murderer plain enough.
She screams, and the dream goes up in flames. Always.
It is never enough.
Fandom: Sweeney Todd
Characters: Benjamin Barker, Lucy Barker, Johanna Barker
Prompt: 074, Dark
Word Count: 333
Rating: PG
Summary: Not all things heal with time.
Author's Notes: Not much to say on this one. Brief as it is.
I dream of her. It is not always the same dream, but she is always the same. In our home, hair catching the poor light from the window and magnifying it as she does a simple, mundane task. Humming. Writing a letter. Sipping coffee. I sit in the corner and watch her. She can’t see me.
Our daughter comes in, beautiful and pale. She keeps growing, dream by dream, a little chatterbox, though I can never make out what she says. I reach out to touch her braids, but she doesn’t turn. Can’t feel it. Once, I dream she shivers, as if I’m a ghost. Perhaps I am, in the logic of such dreams.
Lucy laughs at something our girl says. And even with my insubstantial hand always short of her shoulder, I would happily remain this way forever. Just out of reach. It would be enough.
--
I dream of her. It is not always the same dream, but she is always the same. She will be doing some simple, mundane task. Just as always. Our home is different. Less sun gets in, and there are odd shadows in the corners. She isn’t afraid. She still hums.
We are always alone now, we two. I sit, and watch her as she works. The room is close and foul and I wish her out of it. I wonder if she smells the blood. If she does, she makes no sign. The large chest at the foot of the bed reeks of it, even so.
Eventually, she looks up. Sees me there. I stand, and sometimes try to speak, but fail. I always fail. How long we stay that way I can never be sure. Finally, she says, eyes clear and lucid, expression sweetly puzzled “Don’t I…know you…mister?” in a voice that rasps like weathered wood.
“No,” I try to say. But she does.
She recognizes her murderer plain enough.
She screams, and the dream goes up in flames. Always.
It is never enough.
