New Love Springs

Chapter 2 -A New Customer

Sweeney woke up to the sound of very noisy clatters and bangs from downstairs. He smiled a small smile to himself and got out of bed.

He gasped when he looked in the mirror. He looked an absolute state! And, to his horror, he had left an imprint of the Judge’s blood in the fresh bed sheets. ‘Nellie would kill me with my own bloody blade if she saw this.',he whispered softly to himself. With that, he stripped the bed, and hand washed the duvet, pillow and sheets; The lot, all by himself.

After he had finished, and hung them all up to dry, groaning with the sheer effort it had taken him, he got to work on his blood smeared face. He had only just started scrubbing at it when he heard footsteps coming up the creaky old stairs. Just Toby, he thought, come to find Nellie, who, at the moment he thought was cleaning the long forgotten about worktop (she clearly took more pride in cleaning the bedrooms than she did her kitchen) and would never usually venture upstairs during the day.

‘She is downstairs boy’ as he casually said this, he stopped dead in his tracks. It wasn’t Toby, but a flustered Nellie who had become a bright shade of red after seeing him again after the night before, providing  a contrast to the crusty night-old  blood covering Sweeney’s face.

He turned round and flashed her a smile which seemed to be occurring more frequently just recently.’Ah,good morning Eleanor ‘he said calmly.

‘Morning. Swee...Mr T.’ she replied.

‘You can call me Sweeney, you know’

‘Okay...’she started, and stopped suddenly, as Sweeney was touching her hand, surprisingly warm to the touch. Nellie’s instinct was to cower away from it.Instead,she welcomed it and took hold of his pale hand and stroked the top of it with her thumb. He was looking down but then looked up suddenly, with a devilish look in his eye, like he was reading her mind. This look continued for a short while until Nellie looked down at her feet. She seemed somewhat scared.

‘Ahem, Mr…Sweeney? What was it you was gonna tell me last night? Before we went to sleep? ‘She swallowed hard, not sure if she was taking it too far. But he only looked at her and smiled, so she felt relieved. He slowly leaned into Nellie, and inhaled the smell of her hair again. He stayed there a moment and opened his mouth to speak.

‘Hey, love? Shall we leave that til later, eh?’Nellie interrupted him with a slight wink, and his brow was furrowed with confusion at her speaking when he was about to. But to tell the truth, he was actually slightly relieved he didn’t have to say his big statement now. After all, he didn’t want to give himself any ties or for thier to be any change of hearts.

‘Er of course, Eleanor. Now would you let me get cleaned up? I’m afraid the blood has soaked right through to my skin’ One corner of his mouth flicked up in a kind of cheeky smile Nellie had never witnessed on anyone before. Nellie knew he was acting playfully and he wasn't in a bad mood for once, but she walked out of out of the room with a wave of her fingers. ‘Bye Sweeney’

Sweeney finished scrubbing at his face and wet down his hair so the blood dissolved and was left in a smear on the towel. He rested this on the sink and proceeded to unbutton his shirt to reveal his chest. The shirt was covering perfectly toned muscles and unfortunately, an awful lot of blood that had soaked through to his ghostly pale skin, even paler where the infrequently occurring sun hadn’t hit it. As he continued to wipe away, he took one quick glance in the mirror and noticed Nellie at the top of the stairs, peering at him in awe. He gave her a quick wink and beckoned her to come into the room beside him.

Later in the day, a newly clean Sweeney stood in the barber shop, pacing around, as he had made a habit of over the past few months. He had come to the conclusion he would never kill again. Never. He had realised he had gone completely mad in seeking revenge, and now he had got it; he felt relieved and calm, so didn’t need to let his anger out on innocent beings, who, contrary to his earlier thoughts, did not all deserve to die.