Imagine- Melanie finds the bake house. Kind of like my "no more" imagine but this is where she finds the dead bodies. So same concept as that but different setting.
Mrs Lovett and Sweeney were in the barber shop, with Nellie in the chair and Sweeney sharpening his razor blade on the strap connected to the chair. They were just chatting, taking a break from work.
Melanie was downstairs in the living room, sitting on the sofa with her legs under herself and she was reading a book. Romeo and Juliet to be exact. It was her favorite book and it was her third time reading it. She had been reading it for about an hour or so and her throat started getting dry. And how do you get rid of a dry throat?
By drinking water... duh. So she set her book down and stood up, smoothing out her dress before starting to make her way to the kitchen. As she walked, her head turned to the right and she saw two wooden doors at an angle. She stopped walking and raised an eyebrow. She had seen those doors before but didn't know what was behind them.
She looked over her shoulder, seeing if anybody was there, which there wasn't. She turned back to the doors and made her way to them, pulling the doors open. There was a flight of stairs and she placed her hands on her hips, standing there for a moment.
"What do these stairs lead to? I've never seen them before..." she muttered to herself before walking down the steps, holding her dress up a little so she wouldn't grip. Once she made her way down, she came across a big steel door. She grabbed the handle, twisted it and heard a loud click before opening the door.
In the middle of the room was a big grey furnace, to the right were pies still not cooked, and... oh god. What was that awful smell?
She sniffed a few times, silently gagging to herself as she rested a hand on her stomach, her other hand on her chest with a grimace on her face. "What the hell is that smell?" She mumbled as she walked inside, looking around the room. There was also a big grinder in the corner with a big bucket. She glanced inside and internally bagged again. As she looked around, something caught the corner of her eye. Against the wall was a gray table like tray but she couldn't make out what was on it.
She turned her head, eyebrows furrowing as she walked towards the table. As she got to the table, she was able to get a closer look at the items on the table. Her eyes widened as she realized what was there. Mutilated hands, feet, eyeballs, and other various body parts. Her jaw dropped, unable to speak and her eyes averted to the side for a split second. There was a half skinned body with muscle and fat still hanging off and its corpse was rotting.
As she took a couple steps back, A blood curdling scream left her lips, her heart pounding in her chest. What the fuck was this place and why were their dead bodies inside?!
Her hands flew to her mouth, her eyes as wide as saucers. Tears began to pour down her cheeks, her body trembling in terror. She stumbled backwards until her back hit the wall, her chest quickly rising up and down. She was still covering her mouth and her eyes scrunched close, tears unable to stop coming down.
Then she heard footsteps, but she kept her eyes closed, in fear of seeing the dead, mutilated skinned corpse that was forever etched in her brain. Arms wrapped around her, cradling her head and holding her protectively.
"Oh my god, honey what the hell are you doing here?!" Her fathers voice asked worriedly as he slightly pulled away, cupping her face in his hands, his dark eyes gazing into her red, puffy blue eyes. He could see the horror and fear on her face and it absolutely broke his heart. She still couldn't speak, her bottom lip quivering and her whole body shaking like a leaf.
"Baby..." his voice cracked as he spoke, absolutely torn seeing his daughter in this state. This was one of his worst fears. Her finding out about the bakehouse and being absolutely traumatized. He had stopped killing a while ago, for the sake of his daughter. He never wanted to be a monster. He only got that way because of what the judge did to him years ago.
Without even thinking, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and slid the other one under her knees, effortlessly picking her up bridal style. She broke down in tears as she held onto him, burying her face in the crook of his neck.
He hushed her softly, whispering sweet nothings in her ear as he carried her out of the bakehouse, Nellie arriving at the top of the stairs.
"What is she doing here? Is she alright?" She asked worriedly as Sweeney rushed up the stairs with his daughter in his arms, being careful not to trip. He just glanced at her worriedly, shaking his head, not knowing what to say right now. He felt absolutely awful.
Nellies heart broke hearing her daughters cries. It always pained her when ever her daughter was scared or upset and to hear her frightened cries, it tore her apart. She rushed down the stairs, quickly closing the door and locking it before going up the stairs and following Sweeney into the living room. He sat down on the sofa, holding her on his lap and cradling her head against his shoulder.
"Get her some water.,. Please ..." he almost begged quietly and Nellie quickly nodded before heading to the kitchen. She grabbed a glass and filled it with water before making her way back to Sweeney and Melanie, where she sat down next to them and placed a hand on her knee.
"Breathe darling, breathe..." Nellie cooed, trying to calm her down. Her eyes filled with tears as she listened to her daughters cries, her hand stroking her knee.
"Drink this love..." Sweeney said softly as he took the glass and handed it to Melanie, who, despite her shaking like crazy was able to take it and she slowly sipped her water. She drank about half before choking on her tears, her head hitting Sweeney's shoulder once more.
He ran his fingers through her hair, resting his chin on top of her head. He held her close to his heart, closing his eyes and whispering sweet nothings in her ear.
"W-w-what was that room? W-w-why were their dead bodies in there? I-I thought you stopped killing." She choked on her tears as she looked up at her parents.
Sweeney had told her about the judge, how he sent him away for 15 years on a false charge just so he could have his wife and daughter. But they never told her about the bakehouse. Mainly because they wanted to forget about it and that it was the best if they never told her. But now that she found out about the bakehouse, it's time she knew.
"Okay... I think it's time you know. Remember how I told you about my story, about how the judge sent me away on a false charge, raped my first wife Lucy and tried to marry my first daughter, your sister?" He asked softly and she sniffled, giving a small nod.
She knew about Johanna and she hoped that one day she would meet her. She knew there was a bit of an age difference but that didn't matter to her. All she hoped for now was that her sister was safe and happy.
"Y-yeah... I do." She sniffled again and Sweeney continued speaking.
"Your mother and I... we didn't want to tell you this... but the judge came in one day and I had him. I was so close to killing him but... things happened. I got angry and had an epiphany, so to speak. I was so enraged about not being able to kill the judge for what he did to me and my first family."
Mrs Lovett placed a hand on Sweeney's shoulder, glancing at him before looking back at her daughter. "And my pie shop wasn't doing any good either. So..." she bit her lip and looked down, letting out a sad sigh. "We decided that Mr. T should kill various customers, get all that anger out until the judge came back. While your father killed, I was in the bakehouse... putting people into pies and serving them to customers. Business did well but... I hated doing that to those customers, I really did." She said truthfully, feeling her eyes water.
She felt absolutely awful, even though it did her business well for a while. "But... after we got married and as soon as we found out I was pregnant with you, we knew that it had to stop.
We couldn't continue this... we didn't want to continue it. So we closed those doors, leaving everything in there and not wanting to go back there ever again. We kept this away from you for so long because we didn't want to frighten you... or make you think we were monsters..." a few tears fell down her cheeks as she leaned forward, placing a hand on her forehead.
Melanie was shocked. Very shocked. But to be honest, she wasn't mad. I mean, there are different ways of releasing anger... Sweeney chose a really bad way. But he did get revenge.
"I-I'm n-not mad mama." She spoke and Nellie lifted her head up, looking at her daughter.
"Y-you're not? H-how?" She asked, a little confused. She thought her daughter would be absolutely furious finding out this information. Sweeney thought the exact same thing.
"I-I mean... daddy... you could have gone a different route. You didn't have to kill all those people... I understand you w-were furious but there are other ways to go about it.
And mama, y-you shouldn't have baked them into pies. You should have saved up your money so you could get better supplies..." she said honestly before taking another sip of her water. She had stopped shaking but she was still shocked.
"A-also... I'm not mad. A-and you aren't monsters... daddy got revenge and mama, y-your business did do well. But you did stop killing, r-right?" She asked and Sweeney gently squeezed her shoulder.
"We stopped years ago. Like your mother said, as soon as we found out she was pregnant, we stopped. We didn't want to continue living this way. Oh Melanie... can you ever forgive us? All we want is for you to feel safe and happy."
Without even saying a word, she set her glass down on the table near the arm of the sofa and wrapped her arms around Sweeney's waist, resting her head against his chest. Her other hand held nellies as she closed her eyes.
"I forgive you. I just love you both so much..." she whispered and Sweeney rested his cheek on top of her head, wrapping an arm around her and the other around Nellie, pulling her close. Nellie wrapped an arm around Melanie, her thumb stroking her back.
"We love you too, sweet girl. So so much. And we will do anything to keep you safe. Anything." Nellie whispered as she looked up at Sweeney who felt a tear trail down his cheek. He smiled sadly before kissing both their foreheads, closing his eyes and holding his girls close.
The past was the past and everything was okay.