Salvation

by Mrs. James Norrington

Life after life,
You won't need flowers on your grave.
You won't need prayers;
You have no mortal soul to save.

--Dracula, the Musical
Lyrics by Don Black

If Sweeney Todd was nothing else, he was most certainly efficient. He dispatched his customers with less time and fuss than it took the average barber to complete a quick shave. If one were to watch him at his work, they would not suspect that a part of his mind always raced franticly, perpetually preoccupied with a higher matter than petty murder.

He must kill the soul, the weakness within him! He must destroy the feeble Benjamin Barker, who had been powerless to save Lucy. Only in complete and utter annihilation of Benjamin Barker could the salvation of the poor man's soul lie. For surely he must be damned for what he had done. What he had not done.

So it was that he must be erased, completely erased, hidden from God's stern eyes. And Sweeney Todd, Barker's avenging demon, so to speak, had taken the task upon himself. Mind you, it was not a difficult one. The penal colony in Australia and Great Britain's fine judicial system had done much of the work for him.

And every time Sweeney Todd killed, he felt the half-forgotten man within him fade even further. His struggles grew progressively weaker, like someone being suffocated.

Surely he must understand that it was all for his own good!

He would have his salvation! The soul of Benjamin Barker had finally gone, evanescing completely with the death of his beautiful, Lucy, his unwitting sacrificial lamb.

And perhaps the death of Mrs. Lovett had something to do with it, as well… although, on contemplation she was more of a sacrificial vixen.

Of course, he did not need to think about that now. He would never have to think again. There would be no need for repentance.

I will have vengeance! I will have salvation!

So he would. So he would.